Australian Rock by Memorable Music

Although Olivia Newton-John has never considered herself a country singer she was voted Female Vocalist Of The Year by both the American and British Country Music Association in 1974 and won a Grammy for Best Country Vocal (Female) for her single 'Let Me Be There'. In 1975 she won a Country Music Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
Although Olivia Newton-John has appeared in a handful of successful movies she has only performed in one noteworthy stage production. That was in the science-
fiction rock musical Toomorrow staged in London in 1970.
Olivia's duet with John Travolta 'You're The One That I Want' (from the Grease album) became the biggest selling single in Australia for 1978 with sales in excess of 140,000.
In the Queen's New Year Awards for 1979 Olivia Newton-John was awarded an OBE for her contribution to entertainment.
Olivia's grandfather was Cambridge University professor Max Born who won a Nobel Prize in 1954.
When Olivia was twelve years old she won a Hayley Mills look-alike contest.
The sweet-sounding voice featured on John Denver's 'Fly Away' is Olivia Newton-John.
U.S. country vocalist Lynn Anderson and Olivia Newton-John both share the same birthday — September 26th, 1947.
Olivia opened up her own shop, Koala Blue, on Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, with partner Pat Farrar (1986).

Johnny O'Keefe
Johnny O'Keefe made his stage debut at the age of four when he played the role of 'Dopey' at the Waverley College production of Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs. He was unable to read or learn the script and ad-libbed his way through the entire play.
Johnny O'Keefe's father Ray O'Keefe once headed his own band called the Club Royals. Ray O'Keefe was once the Mayor of Waverley (N.S.W.).
In January, 1957 Johnny O'Keefe formed his backing group the Deejays and together they became Australia's first genuine professional rock act.
Johnny O'Keefe bluffed his first recording contract with Festival Records. When Bill Haley toured Australia in 1957 he recommended J.O.'K. to Festival; however, his advice to the label wasn't heeded. Months later Johnny, out of frustration, began telling people he'd signed with the label and 'leaked' the story to Valda Marshall, a columnist at the Sydney sum Herald. Ken Taylor of Festival Records read the story and tauntingly telephoned Johnny 'congratulating' him on supposedly being signed to the label. However, the conversation did lead to an audition and Johnny was eventually signed by Festival.
Johnny O'Keefe was the first Australian to make the local charts in March, 1958 with 'Wild One'.
Johnny O'Keefe's second single, 'Love Letters In The Sand'/'Am I Blue' (October, 1957), was so bad he had Festival delete it from their catalogue and for years denied its existence. The disc became a collector's item selling for hundreds of dollars.
When Johnny made his second trip to the U.S. in April, 1960 his record company, Liberty, promoted him as 'The Boomerang Kid'.
Marianne Renate, Johnny O'Keefe's first wife, was a 'Miss New Australia' quest finalist in 1956.
On June 27th, 1960 Johnny's car collided head on with a truck on Highway One near Kempsey. The car was virtually demolished and at first it was feared Johnny's injuries would be fatal. However he was out of hospital in just two weeks.
During Johnny's 1960 tour of the USA his record company arranged a boomerang throwing competition in New York's Central Park as a publicity stunt. The idea was that anyone who could beat 'The Boomerang Kid' was given $5. Unfortunately Johnny arrived drunk and, as a result, of the hundreds of people that turned up, he beat only two of them. It cost Liberty Records thousands of dollars.
In January, 1960 Johnny O'Keefe's 'She's My Baby' made number one on the charts. In September, 1969 the record became a hit once again by accident. Brisbane singer Jon Blanchfield recorded 'She's My Baby' and Festival decided to re-release the original version. Johnny's rendition out sold Blanchfield's version by far.
Johnny's 'I'm Counting On You' was the biggest selling Australian single in 1961.
Johnny O'Keefe has produced more Top 40 hits than any other Australian recording artist. He has had a total of twenty-nine hits (spanning 1958-1974), five number ones and another eight in the Top Ten. (N.B. Runners up The Bee Gees have produced twenty-seven Top 40 hits.)
During the latter half of 1964 Johnny O'Keefe banned male singers sporting the new long hair styles (as worn by the new breed of English rock stars) from performing on his television show Sing, Sing, Sing.
Johnny's recording of 'It's Too Late' made number one on the charts in New Orleans.
In June, 1975 Johnny O'Keefe lodged a thirty page submission to the Industries Assistance Commission requesting a grant of $153,000 to take a packaged Aus-
tralian tour to Russia. His request was denied.
In October, 1975 Johnny O'Keefe was featured on the television programme This Is Your Life.
Johnny O'Keefe's last public appearance before his death on October 5th, 1978 was on the Seven Network's Sounds television show taped on September 30th that year.
In 1980 a 'Johnny O'Keefe Memorial Award' (for best new talent) was introduced at the TV Week/Countdown Rock Awards in honour of J.O'K.
Johnny O'Keefe released more records than any other Australian rock artist — 53 singles, 52 E.Ps and 65 albums. (He appeared on 111 LPs all together).
In 1981 Festival Records issued a 25 cm (10") double album anthology of vintage Johnny O'Keefe recordings, called Real Wild Child.
In 1987 legendary American singer Iggy Pop recorded a version of Johnny's 'The Wild One', retitled Real Wild Child, for inclusion on his album Blah Blah Blah, The song was released as a single and became a huge hit in the U.S. and also made the Top 40 in Australia.

