Spiderbait singer and drummer Kram (aka Mark Maher) has dedicated a cover he performed on radio to Guy Sebastian, after the latter’s controversy surrounding an industry-wide campaign for vaccination.
Sebastian drew backlash earlier this week after deleting and apologising for an Instagram post in support of the #VaxTheNation campaign, saying that it was not “communicated with love or compassion”.
“I would never ever tell people what to do when it comes to their personal health choices,” he said.
“I’m very sensitive of it, not only on a public level but even in my personal life, with people who have circumstances that they have to consider when making these choices.”
Though Sebastian maintained to NME that he still supported the campaign, noting that he’d received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, the singer-songwriter still received criticism for appearing to sit on the fence around the issue of vaccination.
Kram weighed in on the issue during Christian O’Connell’s radio show on GOLD 104.3 earlier this morning (September 10). He appeared as part of the ‘Who’s Calling Christian?’ segment, which involves musicians calling up to perform covers of television theme songs.
Kram delivered what he described as a “religious hymn” version of the Neighbours theme song, before dedicating it to Sebastian.
“I want to dedicate that to Guy Sebastian, who’s probably feeling the pinch a bit right now,” he said.
“Guy, don’t worry, you’ll make up your mind eventually, mate.”
“I’m also calling on behalf of vaccinations, so I want to dedicate that song to all the other 401 artists and performers like myself who are banding together just to encourage people to get vaccinated,” Kram continued.
“Let’s get back to normal so we can play rock and roll and we can go to shows again.”
225 artists have thrown their support behind the #VaxTheNation campaign, which was spearheaded the Live Industry Venues and Entertainment Alliance, which comprises APRA AMCOS, ARIA, Mushroom Group, Live Nation and more.
A growing list of shows and tours have been rescheduled since the pandemic began, with the industry estimating a loss of $23.6billion in economic output in 2020.