Australian Rock by Memorable Music

Despite being one of 'Australia's' most popular bands of the sixties, all the members of the Easybeats were immigrants (the band was formed at the Villawood Migrant Hospital, Sydney). Harry Vanda and Dick Diamonde were from Holland; Snowy Fleet, Tony Cahill and Stevie Wright were from England; whilst George Young was from Scotland.
In 1967 the Easybeats made a 30 minute cinema short of their English experiences, called Somewhere Between Heaven And Woolworths, with Australian film-makers
Peter Clifton and Lee Pearce.
The Easybeats' song 'Do You Have A Soul?' (B side to 'Who'll Be The One', April, 1967) was allegedly written about English producer Shel Talmy.
The Easybeats' single 'Heaven And Hell' (July, 1967) was initially banned in America because of supposed drug inference, immorality and blasphemy. The lyric line 'Discovering someone else in your bed' was replaced by the hastily inserted line 'Discovering that her love had gone bad'.
British singer Stevie Marriott sang harmony vocals on the Easybeats' 'Good Times' (B side to 'Land Of Make Believe', August, 1968).
Since the break-up of the Easybeats in 1969, Harry Vanda and George Young have recorded under a variety of names: Marcus Hook Roll Band; Haffey's Whiskey Sour; Band Of Hope; Tramp; Moondance; Paintbox; Revelation; and Flash And The Pan.
Vanda and Young's songs have been recorded by overseas artists such as: David Bowie ('Friday On My Mind'); Rod Stewart ('Hard Road'); Bay City Rollers ('Yesterday's Hero'); Grace Jones ('Walking In The Rain') and Gary Moore ('Friday On My Mind').
INXS and Jimmy Barnes reached No. 1 in Australia with their cover of the Easybeats' 'Good Times' (December, 1986). In fact 'Good Times' has been one of the most recorded Vanda and Young compositions of all. It has been recorded more than 25 times, by artists such as Mott The Hoople, Shocking Blue, Amen Corner, Paul Revere and The Raiders, and the Tremeloes.
In October, 1977, EMI/Alberts released an Easybeats album titled The Shame Just Drained, that contained fifteen previously unissued tracks.
Between June, 1965 ('She's So Fine') and August, 1969 ('St. Louis') the Easybeats managed 15 national Top Forty hit singles.
In late 1986, the Easybeats re-formed for a successful Australian tour. The band had not played together for 17 years.

Rob E.G.
Rob took up playing the steel guitar at the age of eight when his mother bought one for him, along with a course on how to play it, from a door-to-door salesman.
Rob's start in show business came in 1959 when a Sydney television channel launched a campaign to find someone who could play an instrumental called 'Sleepwalk' which was a world-wide hit at the time for Canadian duo Santo & Johnny and played on a steel guitar. Rob was discovered and regular work followed.
Although Rob E.G. is best known for his instrumental hits, one of Rob's biggest sellers was the vocal ballad 'When You're Not Near' (August, 1964).
In 1973 Rob formed his own label, Wizard (along with Stephen Binder), releasing material by artists such as Marcia Hines and Rick Springfield.

Eighteenth Century Quartet
The Eighteenth Century Quartet who had a hit with 'Rachel' (1966) were the first electric group to play before 100,000 people, at Carols By Candlelight at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne in December, 1966.

Electric Pandas
Lead guitarist and founder of Electric Pandas, Lin Buckfield, is a devotee of Chinese Buddhism.
In 1986, Electric Pandas appeared in a television commercial advertising Coca-cola. The band also performed the jingle.

Maureen Elkner
Soloist Maureen Elkner worked with girl singing group the Chiffons during the late sixties. The trio toured Vietnam for eighteen months during 1968 and 1969.
Maureen Elkner is best known as a comedy act, due to the success of her novelty hit 'Rak Off Normie' (June, 1975) which was a sequel to Bob Hudson's 'Newcastle Song'. However, her first two releases on the Infinity label — 'Dynamite' and 'Wild Thing' — were both hard rock songs.
In the early seventies Maureen Elkner appeared in the stage productions Rocky Horror Show and Oh Calcutta (which was closed down by the police half-way through the second performance).

