Albany musician Bob Rees takes sold-out audiences on The Journey at Albany Town Hall album launch

Bob Rees rocked the Albany Town Hall at the weekend with two sold-out concerts launching his emotional debut album The Journey, with support from The Waifs’ Donna Simpson.

In front of packed audiences on Friday and Saturday night, Rees brought his songs to life with the help of a full band.

His debut album features songs written after the loss of his wife, Chris, who was fatally injured when a car smashed into their motorcycle on a holiday in Malawi in July 2019.

The crash left Mr Rees paralysed from the waist down.

Rees channelled his emotions into music as he learnt to live life without his wife of 47 years and without the ability to walk.

He was encouraged to write about his experiences by long-time family friends, The Waifs’ Vikki Thorn and Simpson.

Simpson produced the album and was Rees’ opening act as well as one of his back-up singers.

On Saturday night, she warmed up the crowd up and paid tribute to Rees for helping her learn to play guitar as a child.

She compared his prolific songwriting — he has written more than 60 songs in under two years — to somebody having a violent illness.

“If someone gets the flu, like with diarrhoea and vomiting, that’s what Bob was like with the songs,” Simpson quipped.

Simpson’s eclectic acoustic set included a version of Simon and Garfunkel’s The Sound of Silence about her experience of menopause, and Make You Feel My Love by her “favourite Bob”, Bob Dylan.

It was rounded out with The Waifs classic London Still, much to the delight of the crowd.

Earlier the audience was treated to dance moves from Michael Jackson’s Thriller, which Simpson said she had performed the last time she was on stage at the Town Hall as part of a childhood dance troupe.

Rees then took to the stage, flanked by his late wife’s restored 1951 BMW 500 and their 1991 BMW touring bike that he said had done more than 320,000km.

He began his set by thanking Simpson for her support and album production.

“If it weren’t for Donna, I wouldn’t be sitting here, and you wouldn’t be sitting out there,” he said.

Rees and his band launched into the first song Set Your Mind Free, taking the audience on his album’s titular journey by explaining the meaning and thought processes behind each song.

The Door was an emotional highlight of the set, which Rees explained was written late one night when he was missing Chris “something shocking”.

He described the catharsis he felt through writing songs in those difficult moments.

“I’d play them again, and again, and again,” he said.

“And then it was 12.30am, and I’m all right again,” he said.

Halfway through the set, the band exited and Rees took centre stage, where he spoke about his role as an advocate for people living with disabilities.

He was brought to tears recounting the story of a young girl who told him she was relentlessly bullied at school because of her disability, and said it was his hope that school curriculums would include disability education.

“We’re going through this thing on a daily basis, and then you come across all these different obstacles and barriers in your daily life,” he said.

Rees asked the audience to be mindful of how things could be made more accessible for wheelchair users.

“It would be really nice if everybody here, when they’re going into different offices and buildings around town, would imagine that you’re in a wheelchair and think, ‘how could this be better, what can I do and what can be done?’,” he said.

“And then go and speak to the manager, if something could be done, and see if they’ll come on board and fix it.”

Rees then performed a stripped back version of Sun Don’t Shine, with just his guitar accompanied by a keyboard, before the rest of the band joined him back on stage for the rollicking Devil Tricked Me, which Rees said he wrote in the time it took for him to cook a pizza.

His set finished with the upbeat Have Fun, a song about making the most of life, which recounted some of the motorbike adventures he had with his “soul mate” Chris.