RUSSELL MORRIS - The Real Thing (Part I) / The Real Thing (Part II) (Diamond Records, 1969)

Unha clásica en tódalas discoteques e boites de Barallobre.

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"The Real Thing" is a song originally recorded by Australian singer Russell Morris in 1969. His version, which was produced by Ian "Molly" Meldrum and written by Johnny Young was a huge hit in Australia and has become a classic. 

Young had originally written the song for Meldrum's friend Ronnie Burns, but when Meldrum heard Young playing it backstage during a taping of the TV pop show , he determined to secure the song for Morris, reportedly going to Young's home that night with a tape recorder and refusing to leave until Young had taped a "demo" version of the song for him.

In collaboration with engineer John Sayers, Meldrum radically transformed "The Real Thing" from Young's original vision of a simple acoustic ballad into a heavily produced studio masterpiece, extending it to an unheard-of six minutes in length and overdubbing the basic track with many additional instruments, vocals and sound effects. The bed track used the services of The Groop as backing band, with vocal contributions from Danny Robinson (Wild Cherries), The Chiffons, Maureen Elkner, with Sue Brady and Judy Condon, guitarist Roger Hicks from Zoot — who devised and played the song's distinctive acoustic guitar intro - and Billy Green who played electric guitar and sitar. The children's choir singing toward the end is the Hitler Youth singing "Die Jugend Marschiert" (Youth on the March). The single is reported to have cost A$2,000 — the most expensive single ever made in Australia up to that time (the typical budget for an entire album at the time) — and features one of the earliest uses of the studio technique known as "phasing" on an Australian recording. "The Real Thing" became a national number one hit for Morris in mid-1969 and is widely considered to be one of the finest Australian pop-rock recordings of the era. Wikipedia

TIN TIN - Toast And Marmalade For Tea / Manhattan Woman (Polydor 1971)

"Toast And Marmalade For Tea"

O dúo australiano Tin Tin, Steve Kipner e Steve Groves, publicaron dous elepés de entretido pop rock nos primeiros setentas aínda que sen dúbida o mellor é o primeiro deles no que contaron coa produción de Maurice Gibb. Estas dúas pezas están extraídas dese disco.

Máis aventuras de Steve Kipner: FRIENDS - Friends (MGM, 1973)

RONNIE CHARLES - Something in The Air (1976)

O australiano Ronnie Charles gravou en 1976 un elepé de versións titulado "Prestidigitation" no que se fixo acompañar polo English Chamber Choir e a London Symphony Orchestra, dándolle unha perspectiva distinta, e curiosa por momentos, a temas de Free, Righteous Brothers, The Who, Dobie Gray ou Derek & The Dominoes, aínda que o mellor momento é esta de Thunderclap Newman, quizais porque conte coa colaboración do propio autor Speedy Keen na parte vocal. Os arranxos do disco foron obra do ex-Orange Bycicle Wil Malone e da  produción ocupouse o afamado Lou Reizner. A portada vén cun bonito troquelado de modo que ao mover o encarte interior prodúcese o efecto da maxia e aparece o coello.

FRIENDS - Friends (MGM, 1973)

"(Won't You) Reach Out"

Even though Friends is a new group and this is their very first  MGM record, the individual members are no strangers to music. Michael Lloyd, Darryl Cotton and Steve Kipner have been responsible for the sale of several million records. 

Michael Lloyd, as a record producer, has had fifteen singles and twelve albums on the music charts during the past two years, including twelve gold records and a Grammy Award. Some of the artists he's produced include The New Seekers, The Osmonds, Kenny Rogers, Coven, Anthony Newley and Lou Rawls. He sings; he plays piano, organ, guitar, bass and drums.

Darryl Cotton was the lead singer of Zoot, which was voted Australia's 

top group several years in a row. During Zoot's reigning years they had eight top ten records and monopolized the music charts in Australia. 

