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Monday 7 December 2020

The Flies - 1965 - The Flies FLAC RE-POST

 Can't You Feel/Doin' The Mod/Tell Her That/Ain't That Just Like Me



 The Flies were the first Aussie band to consciously ape The Beatles. The band supported The Rolling Stones on their first Australian tour and released a number of singles; Tell Her That (July 1964), Doin’ The Mod (July 1965) and Can’t You Feel (September 1965).

Doin' The Mod charted in June-July 1965 #23 Melbourne and was followed onto the Melbourne charts in September-October by Can't You Feel, an original song by Ronnie Burns and John Thomas of The Flies (#26 Melbourne).


 Vocalist Ronnie Burns left The Flies in August 1965 to go solo and spent the rest of the decade vying with Normie Rowe and Merv Benton as the most popular solo singer on the Australian pop scene.

He was replaced in the band by Peter Nicol, who had previously been with a group called The Wild Colonials.

Lead guitarist John Thomas also departed, following some musical dissension, leaving The Flies a trio of Peter Nicol (vocals and guitar), Themi (short for Themiststocles) Adams (bass) and Hank Wallis (drums).

The band called it a day in 1966 with Nicol returning to The Wild Colonials.

Friday 7 August 2020

Normie Rowe - 1967 - Ooh La La WAVE RE-POST


Ooh La La/Ain't Nobody Home/ It's Not Easy/Mary Mary



  As Normie Rowe was the most popular solo performer in Australia he decide to try his luck overseas, so in August 1966 he left for the UK. In preparation, he revamped the line-up his backing band "the Playboys". Several members opted to stay in Australia for family reasons, so Rowe replaced them with bassist Brian Peacock and guitarist Rod Stone, both from the ex-New Zealand band The Librettos, which had recently split.

Arriving in London ahead of his band, Rowe engaged one Ritchie Yorke as his London agent and began to record with producers Trevor Kennedy and John Carter, using the cream of London's session musicians, including Big Jim Sullivan, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, famed drummer Clem Cattini, and vocal group The Breakaways. The sessions produced several strong new recordings including "Ooh La La", "It's Not Easy", "Mary Mary", "Turn On The Love Light" and "Can't Do Without Your Love". Despite his absence in London, Rowe's run of chart success in Australia continued—his next single, "Ooh La La" / "Ain't Nobody Home" (Nov. 1966) was another double-sided hit in Melbourne and a Top 5 hit in most capitals, reaching #2 in Sydney, and #4 in Brisbane and Adelaide.


Up to this time there was no national pop chart in Australia, with most pop radio stations and newspapers in state capitals and major cities publishing their own competing charts. However, on 5 October 1966 Go-Set magazine, which had been launched in February, began publishing its first weekly national Top 40, compiled by Ed Nimmervoll. "Ooh La La" / "Mary, Mary" debuted at #6 on the new Go-Set chart on 7 December 1966, and reached #1 in the 21 December chart, hence becoming Rowe's first official national #1 hit. It stayed at #1 for two weeks before being briefly supplanted by The Easybeats' "Friday On My Mind" on 4 January, but returned to the top for the next two weeks.

While "Ooh La La" was at #1 in Australia, Rowe's next single, the ballad "It's Not Easy" was also climbing the chart. It debuted at #17 in the Go-Set chart in the last week of December 1966,[ and reached the Top 10 in the second week of January. Through the end of January and into February, Rowe achieved a 'first' for an Australian popular recording artist by having two of the top three singles simultaneously for three consecutive weeks. Rowe worked in England for ten months and toured with acts including Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity, The Spencer Davis Group, Kiki Dee, Gene Pitney and The Troggs. High hopes were held for a British breakthrough, and in the early months of 1967 the pages of Go-Set featured predictions of his imminent UK stardom, though it never materialised.

