Little River Band to play sold-out show in Riverside

Wayne Nelson couldn't help but laugh when Mark Wahlberg asked Will Ferrell what he was listening to during a driving scene in their 2010 film, “The Other Guys.“

“It's LRB,” Ferrell casually said during the cop buddy picture. Wahlberg promptly popped the CD — which was playing Little River Band’s “Reminiscing” — out of the player and the window.

“That was hilarious,” Nelson said in a recent phone interview. “I thought it was so funny when Ferrell’s character says he has five copies of ‘Reminiscing.’ “

It was a nice pop culture moment for Little River Band, but having John Lennon and his then-girlfriend, May Pang, say that they enjoyed “Reminiscing,” is impossible to top.

“We were all Beatles fans and we learned about what John said in (Albert Goldman’s book, “The Lives of John Lennon”), we were truly blown away. We actually reached one of our heroes. It was amazing to get John Lennon’s approval. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

The vocalist/bassist has plenty to be proud of since joining Little River Band in 1980. The longest-tenured member of the ensemble, which formed in Australia in 1975, hails from Kansas City and grew up in Peoria, Ill.

“We’ve accomplished so much since I’ve been with this group,” Nelson said. “The band is from Australia, and I’ve lived with my family for a while in Australia. I’ve lost three months of my life in the air flying back and forth from Australia. But it's been so great being in this band. If it weren’t so great, I would have done something else all of these years.”

Little River Band, which has sold more than 30 million albums, is one of Australia’s greatest exports. “Help is on Its Way,” “Cool Change” and “Happy Anniversary” are among the band’s hits.

But the adult contemporary act isn’t just offering the familiar on its current tour, which will play to a sold-out crowd Friday night, Oct. 21, 2022, in the Riverside Casino Event Center, in Riverside.

“We’re playing music people haven't heard before,” Nelson said. “We cut six new songs.”

He and his bandmates — keyboardist Chris Marion, drummer Ryan Ricks and guitarists Chris Whinnery and Bruce Wallace — are coming up on the band’s 50th anniversary tour.

“It’s not here yet, but it’s on the horizon,” Nelson said. “We'll be celebrating it in 2025. I’ve done all that I can to keep this band together.”

Nelson is the only member to have played with LRB prior to 2004.

“The lineup changes, but it’s fine,” he said. “The cake is still the same. It’s just that the icing is a little different when you replace members of the band. Change and some different interpretations can be good.”

Little River Band has aged well, since it’s never been about trends.

“We’ve never been about fads,” Nelson said. “It’s never been about hair or Spandex with this band. Our songs are about life, and I think people can relate to the music.

“The great thing is that the music matters all of these years later. I saw that when we started playing shows in Florida as soon as we were allowed to do so during the pandemic. You could feel the energy behind the masks, but now things have loosened up and it’s just gotten better for musicians and the fans.”

Iowa love

Nelson has sincerely looked forward to playing Iowa.

“It’s the entire state — and I’m not kidding,” he said. “There was a time I would look at the calendar and we would play 12 to 14 times a year in Iowa. Iowa has always been good to the Little River Band, whether it’s Ames or Des Moines or Riverside, where we’ve always had such great shows.

“We always sell out in Riverside. It's awesome,” he added.

“We always circle the calendar when we play in Iowa, since the fans are so enthusiastic and responsive.”