Post 369 - Dame Edna Everage - Disco Matilda

Edna's success grew in the UK throughout the 1980s and early 1990s however with semi-regular television shows. Her first specials were in 1978/1979 on the BBC. She became popular with broadcaster ITV after her performance on An Audience With Dame Edna in 1980. Edna made a cameo appearance in the 1978 film Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Also in 1979 Edna released a single here for you to download for Big Time Records "Disco Matilda" b/w "Disco Matilda (Inst.)" (BZS-312). The single was produced by Jonathan King, the instrumental B side is credited to The Everage White Band With ABBO. For more Edna check out post 327.

Post 368 - Player (1) - Space Invaders / A Menacing Glow In The Sky

Russell Dunlop toured with the Aunty Jack Show, among numerous other acts, while becoming more involved in recording. In the late '70s, his highly successful partnership with Bruce Brown began. As well as recording dozens of local acts, Dunlop and Brown had success of their own with the 1980 hit Space Invaders, inspired by the wildly successful video game, which they released under the appropriate name Player (1) for WEA. They were asked to put an album together for the U.S but, as Brown recalls: "We sat down and wrote a bunch of space songs, but instead of sticking to the concept of the hit, we wandered off into the 'clever' musical genre with fancy time signatures, radical chord progressions and so on". The reply came back for the U.S that this was intended for 13- to 14-year-olds; there went the Brown-Dunlop gravy train. Nonetheless, they had a great time recording it. Here to download is the single for WEA "Space Invaders" b/w "A Menacing Glow In The Sky" (100114). The single was recorded at Alberts Studios in Sydney. Their production company, BAD (Brown And Dunlop), working in the hit factory that was Albert Studios in King Street, Sydney, was churning out some of the most successful local pop music of the time. Jon English, Mental As Anything, the Reels, Renee Geyer to name a few.

Post 367 - Eurogliders - Heaven / Heliograph

Eurogliders were formed in 1980 in Perth, Western Australia, which included Grace Knight on vocals and Bernie Lynch on guitar and vocals. In 1984, they released the album, "This Island", which featured their #2 hit "Heaven (Must Be There)". "Heaven" also peaked at #21 on the United States charts. Here to download is that single released on CBS Records "Heaven" b/w "Heliograph" (BA 223 178). Both sides were penned by Bernie Lynch. The A side was produced Nigel Gray and the non LP B side produced by Bernie Lynch. They disbanded in 1989, with Knight having a successful career as a jazz singer. Eurogliders reformed in October 2005, with Grace Knight and Bernie Lynch using session musicians and they released their fifth studio album, simply called "Eurogliders" and included the single, "Hummingbird", but neither album nor single peaked into the charts.

Post 366 - Emma Hannah - Waiting For The Rain / I Want You

Many will remember Emma Hannah from her many television appearances, including The Don Lane Show, The Ernie Sigley Show, and Reg Lindsay's Country Homestead. She was a regular on 70s country TV show Travelin' Out West with John Williamson. This single "Waiting For The Rain" b/w "I Want You" (ZS-139) recorded in 1975 on Wizard Records and was produced by Robie Porter. Both these tracks came from Emma's LP "Be A Lady In The Daytime". These days Emma is a Civil Marriage Celebrant in the Wollongong /Illawarra, Southern Highlands, South Coast and Sydney area. Emma’s latest CD "Wayfaring Stranger" is now available from all good independent retailers.

Post 365 - Danny McMaster - Rugby League Song (N.S.W.) / Rugby League Song (QLD)

Danny was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. His family moved to Mudgeeraba on the Gold Coast when he was 4 years old, where his famous father ‘Wallaby’ Bob McMaster was mine host at the equally famous “Wallaby Hotel” for the next 27 years. Performing in Talent Quests, in ‘live’ situations, as well as TV shows, Danny was a hoot as an amateur dabbling with impressions and music throughout the 70’s. He turned pro in 1980 and hasn’t looked back since. His love of Rugby League, led him to writing and recording “The Rugby League Song” in 1980 and it has stayed in the sporting lexicon as a perennial tribute ever since. Here to download is that single from 1981 on EMI "Rugby League Song (N.S.W.)" b/w "Rugby League Song (QLD)" (EMI-495). The single was penned by Danny and produced by Ian Mason. Danny has shared the stage with various big-names as Mary Wilson, Don McLean, Glenn Shorrock, The Barron Knights, Col Elliott and Sammy Davis Jnr., just to name but a few.

