When J.R Reyne & The Paradise Three take to the stage next month, it’ll be only their second show after reforming from an eight-year hiatus. The original lineup is back on board, and their latest single ‘Be Careful What You Wish For’ is arguably their best work to date.
The show is particularly special to the band because it was at small local venues like Prince’s dishevelled Public Bar that vocalist JR Reyne cut his teeth as a 19-year-old that just loved singing and playing guitar.
“The first show that I booked myself was at The Perseverance Hotel in Fitzroy and that was booked through Rusty Brown of Electric Mary. I started doing solo shows there, and from there it turned into a long-term residency. Around the same time I started playing regularly on Thursdays at The Vineyard in St. Kilda,” Reyne says. “I have always felt really comfortable playing in St Kilda because it was the birthplace of some of Australia’s most enduring bands.”
For Reyne, getting to stand onstage and play music in these neighbourhood venues as a 19-year-old was a dream come true. “I started mucking around with a cheap classical guitar when I was six or seven years old. I didn’t get an electric guitar until I was probably about nine years old.
“I was always obsessed with music from the first song I can remember. From Fine Young Cannibals playing on the radio [circa 1988] to getting a bit older and getting into Faith No More.” It’s clear Reyne has always been a passionate musician. “I was always obsessed with it, you don’t have a choice.”
Another artistic passion of Reyne’s is acting. While he was beginning to cut his teeth on the live stage, he also secured himself a spot on Australian soapie Neighbours. While a major coup for a young, aspiring actor wanting to earn a living from his craft, this along with his famous last name threw Reyne into the celebrity spotlight. His small screen career continued, when in late 2016 he secured a role in Australian drama The Secret Daughter alongside Jessica Mauboy.
This ‘celebrity status’ means that everything that happens in your life becomes hot property, so in April 2016 when Reyne and fiancé Louise van der Vors welcomed a son into their lives, it made the front-page of Daily Mail Australia’s website. With van der Vors an in-demand Australian model, and Reyne a former Neighbours actor, it’s understandable why this news was deemed ‘worthy’, but it was their description of Reyne “currently trying his luck as a musician” that raises an eyebrow.
Reyne’s voice drips with maturity and perspective as he brushes of what can be taken at best as lazy journalism or, at worst, a poorly concealed slight, “Honestly, and I am not just saying this, it doesn’t frustrate me. I feel as though you have to take it in your stride and not really focus on it because at the end of the day I do what I do because I love it.”
