Anne & Johnny Hawker - 1968 - Cinderella Rockefella @320

Cinderella Rockefella/We Can't Afford The In Crowd/My Happiness/Wiggle Your Toes


John Hawker was born in 1931 in Bristol, England. He is known for his work on Romper Stomper (1992), The Heartbreak Kid (1993) and Sounds Like Us (1969). Hawker recorded on the W&G and Astor labels with his own band (Johnny Hawker Band/Johnny Hawker Orchestra) during the sixties. He also worked on many Australian recordings, including Grantley Dee's Wild One. Hawker married Anne Hathaway in 1964 and they formed a duo in 1968 releasing a number of singles on Astor. Anne also recorded some singles on the same label as a solo artist. Johnny died on March 14, 2016 in Woodend, Victoria,

Cinderella Rockefella  charted #7 Sydney, #2 Melbourne, #4 Brisbane and #4 Adelaide Co-charted with the original version by Esther & Abi Ofarim.

Bea Geaz - 1965 - W!ne @nd W0men @320

Wine And Women/Follow The Wind/Peace Of Mind/Don't Say Goodbye



"Wine and Women" is a song written by Barry Gibb, and released by the Bee Gees in September 1965 on Leedon Records in Australia. The song's B-side was Follow the Wind. The single reached #19 in Australia, marking the Bee Gees' international chart debut. They achieved this by getting as many of their fans as possible to buy enough copies to get the song into the charts at #35 and, thus, to the attention of disc-jockeys.

Both songs were later included on the group's debut album The Bee Gees Sing and Play 14 Barry Gibb Songs, as well as the 1998 anthology of the group's Australian recordings Brilliant from Birth.

Wine and Women marked the first time Barry and Robin had traded lead vocals. Maurice plays the brief, lead guitar break, Barry's guitar strumming is mixed forward and he sings most of the lead vocals on this song. "Follow the Wind", despite being written by Barry, was sung by Robin.

Another important debut was that of Bill Shepherd in the producer's chair. Shepherd would travel with the group to England when they launched their international career and for many years arranged and conducted their orchestral backing on record and in concert.

Heart 'N' Soul - 1969 - Lazy Life @320

Lazy Life/Good Things Come To Those Who Wait/Who Could Be Loving You/Shes Got The Time



Heart'n'Soul started out as a dinner-suited club/cabaret band in Sydney in 1967 but it soon evolved into Australia's first -jazz-rock 'big band' and the first local group to perform what has become known as jazz-rock fusion. Like several other larger outfits of the period, they were strongly influenced by 60s soul acts on Motown, Stax and Atlantic, and probably also by the soul-jazz-rock excursions of American band Blood Sweat & Tears, as well as more experimental outfits like the UK bands The Graham Bond Organisation and Colosseum.

 H 'n' S were early local experimenters with the trend for large-scale, jazz-oriented brass-augmented pieces, a style that was continued by later groups Nova Express, SCRA and Kush and the Daly-Wilson Big Band. But for most people Heart'n'Soul will be best remembered for their single Lazy Life, which was a Top 20 hit for them in Sydney in 1969.

They were a fixture on the vibrant inner-city club and disco circuit ca. 1969, and according to Ian McFarlane, they also "enthralled festival audiences with rock versions of the 1812 Overture, Bach's Brandenburg Concerto, Also Sprach Zarathrustra and MacArthur Park." Glenn A. Baker notes that they were also renowned for the concert piece The Music Will Screw, a free-form conga/flute sexual sound-effects suite, and they also began employing costumes and props -- this proved so startling for some that they were in fact thrown out of a dance at Hornsby by the police after making a dramatic entrance complete with chains and a coffin!

  H'n'S were also very similar to some other groups of the period (e.g. Levi Smiths Clefs) in that the group was a training ground for many musicians who went on to bigger and better things. Around thirty musos passed through the ranks during the band's brief life; it started as a seven-piece by by the time they recorded their only LP it had expanded to twelve; eventually the financial strain of keeping such a large unit on the road was to become untenable.