Steve Kipner's first record went all the way to No.1 in Australia and was followed by four more hits. Steve then moved to London and formed Tin Tin, a group produced by the Bee Gees. Tin Tin had two international hit singles which Steve co-wrote entitled "Toast And Marmalade For Tea" and "Is That The Way". Notas da contraportada

Interesante artigo sobre Michael Lloyd do noso veciño Sebastián Paredes en Ventana Circular

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE Can't Stop Myself From Loving You (CBS, 1974)

"Lean On Me"

 

Xa coñecía algunha canción do Sr. Shakespeare pero o que me convenceu definitivamente para mercar o elepé foi que tódolos temas viñan asinados por dous titáns aos que musicalmente lles teño moita estima, Harry Vanda e George Young. Como cada día teño menos ganas de escribir aquí vai un resumo da información que aparece na Wikipedia:

William Shakespeare was the stage name of Australian Glam rock singer John Cave, also known as John Cabe or Billy Shake. In the mid-sixties he was vocalist for beat music group, The Amazons.  After The Amazons, Shakespeare continued performing in Sydney clubs as Johnny Cabe. In early 1974, Shakespeare was in Albert Studios where noted Australian producers/songwriters  Vanda & Young (ex-The Easybeats) were recording "Can't Stop Myself from Loving You" for another singer who was unable to reach its high notes. Cabe's falsetto  voice was suitable so Vanda & Young signed him and groomed him into William Shakespeare as a glam rocker along the lines of Alvin Stardust or Gary Glitter.  Another Vanda & Young/Albert Productions act was hard rock group, AC/DC who were looking for a new lead singer, on the short-list were: Shakespeare, John Paul Young and eventual vocalist Bon Scott.

In November 1974, Shakespeare released his debut album, "Can't Stop Myself from Loving You", produced by Vanda & Young.  Shakespeare appeared on teen-orientated Countdown in his glam rock costume numerous times. In 1975 Cave was convicted of carnal knowledge with a fifteen-year-old girl from his Melbourne  fan club, he received two years probation. He left Albert Productions in 1977 and had no further recordings - his pop music career was over due to his conviction and changes in music styles.  By 2001, Shakespeare was homeless and lived in a ticket booth where he was found and assisted by Lindy Morrison (ex-The Go-Betweens drummer). As of 2006, he is living in government housing.
 
Un anónimo, supoño que australiano, comunícanos que o bo de John Cave morreu esta semana. Aquí tedes un breve artigo cun deses titulares ao estilo Tele 5:

Shakespearean tragedy: bright star of pop cut short by scandal and alcohol

DUFFO Bob The Spider (Discophon, 1980)

If ever there was a performer in this crazy industry who was innocence and knowing all in one, a perpetual outsider and a Peter Pan, it’s Jeff Duff...and that’s why the angel wings that have adorned a lot of his publicity photos and CD artwork make a lot of sense too. A fallen angel perhaps and perhaps not. Maybe he’s a creation of Wim Wenders circa ‘Wings of Desire’ and he doesn’t know it.

The basis of the BOB THE BIRDMAN album was inspired by a recurring dream Duff still has where he sees himself literally lifting off the ground and flying around his room and then off out into the night. He would have been great in the vastly underrated Robin Williams take on the Peter Pan story, Hook...

Infamous ‘New Musical Express’ journalist, Tony Parsons had given the single a favourable review so Duffo was summoned for an interview in the journalist’s favourite Carnaby Street pub. Duffo arrived with walking cane and dark glasses pretending to be blind. Assisted to Parsons’ table, Duffo offered the journalist a cigarette which promptly exploded in Parsons’ face, which saw him tip backwards and connect rather unceremoniously with the floor, to the great delight of the other journalists in the establishment. Needless to say, Parsons was not exactly enamoured and the incident set the scene for Duffo’s diffident relationship with the British press throughout his years there.

