Welcome Concert

Fred Smith Charity Concert to welcome the Afghanistan Evacuees to Australia - Friday 17 Feb 2022, Canberra Playhouse
 
Fred Smith will be presenting a special concert to welcome to Canberra recent evacuees from Afghanistan and celebrate the efforts of public servants and Defence Force members during the evacuation. Backed by an all-star band, he will be performing songs from his acclaimed Dust of Uruzgan album as well as new material drawing on his experiences working on the evacuation.
 
Tickets can be purchased through the Canberra Playhouse 
Fred Smith
Fred Smith has become the unofficial historian of Australia’s war in Afghanistan.  A songwriter, performer, raconteur, and author, he was the first Australian diplomat to work in Uruzgan province and the last to leave. He worked on the recent evacuation of Kabul airport in August 2021,and was awarded the ACT Chief Ministers Rotary Peace Prize on returning to Australia the following month.
  • His CD Dust of Uruzgan was described in the Weekend Australian as continuing “a tradition of profoundly affecting Australians-at-war ballads that includes Eric Bogle’s And the band played Waltzing Matilda, Don Walker’s Khe Sanh and John Schumann’s I was only 19”
  • His book The Dust of Uruzgan was described by Channel 10 Political Editor Hugh Riminton as “as convincing a picture as we will ever have of the tragedy, hope, oddness and courage of Australia’s Uruzgan enterprise… an astonishingly vibrant piece of reportage from the heart of our longest war.”
  • The lyrics to his song Sapper’s Lullaby are engraved in marble at the Australian plot at the old British War Cemetery in Kabul;
 
Quotes about Fred Smith
“I think a real strength of Fred’s music and the way he writes his songs is that he’s actually experienced a lot of what he’s writing about. He’s actually walked in the same footsteps of those soldiers is writing about… He ate, slept, he bathed he worked and lived with them, and when they died, he mourned with them.”
Maj Gen Jason Blain, quoted on Australian Story Sappers Lullaby episode 2013
 
“Finely observed snapshots of a harsh, sad and funny reality…In concert he has a knack for balancing drama and humour…towering artistic achievement”                     
John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald
 
“Whether we supported the Iraq and Afghanistan wars or not, the one thing we are not permitted when young men and women are sent to die is indifference to the effect. More than anything I've read or seen, Dust of Uruzgan gave me an Australian soldier’s take on the Afghanistan war."
Martin Flanagan, The Saturday Age
 
Youtube footage of Fred Smith
An Australian Story documentary about Fred’s work and music:
 
 
Fred’s speech on receiving Rotary peace by September 2021: