Air Supply is a soft rock duo formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1975, consisting of Englishman Graham Russell and Australian Russell Hitchcock (vocals). With record sales of 100 million worldwide, they had a succession of hits worldwide, including eight top-five hits on the US Billboard Hot 100, "Lost in Love" (1979), "All Out of Love", "Every Woman in the World", "The One That You Love", "Here I Am", "Sweet Dreams", "Even the Nights Are Better" and "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" (1983). In Australia, they had four top ten placements with "Love and Other Bruises" (1976), "All Out of Love", "Every Woman in the World" and "The One That You Love". Their highest charting studio album, The One That You Love (1981) reached number ten in both Australia and the US. The group, which relocated to Los Angeles in the late 1970s, has included many members, with Hitchcock and Russell at the core. The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) inducted Air Supply into their Hall of Fame on 1 December 2013, at the annual ARIA Awards.
The Steve Miller Band is an American rock band formed in San Francisco, California in 1966. The band is led by Steve Miller on guitar and lead vocals. The group had a string of mid- to late-1970s hit singles that are staples of classic rock radio, as well as several earlier psychedelic rock albums. Miller left his first band to move to San Francisco and form the Steve Miller Blues Band. Shortly after Harvey Kornspan negotiated the band's contract with Capitol Records in 1967, the band shortened its name to the Steve Miller Band. In February 1968, the band recorded its debut album, Children of the Future. It went on to produce the albums Sailor, Brave New World, Your Saving Grace, Number 5, The Joker, Fly Like an Eagle, and Book of Dreams, among others. The band's album Greatest Hits 1974–78, released in 1978, has sold over 13 million copies. In 2016, Steve Miller was inducted as a solo artist in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Spectrum are an Australian progressive rock band which formed in April 1969 and broke up in April 1973. The original line-up was Mark Kennedy on drums, Lee Neale on organ (ex-Nineteen87), Bill Putt on bass guitar, and Mike Rudd on guitar and lead vocals. In August 1970 Kennedy was replaced by Ray Arnott on drums. These members also performed under the alter ego, Indelible Murtceps, from 1971 to 1973. Spectrum had a number-one hit, "I'll Be Gone", on the Go-Set National Top 60 singles chart. After Spectrum and Indelible Murtceps disbanded, Putt and Rudd formed Ariel. In 1999 the pair formed Spectrum Plays the Blues, which later trimmed their name back to Spectrum. On 7 August 2013 Bill Putt died, after a heart attack.
Michael David Rudd is a New Zealand-born musician and composer who has been based in Australia since the mid 1960s, and who was the leader of Australian progressive rock bands Spectrum and Ariel in the 1970s.
Peter William Dawkins was a New Zealand record producer and musician, best known for his late-1960s to mid-1970s New Zealand hits and his 1970s productions for Australian-based pop artists, including Dragon, Australian Crawl and Air Supply. He won multiple production awards, including the Countdown Producer of the Year. In the late 1980s, he developed Parkinson's disease.
Morning of the Earth is a 1971 classic surf film by Alby Falzon and David Elfick.
Greenslade were an English progressive rock band, formed in the autumn of 1972 by keyboard player Dave Greenslade and bassist Tony Reeves, with keyboardist Dave Lawson and drummer Andrew McCulloch.
Tamam Shud is an Australian psychedelic, progressive and surf rock band, which formed in Newcastle in 1964. The initial line-up were known as The Four Strangers with Eric Connell on bass guitar, Dannie Davidson on drums, Gary Johns on rhythm guitar and Alex "Zac" Zytnik on lead guitar. At the end of that year Johns was replaced by Lindsay Bjerre on guitar and vocals as they trimmed their name to the Strangers. By late 1965 they had become the Sunsets. They took the name Tamam Shud in late 1967 after replacing Connell with Peter Barron on bass guitar. The group released two albums, Evolution (1969) – after which Tim Gaze replaced Zytnik on lead guitar – and Goolutionites and the Real People (1970) before disbanding in 1972. After a lengthy hiatus they reformed in 1993 to release a third album, Permanent Culture in 1994, but disbanded again in 1995. Beginning in 2008 the group worked together periodically on new material: it took eight years to complete their fourth album, Eight Years of Moonlight.
"I'll Be Gone" or "Some Day I'll Have Money" is a song by Australian progressive rock group Spectrum released as their debut single by EMI on Harvest Records in January 1971. It peaked at #1 on the national singles chart, while it reached Top 5 in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The song was written by guitarist and vocalist Mike Rudd, and produced by Howard Gable. The B-side, "Launching Place Part Two" was written to promote a music festival. Spectrum never repeated the success of "I'll Be Gone".
The La De Da's were a New Zealand rock band from 1963 to 1975. They were formed as a mod-ish group, the Mergers, in Te Atatū, by long-term members Kevin Borich on lead guitar and vocals, Phil Key on lead vocals and guitar and Trevor Wilson on bass guitar. In mid-1968 they relocated to Australia. Their popular singles in New Zealand were "How Is the Air Up There?", "On Top of the World", "Hey! Baby", "All Purpose Low" and "Rosalie", while their hits on Australia's Go-Set National Top 40 were "Gonna See My Baby Tonight" (1971), "Morning, Good Morning" (1972) and "Too Pooped to Pop" (1974). The group released one of the first Australasian rock music concept albums, The Happy Prince (1969).
Broderick Smith was an English-born Australian multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and sometime actor. He was a member of 1970s bands Sundown, Carson and the Dingoes, the 1980s Broderick Smith's Big Combo, and he recorded and performed solo and in duos. He acted on stage in the 1973 Australian version of the rock opera, Tommy, and in minor roles in the 1990s TV series Blue Heelers, Snowy River: The McGregor Saga and State Coroner. Smith was involved with the writing of some 200 songs and ran workshops on song writing, harmonica and vocals. He was the father of Ambrose Kenny-Smith, who has provided vocals, harmonica and keyboards for the rock band King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard since 2011.
Band of Light were an Australian blues rock quartet formed in October 1972 by Tony Buettel on drums, Phil Key on lead vocals and guitar, Peter Roberts on bass guitar and Norm Roue on slide guitar. Roberts was soon replaced by Ian Rilen on bass guitar. They had a top 20 hit single, "The Destiny Song" on the Go-Set National Charts. The group released two albums, Total Union – which peaked at No. 13 – and The Archer (1974) before disbanding in late 1974. Phil Key died in May 1984 of a congenital heart condition; Ian Rilen died of bladder cancer in October 2006.
Air Supply is the debut album by British/Australian soft rock band Air Supply released on CBS Records in December 1976. The lead single "Love and Other Bruises" was released in October, reaching No. 6 on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart, followed by the album peak at No. 17 on the Kent Albums Chart. While the album reached gold status in Australia, the second single "Empty Pages" did not reach the Top 40 in February 1977. The album was issued as Strangers in Love in Japan.
Mighty Kong were an Australian 'supergroup' successor to Daddy Cool, which broke up in August 1972. It was also the fifth in the line of groups that featured singer-songwriter Ross Wilson and guitarist Ross Hannaford, which began with Pink Finks in 1965. Despite its all-star line-up, drawing from three of the top groups of the time, the band was short-lived and never really achieved its considerable potential, effectively relegated to being a footnote in the story of Daddy Cool.
Harvey James born Harvey William James Harrop was an English-Australian rock guitarist. He was a member of the bands Mississippi (1973–74), Ariel (1974–75), Sherbet and the Party Boys (1982–83). James was diagnosed with lung cancer in July 2010 and died on 15 January 2011, aged 58, leaving behind his three children, Gabriel, Alexandra and Joshua.
Tim Gaze is an Australian rock and blues guitarist, songwriter, singer, and producer. He was a member of several Australian groups from the 1960s to 1990s including Tamam Shud, Kahvas Jute (1970), Ariel (1973–74) and Rose Tattoo (1985–87). He also had a solo music career and released the albums, Band on the Run, Rough Trade (1992), Blue Sierra (1996) and Blues Remedy (1998). In April 2008 he issued a retrospective compilation covering both his group and solo work, Reckless Love: the Tim Gaze Anthology.
Chain are an Australian blues band formed as The Chain in late 1968 with a line-up including guitarist and vocalist Phil Manning and lead vocalist Wendy Saddington. Saddington left in May 1969 and in September 1970 Matt Taylor joined on lead vocals and harmonica. During the 1990s they were referred to as Matt Taylor's Chain. Their single, "Black and Blue", is their only top twenty hit. It was written and recorded by the line-up of Manning, Taylor, Barry Harvey on drums and Barry Sullivan on bass guitar. The related album, Toward the Blues, followed in September and peaked in the top ten. Manfred Mann's Earth Band covered "Black and Blue" on their 1973 album Messin'.
Tully (1968–1978) was an Australian progressive rock group of the late 1960s and 1970s which had a close association with the Sydney-based film/lightshow collective Ubu and with psychedelic light show artist Roger Foley aka Ellis D Fogg.
Kahvas Jute were an Australian rock band formed in July 1970. Mainstay of the line-up was Dennis Wilson on guitar and vocals. Other founder members include Bob Daisley on bass guitar and Tim Gaze on lead guitar and vocals. Their debut album, Wide Open was released in January 1971. The group supported Bo Diddley on his second tour of Australia in October 1973. Australian rock music historian, Ian McFarlane, described their style as 'expansive and free flowing, strong on rhythm and melody and bristling with exceptional guitar work' . Kahvas Jute did a reunion gig in 1991 and in 1993, their album Wide Open was re-released on CD again. In 2005, they played a reunion show at The Basement in Sydney which was recorded and filmed. A DVD and album pack entitled Then Again: Live at the Basement was issued in 2006.
Mark Kennedy is an Australian musician who has been the drummer for several artists including Spectrum (1969–70), Doug Parkinson in Focus (1971), Leo de Castro (1971–73), Ayers Rock (1973–76), Marcia Hines (1976–83), Men at Work (1985), Renée Geyer and Jimmy Barnes (2005).
