Post 564 - Peter Williams - Hey Hey W.A. - I Found Out Where It's At

This single had me bewildered couldn’t find a thing on it anywhere, so what does one do but ask the man himself. This is what Peter Williams wrote me…….

Hi Gary,

Great to hear from you, Hey Hey W.A, was a song we recorded as a promotional vehicle for WA sport etc!  It was recorded in '78 and financed by local Perth Nightclub owner Bob Maher and was meant to be a "localised" WA   "Come on Aussie Come On!" It ended up with moderate local success; I did an appearance promoting it on an Edition of Donnie Sutherland's "Sounds" show that was televised from W.A.!! The song was used in a local W.A. Election by the Liberal party, and also in the 150th W.A. Anniversary Telethon.

Thanks very much Peter for this info on this single much appreciated. And another Peter for giving me these singles to fix up for the Blog.   

Post 563 - Peter Williams - Give Me A Sign - My Guitar

After “The Groove” broke up Peter Williams decided to concentrate on song writing for a while and had some success.  He wrote a song that ended up being recorded by a number of people including “The Marmalade”, “Joe Dolan”, a Scottish Group named “The Dream Police” who some members from became “The Average White Band”, Hamish Stuart (the vocalist) was later in “ Paul McCartney’s Band”. Another song was recorded by Tina Charles the U.K. disco singer, another he wrote was “The Good Book” recorded by Lon Satin who was understudy to “Sammy Davis Junior” in the musical “Golden Boy”.  Even Kiwi recording artists Frankie Stevens & Kal Q Lated Risk recorded a song Peter penned “I’ll be home”. During this period he released the only solo record he ever released called “Give me a sign” / “My Guitar” (6006 105) on Phillips recorded in the U.K.  This record was produced by Alan Parker, guitarist from “Blue Mink” & it wasn’t until many years later that Peter realised that Herbie Flowers on bass & the rest of “Blue Mink” were the “backing band.” Peter penned both sides of this single. mp3 

Post 562 - Martin Plaza - Plaza Suite

Best known as one of the main vocalist/songwriter in Mental as Anything Martin Plaza was born Martin Edward Murphy on the 1^st of January 1956 in Sydney’s North Shore.  He took advantage of the first real break in the Mentals' career and released his debut solo album in 1986. “Plaza Suite” was not a departure from what the Mentals were doing on their previous album, “Fundamental as Anything.” Most tracks on this LP could have been on Mentals albums. A batch of great songs, Plaza sounds confident and self-assured on this album, never letting the album's slick sound take over. His voice is still one of the best in the music world, a perfect mixture of Orbison, Presley, and Ferry. The album is mostly self- written, and his brilliant cover of "Concrete and Clay" fits in with the originals perfectly. Plaza and the Mentals have always specialized in great song writing, and almost every track here is no exception to that rule. The opener, "Pit Stop," contains all the elements of the perfect Plaza song with his heartfelt vocals. Other highlights includes a great pop song "Miss You Like Mad" and "Use Me All Over," "I Could Be So Good," and “Best Foot Forward." flac

Post 561 - Greg Anderson - Greg Anderson LP

Greg Anderson born in Melbourne, on the 12th Oct. 1950, was a "one-hit wonder" in terms of pop chart success, but he was born into show business and he has been performing for most of his life. His parents had a whip-cracking act, and at fifteen months old the infant Greg was appearing with them on tour in England at venues like the London Palladium, and he regularly appeared with them as he grew up. At seven he took part in the Moomba Rodeo Festival as a trick rider and by the time he was ten years old Greg was appearing on major television shows and performing his own stage show for Coca Cola, which travelled throughout his home state of Victoria, after which he joined Channel Nine's "Tarax Show", where he performed weekly. At 15, Greg gained national recognition by reaching the Grand Final of the prestigious television talent quest Showcase, which led to him being represented by top management agency NLT. By the mid-Sixties the multi-talented youngster -- who sang, danced and played guitar, piano and drums -- was a regular on the Melbourne pop circuit, making TV appearances and undertaking country tours. Some of his TV appearances were on the pop show Kommotion, and he recorded his first two singles for the short-lived Kommotion label. Greg's debut single (Feb. 1966) is of particular interest to Bee Gees fanatics because it features uncredited backing by The Vince Maloney Sect (who also released one single of their own on Kommotion). The A-side of the single is a pounding cover of "I Feel Good"; this was not the James Brown classic, but a song written by the great Allen Toussaint under the pseudonym 'Naomi Neville'. By 1970, Greg's music had taken a new direction and he had begun writing his own material. That year he was one of the Australian performers chosen to represent Australia at Expo '70 in Osaka. Later that year he scored his only national hit, the title track for the telemovie “No Roses For Michael”, one of the first local screen productions to address the rising problem of heroin addiction among young Australians. “No Roses For Michael" (Festival, 1970), written by Greg and produced by Pat Aulton, gained a lot of airplay in late 1970 peaked at #21 at the end of October. It was followed by a self-titled album “Greg Anderson” (L 25053) for Festival Records here for you to download. Greg recorded three more singles for Festival, one in 1971 and two in 1972, but evidently none of these made any impression on the charts. A curious feature of all three is that the A-side of his Dec. 1971 single, "It's Over", was evidently recycled as the B-side of both subsequent singles. mp3 

Post 560 - Margot Moir - Strong & Mighty

Margot Moir was the middle sister to Jean and Lesley Moir, who in 1974 had a #8 hit with “Good Morning How Are You” as the Moir Sisters. Margot also issued a solo single, “Scarlet Skies” b/w “Tightrope” in 1989, and album, “Strong And Mighty” (NEW2009 2) for New Market Music in 1996. Two names that popped out at me were Peter Cupples on backing vocals and Broderick Smith on harp, also on backing vocals Margot’s husband Claude Cesario and daughter Rae. Margot was also in big demand as a session backing vocalist, she was handpicked by John Farnham himself for the inaugural Whispering Jack tour. Recently she recorded and sang with the bands “Raymalane” and “Celtic Spirit. “For over 10 years.  Sadly Margot died on 26 January 2015 at age 56 at Royal Melbourne Hospital due to complications from long term diabetes.     mp3