Buddy England
Buddy England who scored a handful of hits in the mid-sixties, also worked as a member of two of Australia's most notable groups — the Mixtures (in 1969) and
the Seekers (in 1977).
In the early seventies Buddy England joined Astor Records as Artists and Repertoire Manager.

Jon English
One of the biggest milestones in Jon English's career was his role of Judas in the rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar. Jon won the part over 2,000 other hopefuls.
During 1974 Jon worked as a columnist for the Sydney Daily Mirror.
Apart from Jesus Christ Superstar Jon also appeared on stage in the play Bacchoi (1974) and the musicals The Pirates OfPemance (1984) and Rasputin (1987).
Jon completed three separate stints as Judas in Jesus Christ Superstar: 1972,1975 and 1978.
Jon's biggest selling single 'Six Ribbons' (January, 1979) was recorded with Mario Millo. The track was from the Against The Wind soundtrack album which was arranged, composed, performed and produced by Jon and Mario. The two had already worked together in late sixties and early seventies band, Sebastian Hardie.
Jon co-wrote (with Roy Ritchie) the ballet Phases which was performed by the New South Wales Dance Company during the opening season of the Sydney Opera House (1974).

Eurogliders
The Eurogliders, a band that came to prominence via its sophisticated pop, was managed by one-time Procession and Western Flyer member Brian Peacock.
Eurogliders' lead singer, Grace Knight, and singer/guitarist Bernie Lynch were married briefly in 1985. Despite their marital separation they stayed together in the band.
In 1982, the Eurogliders took the unusual step of travelling to Manila, capital city of the Philippines, to record its debut album, Pink Suit, Blue Day. The album was produced by Englishman Len Lubin.
On the single 'City Of Soul' (September, 1985), the Eurogliders enlisted the services of the 36-strong Forest Lodge Primary School Choir.
In 1986 the Eurogliders signed a sponsorship deal with the Faberge Company. The single 'Absolutely' (April, 1986) was used in a television commercial for Faberge jeans, and the band also made an appearance in the commercial.

Executives
Between them, the six members of Sydney band the Executives could play thirty one different instruments, varying from violin to harpsichord.
In 1969 the Executives changed their name to Inner Sense and the following year they became Transition. By 1974 they were working again as the Executives (N.B. A member of Transition was Jonne Sands who had a solo hit in October, 1968 with 'Mothers And Fathers').

Fantasy
Fantasy's first big break came in the late sixties when they were chosen to back Johnny Farnham on his tours.
Fantasy's one and only hit 'Marrow Song' (May, 1973) came about when EMI producer lan Miller invited a friend of his, Bill Pinnell (then Programme Manager at Melbourne radio station 3KZ) to see the group perform. Bill was impressed and suggested they record an old song called 'Oh What A Beauty' (originally recorded in 1930 by Billy Cotton). Fantasy re-arranged, recorded and released the song
under the title of '(The) Marrow Song'.