The original line-up consisted of the Willington brothers, Phil Prideaux, Percy Ohrling, Rory Thomas, Graham Lewis and Leith Corbett. Among the noted musicians who passed through the ranks were Keith Barr ( ex-Nutwood Rug Band), session stalwart Bobby Gebert (paino), Eric Cairns and Les Gough (ex Somebody's Image), jazz legends John Pochee and Bernie McGann, the late Larry Taylor (aka Larry Duryea) who later joined Tamam Shud and Arthur Eisenberg, ex-Dr Kandy's Third Eye and later of Company Caine. Keyboard player Peter Sheehan, who joined during 1970, had come from NZ band Freshwater, for whom he had co-written the A-side of their controversial single "Satan" / "Satan's Woman", which was about the Charles Manson murders.

Heart 'n' Soul issued three jazzy pop Singles on Festival; their second, " Lazy Life", initially broke in Brisbane and became a Top 20 hit in Sydney in May 1969. A rare clip of the band performing the song on TV has recently been posted on YouTube. The first two singles were combined on the rare Lazy Life EP and their third single "Let Me Sing in Your Band" / Lights of Cincinatti" came out during 1970.

Heart'n'Soul -- by then renamed "The Heart'n'Soul Hot Boogie Band" -- was one of the first acts signed to Festival's new progressive label Infinity, which was launched in January 1971. When they recorded their ambitious Hot Boogie Band album in late 1970, the group had expanded to twelve members, but sadly it had split by the time the album and its accompanying single "Hot Boogie Band" / "Earthrise" were released as part of Infinity's inaugural issue in January 1971. According to McFarlane, the album combined up-tempo R&B ("Hot Boogie Band"), classical elements ("Earthrise"), percussion-driven rock ("Yeah Go-1-2 Are You Ready?") and pure jazz-rock fusion ("Dance of the Pigs")".

Pat Carroll - 1965 - Many Faces @320

Why Do Fools Fall In Love/That's All You Do/The End Of The World/Where Have You Been



Pat Carroll (born 1946 in Melbourne) is an Australian singer from the 1960s.


Carroll began her entertainment career at age eight when she started taking singing and dancing lessons. Appearances on children's TV shows followed by the time she was eleven years old. She continued by appearing in musical comedy shows such as Carnival and Bye Bye Birdie.
 

 This led to appearing on national Australian pop TV shows such as Brian Henderson's Bandstand and The Go!! Show when in her mid-teens. Her first 45 single "He's My Guy" was released when she was 18.

In the mid-1960s Carroll and her friend Olivia Newton-John formed a singing duo called Pat and Olivia (see YouTube). Having won a song contest in Melbourne, they travelled to the United Kingdom. They achieved some success there on TV and in the clubs. After a period of performing there, Carroll's visa expired, forcing her to return to Australia where she would eventually marry ex-Strangers member, John Farrar. Newton-John stayed on and launched her own international career.

Carroll released a number of singles with W&G Records and Interfusion during the 1960s and early 1970s most of which failed to chart. Her most successful single in Australia was her cover of Dana's 1970 Eurovision winner "All Kinds of Everything". However Carroll's best known single is "To the Sun" on account of its featuring Cliff Richard on backing vocals.

 At about 1970, Farrar quit the Strangers and with Carroll, returned to London. During 70s and 80s, she often sang backing vocals on Olivia Newton-John's albums.

Currently living in Malibu (USA) with husband John Farrar: her first son Sam Farrar (born 29 June 1978) is the bass player for American rock'n'roll band Phantom Planet. Her 2nd son Max Farrar is the keyboardist/guitarist for the rock 'n' roll band Azura.

