Anthony O'Grady | |
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Born | Anthony Austin O'Grady 28 January 1947 |
Died | 19 December 2018 71) Sydney, New South Wales, Australia | (aged
Resting place | Macquarie Park Cemetery and Crematorium, North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia |
Occupation |
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Education | University of Sydney |
Genre | Music |
Notable works | Rock Australia Magazine (RAM) |
Children | 2 |
Anthony Austin O'Grady (28 January 1947 –19 December 2018) was an Australian writer, music journalist, editor and producer. He created and edited Rock Australia Magazine from 1975 to 1981. He wrote articles for The Bulletin . In 1994 O'Grady co-created the Music Network. For 15 years he was an oral history interviewer for National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA). O'Grady authored the 2001 biography Cold Chisel: The Pure Stuff detailing the Australian band Cold Chisel.
Anthony Austin O'Grady was born on 28 January 1947 and was raised in Sydney, New South Wales with two siblings. [1] [2] He attended Saint Ignatius' College, Riverview and graduated with honours in English Literature; he entered University of Sydney studying Arts Law. [2] [3] He wrote for the student paper, Honi Soit . [2] After leaving university he began a career as an advertising copywriter for Lintas Advertising Agency, which he recalled as "then a hotbed of creativity". [2] [3]
O'Grady entered music journalism as a contributor to Go-Set and then became editor of the short-lived magazine Ear for Music in 1973. [4] Inspired by seeing Skyhooks perform at the 1975 Sunbury Pop Festival, he established Rock Australia Magazine (RAM), with English-born publisher Phillip Mason in March 1975. [2] [5] In RAM's early years, besides editing, O'Grady wrote much of its content – under various pseudonyms – covering both local and international artists. [5] At the Australian Rock Music Awards in 1977, he was nominated for Best Rock Journalist. [6] Through his articles, he championed the early careers of Skyhooks, Jeff St John, Wendy Saddington, Chain, the Angels, Cold Chisel, Midnight Oil and Radio Birdman. [2] [7] As editor he fostered the careers of fellow writers Glenn A. Baker, Jen Jewel Brown, Stuart Coupe, Andrew McMillan and Clinton Walker. [5] [8]
O'Grady left RAM at the end of 1981. He said he was dissatisfied with how the magazine's profits were being invested in "starting up new, invariably unsuccessful publications" rather than improving RAM's "investigative journalism and in-depth profiling". [5] He then wrote freelance articles for The Bulletin and other periodicals. [2] [5] In 1984 he curated the music soundtrack for the feature film Street Hero . [8] He created an inhouse monthly magazine, Music, for retailer Brashs, which included articles on contemporary rock, world music, folk, ambient and rap. [9] O'Grady co-created The Music Network in 1994 with talent manager John Woodruff and ex-Icehouse bass guitarist Keith Welsh. [2] [7] [9] According to O'Grady, it was "a tip sheet ... to highlight records that are starting to work at radio and/or retail" before they appeared on the Australian Music Report or ARIA Charts. [9] He remained as its editor for several years before relocating to regional New South Wales. [7]
O'Grady produced radio specials on various Australian artists. He returned to Sydney and resumed music writing in 1998, after Cold Chisel re-formed. [5] He wrote that group's biography Cold Chisel: The Pure Stuff (2001). [7] In 2005 O'Grady wrote and produced a five-part radio documentary on the 1970s music scene. [10] He provided in-depth interviews, with Australian rock musicians, for the oral history at the National Film and Sound Archive (NFSA) and continued writing for newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald into the 2010s. [7] He wrote numerous music-related obituaries, including Andrew McMillan (February 2012), [11] Clive Shakespeare (February 2012), [12] Vince Lovegrove (March 2012), [13] Jimmy Little (April 2012), [14] Mick Hadley (November 2012), [15] Chris Bailey (April 2013), [16] Chrissy Amphlett (April 2013), [17] and Dave Swarbrick (June 2016). [18]
Anthony O'Grady married Linda Campbell, a social worker, in 1987 and the couple had two children before divorcing in the 1990s. [3] [7] In the 2000s his health deteriorated and he was placed on kidney dialysis until he had a kidney transplant in 2008. [3] He subsequently developed melanomas. Anthony O'Grady died in 2018, aged 71. [3] [7]
Cold Chisel are an Australian pub rock band, which formed in Adelaide in 1973 by mainstay members Ian Moss on guitar and vocals, Steve Prestwich on drums and Don Walker on piano and keyboards. They were soon joined by Jimmy Barnes on lead vocals and, in 1975, Phil Small became their bass guitarist. The group disbanded in late 1983 but subsequently reformed several times. Musicologist Ian McFarlane wrote that they became "one of Australia's best-loved groups" as well as "one of the best live bands", fusing "a combination of rockabilly, hard rock and rough-house soul'n'blues that was defiantly Australian in outlook."
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Cold Chisel is the self-titled debut album of Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel. Released in April 1978, it spent 23 weeks in the Australian charts, peaking at number 38.
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East is the third studio album by Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel, released in June 1980. The album peaked at No. 2 and spent 63 weeks on the national chart. It was the biggest-selling Australian album release of the year. It was the only Cold Chisel album to chart in America, reaching 171 on the Billboard 200. It also reached number 32 on the New Zealand charts.
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"Saturday Night" is a 1984 single from Australian rock band Cold Chisel, the second released from the album Twentieth Century and the first to be issued after the band's official break-up. The vocals are shared between Ian Moss and Jimmy Barnes. It just missed out on becoming the band's third Top 10 single, stalling at number 11 on the Australian chart for two weeks, but it remains one of Cold Chisel's highest charting songs.
"My Baby" is a 1980 single from Australian rock band Cold Chisel, the third released from the album East and the first of the band's singles not to be written by pianist Don Walker. This was the only track credited solely to bass player Phil Small on any of the band's albums apart from "Notion For You" on the 1994 rarities album Teenage Love.
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Donald Hugh Walker is an Australian musician and songwriter who wrote many of the hits for Australian pub rock band Cold Chisel. Walker is considered to be one of Australia's best songwriters. In 2012 he was inducted into the Australian Songwriter's Hall of Fame.
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The 100 Best Australian Albums is a compendium of rock and pop albums of the past 50 years as compiled by music journalists Toby Creswell, Craig Mathieson and John O'Donnell. The book was published on 25 October 2010 by Hardie Grant Books. Sony Music has released a five CD compilation to support the book.
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Rock Australia Magazine or RAM was a fortnightly national Australian music newspaper, which was published from 1975 to 1989. It was designed for people with a serious interest in rock and pop, and was considered the journal of record for the Australian music scene, along the way producing some of the country’s best writers on music and popular culture.
The Perfect Crime is the eighth studio album by Australian rock band Cold Chisel. It was released on 2 October 2015. It was the first album not to feature a contribution from drummer Steve Prestwich, who died of a brain tumour in January 2011. The album peaked at number 2 on the Australian charts and number 7 in New Zealand.
Benjamin John Small is an Australian former politician. He was selected to serve as a senator for Western Australia, representing the Liberal Party, to fill a casual vacancy following Mathias Cormann's resignation. His first term lasted from November 2020 until his April 2022 resignation, and he resumed his term in May after being nominated to replace himself, the only occasion on which this has occurred. Small was unsuccessful in his re-election bid in the 2022 federal election and his term as senator concluded on 30 June 2022.
Ear for Music was a short-lived Australian music magazine that operated for three issues in 1973. It was published by Modern Magazines and owned by Kim Ryrie. Anthony O'Grady was the magazine's editor.