Post 559 - King Biscuit Time - A Beer And A Bex

This mini LP was sent to me from my friend Tim in Taree who found this gem in a second hand record shop. According to my books it was released in 1985 and they were a Sydney band. This is the only recording the band released, “A Beer and a Bex” (KBT-789) on Seahorse Productions. David Davies – guitar & vocals penned all four tracks, other members are Mark Elliott – sax, Larry Freidberg – drums, Rupert Jeans – guitar, Ralph Marshall – bass and Rada – keyboards. At this time that’s all there is on this great Rock/Blues band. After having a listen to this mini LP all it left me with is wanting more, a very good album indeed, like the man said “Do yourself a favour”. Thanks Tim.     mp3

Post 558 - Tony Savage Band – Bye Bye Bluebird – Faster Than Lightning

This may well be my shortest notes on the Blog by far. Being a Vanda & Young composition I thought there would be something out there on this band but nothing, they appear in only one of my books and all it gives you is the name of the band and the song title well really not even that because the books says the song was Bye Bye Love, a big typo for sure. I haven’t even come across this label before “Living Sound “. The producer is Tony Savage and engineer Peter Hood and the single recorded in 1977 with Tony writing the B side. No band members no nothing. So enjoy these rare tracks “Bye Bye Bluebird” b/w “Faster Than Lightning” (LS-102901), I’d say until I find out different this was the only record released by this band.    mp3

Post 557 - Jel Elliff - The Singles - 1971/1975

 Jel Elliff was born in Scotland and came to Australia in 1970 . He was first heard of in a Sydney band called "Chantry Barn" whose other members included Al Ward (later of Al Ward/Dan Johnson fame) and a female singer, Jel's girlfriend at that time, Del Ford aka Delores Foxtonfinn who was last heard of in a Newcastle band in the 1990's called "Me, Me, Me". Chantry Barn, as far as I know, never recorded anything official but was a great live act around the folk clubs of Sydney. When Chantry Barn broke up, Jel went solo, scoring a contract with the Australian HMV label. From 1970 – 1972 he released 4 singles:

What Are You Doing Sunday / Willoughby (May 1971, #44 Adelaide; #30 Brisbane; #23 Perth) HMV EA-9560

Going Nowhere / Pearly John (Aug 1971, #28 Adelaide) HMV EA-9625

Cotton Jenny / Suzanne (Jan 1972, #32 Brisbane) HMV EA-9776

Silvertown Girl / Morning Has Broken (Nov 1972) (Did Not Chart) HMV EA-9955

No album was ever released but surely after 4 singles one must have been in the works at some point. Jel toured around the country but mostly in Sydney & Melbourne. In November 1971 Jel represented Australia with the song “Going Nowhere” at “Yamaha's World Popular Song Festival” in Tokyo where he reached the 2nd semi-final and also won the “Composers Award”.

After his HMV contract ran out Jel returned to his birth country of England. Now, having reverted to his real name of “Jel Tyson”, he formed a band with another Australian, Paul Matthews (real name: Paul Simmons). They called themselves “Alaska” and started playing gigs in the pub and folk club scene around London. Before too long they managed to score a recording contract with the Warner Brothers label. Two singles were forthcoming:

I Don't Know Why / Out on a Limb (#19 UK Charts) (Warner Bros K16440 UK, July 26, 1974); Warner Bros 6338 (Aust, Nov 1974)

Lend a Hand / Turn Around (Warner Bros K16546 UK, May 9, 1975)

The singles (the first one was also released in Australia) had a “McGuinness Flint” type of sound and the first single managed to get some good airplay and ended up in the English charts getting as high as #19. Unfortunately the second single flopped and the album they had recorded during 1975 wasn’t released which is a great shame as it’s quite wonderful with its "America" style acoustic arrangements and wonderful harmonies. I have had the pleasure of hearing this fine  album and I can’t work out why it was never released.

Following the demise of “Alaska” (circa late 70’s) Jel found himself in America (Chicago to be precise) where he ended up fronting one of Chicago's top 80's bands - "The Reason". This band generated a large and loyal following throughout the midwest, gaining success by opening for major acts such as Duran Duran, The Psychedelic Furs, The Go-Go's and The Stray Cats before disbanding in the mid-80's. Jel then returned to Sydney, Australia, where he built a state-of-the-art recording studio - “Fat Boy Studios”. Fat Boy served as the recording studio for budding Aussie rock groups such as The Church, The Hoodoo Gurus and Midnight Oil. During this time he also formed a few bands - “Different Tongues" and "The Bleeding Hearts" were two of them and they played around the Sydney pub scene. I don't think any of these bands ever officially released anything but their many demo recordings are pretty good for the time. Eventually, in the early 90's, Jel closed the studio and returned once again to the U.S. and there he raised a family. He is still in the US and has over the years fronted a couple of bands with the most recent being an almost straight country band called “The Autrys” which are far removed and, in my opinion, nowhere as good as the acoustic and jangle pop he did so well in the 70’s and 80’s. He also released a CD circa early 2000’s called “Bleeding Hearts”.

Here to download are all of the “Jel Elliff” H.M.V recordings as well as the two Warner Bros “Alaska” singles. Like so many artists on this Blog there was little if any info on Jel Elliff, so a “BIG” thanks goes to Ian MacCarthy for helping with the history of Jel. Any corrections would be most welcome.        mp3