Pat Carroll singles on vinyl – (7")

He’s my Guy//He loves me too; 1964
Where have you been//That's all you do 1965
Why do fools fall in love//the end of the world 1965
I Know (You don't want me no more)//Chained to a memory 1965
Here i am//Did he call Today Mama 1965
Don't come running back to me//You’re no good 1965
I Only Have Eyes for You//Eddie my love 1966
He’s a Rebel//Talk about love 1966
To the sun//Out of my mind 1972
Live love//To the Sun 1972
All Kinds of Everything//In your world 1970
Now I’m stuck on you//I'm not ready 1973
Curly headed rooster//To the sun 1974   

Doug Parkinson & The Questions - 1968 - Something Wonderful FLAC UPGRADE

Something Wonderful/We Got Love/And Things Unsaid/I Can't Hear You


The Questions had been formed as a Shadows-style instrumental band, which was typical for groups of the early-mid Sixties. They recorded one album for Festival (in the ‘Herb Albert' vein, described by one critic as 'unreservedly awful') and one single, Karelia / Wheels which came out in October 1966.  Although the members were musically competent and already very experienced as live performers, The Questions was a relatively undistinguished group and might well have remained so. But Doug Parkinson's arrival at the end of 1966 precipitated a major change of musical direction. They went on to record a series of impressive Singles that showcased Doug's outstanding vocal talents and which Ian McFarlane describes as 'minor psychedelic pop classics'. Their new lineup and style quickly took The Questions into the first division of Australian bands. Their debut single "Sally Go Round the Roses" (backed by a cover of Donovan's "Hey Gyp (Dig the Slowness)" was a substantial hit in Sydney, reaching #14 in July 1967. It was followed by "And Things Unsaid" / "I Can't Hear You" (October) and a psych-pop interpretation of "Something Wonderful" (from Rogers & Hammerstein's The King And I) (February 1968), plus the an EP Sally Go Round the Roses.

During Doug's tenure with the band the lineup included guitarist Ray Burton (The Executives, Innersense,  Friends, Ayers Rock, Crossfire), bassist, engineer and producer Duncan McGuire (The Phantoms, The Epics, King Harvest, Friends, Ayers Rock, Windchase) and guitarist Billy Green (King Harvest, Fanny Adams, Gerry and the Joy Band, Friends). Some members later linked up in various combinations in the aforementioned bands -- McGuire and Green returned to work with Doug at several later stages in his career, Ray Burton contributed to Doug's 1973 solo album No Regrets, and McGuire and Burton reunited in the 70s in Ayers Rock.

The Questions entered the 1967 Hoadley's Battle Of The Sounds and eventually came in second behind The Groop. They almost didn't make it into the competition, because they missed the deadline for entry into the Sydney heats, and had to qualify via the Queensland country heats. However this initial oversight had the beneficial side-effect of providing them with their first interstate gigs. Their profile increased with a residency at The Can disco in Sydney and they gained invaluable national exposure with a support spot on the controversial January 1968 Australian tour by  The Who and The Small Faces. Just before the tour, Green and McGuire left, and they were replaced by Ray Burton and Les Young. The solid performances by this short-lived lineup impressed audiences around the country but The Questions disbanded the following month. Thanks to AussieRock

 

New Link Added 03.01.2022

Radio Birdman - 1976 - Burn My Eye FLAC

Smith and Wesson Blues/Snake/ I-94/Burned My Eye



Burn My Eye was the debut EP recorded by Sydney punk rock band Radio Birdman, in October 1976. It was a low-budget EP recorded at Trafalgar Studios, Sydney and released on the studio's own Trafalgar label after the band had been rejected by many other labels. Part of the reason that many labels were reluctant to sign the band was because of their unconventional sound, which was quite different from the music then popular in the Australian rock scene during the 1970s.

The members of Birdman were not impressed with the acoustics of Trafalgar, a typical 1970s studio which they described as "dead sounding and quiet", in contrast to the high tempo, hard-rock sound for which Birdman is known. To the sound engineers' horror, Birdman decided to alter the studio's sound more to their liking by hauling sheets of corrugated iron from nearby demolition sites up the stairs of the studio and covering the walls with them to 'lighten up the sound'.