Post 364 - Gunther Gorman - Infectious Rhythm LP

Ian "Gunther" Gorman is one of Australia's finest guitar players. He started in the 60's at the age of 12, when he landed a wedding gig at the Parramatta Bowling Club. After attending the National School of Art in Canberra Gorman returned the Sydney to play with Home the brain-child of Glyn Mason. In January 1975, Daddy Cool appeared at the final Sunbury Festival, after which Gunther Gorman was recruited to bolster the group's line-up, and although it was clear by this time that Daddy Cool was well and truly past its use-by date, they soldiered on for a few more months. The success of Sherbet in 1976 came despite founding member Clive Shakespeare leaving the band in January of that year. Gorman initially replaced Shakespeare. Harvey James ex Mississippi and Ariel in turn replaced Gorman. In 1977 he joined the Richard Clapton Band and from '78-'79 formed Gunther's G-Force. Here to download from 1981 is his only solo LP " Infectious Rhythm" (600078) for WEA Records. The album features Huce Benjamin on drums, Clive Harrison bass, David Kimber piano, Don Miller Robinson guitar and bass, Ralph White brass, Doug Williams vocals and James Rogers bass. The LP was produced by Robinson and Gorman. In 1982 after receiving a phone call from Glenn A Baker, Gunther embarked on a 10 year here, there and everywhere stint with Frankie J. Holden, Rockpile Jones, Jim Manzie, Geoff Plummer, Wilbur Wilde in Ol' 55. In 2010 he teamed up with Mike Waddle, Dave Twohill and Roger McCulloch as The Barstars. These four Cooma based musicians not only have a great sound but also some serious history behind them. flac

Post 363 - Elliot Goblet - Friday On My Mind / You Get Me So Excited

Elliot Goblet is a character created by the Australian comedian Jack Levi. The character is renowned for his deadpan delivery of quirky one-liners. He speaks incredibly good, and clear English but shows no emotion. He started out with round glasses and a goatee beard but these days while the glasses are still there the goatee beard is gone. The Goblet character launched into the comedy scene with numerous TV performances on Hey Hey It's Saturday, The Eleventh Hour and many other Australian TV variety and sketch shows. He wrote a best selling book "Business According To Goblet" and appeared in short films and also the feature film "Fat Pizza: The Movie". Here we have his 1989 single release of "Friday On My Mind" b/w "You Get Me So Excited" (AV-2227). Released on Avenue Records and produced by Mike Brady, Doug Brady and Ross Inglis. Elliot Goblet has done live appearances all over Australia as well as in seven other countries including the United States and England. However these days most of his work is at corporate events where he either does a spot or is the MC.

Post 362 - Janice Slater - Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood / Let The Love Come Through

Here is Janice Slater's third single release from 1967, produced by Robert Iredale for Spin Records. You will find more of Janice's work on our Blog on post #335, #251 and #235 and more to come I'm sure. Here is "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" b/w "Let The Love Come Through" (EK- 1984).

Post 361 - Heart 'N' Soul - Let Me Sing In Your Band / Lights Of Cincinnatti

Heart'n'Soul started out as a dinner 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. They issued three Singles on Festival, their third, here for you to download " Let Me Sing In Your Band" b/w "Lights Of Cincinnatti" (FK-3409), the A side was penned by Johnny Young and the single was produced by Spencer Lee and arranged by Rory Thomas and Phil Predeaux. By 1970 they renamed the band, The Heart'n'Soul Hot Boogie Band and was one of the first acts signed to Festival's new progressive label Infinity, which was launched in January 1971. When they recorded their "Hot Boogie Band" LP in late 1970, the group had expanded to 12 members.

Post 360 - John Meillon - Hot Pie And Tomato Sauce / We're A Weird Mob

John Meillon born on the 1st of May 1934, was an legendary Australian actor, most widely known outside Australia for his role as Walter Reilly in the films Crocodile Dundee and Crocodile Dundee II. Meillon was born in Mosman, Sydney. He had a recurring role in the TV series My Name's McGooley, What's Yours?. He featured in two episodes of "Skippy" in 1968 and 1969 appearing as "Nimble Norris". In 1976 he won the AFI Award for Best Actor for his role of 'Casey' in the film The Fourth Wish (1976). He married Australian actress June Salter in 1958. They were divorced in 1971. They had one son, John Meillon, Jr. He then married actress Bunny Gibson on 5 April 1972: they also had a son. In 1967 John recorded a song for RCA Records called "Hot Pie And Tomato Sauce" b/w "We're A Weird Mob" (101780) with the Orchestra directed by Tommy Tycho. You could never buy this promotional only record, it was manufactured for publicity purposes only and is extremely rare to find these days. John also voiced Victoria Bitter beer commercials until his unfortunate death on the 11th of August 1989.

Post 359 - Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons - Shape I'm In / So Young / Shape I'm In (Dub)