The new Playboys lineup arrived in London in December; Normie flew home for Christmas, which coincided with the release of "It's Not Easy" / "Mary Mary", and he returned to England in January. In March 1967 the group embarked on a tour of the UK supporting The Troggs, Gene Pitney and Sounds Incorporated. The same month, Phil Blackmore left the group for family reasons and returned to Australia; he was replaced by English organist Trevor Griffin. Rod Stone left in mid-1967 (returning to Australia, after which he joined band The Groove) and he was replaced by former Adam Faith sideman Mick Rogers. At the end of 1966, Normie Rowe was voted Australia's best male singer in the inaugural Go-Set Pop Poll.



 Meanwhile, The Playboys secured a one-off single deal with Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate Records label, releasing the single "Sad" / "Black Sheep RIP" in August. Written by Brian Peacock, "Sad" is now considered a 'freakbeat' classic and has been widely anthologised, appearing on the British collection Chocolate Soup For Diabetics Vol III, Raven Records' Kicks and Rhino's Nuggets II. In June, Normie Rowe & The Playboys travelled to North America, supporting Roy Orbison on a US tour, and alongside with The Seekers he represented Australia in performance at Expo '67 in Montreal. He returned to Australia in July, where he appeared as a special guest at the national finals of the 1967 Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds.

Rowe had more national chart success in late 1967 with the Graham Gouldman song "Going Home" (b/w "I Don't Care") -- assumed to be about the Vietnam War, but really about a migrant's return to Australia from Britain—which debuted at #22 in the Go-Set chart in late April and stayed in the national Top Ten until the end of May, peaking at #7 in the second week of May. "Sunshine Secret" / "But I Know", and another single, "Turn Down Day" charted in Melbourne. But in September 1967 any questions about his career future were dramatically stalled when he received his call-up notice for national service.




Normie Rowe - 1966 - Tell Him I'm Not Home WAVE RE-POST


Tell Him I'm Not Home /Ya Ya/Too Bad You Don't Want Me/I Keep Forgetting



 Norman John Rowe AM (born 1 February 1947) is an Australian singer and songwriter of pop music and an actor of theatre and soap opera for which he remains best known as Douglas Fletcher in 1980s serial Sons and Daughters. As a singer he was credited for his bright and edgy tenor voice and dynamic stage presence. Many of Rowe's most successful recordings were produced by Nat Kipner and later by Pat Aulton, house producers for the Sunshine Records label. Backed by his band, The Playboys, Rowe released a string of Australian pop hits on the label that kept him at the top of the Australian charts and made him the most popular solo performer of the mid-1960s. Rowe's double-sided hit the A-side, a reworking of the Doris Day hit "Que Sera Sera" /with b-side "Shakin' All Over" was one of the most successful Australian singles of the 1960s.

Between 1965 and 1967 Rowe was Australia's most popular male star but his career was cut short when he was drafted for compulsory military service (called National Service in Australia) in late 1967. His subsequent tour of duty in Vietnam effectively ended his pop career. Unable to recapture the musical success he enjoyed at his peak in the 1960s, he carved out instead a career in theatre and television.

Australian singer Normie Rowe's cover of "Tell Him I'm Not Home" was released as a B-side single in November 1965. It peaked at No. 3 on the Australian Singles chart and was a top 5 hit in most Australian mainland capitals, reaching No. 4 in Sydney, No. 2 in Melbourne, No. 2 in Adelaide and No. 1 in Melbourne. The song was ranked the 13th biggest hit of 1965 on the Kent Music Report list of the Top 25 singles for 1965 in Australia.




Friday 24 July 2020

Autumn - 1971 - A Patch Of Autumn


Live Levis/Goblins Gamble/Falling/Lady Anne



Like their contemporaries The Executives, The Affair, New Dream and Zoot, Sydney band Autumn has been unfairly labelled as a lightweight pop band, mainly on the basis of their early recordings. They've also been tagged as 'one-hit wonders', although in fact they had four hits. Fronted by grievously underrated lead vocalist Tony Romeril, Autumn was a superb band with a strong following in their home city of Sydney, and they could tackle pop, country-rock and heavy/progressive rock with equal ease.

