Current Traffic

Saturday, 22 April 2023

Post 769 - James Freud - The Singles Collection


Freud formed his first band, Sabre, at the age of 16, with high school friend and guitarist Sean Kelly and drummer Ian McFarlane. Their first performance was at his younger sister's slumber party. After hearing the Sex Pistols' song "God Save the Queen" in 1977, Freud formed The Spred with Kelly, and three other members. Formed late in 1977, Teenage Radio Stars was a glam-punk band with Freud on lead vocals and guitar and Kelly on guitar and vocals. When the opportunity came to record a single, "I Wanna Be Your Baby", later covered by Uncanny X-Men, two members were fired. Mick Prague and Mark Harvey joined the band and performed "I Wanna Be Your Baby" on Countdown.By early 1979,he formed James Freud & the Radio Stars with Murray Doherty on bass guitar, Roger Mason on keyboards, Glenn McGrath on drums and Bryan Thomas on guitar, and later Tony Harvey playing guitar and Mick Prague on bass. This line up plus various guest artists recorded the album Breaking Silence between July and November 1979, with Tony Lugton and Peter Cook contributing before the completion and release in 1980.They signed with Mushroom Records and their debut single, "Modern Girl," was released in May 1980, which peaked at No. 12 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart. They supported British singer-keyboardist, Gary Numan on his Australian tour. James Freud & the Radio Stars' debut album Breaking Silence was released in June, it was produced by Tony Cohen.In 1982, Freud joined Models as bass guitarist after the departure of Mark Ferrie, reuniting with old collaborator Kelly. Freud shared lead vocalist duties on some songs, beginning with one of his compositions, "Facing The North Pole in August" from The Pleasure of Your Company LP. Freud teamed with vocalist and guitarist Martin Plaza as Beatfish, releasing an eponymous record in 1992. In 1995, Freud canned his next proposed solo album, BigMouth, but some material was used on the Hawaiian surf-themed Postcard to Hawaii album released in 1996 by his next band, Moondog. Freud was the lead vocalist with Plaza and Phil Ceberano on guitar and backing vocals. In 1999, he performed "One Tony Lockett", an ode to the footballer Tony Lockett as James Freud & the Reserves. On 4 November 2010, Freud was found dead at his home in Hawthorn.A week earlier on the 27th of Oct.the Models were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. Thanks once again to Henry DeRooy for the fine art work. flac


2 comments:

AussieRock said...

Appreciate this great share Gary and I enjoyed reading the background info on this talented Aussie artist. Keep up the great work mate.

Warwick said...

James followed Numan overseas after the 1980 gigs to record what would be the 2nd JF Radio Stars album, but only two songs were released (back then anyway) - Automatic Crazy and While we worship oxygen as the b-side. He returned and shortly thereafter provided uncredited backing vocals to Models Local and/or General and then joined full-time when the band splintered and became a 3 piece with Barton and Sean for a short period. Stayed with Models until 1987 and then went solo.