Van Duren doco sets for Australian screenings in April

The Australian-made documentary of Memphis-based “lost gem” singer-songwriter Van Duren, has screening dates confirmed for Australia.

Waiting: The Van Duren Story premiered at the Memphis Film Festival in November, and screens next month at the Grammy Museum (LA) and Sound Screen (London).

Its Australian premiere is at the Gold Coast Film Festival on Monday, April 8.

It is followed by Cinebar Brisbane  (9), Event Cinemas George Street Sydney (10), Cinema Nova, Melbourne (11), High Tide NSW Central Coast (13), Gum Ball festival (25) and Bendigo Autumn Music Festival (27).

The enigmatic singer-songwriter is also playing his first ever shows outside the US at clubs in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

https://www.facebook.com/WaitingTheDoco/videos/136537067301663/

Managed and produced by Andrew Loog Oldman (The Rolling Stones) in the 1970s, Van Duren was a pioneer of what was to be called the “power pop” sound and tipped to be the next Paul McCartney or Todd Rundgren.

His 1978 album Are You Serious? (released in England on the London label as Staring At The Ceiling) was hailed as a masterpiece of sorts and he almost ended up joining the legendary Big Star.

Instead, he ran into the temptations of the music industry and faded into obscurity.

Forty years later, Australians Greg Carey (manager of The Rubens, Urthboy) and musician Wade Jackson stumbled across his lost album and set out to discover what went wrong.

They tracked Van Duren down on Facebook and despite having never picked up a camera before, filmed their journey through North America to meet him, crossing paths with rock stars, Scientologists, con men and a host of talented musicians who never quite made it.

Waiting: The Van Duren Story is described s “a love letter to the artist that should have helped define a generation”.

The documentary’s soundtrack is available digitally and on vinyl via Omnivore Records and includes unreleased recordings featuring Jody Stephens and Chris Bell of Big Star.