The John Butler Trio are an Australian roots/rock band led by guitarist and vocalist John Butler, an APRA and ARIA-award-winning musician. They formed in Fremantle in 1998 with Jason McGann on drums, Gavin Shoesmith on bass and John Butler on vocals. By 2009, the trio consisted of Butler with Byron Luiters on bass and Nicky Bomba on drums and percussion, the latter being replaced by Grant Gerathy in 2013. After both Luiters and Gerathy exited the trio in early 2019, bassist OJ Newcomb and drummer Terepai Richmond joined the band, accompanied by touring musician Elana Stone on keyboards, percussion and backing vocals.
John Inglis Young, OAM, known professionally as John Paul Young, is an Australian pop singer who had his 1978 worldwide hit with "Love Is in the Air". His career was boosted by regular appearances as a performer and guest host on Countdown, a 1974–1987 TV series for Australia's national broadcaster ABC. Besides "Love Is in the Air", Young had top ten chart success in Germany and the Netherlands with "Standing in the Rain" and four other top ten hits in South Africa, including No. 1 hits with "I Hate the Music" in 1976 and "Yesterday's Hero" in 1975.
The Whitlams are an Australian Indie rock band formed in late 1992. The original line-up was Tim Freedman on keyboards and lead vocals, Andy Lewis on double bass and Stevie Plunder on guitar and lead vocals. Other than mainstay Freedman, the line-up has changed numerous times. From 2001 to 2022, he was joined by Warwick Hornby on bass guitar, Jak Housden on guitar and Terepai Richmond on drums – forming the band's longest-lasting and best-known line-up. Four of their studio albums have reached the ARIA Albums Chart top 20: Eternal Nightcap, Love This City, Torch the Moon and Little Cloud. Their highest charting singles are "Blow Up the Pokies" and "Fall for You" – both reached number 21. The group's single, "No Aphrodisiac" was listed at number one on the Triple J Hottest 100, 1997 by listeners of national radio station, Triple J. In January 1996 Stevie Plunder was found dead at the base of Wentworth Falls. Andy Lewis died in February 2000.
Martin Albert Mulry professionally known as Ted Mulry, was an English-born Australian singer, songwriter, bass player and guitarist. As a solo artist, his second single, "Falling in Love Again", reached No. 11 on the Go-Set National Top 60. From September 1972 he led his own band, Ted Mulry Gang, which were also credited as TMG. They had a number-one hit single on the Kent Music Report with "Jump in My Car" and top ten appearances with a cover version of "Darktown Strutters' Ball", and with "Jamaica Rum" and "My Little Girl" (May). Their second album, Struttin', also reached the top ten. The group disbanded in 1986, although periodically reformed. Mulry announced in February 2001 that he had been diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour. In the next month numerous music artists responded with Gimme Ted, a series of benefit concerts, which were recorded for a 2×DVD video tribute album, Gimme Ted – The Ted Mulry Benefit Concerts. Mulry died of his brain tumour in September 2001.
Mental As Anything are an Australian new wave and pop rock band that formed in Sydney in 1976. Its most popular line-up was Martin Plaza on vocals and guitar; Reg Mombassa on lead guitar and vocals; his brother Peter "Yoga Dog" O'Doherty on bass guitar and vocals; Wayne de Lisle on drums; and Andrew "Greedy" Smith on vocals, keyboards and harmonica. Their original hit songs were generated by Mombassa, O'Doherty, Plaza and Smith, either individually or collectively; they also hit the Australian charts with covers of songs by Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, and Chuck Berry.
Rai Thistlethwayte is an Australian rock, pop and jazz musician and songwriter. Thistlethwayte is an accomplished pianist, guitarist, and vocalist. He is the lead singer and primary songwriter in the Australian pop rock band Thirsty Merc. From 2004, Thirsty Merc released a string of hits in the Australian charts including "In the Summertime", "Someday, Someday", "20 Good Reasons", "Emancipate Myself", "My Completeness", "When the Weather Is Fine" and "Mousetrap Heart". He is currently based in Los Angeles. As a solo artist, Thistlethwayte performs under the name 'Sun Rai'.
Russell Norman Morris is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist who had five Australian Top 10 singles during the late 1960s and early 1970s. On 1 July 2008, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) recognised Morris' status when he was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
Ross Andrew Wilson is an Australian singer-songwriter, musician and producer. He is the co-founder and frontman of the long-standing rock groups Daddy Cool and Mondo Rock, as well as a number of other former bands, in addition to performing solo. He has produced records for bands such as Skyhooks and Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons, as well as for those of his own bands. He appeared as a judge on celebrity singing TV series It Takes Two from 2005. Wilson was individually inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame in 1989 and again as a member of Daddy Cool in 2006. Ross currently resides in the Melbourne suburb of Port Melbourne.
George Redburn Young was an Australian musician, songwriter and record producer. He was a founding member of the bands The Easybeats and Flash and the Pan, and was one-half of the songwriting and production duo Vanda & Young with his long-time musical collaborator Harry Vanda, with whom he co-wrote the international hits "Friday on My Mind" and "Love Is in the Air", the latter recorded by John Paul Young.