Doug Parkinson
Rock vocalist Doug Parkinson starred in the stage productions of Tommy (1973), Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band On The Road (1976), Ned Kelly (1977) and
the revival of Jesus Christ Superstar (1983).

Doug Parkinson left entertaining for three years (1973, '74 and '75) to work as NSW Promotions Manager of WEA Records.

Party Boys

Ex-Mondo Rock member Paul Christie formed Party Boys in 1982, as an occasional supergroup consisting of some of Australia's finest musicians. The concept was that Christie would employ players (all of whom had other commitments) when the need arose, and that the set played would consist entirely of cover songs.
By 1987, the band had released four live albums (and a Best Of set), with Live At Several 21sts (March, 1983) making the national Top 10. The band finally entered the recording studio in early 1987 to put down a cover version of John Kongas' 1971 hit 'He's Gonna Step On You Again'. Party Boys' rendition reached No. 1 on the national singles chart.
Party Boys' lead vocalists have included some of Australia's best known performers: James Reyne (1982/83); Richard Clapton (1983), Shiriey Strachan (1983/84); Marc Hunter (1984/85); Angry Anderson (1986), and John 'Swanee' Swan (1987).
Three international musicians have played in the Party Boys: Joe Walsh (Eagles) and Alan Lancaster (Status Quo), and Graham Bonnett (Rainbow).

Peaches
All-girl Sydney group Peaches scored a hit in September, 1978 with a cover version of Clout's 'Substitute'. Peaches' drummer Nanci 'Huck' Kaye previously played with Suzi Quatro.

Ronnie Peel
In the late sixties Ronnie Peel travelled to England where he worked with Thunderclap Newman.
Late in 1967 Ronnie Peel formed a band called Rockwell T. James and the Rhythm Aces. They recorded one single for the Festival label. In 1976, whilst Ronnie was playing with John Paul Young's All Stars, he recorded a couple of singles — 'Come On Home' (August, 1976) and 'Roxanne' (December, 1976) — and released them under the resurrected pseudonym of Rockwell T. James.
Ronnie Peel caused a sensation when he appeared as the nude centrefold in the February, 1977 edition of Cleo magazine.

Phantoms
Melbourne instrumental/vocal group the Phantoms who had hits with 'Stampede' (1962) and 'The Rumble' (1963) toured Australia with the Beatles in 1964.

Gene Pierson
Gene Pierson who had a minor hit in 1970 with 'Reach Out' fled Australia to New Zealand in the late sixties to avoid military conscription. It was there that his career developed.
In 1979 Gene formed his own recording label in Sydney, Laser Records.

Pseudo Echo
Pseudo Echo was the first unrecorded band to appear on national rock show Countdown, performing 'Listening', in late 1983. The song was later released as the band's debut single, which reached No. 4 nationally in January, 1984.
Original keyboards player Tony Lugton had been a member of James Freud's Radio Stars, and played guitar on Freud's 1980 hit 'Modern Girl'.
In October, 1987 Pseudo Echo won the Yamaha World Popular Song Contest, which was held in Japan. The band performed the song 'Take On The World'.
Pseudo Echo's cover of Lipps Inc's dance hit 'Funky Town' (December, 1986) was one of the most successful Australian singles on an international level during 1987. As well as reaching No. 1 in Australia, it peaked at No. 6 on the U.S. chart, No. 8 in the U.K., No. 2 in Canada, and was Top 20 in Germany.

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