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Tuesday 25 November 2014

Post 543 - The Lovers - She Won't Call You -You're Late Home

A real mystery this band. All my Australian books on music only one says anything about the band and that is they only released one single in 1980 and they think they were a Sydney band with a question mark. The single “She Won’t Call You” b/w “You’re Late Home” (100153) on WEA Records was penned by Howard Minehan and Mike Davies which could have been band members but again nothing to state this anywhere. It was produced by Charles Fisher at Trafalgar Studios in Sydney. So like a few other posts on the Blog maybe someone out there knows more and will drop us a line.....UPDATE!..I got in contact with Howard Minehan and he told me "We were a Melbourne band but recorded the single in Sydney using session musicians although I played keyboards and Michael sang..we lived in Sydney for a year during the process and reformed the band back in Melbourne…crazy times..cheers"...Thanks Howard.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Ozzie,
Howard Minehan has a facebook page, Howie Minehan, and main photo is of him at a piano, and looks about the right age. Perhaps you could send him a message and ask about it.

Cheers
John

V8ShadowTiger22 said...

Hi,
What would an excellent condition copy of this Lovers 45 be worth please/

Ozzie Music Man said...

Hi V8 not sure how rare it is I think I paid $25 off EBay a few months back. Hope that helps :)

V8ShadowTiger22 said...

Thanks Ozzie, I have had a copy for some time, NM Cond & am looking to move it on with a lot of other Oz singles. Now I have an idea of price, thanks again

Ozzie Music Man said...

Hi V8 glad it helped what other Aussie singles you have? You can email me at ryryan@optusnet.com.au

SMNDU said...

Hi,
I am the singer, front man, co-writer and only member from go to woe - Michael Davies (now Lawyer and Research Associate at a well known Uni.) Haven't seen this for a while. I'd be interested in any old pics to add to the three I still possess. Haven't seen the others for a long time except for our main Guitarist Geoff Spooner who is still playing God bless him and is still damn good.

Really enjoyed my time as front man, arranger and main lyric writer for the band. We lasted about 5/6 years (various line-ups). Our single was actually a proper hit. Pick of the week on 2GB (I think that was the station that liked it the most) and on high rotation for six weeks.

Unfortunately WEA'S A&E guy never sent it to the retail stores I am very reliably informed - only the media round - the radio stations and journalists. We wondered what was wrong for about six weeks with it being played on the radio. Then WEA finally fessed up and replaced that A&E guy and cleaned up the mess. So we really regretted not having gone with Mushroom Records (sigh).

Our Publishers were Tumbleweed (remember that one? second sigh). We were booked to support Black Sabbath at The Palais but they cancelled when whathisname on Black Sabbath broke a finger the night before (third and final sigh - sound familiar guys?)

We were managed by - I think they were called ACE (Ms Miranda Jetlag anyway - very sweet lady and her sister at Tumbleweed too) Close friend at the time Paul Kelly used to cover one of my songs regularly ("Lookin for My Other Half".) Now he did well and still is, and deservedly too. Paul actually played rhythm with us for a wee while (Hi Paul, yes my liver is doing well thanks very much and says Hi to yours)

We used to do the usual gigs around town - Had our own night at Martini's on a Thursday night, after our support band (I forget who). Yada Yada Yada. Almost made it like so many others - but things either go wrong or they go right and those things are out of one's control and that's just the nature of Rock & Roll. No regrets at all.

Glad I did it all - it was a blast. And glad I stopped after the WEA disaster knocked the bottom out of all my efforts in Sydney recording (Air Supply guy on backing vocals too - he could sing four part harmonies !!!!).

If we'd only accepted Mushroom's offer might have been a different story, and I might well be dead too. That's Rock & Roll for you in those days.

Got married, am still married and spent the next 20 years at Uni in one form or another. I'm happy with the memories, had a really great time and so glad I bailed when I did with the sweetest woman in the world...Profesor.....wifey

Love to our fans - if anyone actually remembers us?

Unknown said...

'She Won't Call You' - a top song. I was working at 2NX (Newcastle) at the time and we played it. In fact, I've got the studio copy in my collection! Great to read Michael's post - fills in a lot of blanks. I remember talk at the time was that John Swan was on drums. Can anyone confirm or deny this?