A 1983 rock ‘n’ roll pub is coming to Wynnum, and the band is playing all your favourite songs

Mahalia Barnes is Jimmy Barnes’ daughter, but the band she wants to talk about is AC/DC.

“Dad’s a big AC/DC fan, so I’ve listened to a lot over the years. Most of my shows, it tends to be soul and blues, or rock ‘n’ roll more in the Tina Turner sense, but I’ve always wanted the excuse to sing those songs because I really love them.”

Barnes’ talent and her bloodline uniquely qualify her to star in Highway to Hell: The Rock ‘n’ Roll Circus.

This new show, produced for Wynnum Fringe 2026, recreates a 1983 Aussie rock pub inside the Augathella Spiegeltent on Bay Terrace.

The beer is flowing, the band rocks hard, and the playlist is all the greats: AC/DC, Cold Chisel, INXS, Midnight Oil, Divinyls, The Angels, and Stevie Wright.

Now Jimmy’s music manager, as well as a performer in her own right with Mahalia Barnes and the Soul Mates, Mahalia grew up on tour buses and has met many of the legends whose music she’ll be singing.

“I have spent time with the Midnight Oil guys. We’ve grown up family friends with Mark McEntee from Divinyls – you can’t be a female singer in this country and not revere Chrissy Amphlett.

“My dad was really good friends with Michael Hutchence. Michael was a big part of my childhood. I just remember him being fun and kind and gentle, I feel very privileged to have had him in my life.”

But while she has rarely had the chance to bust out The Power and the Passion, Boys in Town, or Don’t Change, when it comes to the likes of Flame Trees or Cheap Wine, there are few more experienced interlocutors.

“Those are the ones that I have sung before because I’m the stunt singer for Cold Chisel when Dad’s busy and can’t rehearse.”

“You know, the others like to rehearse a lot, and Dad is often quite busy. So on the rare occasion that he’s not been available for a rehearsal, I have been the stunt singer, which has been a lot of fun.”

Highway to Hell is the brainchild of Wynnum Fringe director Tom Oliver, who got the idea during the Edinburgh Festival last year when, on the spur of the moment, he went to see AC/DC at Murrayfield Stadium.

“I was sitting there with 69,999 other people watching Angus Young hop down this catwalk, and all of these Aussie songs were being sung back to this band on the other side of the world,” Oliver says.

“There’s an era of Aussie rock ‘n’ roll that I think is timeless. So in that moment, I was like, ‘I feel a show coming on here’.”

Oliver has teamed Barnes up with Australian Idol winner and You singer Wes Carr, aka Wesley Dean, a highly accomplished performer in both rock and Americana.

Carr co-wrote the 2015 Co