‘You’re going to give it a good review, aren’t you, Daddy?’ It was more of a command than a question from my twelve-year-old daughter as we sat at home one day during home-schooling, listening to the new Vika & Linda album, Sunday (The Gospel According to Iso).

COVID-19 has made life difficult for everyone, but particularly for our performing artists, who cannot work due to health restrictions and are being denied income support from the government. Many are seeking new ways to reach their audience. Vika & Linda decided they needed to keep on singing, so back in March, on a Sunday morning, they performed a gospel song via social media. The seed for this album grew over the next ten weeks as they continued to reach out to their audience with a gospel song every Sunday morning.

Gospel music is an obvious genre for sisters Vika and Linda Bull to turn to, having been exposed to it as they grew up in Melbourne: listening to the Tongan Choir, attending church with their family, and listening to their parents’ record collection – particularly the gospel music of Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Ruth Brown. So, it’s no surprise that songs by those artists feature among others performed on this album. The Bulls’ voices are so strong and powerful that they’re a natural for a recording and album such as this. Particularly topical is the track ‘Memphis Flu’ – a 1930s gospel song which rings very true today!

It’s been a huge year already for Vika & Linda, with their first ever national number one charting album, Akilotoa (Anthology 1994–2006), in June and, now, their first album of new music in around fifteen years. It’s great to have them back releasing music in their own right, having served as members of Paul Kelly’s band for many years.

Dave Clarke is the music and DVD manager at Readings.