Post 556 - The Bootleg Family - Singles Collection

Brian Cadd originally put together The Bootleg Family Band (aka The Bootleg Family & The Bootleg Band) as the house band for the independent label Bootleg, which Fable Records boss Ron Tudor had established with Brian in late 1972. The idea was that the Bootleg house band would provide musical backing for records and tours for him and the other artists signed to the label. The Bootleg members were all seasoned veterans of the Melbourne scene, equally at home on stage or in the studio. Drummer Geoff Cox was one of Melbourne's most in-demand studio players, with a huge string of sessions to his credit.  Gus Fenwick was a former member of the highly-rated but short-lived Healing Force. Trumpeter Russell Smith joined the band in April 1973, making it an eight piece. He was a long-serving member of the Ram Jam Big Band, Levi Smith's Clefs. Other members included Tony Naylor (guitar), Brian Fitzgerald (keyboards) 1973-75, Penny Dyer (vocals), Angela Jones (vocals), Louise Lincoln (vocals), Clive Harrison (bass) 1975, and Ian Mason (keyboards) 1975. Besides backing Cadd and other Bootleg artists, the Bootleg Family Band recorded four Singles (here for you to download) and scored two major hits under its own name. Their debut was a cover of Loggins and Messina's "Your Mama Don't Dance" and featured Cadd prominently. The second single "Wake Up Australia" failed to chart but the third single, a cover of the late Betty Everett's "Shoop Shoop Song” became a Top 10 hit. The four single A-sides were combined for the four-track Bootleg Family Band EP alongside their fourth and last single "Green Door", which barely scraped into the Top 100.  By 1975 it was becoming difficult to keep the large band on the road, so in May the line-up was cut back to a four-piece comprising Naylor and Cox with new members Ian Mason replacing Fitzgerald (who moved to America) and Clive Harrison replacing Fenwick. Renamed simply The Bootleg Band, this line-up was used for mostly for touring, although they issued a final single "How Do I Try?" which scraped into the lower half of the Top 100.When Brian Cadd relocated to the States at the end of '75, Mason left the group and the remaining members renamed themselves “Avalanche”. A big thanks to Badger & Tim for the help with a couple of singles because mine had seen better days.    mp3 UPDATE Thanks to WoodyNet for some great art work for this collection ART 

Post 555 - Cyril B. Bunter Band - 2JJJ Live EP

If you wanted to experience Cyril B. Bunter Band in their own natural habitat, the only place to be was The Welcome Inn, the first bar up from the docks at the dirty end of Sussex Street. A fine standalone toilet tile pub where the band could turn up and play Loud, with no neighbours to complain. For almost five years from 1972, every Friday and Saturday, The Bunters, lit only by a couple of lights, would crank out set after set of filthy, blues-drenched boogie, always with the little front bar packed fit-to-bust: Usually three or four hundred sweaty people squeezed into a room that comfortably held maybe a hundred heads. There was no stage, the band played on the floor hard up against the wall, eyeball-to-eyeball with the front row of fans just three feet away. The regulars congregated from all points on the weekends from Bondi, Botany and Blacktown, from Clovelly, Cronulla and Collaroy, Manly and Maroubra, and everyone just had a ball. Spreading their wings beyond their Surry Hills/Bondi roots, The Bunters went on to become friends and touring partners with many great’s. Between ‘77 and ‘85, they performed on endless roads how tours including three national tours opening for “John Mayall’s BluesBreakers” and four tours with “Canned Heat”. After becoming fast friends with the band during three tours together, “George Thorogood and the Destroyers” recorded The Bunters’ song “Boogie People” as the title track of their 1985 album. Melbourne’s king of the blues, “Dutch Tilders”, travelled the Hume and Pacific Highways with The Bunters as his backing band during the same period. Recordings from the Bunters was scarce, their focus was always purely on the live connection, their sole studio album, “Mad Money In High Places”, available only at these shows. Original only ever one pressing a 1000 copies, and it sold out quickly. Here to download from a 2JJ Studio 221 concert, recorded in Glorious Mono around Dec. 1980 - Jan.1981 is the rare “2JJJ Live EP” (Z-OO1) released on Porksword Productions and produced Keith Walker and Jeff Baker.    mp3

Post 554 - Johnny Dick – The Warrior – She Was My Babe

Have had a few requests for this single over the years and finally I snapped up a copy off EBay just before Christmas. Born in the Welsh town of Llanfairfechan but before he grew old enough to have to pronounce it his parents moved to New Zealand.  Drumming since the age of 12 Johnny Dick has played with the cream of Aussie music such as Max Merritt, The Aztecs, In Focus, Fanny Adams, The Wild Cherries, La De Das, Stevie Wright Band and John Paul Young’s All Stars Band. In an interview I once heard with Johnny he said when he first came to Australia playing in Max Merritt’s band at the Rex Hotel, the place was packed with musicians, one of them being Billy Thorpe. After the show Billy walked up to him and said he wanted him in his band. He asked Billy who else was in the band and Billy told him he would put the band around him so Johnny said could he bring the bass player Teddy Toi and Billy agreed then asked who was the lovely lady standing over there, which was Max’s girlfriend Jackie Holmes it was a sad night for Max he lost his bass player drummer and girl all in the one night. Here to download is Johnny’s one and only single “The Warrior” b/w “She Was My Babe” (AP-10949) for Albert Productions and produced by Vanda & Young in 1975. JD was with the JPY All Stars Band when this record single was released, so I would imagine they would have backed him, maybe someone out there knows for sure.    mp3 

Post 553 - Linda George – Circle Dance

Linda George is an English-born Australian pop, jazz fusion and soul singer from the 1970s. In 1973, George performed the role of Acid Queen for the Australian stage performance of The Who's rock opera, Tommy. She won the TV Week King of Pop award for "Best New Female Artist". Her cover version of "Neither One of Us” peaked at No. 12 on the Australian Singles Chart and her 1974 single "Mama's Little Girl" reached the Top Ten. Linda has provided backing vocals on releases by her contemporaries, including Brian Cadd, Madder Lake, Daryl Braithwaite, Normie Rowe, Jo Jo Zep, John Farnham, and Kerrie Biddell as well as many others. Throughout this time she worked with various ensembles. From early 1979 to 1981 she worked with the Paul Mckay Sound. During the early 1990s, Linda toured Russia with two of her seven brothers and Colin Hopkins, working for the Freedom from Hunger campaign. Back in Melbourne, she created a venue, Music on Q, for local original artists. She recorded an album here for you to download, “Circle Dance”, with Hopkins and Alex Pertout which was released in 1996 as a limited edition CD. Other musicians on this album were Ben Robertson, Darryn Farrugla, Sarah Morse, Graham Evans, Penny Dyer, Christine Sullivan and Tony Varcoe.     mp3 

Post 552 - Robin Jolley – Baby, What’s Been Getting To You – One Night

This was Robin’s 2^nd last single as far as I know, released on L & Y Records in 1975. The single “Baby, What’s Been Getting To You” b/w “One Night” (K-6160), the A side was written by Marty Kristian and the B side written by Dave Bartholomew, Earl King and Anita Steinman and popularized by Elvis Presley in 1957. The single was produced by Lesley Shaw with help from Ross Burton and John French.    mp3