You could be a uni student belting out modern pop bangers by Beyoncé and Bieber, or a veteran with a penchant for Elvis, but one thing's for certain at the Army Navy & Airforce Veterans Canteen’s twice-weekly karaoke night: Everyone gets a chance to shine.
Longtime host Ron Cahill explains that Wednesdays and Saturdays have become a prime opportunity for people of all ages to show off their pipes, even if your go-to cut is a little risqué. “The kids sing some weird tunes these days. Some of them, especially on a Wednesday night, have profanities in them,” he says, with a laugh. “The older ones, I don’t know whether they don’t hear the profanities or whether they just let it slide. The kids get away with everything here, as long as they show respect.”
Though technically a members club with a clientele of veterans as old as ninety-something, the younger crowd are encouraged to come out and croon between cheap drinks, so long as they autograph the guestbook before stepping onstage. Cahill has been hosting the Canteen’s top-draw karaoke event for 15 years, and has seen generations of aspiring vocalists come through. While his digital catalogue is more compact to store than his old trudge of physical discs, the breadth of songs you’ll hear pulsing through the main room’s PA and into the games room is only getting wider. “Some of them sing show tunes, which we never used to get. When we first started, it was all Elvis and Beatles – stuff that people know really well. Now it can be anything – a show tune from All That Jazz or The Little Mermaid. They sing a cross-section of everything.”
The weekend logjam could mean you’ll be waiting a while before putting your signature spin on a song. Time was Cahill would pop up to perform singles from the Rolling Stones or Tom Jones, but the success of the karaoke nights means he’s gladly passing the mic these days. “I used to [sing] years ago, because people were scared to get up and sing. When karaoke was new, you had to pump them up,” he reminisces. “There’s lots of singers [now]. As far as the karaoke jock goes, it’s not about the jock; it's about the singers.”