Like their close contemporaries The Flying Circus, Autumn formed at a time when rapid and significant changes were taking place in the music scene and the formerly homogeneous "pop" field was diversifying into several distinct genres. The trends that were drawing 'pop' musicians towards progressive music, "heavy rock" and country rock was counterbalanced by the popularity and commercial success of so-called "bubblegum" pop. This created to a situation where, as Glenn A. Baker has observed, "being identified as a pop band "drew automatic derision and critical dismissal".



Autumn's chart success with straight-ahead pop material has obscured the fact that this was a highly competent group, with tastes and abilities which went well beyond the confines of the three-minute formula pop single. Their true talents were not really showcased on record until their last few recordings for the Warner label and, as Glennn Baker notes "... nobody, save those who caught them live, came to realise what a sturdy, musically adept and diverse unit they were."

During the second half of 1971 Autumn released an EP, A Patch Of Autumn, followed by their hugely underrated second album Comes Autumn. Although it is dismissed by Vernon Joyson as "unremarkable", it in fact contains some outstanding material. As Aussie music archivist "MidozTouch" has noted, "Autumn's second album is so strikingly different in style and sound from their first LP that one could be forgiven for thinking they were recorded by two different groups". This included re-recordings of some of their Chart material, including Allan Magsuball's riff-tastic psych-prog nugget "Get It Down" (one of several fine tracks he contributed), a re-recorded version of "Lady Anne", and the country-styled hits "Falling" and "Miracles". 

Wednesday 22 July 2020

Graham Bell & His All Stars - 1963 - Hernando's Hideaway FLAC


Hernando's Hideaway/Down By The Riverside/Rag Trade Rag/South



Graeme Emerson Bell, Australian jazz musician (born Sept. 7, 1914, Richmond, near Melbourne, Australia—died June 13, 2012, Sydney, Australia), pioneered a resurgence of traditional jazz as dance music in Australia and parts of Europe as the leader of Australia’s foremost jazz band. Bell, who studied classical piano, got his start in jazz in the 1930s, playing piano in his brother’s band in Melbourne clubs. During World War II he founded the Graeme Bell Jazz Gang, which achieved national popularity through radio broadcasts and record sales. The group, rebranded the Australian Jazz Band after the war, toured Europe (1947–48), where listening to jazz was considered a sedentary activity.


 Graeme Bell in front of a sign advertising The Graeme Bell All Stars tour in Czechoslovakia, 1947


The band’s jaunty front lines dazzled across Dixieland standards, show tunes, and folk songs and set off a revival of dancing to jazz. Back in Australia in 1949, Bell cofounded Swaggie Records. He also resumed touring Australia (and later Europe and Asia) with his original band and then with the Graeme Bell All Stars, which he formed in 1962. During his 70-year career, Bell recorded more than 1,500 tracks. He was made MBE (1978) and an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO; 1990) for his services to music and was inducted (1997) into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame. The annual Australian jazz awards (established in 2003) were known as the Bell Awards in his honour.

Tuesday 21 July 2020

Dave Miller & The Byrds - 1966 - Dave Miler & The Byrds @320


Help Me/Ain't Got You/Tough Enough/That'll Be The Day/Let The Four Winds Blow



The Christchurch to Auckland pop highway was already well travelled when Dave Miller and The Byrds arrived in 1965. Ray Columbus and The Invaders, Max Merritt and The Meteors and Dinah Lee had already used the northern city as a stepping stone to successful careers in Australia, a path Dave Miller would also take.

Miller had joined Christchurch group, The Playboys in Auckland in 1963 after the departure of singers Diane Jacobs (aka Dinah Lee) and Phil Garland, following a six-week residency deputising for Max Merritt and The Meteors at The Platterack. 

