WAR STORIES

An Australian Concert Tour Of Duty

Written by Ken McBeath

Songs by Ken McBeath & Darren Coggan

Performed by Darren Coggan

Welcome to ‘War Stories’. For a country that has never started a war, we’ve certainly been in our fair share of scrapes over the years. The official history of war paints us a big simple picture; this battle, that county, this date. Unfortunately, in this big picture version of our history there is never any time to hear about the smaller stories. Ironically it is the smaller stories that can tell us a great deal about that big picture. This show is about some of those small stories that make war more personal, more human. Over the next couple of hours I hope to introduce to you some of the characters and stories from the various wars that we have been involved with.

The idea for this show grew out of the passion that I share with my friend and mentor, Ken McBeath, in writing songs that have something meaningful to say. Ken and I have collaborated on many projects together over the years and ‘War Stories’ is one such project that we are particularly proud of.

Ken had been writing songs about Australia’s involvement in war as an educational tool for his high school students in the lead up to ANZAC day each year. What was so appealing about these songs was that they were addressing some of the lesser-known and more personal stories of war that had perhaps been overshadowed by the ANZAC legend.