Suzi Quatro.
Camera IconSuzi Quatro. Credit: Supplied/Supplied

Leather Forever Encore tour brings rock trailblazer Suzi Quatro back to Perth

Greig JohnstonEastern Reporter

SUZI Quatro is a stayer.

You don’t make it through 52 years in the music business without having serious endurance.

And on her latest Australian tour, she’s going to need every bit of it.

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At 66 Quatro is on double duty: opening her own show with a new group (QSP, with The Sweet guitarist Andy Scott and Slade drummer Don Powell) before delivering her greatest hits as headliner as well.

So how does she find the energy?

“It’s called pacing yourself,” she said.

“I’m going to be up there for about two-and-a-half hours. It’s a lot of singing and I don’t sing gently.

“It’s a matter of keeping your fitness levels, doing my vocal warm-ups before every show, resting in the daytime.”

Quatro lost her soul to rock and roll as a six-year-old after hearing Elvis Presley singing Don’t Be Cruel on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Hits like Can the Can, Devil Gate Drive and Stumblin’ In earned her hordes of fans.

She was a trailblazer for female rock musicians and the sight of her leading an all-male band in the 1970s and ’80s inspired many young girls.

“I am very proud that I will go down in history as the woman who kicked the door down and gave women permission to be in the rock and roll industry in a very substantial way,” she said.

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Quatro was recently recognised with an Honorary Doctorate in Music from Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.

“It was emotional,” she said.

“I don’t even have a high school diploma to my name.

“It’s nice to be honoured and appreciated.”

As well as high-energy concerts, Quatro is famous for her wardrobe.

Posters of a leather-clad Quatro were fixtures in teenage bedrooms throughout the 1970s and ’80s, stirring adolescent longing the world over.

Thankfully the leathers haven’t been retired just yet.

“I’ll bring my jumpsuit which I still wear on stage, and I also bring a private pair of leathers if I’m going to do a TV show,” she said.

“I have a huge leather wardrobe.”

THE ESSENTIALS

What: Suzi Quatro – Leather Forever Encore tour

Where: Crown Theatre Perth

When: February 11

Tickets: www.ticketmaster.com.au