 That left Dave's drummer-brother Graeme along with guitarist Brian Ringrose (ex-Invaders), Mark Graham (rhythm guitar) and John O’Neill (bass). Kevin O’Neill then replaced Mark Graham. Jacobs and Garland had been vocalists with The Saints rock'n'roll band in Christchurch during the early 1960s before forming The Playboys, who had a successful career around Christchurch performing at the likes of Spencer Street, The Dolphin Lounge. The Caledonian Hall and later at The Laredo.

After a popular residency at Christchurch’s Laredo Room in 1963 and 1964, The Playboys headed north for good, lured by Māori entertainer Howard Morrison for his popular touring show. There were already two successful international groups called The Playboys so they became The Byrds – seemingly unaware of the American outfit –then Dave Miller and The Byrds.



Their first release was a snappy cover of Jimmy Reed’s R&B finger-snapper ‘Bright Lights Big City’, a big local hit for Zodiac Records and the first of three singles and an EP for the label. The EP featured blues standard ‘Help Me’, filmed with Dave Miller only in a rare clip. John O’Neill and Brian Ringrose left soon after, replaced by Al Dunster and Chris Collier.

Success in the clubs and as a backing band pushed them on until 1966 when Miller and guitarist Dunster decided to make the hop to Sydney. Miller would make an initial impact in Sydney as a compere and soloist, before forming The Dave Miller Set and landing a huge hit with the psychedelic mini-epic ‘Mr Guy Fawkes’ in 1969.

Tuesday 30 June 2020

The Stockings - 1981 - Limbo FLAC


 Limbo/Boy Girls/Mercy Man/This Girl That Girl/On My Knees



Hailing from Australia's left coast, this Perth combo indulged in driving, albeit straitlaced power pop/wave without resorting to any obvious gimmicks, not unlike contemporary country-mates the Serious Young Insects.
This Perth New wave band started life in Early '79 as "Rip Torn & The Stockings". Rip Torn being singer Bernie Lynch who left in 1980 to form "Living Single" who then became Eurogliders.

In Grace Knight's book 'Pink Suit for a Blue Day", she talks about meeting Bernie Lynch at a BBQ, where they hit off immediately. "He was absolutely charming, obviously well educated, well brought up and with a nose that stopped passers by....he was in a band called Rip Torn and the Stockings. In Perth back then it was very difficult to get gigs unless you performed covers of popular tunes, the audiences preferred to hear music they knew, and so The Stockings would perform songs by Ian Dury and the Blockheads and Graeme Parker, along with some of Bernie's songs.

 In 1981, The Stockings (now dropping Rip Torn from their name) released their debut album, Red Tango.  The group eventually disbanded in 1982 with band members finding musical interests elsewhere.  

Monday 29 June 2020

Radio Birdman - 1976 - Surfin At 2JJJ FLAC


Surf City/Don't Look Back/Time Won't Let Me/Transmaniacom MC



One of the pillars of Australian punk, RADIO BIRDMAN was formed at French’s Wine Bar, one of Sydney’s legendary lost venues, mid 1974 by Rob Younger, Ron Keeley and Deniz Tek after the collapse of two other bands the Rats and TV Jones.

Throughout 1975 the band was rejected or banned from just about every venue in Sydney, which led to the departure of original members Pip Hoyle and Carl Rorke, and the formation of what many fans argue is the definitive version of the band with the enlistment of Warwick Gilbert and Chris Masuak.

Finding themselves at a dead end, a fateful meeting with Lou Reed at one of his infamous Sydney airport press conferences resulted in the band conning the owner of the Oxford Tavern into putting on a gig in his honor, and with the show’s success the establishment of their own venue the Fun House which laid the groundwork for Sydney’s burgeoning punk scene.



The controversy and sub-culture surrounding the band gained the attention of then radical left-wing radio station Double JJ who extended an invitation for the band to perform live on air. Recorded six months before the recording of their debut EP “Burn My Eye” this set finds them showcasing that original material alongside early versions of songs that would appear on later releases and covers of the Stooges, MC5, Blue Oyster Cult, the Doors and the Rivieras.

One of the few known documents of their early era “DOUBLE JJ MARCH 1976” is an essential listen for any fan of Australian punk.

