Pete Murray is one of Australia’s most loved singers and has been touring around this year on his solo acoustic tour, showing off some of his best material from over the years. For this series of concerts, Murray is promoting his new album Longing with a run of regional stops across the nation. For his final show of the year, he came to the Dee Why RSL for an intimate gig on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

The audience was first treated to a short set from The McCredie Brothers, who have risen into the public consciousness over the last couple of weeks with their viral tribute to the victims of the Bondi terrorist attack. The duo played a classic set of laid-back Aussie pop before Murray took the stage.

By virtue of the promotional nature of this tour, Murray focused heavily on his new album, with a large number of tracks coming from Longing. 

“Who’s heard the new album,” asked Murray to a decent applause. “Great, 15 of you.”

He kicked things off with the up-tempo, rocky song “Long Way to Go”, which immediately showed off his smooth voice and the strong instrumentals his music has come to be known for. He mixed things up with some old favourites like “Sugar”, which had a quite sizeable mosh pit dancing early, before moving back into newer works with “Higher”.

One of the standout moments came with his tribute to Amy Winehouse, “Amy”, which was one of the best songs on the album, showing off both the fragility and grit in Murray’s voice, with the emotion of the number really coming through. Murray kept the crowd happy with the classics, with “Opportunity” and “Always a Winner” delighting the dancing audience, before moving on to a song he foreshadowed would become a wedding classic, “Home to Me”. The beautiful ballad really captivated the room and was another highlight of the new album.

Murray is an outspoken critic of the status quo in the music industry and explained his decision to go independent this year so he could support his family as best as possible with maximum earnings. He also revealed that, in the style of Taylor Swift, he is re-recording all of his songs exclusively for people who attend the concerts to purchase on CD. One of these revamped arrangements was a piano version of “So Beautiful”, which really brought out the simplicity and beauty of the song, with a much more symbiotic relationship between the vocals and the instruments, something that was loved by the crowd.

“People come up to me and say that they play that song at their weddings,” Murray joked. “And I say, mate, don’t sing that song to your wife unless you’re divorcing her.”

For his encore, Murray brought out the winner of his opening act competition, Rosscoe Frantz, to perform a duet of the title track from his new album, “Longing”. The two singers played off each other very well, with Frantz’s clean tone blending nicely with the grittiness of Murray’s voice. It was a great way of supporting an up and coming Australian artist and was much appreciated by the crowd, including Frantz’s friends and family who were in attendance.

Murray closed out the night with a rousing performance of “Better Days”, inviting The McCredie Brothers back on stage to perform with him. The whole crowd swayed, sang and danced as if it was the first time they had heard the song. It was a great moment and a wonderful way to round out Murray’s year of music. 

Overall, it was a great night out in the heart of the Northern Beaches, with Murray showing just how much of a consummate professional he is, delivering a high-quality album of exciting new works alongside old classics. A fantastic way to end the 2025 concert year.

Rating: ★★★★1/2

Pete Murray – Dee Why RSL – 21 December 2025

Photo credit: Ian Laidlaw