Spirit of the Anzacs (album)

Background

2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the ANZAC's landing of Australian and New Zealand soldiers at Gallipoli during World War I. In honour of this landmark occasion, former Australian of the Year Kernaghan teamed up with a host of local artists and musicians to record Spirit of the Anzacs. The album was recorded at Rancom Street Studio in Sydney and Kernaghan worked with long-time producer and collaborator Garth Porter.

The project was inspired by Kernaghan's 2014 visit to the Australian War Memorial when he was shown archives of soldiers' letters to family from the front lines from World War I through to the present day.

Track listing

1. "For King and Country" (by George Sheppard) 0:46
2. "To the Top of the Hill" 3:46
3. "Song for Grace" (by Sara Storer) 4:37
4. "We'll Take Beersheba" 3:23
5. "Oh Passchendaele" 4:32
6. "When the First Bombs Fell" 3:32
7. "Being Your Sons" 4:05
8. "Kokoda – Only the Brave Ones" (duet with John Schumann) 4:12
9. "Teddy Sheean – Forever Eighteen" 3:29
10. "We Heard a Bugle Play" 3:01
11. "Tell Carmelita" 3:52
12. "The Unbearable Price of War" (duet with Lisa McCune) 3:13
13. "The Dust of Uruzgan" (duet with Fred Smith) 6:44
14. "I Will Always Be with You" 3:52
15. "Lest We Forget" (duet with Ben Roberts-Smith) 3:10
16. "Spirit of the Anzacs" (with Guy Sebastian, Sheppard, Jon Stevens, Jessica Mauboy, Shannon Noll & Megan Washington) 3:53

17. "As If He Knows"
18. "Changi Banjo"
19. "I Was Only 19 (A Walk in the Green Light)"
20. "The Last Post"

Charts

Spirit of the Anzacs debuted at no. 2 in Australia behind Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly before moving to no. 1 the next week. It is Kernaghan's first no. 1 album and his first to climb in the second week on the charts. The album sold 7,421 in its first week and 14,005 in its second week. The album spent four weeks at No. 1.

Arena tour

An 8-date national arena tour was intended to commence in Newcastle on 21 August 2015, before travelling to Brisbane, Wollongong, Sydney, Tamworth, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth throughout September 2015. However, in April 2015 the tour was abruptly canceled due to poor ticket sales.

The arena show would have consisted of an all-star cast of actors and singers, including Kernaghan, Lisa McCune and Jack Thompson, supported by an 11-piece band and vocal group, performing all the songs from the Spirit of the Anzacs album in addition to other classic Australian songs. Thompson would act as narrator and read letters from the Australian War Memorial archives. It was to be directed by Ignatius Jones (the creative director of Vivid Sydney and the 2010 Winter Olympics), and presented by Chugg Entertainment and Stephen White Productions. If the tour had commenced, $3 from every ticket sold would have been donated to the Soldier On and Legacy charities.