Joe Dolce - 1984 - Pizza Pizza WAVE


Pizza Pizza/That's Amore/ If You Want To Be Happy/Shaddap You Face



Joseph Dolce (born October 13, 1947)  is an American-Australian singer/songwriter, poet and essayist who achieved international recognition with his multi-million-selling song, "Shaddap You Face", released under the name of his one-man show, Joe Dolce Music Theatre, worldwide, in 1980–1981. The single reached number one in 15 countries, it has sold more than 450,000 copies in Australia, and for many years was the most successful Australian-produced single, selling an estimated six million copies worldwide. It reached No. 1 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart for eight weeks from November 1980.
 
 Dolce was born in 1947, the eldest of three children, to Italian-American parents, in Painesville, Ohio, graduating from Thomas W. Harvey High School in 1965. During his senior year, he played the lead role of Mascarille in Molière's "Les Précieuses Ridicules" for a production staged by the French Club of Lake Erie College, which was his first time on stage, acting and singing an impromptu song he created from the script. The play was well received and his performance was noted by director Jake Rufli, who later invited him to be part of his production of Jean Anouilh's "Eurydice". His co-star in "Les Précieuses Ridicules" was a sophomore, on a creative writing scholarship, at Lake Erie College, Carol Dunlop, who introduced him to folk music, poetry and the writings of William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway. Dunlop later married the Argentine novelist Julio Cortázar. Dolce attended Ohio University, majoring in Architecture, from 1965–67, before deciding to become a professional musician.
 

While attending college at Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio, he formed various bands including Headstone Circus, with Jonathan Edwards who subsequently went on as a solo artist to have a charting hit song in the US ("Sunshine"). Edwards subsequently recorded five Dolce songs including, "Athens County", "Rollin' Along", "King of Hearts", "The Ballad of Upsy Daisy" and "My Home Ain't in the Hall of Fame", the latter song becoming an alt country classic, also recorded by Robert Earl Keen, Rosalie Sorrels, JD Crowe & the New South, and many others.

Dolce relocated to Melbourne, Australia in 1978 and his first single there was "Boat People"—a protest song on the poor treatment of Vietnamese refugees—which was translated into Vietnamese and donated to the fledgling Vietnamese community starting to form in Melbourne. His one-man show, Joe Dolce Music Theatre, performed in cabarets and pubs with various line-ups, including his longtime partner, Lin Van Hek.



In July 1980, he recorded the self-penned "Shaddap You Face", for the Full Moon Records label, at Mike Brady's new studios in West Melbourne. When in Ohio, Dolce would sometimes visit his Italian grandparents and extended family—they used the phrases "What's the matter, you?" and "Eh, shaddap", which Dolce adapted and used in the song. He wrote the song about Italians living in Australia and first performed it at Marijuana House, Brunswick Street, Fitzroy in 1979. Dolce paid A$500 for the recording and spent $1000 on the music video clip, which was created by Melbourne filmmaker, Chris Lofven.

It became a multi-million-selling hit, peaking at No. 1 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart for eight weeks from November 1980, in the UK from February 1981 for three weeks, and also No. 1 in Germany, France, Fiji, Puerto Rico, Quebec, Austria, New Zealand and Switzerland. Dolce received the Advance Australia Award in 1981. The song has had hundreds of cover versions over the decades including releases by artists as diverse as Lou Monte, Sheila (France), Andrew Sachs (Manuel, of Fawlty Towers), actor Samuel L. Jackson and hip-hop legends, KRS-One. In 2018, the first Russian language version was released by two of Moscow's most popular singers, Kristina Orbakaite and Philipp Kirkorov. The song has been translated into fifteen languages, including an aboriginal dialect.