Birdman also experimented with some other unconventional sounds on the EP, such as the smashing of VB cans on their heads, as a percussion instrument throughout the recording.

The Burn My Eye EP was only produced once and has not been re-issued, so original copies of the EP are extremely rare. All tracks from the EP appear on the bonus disk of the 2015 CD reissue of the Trafalgar version of their first album, Radios Appear.  New Link Added 09.10.2019

Dig Richards - 1961 - Dig's Big Four RE-POST

I Wanna Love You/(Real Gone) Annie Laurie/Comin' Down With Love/My Little Lover



Born Digby Douglas Richards on 12th September 1941 in the remote western New South Wales town of Dunedoo, he was the son of a mounted policeman. His father's work kept the family in remote areas and while he was still young they moved to Narooma, where he grew up. His interest in music began after he found an old guitar in the woodshed. He began singing folk songs at school concerts and then moved on to ballads. He moved to Sydney at the age of seventeen and found work as a Cadet Executive in Waltons city department store. Richards spent his lunch hour looking at the latest guitars in Stanley Johnston's Music Shop. A chance meeting with two other boys at the music shop led to the formation of a group called Dig Richards and the R'Jays.

They held their first dance on 8th August 1958 at the Castlecrag Community Hall and before long had regular dances all round Sydney. Their first break was winning radio station 2UE's Amateur Hour talent contest at the Lane Cove Town Hall. This led to appearances on 2UE's Rumpus Room program and the Coca-Cola Beach Shows. They became the first group ever to play live on the Bandstand, where artists normally mimed their performances. In early 1959 following an audition for Ken Taylor, they were signed by Festival Records. Their debut single, I Wanna Love You, was written by Richards' fifteen-year-old brother and it made the Sydney Top 10 in August.

The success catapulted Richards, with his James Dean-type good looks and natural charm, to overnight stardom and regular television appearances on Six O'Clock Rock and Teen Beat followed. After receiving a petition from his fans, which had a reputed twelve thousand plus signatures on it, Lee Gordon used them as a support act on his Battle of the Big Beat Show tour In July. The tour was also the launching pad for what was to become Richards' trademark - a woollen jumper with a lightning bolt woven in the front of it. Channel Seven's new television pop show Teen Time also made its debut in July with Dig Richards and the R'Jays as the resident group. Their second single, I'm Through, was also written by his brother and reached the Sydney Top 40 in September.

On 8th October, just before he was to appear on Lee Gordon's Fabian Show tour, Richards was involved in a car accident on the Sydney Harbour Bridge that put him in hospital. It took several months for Richards to recover from his injuries, which included a broken hip, broken shoulder and forty stitches to his face. In the meantime Warren Williams and the Squares had replaced them as the resident group on Teen Time. When Richards and the R'Jays eventually returned to the show, the two groups shared the residency, appearing on alternate shows. During this period the R'Jays soldiered on, bringing in Lonnie Lee as a temporary replacement for Richards. They also landed a job as Festival Record's 'house band', supporting a wide range of acts over the following years.

Between January 1960 and June 1961 Richards and the R'Jays released four singles on Festival's subsidiary label Rex Records. Two of them made the local Top 40, the most notable being their first ballad called My Little Lover. During this period they appeared on two more of Lee Gordon's Big Shows; they became the first top-line rock 'n' roll group to tour Western Australia; Dig recorded a number of singles, EP's and an album under his own name; headlined a show at Melbourne's Sidney Myer Music Bowl with support acts Johnny Devlin and Lucky Starr. By 1962 there was a shortage of work available for groups with lead singers so Richards and the R'Jays decided to part company. He continued on as a solo artist with Festival Records, releasing a couple of relatively unsuccessful singles.

