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Monday 23 May 2011

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.

6 comments:

Wayne Davidson said...

Thanks for this treasure, one of my faves. There was a schoolyard rumour at the time that the female vocal parts were sung by Maria Mercedes - any idea? Another Aussie novelty record I hope to turn up one day is "The Cube" by Mike Brady - an out-of-character electro-anthem he recorded at the time of the Rubik's Cube craze. You wouldn't have that would you? I used to have the single but somewhere in umpteen house moves...

OZZIE MUSIC MAN said...

Wayne the track you're looking for is on post #238, if you do a search for Mike Brady it will come up. Not sure about Maria Mercedes will see what I can find out for you. I have the LP "Game Over" but no info on the cover at all about who played on it.

Ozzie :)

Wayne Davidson said...

Thanks so much, I don't know how I missed that!!

Anonymous said...

This song is one of my all-time favourites. can you please put there album Games Over up on your blog? Been hunting for that LP for many years without any joy.
also I like to mention what cool blog site you have, the many unknown items you post on your blog, it excellent stuff. many thanks from me in New Zealand.

Anonymous said...

Hell yes. The "Game Over" album is unavailable on the face of the earth.

Anonymous said...

Aha, the album is here: http://disco2go.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/playback-1980-space-invaders.html