Follow up single, "If You Wanna Be Happy" charted in Australia (No. 7) and New Zealand (top 40). Dolce's subsequent singles included "Pizza Pizza", "Christmas in Australia" and "You Toucha My Car I Breaka You Face" and he released two albums during this period, Shaddap You Face and The Christmas Album. With Lin Van Hek, he formed various performance groups including Skin the Wig, La Somnambule (1984) and the ongoing Difficult Women (1993). Van Hek and Dolce co-wrote "Intimacy", for the 1984 film, The Terminator's soundtrack, now part of the US Library of Congress collection. He was a featured lead actor in the Australian film Blowing Hot and Cold (1988). He has continued to perform solo and with Van Hek as part of their music-literary cabaret Difficult Women. In the past decade, he has also received extensive recognition as a poet and essayist. 

Glen Tomasetti - 1967 - The Future Is In Your Hands FLAC


The Future Is In Your Hands/The Ringlewood Cockie/Sang The Boy/Ned Kelly Rode The Northern Hills



Glenys Ann Tomasetti (1929–2003), known as Glen Tomasetti, was an Australian singer-songwriter, author and political activist. During the 1960s she appeared weekly on commercial television, performing satirical political songs. She became a household name in 1967 after refusing to pay a portion of her taxes in protest against Australia's involvement in the war in Vietnam. Although best known for her folk music and political activism, she was also an esteemed novelist and poet.

Tomasetti began performing as a singer-songwriter and guitarist in the late 1950s. In the early 1960s she organised folk music concerts at the Emerald Hill Theatre in South Melbourne, a centre of the 1960s Melbourne folk scene. Later in the 1960s she appeared weekly on Channel Seven TV, performing a topical political song after the general news broadcast.

 Australia entered the war in Vietnam in 1962 in support of the USA, and in 1965 began sending conscripted servicemen to Vietnam. Tomasetti became involved in the Save Our Sons organisation, a group of women opposed to military conscription, and in December 1965 she helped to organise the "Songs of Peace and Love" protest concert at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne, described as "the first major response of the folk scene" to Australia's military involvement in Vietnam.

In 1967 Tomasetti was prosecuted after refusing to pay one sixth of her taxes on the grounds that one sixth of the federal budget was funding Australia's military presence in Vietnam. In court she argued that Australia's participation in the Vietnam War violated its international legal obligations as a member of the United Nations. Public figures such as Joan Baez had made similar protests in the USA, but Tomasetti's prosecution was "believed to be the first case of its kind in Australia", according to a contemporary news report. Tomasetti was eventually ordered to pay the unpaid taxes.




Many of Tomasetti's songs dealt with feminism and the situation of Australian women. Perhaps the best known is "Don't be too polite, girls", a call for equal pay and a feminist call to arms. Sung to the tune of a classic 19th century Australian shearing ballad ("All among the wool, boys"), it was inspired by the first ruling on equal pay in Australia, a 1969 Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration ruling that granted equal pay to only 18% of Australian women. The song was still being sung by the Melbourne Trade Union Choir at the time of Tomasetti's death in 2003. Thanks to Sunny.

Wednesday 6 May 2020

Buffalo - 1974 - Buffalo WAVE RE-POST


Suzie Sunshine/Dead Forever/Barbershop Rock/Sunrise (Come My Way)


Buffalo were an Australian rock band formed in August 1971 by founding mainstay Dave Tice on lead vocals (ex-Head). Fellow founders, also from Head, were Paul Balbi on drums, John Baxter on guitar, and Peter Wells on bass guitar; together with Alan Milano on lead vocals (ex-Mandala). Milano left after their debut album, Dead Forever... (June 1972), and Balbi was replaced on drums by Jimmy Economou. Their next two albums, Volcanic Rock (July 1973) and Only Want You For Your Body (June 1974), were also issued by Vertigo Records. After 1975 line-up changes resulted in a more commercial sound and the group disbanded in March 1977. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, noted that there was "nothing subtle about Buffalo's primal, heavyweight sound, but it was delivered with a great deal of conviction ... combining the dense, occult riffing ... with the progressive blues chops ... the band certainly captured the arrogant disposition of the times in a bold and thunderous fashion". Alongside Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs and Blackfeather, Buffalo pioneered Australia's heavy metal, pub rock and alternative rock movements. Peter Wells died on 27 March 2006, aged 58.