Richards made a brief comeback in the charts in October 1962 before turning his attention to grooming himself to become an all-round entertainer. He learnt to play the guitar and took vocal lessons at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. In 1963 Dig made his debut as an adult entertainer when he launched his new act at a Sydney nightclub. He made his acting debut in the Christmas 1963 surfing musical Once Upon A Surfie and on 10th July 1964 he married his sweetheart of four years. During 1965 he compered his own television show called the Dig Richards' Ampol Show. In 1967 he switched to CBS Records for a one-off single and then headed off overseas to perform on the club circuits and develop his songwriting skills.

As part of his South-East Asian tour, he entertained Australian Troops in Vietnam. He returned to Australia in 1971, by which time his musical direction had changed to country music. He signed with the RCA Records label and released an album that produced his first hit single in over nine years. Richards then set off on the concert trail, performing all around Australia and in 1973 he recorded his next album in Los Angeles. It produced one Top 20 and one Top 40 hit. He continued to record until late 1982. Sadly he died from cancer on 18th February 1983.

Tinsley Waterhouse Band - 1981 - Full Of Ink An' Talkin' Shorthand FLAC

I've Been Dreamin'/Ain't Got You/If You Love Me Like You Say/Hard To Handle



 Throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s, gravel-voiced R&B; veteran Tinsley Waterhouse led ever-changing line-ups of his Tinsley Waterhouse Band. The band boasted over 50 musicians through its ranks over the years. Among all the changes in personnel, Waterhouse managed to issue three albums of tough, roadhouse R&B; material.

Waterhouse played drums in late 1960s blues bands The Gravy Train and The Horse, plus a brief stint in the final version of New Zealand band Chants R&B; circa mid-1967. In 1979, he formed Tinsley Waterhouse's Old Tracks which had evolved into The Tinsley–Townsend Band (with Snowy `Cutmore' Townsend, ex-Wild Beaver Band) by April 1980, and The Tinsley Waterhouse Band by July. The line-up listed above recorded the 7-inch EP Full of Ink an' Talkin' Shorthand (`I've Been Dreamin', `Ain't Got You'/`If You Love Me Like You Say', `Hard to Handle'), which came out on Project 9 Records in February 1981. The Tinsley Waterhouse Band worked the Melbourne pub circuit, and issued its debut album, After the Mudd You've Got ... The Tinsley Waterhouse Band, in October 1982.

By that stage, the line-up comprised Waterhouse and Ballard, plus Mick `The Reverend' O'Connor (Hammond organ), Ron Robertson (bass) and Peter Lee (drums), all of whom had previously played with Broderick Smith's Big Combo. By March 1983, the line-up comprised Waterhouse, Robertson, Gerry Joyce, Chris Stockley (guitar; ex-Cam-Pact, Axiom, Dingoes, Stockley See Mason Band, Rock Doctors), Neil Wyatt (sax; ex-Dutch Tilders, Keith Lamb's Airport) and Paul Hitchins (drums; ex-Sports, Nighthawks). The August 1983 line-up featured Waterhouse, Stockley, Robertson, Leigh Horton (sax; ex-Saxons, Pete Watson's Rockhouse) and Barry Cram (drums; ex-Michael Turner In Session, Avalanche, Russell Morris Band, Contraband, Ideals).

 In early 1984, Michael Bright replaced Chris Stockley on guitar. By November, Ray Davies had taken Bright's place, and Horton had also left to be replaced by Dean Hilson (sax) and Dave Wright (trombone). The Tinsley Waterhouse Band's second album, Hangin' Around (1985), had been recorded in three sessions (March 1983, June 1984 and November 1984). As well as covers of a number of R&B; staples like Robert Johnson's `Sweet Home Chicago' and Jimmy Witherspoon's `What Becomes of the Broken Hearted?', the album included the single `Don't Get Mad'/`Holy Cow'. The Tinsley Waterhouse Band's third album, I've Been Dreaming, featured the line-up of Waterhouse, Cram, Ron `Groper' Trinder (guitar), Paul Gatcham (sax), Ron Anderson (sax) and Tim Ayres (bass; ex-Kevin Borich Express).  Thanks to Sunny.