In late 1975 Ross Wilson, who was waiting out his Daddy Cool/Mighty Kong recording contract, had started producing other artists for a label he was involved in, Oz Records. He also decided to produce a version of Chuck Berry's "Run Rudolph Run", as a one off Christmas single for Mushroom Records. Since contractually he couldn't perform the vocals himself, Ross asked musician around town Joe Camilleri to sing and play on the record, and front it. Camilleri was born in Malta, and in Maltese the traditional nickname for Joseph is 'Zep', so the name put on the single was Jo Jo Zep and his Little Helpers. To promote the single it seemed a good idea to put together a scratch band comprising some of the other people who had worked on the record. These included bass player John Power (ex-Foreday Riders), who had recently relocated from Sydney to Melbourne to join Company Caine for an album which Wilson was producing. However Company Caine, which featured guitarist Jeff Burstin and drummer John McInerney, soon fell apart. Wilson suggested that the three team up with Camilleri to perform as part of a Christmas show at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne. The performance proved so successful that, with the addition of second guitarist Wayne Burt (ex-Rock Granite) and drummer Gary Young (ex-Daddy Cool) replacing McInerney, the band decided to take things a little more seriously. On stage they called themselves Jo Jo Zep and The Falcons. The band signed with Oz Records, releasing their first single, "Beating Around The Bush", in July 1976. The song was also one of two Jo Jo Zep tracks on the Ross Wilson soundtrack for the feature film Oz. In 1978 the Oz Record label folded and the band moved to Mushroom Records, and another new musical direction began. Here to download is their 8th single release in 1979 on Mushroom "Shape I'm In" b/w "So Young" (new version) / "Shape I'm In" (Dub version) (K7665). The two tracks on the B side are non LP tracks. The Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons story is an interesting one and we haven't remotly touched it here so to read more go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo_Jo_Zep_%26_The_Falcons

Post 358 - Ronnie Burns - Changes / Mix Me Up Another Drink

Ronald Leslie Burns was born on the 8th of September in 1946. He fronted the Melbourne band The Flies in the early 1960s, followed by a solo career into the 1970s. Burns was raised in Melbourne, Victoria. His father was a butcher, his mother Edna was a fan of vaudeville and his brother Frank, who was five years older, was a drummer. In order to buy his first guitar for 10 shillings, Burns had part time jobs selling newspapers, working in a milk bar and in a fruit shop. He was fired from Myers for having long hair, however he had already joined the Mod band The Flies in early 1964. They won a Moomba band competition for a group most like The Beatles. Burns befriended Ian Meldrum, a university law student looking for somewhere to stay, whose two week visit became nine years of boarding at his parents' home. Meldrum later had a career as a pop music commentator, TV personality and record producer. The two were famously ejected from The Beatles' June 1964 Melbourne concert, because Meldrum was screaming too loudly. Meldrum later promoted Burns solo career in his writing for the weekly teen newspaper, Go-Set. In September 1965, Burns decided to leave The Flies to go solo – his place was taken by Peter Nicholl from The Wild Colonials. As a solo artist, Burns became one of Australia's most popular male pop singers from the mid 1960s to the early 1970s. His first single, "Very Last Day" was released in June 1966 on Spin Records. "Smiley", Burns' biggest hit, reached number two on the Go-Set National Top 40 in February 1970. It was written by Johnny Young. Here to download is Ronnie's 2nd last single, released on L&Y Records "Changes" b/w "Mix Me Up Another Drink" (K-5488) produced by Johnny Young in 1974. In the '90s Ronnie and family moved to Tasmania and for much of the decade he performed in the highly successful band Cotton, Morris & Burns, with old mates Darryl Cotton and Russell Morris. In 2000 Ronnie retired from live performance to concentrate on setting up an alternative lifestyles centre near his home in Tasmania, and his place in the trio was taken by former Masters Apprentices lead singer Jim Keays.

Post 357 - Neil & Errol - The Last Refrain / Heavyweight Boxer

There were four singles released under the Aunty Jack banner, this one was credited to Neil & Errol (Graham Bond/ Rory O'Donoghue). The scene, a park bench with Neil and Errol who sing a song where they have to avoid rhymes. Eventually Neil makes a rhyme, and Errol is thus set free. The B side, which is credited to Thin Arthur (O'Donoghue), has me a bit confused as it says on the label "From the forthcoming LP Aunty Jack Sings Wollongong". The track however isn't on the LP, so maybe it was left off at the last minute. In 2006, the album was re-released on CD, as a 2 disc set. Disc one is both sides of the original album, and disc two is a compilation of the Farewell Aunty Jack single, as well as songs used in the Aunty Jack series, but still this B side didn't appear. I'm not sure why, but will endeavour to find out. Here to download is the 1974 single "The Last Refrain" b/w "Heavyweight Boxer" (2079 052) on Polydor Records, the single was penned and produced by Graham & Rory.

Post 356 - AC/DC - Can I Sit Next To You Girl / Rockin' In The Parlor

After forming his first band In Session in Charters Towers when he was 17 Dave Evans moved to Sydney where he helped form a band

(no name yet!)with Malcolm Young, Colin Burgess and Larry van Kriedt, a week later Malcolm's younger brother Angus joined. Malcolm and Angus' sister-in-law Sandra came up with the name AC/DC and so one of the greatest rock and roll bands ever was born. He was a member of the band for a year before being replaced by Bon Scott around October 1974. Their first gig was at Chequers Nightclub in Sydney on New Years Eve 1973 and the band went on to attract a strong live following in the next few months before recording their first single in '74, here for you to download "Can I Sit Next To You, Girl" b/w "Rocking In The Parlour" (AP- 1055 1) for Albert. The single was produced by Harry Vanda & George Young, with both sides of the single penned by Angus & Malcolm Young. After AC/DC, Evans joined Newcastle band Rabbit, replacing original singer Greg Douglas. This record is very sought-after by collectors, we have seen it now 3 times on eBay in the last few months and every time it went for over $500.