“We all saw the terrible fires and what they did to people’s lives,” he said. 

“We are people with empathy and wanted to do what we could.” 

The band is donating its time to headline this weekend’s sold out bushfire relief concert Band Together, which aims to raise $250,000 to help those affected by the fires on March 18. 

Performing alongside such Bega Valley-grown talents as Daniel Champagne, Corey Legge, The Figmentz, Melanie Horsnell and Erin McMahon are national superstars 1927 and The Badloves, but it will be a first for these two to share a concert stage with Hoodoo Gurus.

Faulkner said The Badloves had a “bit of a pedigree” and he knew 1927’s singer Eric Weideman was a “top bloke”.

“It doesn’t surprise me he will be putting his hand up to be generous,” he said. 

“I think we rock harder than both those bands though!” 

The first memory Faulkner has of music is sitting in front of the television while a toddler watching a Western show and listening to the song Sugartime, a song made popular by the McGuire Sisters in 1958. 

Growing up he progressed through violin and keyboard before falling in love with punk rock and teaching himself the guitar.

“I still love it,” he said of punk rock.

“The Ramones’ first album is one of the most important albums of all time, it shaped so much in music.”

Since forming in 1981, Hoodoo Gurus have been at the forefront of the Australian rock scene, releasing such hits as What’s My Scene?, 1000 Miles Away, Bittersweet, Like Wow – Wipeout and I Want You Back. 

But despite their success, in the late 1990s the band broke up for a time. 

“We quit because we wanted to go out on top and not have people tell us we were pathetic old farts,” Faulkner said. 

“The whole industry is based around youth and we didn’t want anyone to say we didn’t matter now that we’re older. 

“I like to describe it as it’s like having a sports car in a garage up on blocks.

“I had this great band I could enjoy, but wasn’t letting it happen as I had this stupid attitude.”

Fortunately for audiences around the country Hoodoo Gurus did reform, with the NRL using the re-worked What’s My Scene? as That’s My Team for its promotional theme for five years and the band were inducted into the Australian Music Hall of Fame in 2007.

Now 60, Faulkner’s first album came out when he was 27 so he has been in the music industry for a long time, but said music is a part of his life.

“It’s just who I am, it’s a piece of me and if I don’t do it it’s like I’m lacking part of my personality,” he said. 

“Music is just in me.” 

He thought the band had played a gig at Tathra in the 1990s. 

“It’s a beautiful part of the world and we’d love to come there more often,” he said. 

Band Together will be held on Saturday from 12pm at the Sapphire Coast Turf Club. To learn what you can and cannot bring and for performance times visit www.bandtogethertathra.com.