“Supernaut” were formed as Moby Dick, a pub rock group, by
British-born brothers Chris Burnham on guitar and Joe Burnham on drums. Fellow
British immigrant, Gary Twinn, joined on lead vocals in late 1974. Soon after
Randall Murphy took up bass guitar and they changed their name to Supernaut.
The name references, "Supernaut" (September 1972), a track by British
heavy metal group, Black Sabbath. The
group relocated to Melbourne and were signed to Polydor Records in 1976 upon
recommendation from Molly Meldrum, In May 1976 they released their debut
single, "I Like It Both Ways", which was produced by Meldrum. The
song was initially shunned by some commercial radio stations in Sydney because
of its controversial lyrics, however promotion on Meldrum's TV pop music show,
Countdown, encouraged radio stations to play the track. "I Like It Both
Ways" peaked at No. 16. Randall Murphy left the group in June 1976, "citing
mutual disagreement", he was temporarily replaced by Little Russ Silver
and more permanently by Philip Foxman in late August. Murphy returned to
Perth. A follow up single, "Too Hot
to Touch", was released in September 1976, reaching No. 14 on the charts.
Their self-titled debut LP was released in mid-November 1976 and peaked at No.
13, achieving double gold certification. The group were presented with the TV
Week King of Pop Award for Best Australian TV Performer (on Countdown) and for
Most Popular New Group of 1976. By November they had supported gigs by
"Lou Reed, Suzie Quatro and Sweet. In 1977 the band released two original
singles, "Young and Innocent” and "The Kids Are out Tonight” and a
cover version of the Rolling Stones "Let's Spend the Night Together"
. They worked extensively on recording sessions for a proposed second album;
working titles included Exile and Test Pressing. "The Kids Are out
Tonight" came from those sessions. After more than a year they realised
their music style was out of touch and the project was abandoned. In April 1978
they released another single, "Unemployed", before leaving Polydor. The
group relocated to Sydney and were signed to Robie Porter's Wizard Records in
mid-1978; they returned to their original pub rock influences, "[they]
adopted a quasi-punk/new-wave direction". With the addition of Noel
Kennedy on keyboard, they released, "Spies” in December 1978. They
shortened their name to the Nauts in April 1979 and released, "Black
Market World". They followed with a new album produced by Robie Porter,
under that name in December 1979. They disbanded by March 1980. Two years later
Gary Twinn was back in the United Kingdom where he formed Twenty Flight Rockers
with former Generation X drummer Mark Laff, and later played with rock supergroup,
the International Swingers. Chris Burnham played in The Saints with Chris Bailey
from 1982 and 1989. Philip Foxman formed Illustrated Man in 1984 with Japan
member Rob Dean, Gary Numan keyboardist Roger Mason, and Hugo Burnham from Gang
of Four. They recorded one self-titled album and toured the UK and US with
their single, "Head Over Heels", charting the top 20 on MTV's dance
charts. Foxman later had a solo career releasing two albums, West 4th and
Charles and Up Antenna, as well as being a musical composer for Off Broadway
show, Atomic, which ran for a limited season at the Acorn Theater, New York
City. Supernaut reformed for the Countdown Spectacular 2 Tour of Australia from
late-August to early-September 2007. In 2016 Supernaut commemorated the 40th
anniversary of "I Like It Both Ways" with a three-day tour from 16 to
18 June, followed by another show on 25 June at Charles Hotel in Perth. Here to
download are all their singles from 1976 / 1979. A big thanks to Peter for sending me his singles to fix up for this post.Flac
