SPK were an Australian industrial rock and noise rock group formed in 1978. They were fronted by mainstay member, Graeme Revell on keyboards and percussion. In 1980 the group travelled to the United Kingdom where they issued their debut album, Information Overload Unit. In 1983 Sinan Leong joined on lead vocals. The group disbanded in 1988. Two years later Revell and Leong relocated to the United States, where Revell works as a Hollywood film score composer. According to Australian rock music historian Ian McFarlane, SPK were "at the forefront of the local post-punk, electronic/experimental movement of the late 1970s ... [their] music progressed from discordant, industrial-strength metal noise to sophisticated and restrained dance-rock with strange attributes".
Whirlywirld were an Australian post-punk band led by Ollie Olsen in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the first of his musical collaborations with drummer John Murphy. They played in Melbourne and Sydney and were supporters of the Melbourne little band scene.
Ollie Jngbert Christian Olsen was an Australian multi-instrumentalist, composer and sound designer. From the mid-1970s until his later years, he performed, recorded and produced rock, electronic and experimental music. His post-punk groups included Whirlywirld (1978–80), Orchestra of Skin and Bone (1984–86) and No (1987–89). Olsen joined with Michael Hutchence to form a short-term band, Max Q, which issued an album in 1989. He co-founded the alternative electronic music record label Psy-Harmonics with Andrew Till in 1993. In 2014 he formed Taipan Tiger Girls.
Essendon Airport is an Australian electronic music, post-punk group formed in 1978 which explored experimental minimalist and funk music. Founding mainstays were the duo of David Chesworth on electric piano and drum machine and Robert Goodge on guitar. They were joined in late 1980 by Ian Cox on saxophone and Paul Fletcher on drums.
The Makers of the Dead Travel Fast, sometimes seen as The Dead Travel Fast, was an Australian experimental music band formed in 1980. They issued two albums, The Vessels (1981) and Zoom Is Less than Man (1983), before disbanding in 1983.
Ol' 55 are an Australian band specialising in retro, 1950s-era Rock 'n' Roll. They formed as Fanis in 1972 in Sutherland, Sydney. Drummer Geoff Plummer was working with Glenn A. Baker at the NSW Department of Media and invited Baker to hear his part-time band, including Patrick "Meatballs" Drummond, Rockpile Jones and Jimmy Manzie. In 1975, Baker took on their management, renamed them as Ol' 55 for the Tom Waits song, and recruited front man Frankie J. Holden and, later in the year, saxophonist Wilbur Wilde.
Tarney/Spencer Band were a rock band formed in London in 1975 with Trevor Spencer on drums and Alan Tarney on lead guitar, bass guitar and lead vocals. Both had been in Australian bands, including James Taylor Move, prior to relocating to the United Kingdom, where they formed the duo. The group issued three albums, Tarney and Spencer (1976), Three's a Crowd (1978) and Run for Your Life (1979). Their single, "No Time to Lose" (1979), received airplay in the United States on album-oriented rock radio stations. It charted on the Billboard Hot 100 in both 1979 and again in 1981 upon re-issue. By the end of 1979, Tarney/Spencer Band had broken up and both founders undertook careers as songwriters, session musicians and record producers.
Louis Rohan Tillett was an Australian rock music singer-songwriter, keyboardist and saxophonist. Tillett was the front man in Australian bands The Wet Taxis, Paris Green and The Aspersion Caste. He also worked as a backing musician with Catfish, Laughing Clowns, New Christs and Tex Perkins. As a solo artist, he issued seven albums, Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell (1987), A Cast of Aspersions (1990), Letters to a Dream (1992), Cry Against the Faith (1998), Learning to Die (2001), The Hanged Man (2005) and Soliloquy (2006). He often worked with Charlie Owen, releasing two albums, The Ugly Truth (1994) and Midnight Rain. The latter album won the Rolling Stone Critics Award for Best Album of 1996.
Stylus were an Australian blue-eyed soul group formed in 1975. They were the only Australian act to be released by Motown Records in the USA. Stylus toured supporting George Benson, Average White Band, Ike & Tina Turner, and Little River Band. According to rock music historian, Ian McFarlane, Stylus "scored a number of hit singles and became very popular on the Australian pub and concert circuit". The group disbanded in 1979 and subsequently had various reunions. In 1998-99 Japan's Toshiba-EMI re-issued three Stylus albums on CDs. Their reunions have resulted in a live album, Still Alive (2003); and a new studio album, Across Time (2010).
Miklós József "Jackie" Orszáczky was a Hungarian-Australian musician, arranger, vocalist and record producer. His musical styles included jazz, blues, R&B, funk and progressive rock; he mainly played bass guitar – from the early 1990s he used a modified piccolo bass – but also various other instruments. In 2006 Orszaczky was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit by the Hungarian government. Also that year Orszaczky was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and died on 3 February 2008, aged 59.