Tuesday 11 February 2020

Joy Boys - 1965 - Surf Party FLAC


Sandy The Surfin' Sandfly/Swamped/Midnite Surfer/Summertime



Originally a jazz band , became 'Col Joye and the Joy Boys' when Kevin's bother, Col joined in 1957. They had ten Top 10 hits in the Sydney charts alone from 1959 to 1962, including four #1s. Cole became a star on television pop show Bandstand. They recorded under Col Joye’s Joy Boys in 1960 and 1961 and as The Joy Boys from 1961. Sandy, The Surfin' Sandfly an instrumental written by Tony Barber (of Aztecs fame).Disbanded 1966.



Friday 7 February 2020

Delltones - 1962 - Tonight FLAC


Tonight/Tell Me That You Care/ White Cliffs Of Dover/Every Little Thing That I Do



Noel Widerberg who was the writer of the song "Tonight"and the lead singer of the Delltones at the time, although not depicted in the photo shot on the cover of this ep, was killed in an auto wreck soon after this recording in the Sydney beachside suburbs of either Ramsgate or Brighton-Le-Sands. The group with different members exist's till this day.

The Delltones have been entertaining Australian audiences for over five decades with their most successful recording years in the 1960s. Ian ‘Peewee’ Wilson is the only current member from the original line-up. In the mid-1980s he transformed the group from a vocal quartet, to a five-piece vocal band. This along with other stylistic changes led to the band’s resurgence and the chart topping, rock ‘n roll revival album, Bop Til Ya Drop. The band remains as one of the most consistent live entertainers in Australia, with arguably the longest performing and recording history for a vocal harmony band with an original member.

Monday 6 January 2020

The Hawking Brothers - 1973 - The Hawking Brothers FLAC


Catfish John/Too Many Tears/Molly Breen/Eumerella Shore



 The Hawking Brothers, were an Australian country music band, formed in 1955 and disbanded in 1985. They comprised brothers Russell (1931–1976) and Alan (1933–1988). Excellent singers and instrumentalists, they first recorded in 1955 and were equally proficient with both traditional Australian folk music and country music. In the latter genre they very deservedly had a big hit in Australia with the American song Catfish John (on their self-titled album). They toured North America in 1975 and appeared at the Grand Ole Opry. After originally recording with Regal Zonophone Records, they went on to record a number of albums with RCA Records. When it comes to winning awards, The Hawking Brothers have been very successful, winning 6 Golden Guitars. In 1989, The Hawking Brothers were inducted into the Australian Roll of Renown.





Normie Rowe - 1965 - It Ain't Necessarily Rowe FLAC RE-POST


It Ain't Necessarily So/Gonna Leave This Town/ Lindy Lou/Shakin' All Over



 Norman John Rowe AM (born 1 February 1947) is an Australian singer and songwriter of pop music and an actor of theatre and soap opera for which he remains best known as Douglas Fletcher in 1980s serial Sons and Daughters. As a singer he was credited for his bright and edgy tenor voice and dynamic stage presence. Many of Rowe's most successful recordings were produced by Nat Kipner and later by Pat Aulton, house producers for the Sunshine Records label. Backed by his band, The Playboys, Rowe released a string of Australian pop hits on the label that kept him at the top of the Australian charts and made him the most popular solo performer of the mid-1960s. Rowe's double-sided hit the A-side, a reworking of the Doris Day hit "Que Sera Sera" /with b-side "Shakin' All Over" was one of the most successful Australian singles of the 1960s.

Between 1965 and 1967 Rowe was Australia's most popular male star but his career was cut short when he was drafted for compulsory military service (called National Service in Australia) in late 1967. His subsequent tour of duty in Vietnam effectively ended his pop career and having never been able to recapture the success in music he enjoyed at his peak in the 1960s, instead carving out a career in theatre and television.