Eternal Nightcap is the third studio album by Australian rock band The Whitlams, first released by Black Yak Phantom in September 1997. The album peaked at number 14 on the ARIA charts and was certified gold, and then triple platinum.
"No Aphrodisiac" is a song by Australian band the Whitlams, released in December 1997 as the second single from their third album, Eternal Nightcap. The song peaked at No. 59 on the Australian Singles Chart. The lead track was written by the band's founding mainstay, Tim Freedman, together with Pinky Beecroft and Chit Chat Von Loopin Stab : both from the band, Machine Gun Fellatio. It was produced by Freedman with Rob Taylor. "No Aphrodisiac" won Song of the Year at the ARIA Music Awards of 1998. It was listed at No. 1 on the Triple J Hottest 100 for 1997. Former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, for whom the band was named, announced news of their win on air. One of its B-sides is "Gough". Machine Gun Fellatio provided a re-mix of "No Aphrodisiac" for the remixes version of the single.
Alison MacCallum, also written Alison McCallum, is an Australian rock singer from the late 1960s and 1970s. Her two studio albums are Fresh Water and Excuse Me. In March 1972 she issued her most successful charting single, "Superman", which peaked at No. 12 on Go-Set's National Top 40. In August that year MacCallum provided lead vocals for the Labor Party's campaign theme song, "It's Time", for the 1972 election. By the late 1970s, she had concentrated on session work and then "disappeared from public view". According to Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, MacCallum was "a soul/blues stylist of considerable flair and passion". In September 2014 Sony released a 2× CD compilation album, The Essential Alison MacCallum.
William Barton is an Aboriginal Australian didgeridoo player. He was born in Mount Isa, Queensland on 4 June 1981 and learned to play at the age of 11 from Uncle Arthur Peterson an elder of the Wannyi, Lardil and Kalkadungu tribes of Western Queensland. He is widely recognised as one of Australia's finest traditional didgeridoo players and a leading didgeridoo (yidaki) player in the classical world.
"Power and the Passion" is the second single from Midnight Oil's 1982 album 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. The song is one of the band's most famous, and it was performed on every Midnight Oil tour since the issue of 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 as well as at the WaveAid concert.
"Summer Love" is a song by Australian pop group, Sherbet and was released in March 1975. It became their first number-one hit on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart. The song was promoted on the newly aired ABC TV pop series, Countdown, which gave it wide exposure. From early 1975 the group made more appearances on the show than any other band in the programme's history. In October, at the King of Pop Awards, "Summer Love" won the Most Popular Australian Single, the band won Most Popular Australian Group and their lead singer, Daryl Braithwaite, won the King of Pop award.
Vanda & Young were an Australian songwriting and producing duo composed of Harry Vanda and George Young. They performed as members of 1960s Australian rock group the Easybeats where Vanda was their lead guitarist and backing singer and Young was their rhythm guitarist and backing singer. Vanda & Young co-wrote most of the Easybeats' later hits including their international hit "Friday on My Mind" and they were the record producers for the group from 1967. Young was the older brother of Malcolm and Angus Young of the hard rock band AC/DC and also the record producer behind several of the band's biggest albums.
Truth, Beauty and a Picture of You is the first greatest hits album by Australian rock band The Whitlams. It was released in August 2008 and peaked at number 3 on the ARIA charts. Upon release, Tim Freedman said, "I decided to leave a couple of singles off, because I wanted to tell a story of The Whitlams in song, and I needed to put a couple of early tunes in there, and a couple of songs which were about the dramas that the band lived through, and I tried to make a nice mix between the popular songs and those that are an emotional journey."
The 12th Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards was held on 20 October 1998 at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre. Presenters, including Democrats deputy leader Natasha Stott Despoja and former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, distributed 29 awards with the big winner Natalie Imbruglia receiving six trophies.
Autumn was an Australian pop music band formed in 1969 with Glenn Beatson on drums, Rick Graham on bass guitar, Greg Jacques on organ, Steve McMurray on guitar and Tony Romeril on lead vocals. Their cover version of "Yellow River", released in August 1970, reached No. 1 on the Go-Set National Top 60 along with other versions of the same song recorded by United Kingdom band Christie, fellow Australian band Jigsaw, and English singer Leapy Lee. Autumn had top 40 hits with "Looking Through the Eyes of a Beautiful Girl", "She Works in a Woman's Way" (February) and "Falling" (May). They released two albums, Song to Raymondo and Comes Autumn, both in 1971 before disbanding in the UK early in the following year.
Gimme Ted, or more fully Gimme Ted – The Ted Mulry Benefit Concerts, is an Australian 2×DVD video and tribute album by Various Artists, which was released on 19 May 2003. It was recorded at two eponymous benefit concerts on 9 and 10 March 2001, with "some of Australia's finest musicians from the past and present" as well as "One-off reunions of classic bands." The artists were honouring rock musician Ted Mulry, who had been diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour in the previous year. The shows were compèred by Glenn A. Baker, Donnie Sutherland and Ray Burgess.
