Alston Koch, is a Sri Lanka born Australian singer-songwriter.
He migrated to Sydney, Australia where he was most successful in the
entertainment and professional music industry while recording for RCA/Laser
Records and the Australian TV Network Channel 9's "Living Sound"
recording label. In Australia, he formed his band Dark Tan and recorded three
international hits on the RCA label. He has performed internationally with Dark
Tan, S-witch, and as a solo artist. One notable appearance was during 'The
Stars & Stripes Concert' in 1976, performing under the Sydney harbour
bridge on a floating pontoon for Radio 2SM. Rock Brains Of The Universe and
music historian Glenn A Baker has said that 'Alston & Dark Tan' were the
originators of Disco Music in Australia. His first self-written major hit,
"Disco Lady", earned him his first gold record. The song also won him
and Dark Tan the 'Best New Talent' at the 1979 International Disc Jockey
Association Awards (Before the ARIA'S ) and that same year Dark Tan won
Australia's Observer newspaper's 'Best Disco Band' award. George Levendis of
Motown Records in New York said he had the best soul voice in Australasia and
Robert Racic the legendary Dance Music producer called him the Luther Vandross
of Australia. Here to download is the “After Dark…..Tan” (VXL1-6514). The album
was produced by Alston Koch except for the track Disco lady that was produced
by Mario Millo. Engineers were Alex Duyser and Peter Hood. The album was
recorded between January 1978 and March 1980.
On a personal note I must say I wasn’t a big fan of Disco at the time
and I didn’t buy this LP until about 30 years later when I pick it up somewhere
in a second-hand record store in Sydney.
A week ago I received an email from a guy in Canada named Andrew, he
said he liked Australian music and wondered if I could help him track down a
band called Dark Tan. I thought now there’s a name I haven’t heard of in a
while. So after digging in some boxes I found the LP and I must be honest this
is the first time I have played it and I must say Alston Koch has a brilliant
voice, it really blew me away. I’m sorry now I never played it much sooner and
I’ll be looking for other recordings by this man I can assure you. MP3
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