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You’d be excused for assuming that Air Supply concerts are as lightweight as their many romantic soft-rock ’80s hits—but you’d be wrong. At the half-dozen live shows I’ve caught over the past decade, they breathed fire into those songs and got louder and heavier than most anyone would expect.
“I love heavier bands,” says Graham Russell, the British singer-songwriter who, along with Australian vocalist Russell Hitchcock, formed Air Supply in 1975. “I like heavy strings, so it was the obvious place to go over the last 20, 30 years. But live, we’ve always been much heavier...The records, especially the ones in the ’80s were pop records, let’s face it. So they weren’t very heavy.”
He’s in no way apologizing for Air Supply’s success. With more than 5,500 shows under their belts—soon to include one coming up this Friday at the Schnitz—trotting out the same 100 minutes of hit songs seems like it could grow tiresome. Russell instead seems humble and grateful.
“We would never complain that we’ve had too many hit records. That would be ridiculous. But we play them all,” Russell tells WW over the phone from his home in Utah. While the fan service is absolute, the stage arrangements inflate these somewhat saccharine tunes into power ballads, which keeps things interesting for the band.
Since 2011, Air Supply’s musical director has been lead guitarist Aaron McLain, a Gen X African American rocker whose style deftly splits the difference between Jimi Hendrix soul and Eddie Van Halen classical virtuosity. The rest of the backing band seem like they could easily moonlight in a Swedish metal outfit. Without overemphasizing the heaviness, it makes each extended singalong a bombastic treat.
The founding core of Russell and Hitchcock famously met when they were rehearsing for Jesus Christ Superstar in Sydney in ’75. They hit it off immediately and decided to join forces. Both young men bonded over their love for the Fab Four. “The first band I ever saw was The Beatles,” Russell recalls. “They played for 20 minutes, and it was like six songs, bang-bang-bang. All big hits. And I thought, wow, what a great job that is!”
Minor success followed in Australia, but Air Supply was on the verge of giving up when their 1980 track “Lost in Love” caught the ear of Arista Records’ Clive Davis. Russell beams: “He just happened to be the most influential record executive in the world when we came along. And he just liked us.” Arista had made millions in the ’70s off Barry Manilow, but his hitmaking days were eclipsing. Davis would go on to produce Kenny G and Whitney Houston; in the interim, he put his focus on making Air Supply a household name.
“He was on a mission,” Russell says. “He wanted to have eight top-fives in a row, which at that time had only been done by The Beatles. And we just happened to be the people he wanted to do it with. And I swear to God, we’d release a song and…boom! Two weeks later, it was sitting in the top five and had sold 2 million copies.”
Davis was famously heavy-handed as a producer. He selected songs for his artists and made sweeping changes to lyrics and arrangements. Air Supply enjoyed great success under his guidance because his pop instincts were legendary and the band was malleable. According to Russell, “I’ve been a musician since I was 13, but we’re really entertainers.”
The last major hit Air Supply recorded was “Making Love Out of Nothing at All” in 1983. Selected by Davis, it was written by Jim Steinman, the guy responsible for Meat Loaf’s Bat Out of Hell and Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” While their hitmaking era lasted only four years, Russell and Hitchcock have been able to coast on that wealth of material for the past four decades. People around the world sway and sing along at theaters and casinos, on cruises and at county fairs. Russell feels no shame in playing largely the same set to his adoring fans.
“We get to do what we love to do pretty much every night, and not a lot of artists get to do that,” he says.
The magic of their partnership shines through onstage. It’s clear that these two men are still the best of friends. In 50 years, they’ve famously “never had an argument.” Says Russell: “There’s nothing to argue about. Because I take care of most of [the business] and I like to. I’ve always said for years, ‘Let people do what they’re really good at.’ And he’s great at singing and that’s what he does.”
For the band’s 50th anniversary, a Broadway comedy-drama musical is in the works, a biography will be published just after Christmas, and a (delayed) film biopic will be released sometime in 2026. Russell beams, “Not many artists get to 50, so we’re going to enjoy and bathe in it for a year, you know?”
The biggest news is that Air Supply’s first studio album in 15 years, A Matter of Time, is in the can and soon to be released. In another unexpected heavy move, they selected Canadian producer Brian Howes (Skillet, Nickelback). Standout cuts include the signature modern classic “Wrap My Arms Around You,” a nod to The Beatles with the mellotron-laden “If Only,” and a self-referential, hard-rocking finale that musically hints at late-era Soundgarden titled, “We’ll Meet Again.”
While Air Supply’s tour balloon has yet to burst or sag, it’s unlikely they’ll be working on another album after this one. According to Russell, “It may be the last. Probably. We’ll see. If it took 15 years…we haven’t got another 15 years.”
SEE IT: Air Supply at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, 1037 SW Broadway, 503-248-4335, portland5.com/arlene-schnitzer-concert-hall. 8:30 pm Friday, Dec. 12. $49.70–$241.75.