“Peter Green and I shared the same birthday, and being label mates, PVK Records threw a dual party for us each year which included a huge banquet. I would always take my leave when food was introduced. For some unknown reason I had stopped eating and was literally starving myself. I had no idea of what I was doing to myself! The musicians, the record company and everyone else thought nothing of it, they just accepted the fact that I was incredibly thin and a little weird. My reluctance to eat became a major problem and a major mind game!”

If the British press weren’t exactly sure what to make of Duffo, café society were enamoured with him; they were always prepared to toy with eccentricity. Duffo was soon being seen at all the right parties and at one of these parties in 1980 he met the late Andy Warhol. Never shy about his work, Duffo presented the man who had “invented” Pop Art a copy of his eponymous first album, sporting a suitably elfin/alien image of the singer on its cover. Later in 1980, Warhol provided Duffo with an epigram to grace the sleeve of The Disappearing Boy: “Sinatra, Presley, Jagger, Popeye and now ... Duffo!" (Michael Smith)

GARY SHEARSTON Dingo (Charisma-Fonogram, 1975) @

Hace ya unos meses, charlando con Estrume, coincidimos en el hastío que nos producen los accesos místicos de algunos de nuestros músicos favoritos. Tanto es así que el musical pareciera un campo especialmente abonado para las supercherías teológicas- seguro que ahora tenéis en mente un sinfín de ejemplos. Cierto es que no siempre son desdeñables los resultados artísticos de tales iluminaciones; y éstos son, al fin y al cabo, lo que nos interesa aquí y ahora.

El ejemplo de Gary Shearston muestra lo que sería deseable en estos casos. Nacido en el 39 en Inverell, un bucólico paraje de Nueva Gales del Sur, en el seno de una familia tradicional, y criado en la granja de su abuelo en la localidad próxima de Tenterfield mientras su padre combate en la II guerra mundial, su infancia se sucede en una serie de nostálgicos fotogramas: toda la familia cantando alrededor del piano que mamá suele tocar los domingos al regresar de la iglesia en una vieja carreta tirada por dos majestuosos caballos no menos abnegados que el pequeño poni que aguarda atado en la herrería del pueblo mientras Gary asiste a la escuela… hasta que todo cambia cuando una impertinente sequía les lleva a abandonar el rancho que el padre de Gary había recibido como veterano de guerra; deciden trasladarse a Sidney.

Tras abandonar la escuela a los 16 años, donde “no parecía estar aprendiendo nada útil”, aborda las más diversas artes y oficios: titiritero itinerante, corresponsal de prensa en turno de noche, actor de teatro y director de escena…hasta desembarcar con 19 años en su faceta de cantautor profesional; atesora un vasto repertorio extraído del folk tanto de tradición australiana como irlandesa, inglesa y americana. Su profunda voz de crooner sin afectación se curte rodando por hoteluchos y clubs mientras el folk comienza a hacerse popular en Australia.
Artigo completo

English notes from the backcover

THE SUMMER SUNS (10", Get Hip, 1997)

The Summer Suns fueron el proyecto del australiano Kim Williams entre 1985 y 1996 para dar salida a sus inquietudes musicales, mezclando certeramente un poquito de folk-rock con power-pop de fuerte carga melódica. Formaron parte del revival powerpopero de la segunda mitad de los ochenta en Australia pero el hecho de no salir practicamente de Perth, separada casi 4000 kilómetros del los centros de poder de la costa este, Sydney y Melbourne y también a la inestabilidad de la formación, hicieron que sus grabaciones no trascendieran lo suficiente a pesar de la indudable calidad de las mismas. Este 10" editado por Get Hip incluye el single editado para Waterfront en el 89 "All Away/Girl in a Mexican Restaurant", cuatro temas aparecidos posteriormente en su único LP "Calpurnia" (House of Wax, 1994), incluídas las fabulosas "She´s my kind of girl" y "Brighter than the sun" en versiones menos estilizadas, una rarita "Turning" y otro single más editado para House of Wax en 1994, "The Angel Angeline" y su cara B "Samantha", la que más me gusta con diferencia.

The Summer Suns