John Farnham
Get John Farnham's The Last Time farwell concert on DVD right here.
For over a decade the Guinness Book Of Records listed Johnny Farnham's 'Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)' as being the highest selling Australian originated single since November, 1967 with sales in excess of 183,500.
Johnny Farnham's 'Sadie' (November, 1967) was the biggest selling Australian single in 1967.
Johnny has starred in three stage productions — Dick Whittington And His Cat (1970), Charlie Girl (1971) and Pippin (1974).
Johnny Farnham was voted King Of Pop five years in succession (1969-73) at the TV Week King Of Pop Awards.
In the mid seventies Johnny made a wildlife television series for the ABC called Survival with Johnny Farnham.
Even before he had recorded 'Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)', Johnny Farnham was first heard publicly via a television commercial for TAA, based on a hostess called.
Susan Jones.
Johnny Farnham's January, 1973 hit 'Don't You Know It's Magic' was later used in an advertising campaign for Mazda cars under the amended title 'Don't You Know It's Mazda'.
In 1976 Johnny hosted a television talent quest programme called Opportunity Knocks.
In 1980 John had the distinction of singing at the Royal Command Performance, held at the Sydney Opera House.
In 1980 John won the coverted 'Mo' award for Entertainer Of The Year.
In 1981 John toured Australia as support act for Stevie Wonder. So impressed was Wonder that he would often call upon John to perform a duet on 'Jammin" during
his encore.
In February, 1982 John took over from Glenn Shorrock as lead vocalist in world-renowned group, Little River Band.
The title of John's multi-platinum selling album, Whispering Jack (October, 1986), is taken from his nickname: Whispering Jack Phantom.
At the Final Countdown awards ceremony, held in July, 1987, John was presented with a plaque to commemorate sales in excess of 600,000 copies of his album Whispering Jack. This figure was the highest number of copies of an album sold by any artist in Australia. By the end of 1987 the figure had exceeded 800,000 copies, and the album had spent over one year in the Top Forty.
Between December, 1967 ('Sadie The Cleaning Lady'), and March, 1987 ('A Touch Of Paradise') John managed 20 Top Forty hit singles (including a duet with Alison Durbin). Three of these hits reached No. 1 ('Sadie The Cleaning Lady', 'Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head' and 'You're The Voice'). In addition, John enjoyed two Australian Top Forty hit singles during 1982/83, as a member of LRB.

John was declared Australian Of The Year for 1988, by the Australia Day Com- mittee and the Prime Minister, Bob Hawke.

James Griffin

In December, 1987 Sydney based singer/songwriter/poet James Griffin released a spoken word double album called Land Of A Thousand Dances, The ambitious project was characterised by a series of thematically linked poems, songs and narrative.

Goanna
Goanna was the second act from Melbourne to have its debut album (Spirit Of Place — December, 1982) reach No. 1 on the hometown charts in its first week of release. (N.B. — Skyhooks' Living In The 70's was the first, in October, 1974.)
Goanna's debut single, 'Solid Rock' (October, 1982), was written by singer/leader Shane Howard following a trip through Central Australia. The song featured the didgeridoo playing of No Fixed Address member Billy Inda, and was one of the first Australian rock songs to address the issue of the treatment suffered by Aborigines at the hands of white Australians.

Go-Betweens
The Go-Betweens released their first single, 'Lee Remick', in 1978 on the independent Able label. The song was not a hit, and by the mid-eighties had become such a collector's item that the producers of the Mike Walsh Show paid $80 for a copy, so they could present it to actress Lee Remick when she appeared on the show.
In early 1980, the Go-Betweens' third single I Need Two Heads' was voted Single Of The Week by British music paper Sounds (the same paper that had praised The Saints' '(I'm) Stranded').
The title of the Go-Betweens' 1984 album Spring Hill Fair is a tribute to the annual summer fair held in the Brisbane inner-city suburb of Spring Hill. D In 1986 the Go-Betweens gave their fifth album the unusual title of Liberty Belle
And The Black Diamond Express. The phrase Black Diamond Express is an Americanism meaning to take a whistle-stop tour of the seedy underside of life.
Between 1978 and 1987 the Go-Betweens released records on the following independent record labels: Able, Postcard (U.K.), Missing Link, Rough Trade (U.K.), Stunn, Sire (U.S.), True Tone, and Beggar's Banquet (U.K.).

Groop
The band's success during the latter half of the sixties involved two totally different line-ups and styles. The Groop (mark one) featuring Max Ross, Peter McKeddie, Richard Wright and Peter Bruce was a simple rhythm guitar-oriented novelty/ rock outfit. Their biggest hit was '01' Hound Dog' (December, 1965). The Groop (mark two) featuring Ronnie Charles, Max Ross, Don Mudie, Brian Cadd and Richard Wright was a fuller sounding band with the prominent addition of keyboards. Their biggest hit was 'Woman You're Breaking Me' (July, 1967).
Guitarist Peter Bruce migrated to Melbourne in May, 1964 from England where he had been a sixth member of the Dave dark Five.

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