Duncan Hazlett McGuire, was an Australian musician, songwriter, recording engineer and producer. McGuire was a founding member of the jazz fusion band Ayers Rock from 1973 until he left in 1976. As a bass guitarist, he appeared in several of Doug Parkinson's groups, including the Questions (1965–1968), Doug Parkinson in Focus (1968–1969) and the Southern Star Band (1978–1981). He went into music production in the early 1980s; in October 1980, he co-produced and engineered the debut self-titled album by Australian rock band INXS. Duncan McGuire was diagnosed with lung cancer, and he died in July 1989 of an associated brain tumour, aged 46.
Levi Smith's Clefs, originally The Clefs, were an Australian R&B, pop rock group, which formed in Adelaide in 1963. Lead vocalist, Barrie "The Bear" McAskill, joined in 1965. In 1967 he took over and renamed the group after founding keyboardist, Winston "Tweed" Harris, left. They released a sole studio album, Empty Monkey, in March 1970 and underwent numerous line-up changes until they disbanded in 1972. After their time in the band various members formed the groups: Tully, Fraternity and Southern Contemporary Rock Assembly (SCRA). Winston Harris (1941–2004) died of throat cancer, aged 63. A drummer from 1970 to 1971, Russell Dunlop (1945–2009), died after a seizure, aged 63. Richard Lockwood, flautist and saxophonist in 1968, died in 2012 of bowel cancer.
Mario Daniel Millo is an Australian musician and composer from Sydney, he was a member of symphonic rock group Sebastian Hardie from 1973 to their disbandment in 1977. Their debut album, Four Moments (1975) peaked at No. 13 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart. He has had a solo career and composed film and television soundtracks and scores. In 1978, he worked with Jon English on the soundtrack for the television series, Against the Wind and its related single, "Six Ribbons". Both album and single peaked in the Top 10 on the relevant Kent Music Report charts. The series had international release, known as Mot alla vindar/Mot alle vindar/Mod vinden (1980) in Scandinavian countries where the album and single reached No. 1 in Norway and No. 4 in Sweden. Millo's compositions have won Australian film industry awards for, The Lighthorsemen (1987) and television awards for, Brides of Christ (1991) and Changi (2001). Brides of Christ won an Australian Record Industry Association (ARIA) Music Award in 1992 for 'Best Original Soundtrack Album' - Millo was nominated for the same award in 1997 for G.P. and in 2002 for Changi.
The Monitors were an Australian pop band of the early 1980s. They were primarily a studio group which involved a collaboration between Terry McCarthy on vocals and keyboards, and Mark Moffatt on guitar, bass guitar and keyboards. They used various guest vocalists. Their debut single, "Singin' in the '80s", was released in 1980 and reached No. 16 on the Kent Music Report singles chart.
Philip John Manning is an Australian blues singer-songwriter and guitarist. Manning has been a member of various groups including Chain and has had a solo career. As a member of Chain, Manning co-wrote their January 1971 single "Black and Blue" which became number one on the Melbourne charts and also Judgement, which reached number two in Sydney. The related album, Toward the Blues followed in September and peaked in the top 10 albums chart.
Andrew Peter Duffield is an Australian musician, producer and teacher. He has been a member, on keyboards, synthesisers or electronics, for various groups, including Whirlywirld, Models, and Absent Friends. Duffield has also been a backing musician for other artists both on tours and for studio sessions.
Leo de Castro was a New Zealand funk and soul singer-guitarist. From 1969 to 1995 he worked in Australia in a variety of bands before returning to Auckland. He contributed to Rocco (1976), as a member of Johnny Rocco Band; Voodoo Soul – Live at The Basement, by Leo de Castro and Friends; a live album, Long White Clouds (2007), which had been recorded in January 1988 using two separate backing bands, The Dancehall Racketeers and Roger Janes Band.
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).
Dreams of a Love is the debut studio album by Australian pop-rock band, the Ferrets. Released in October 1977, it peaked at number 20 on the Australian Kent Music Report albums chart. Its production was started by Ian "Molly" Meldrum under the pseudonym, Willie Everfinish – after almost a year the group, assisted by audio engineers Tony Cohen and Ian MacKenzie, finalised the work.
Lindsay Bourke, who also performed as Lindsay Blue, is an Australian classical and ambient musician, visual artist and poet. He issued two albums in the 1970s, Wilderness Awakening (1971) and Love All Life (1975). In the late 1990s he released, Millenium Symphony. In 1966, as a visual artist, he had his debut solo exhibition at a gallery and subsequently delivered Sydney's first sound and light mixed media show at the Cell Block Theatre.
