Australian indie rock is part of the overall flow of Australian rock history but has a distinct history somewhat separate from mainstream rock in Australia, largely from the end of the punk rock era onwards.
Died Pretty, sometimes The Died Pretty, were an Australian alternative rock band founded by mainstays Ron Peno and Brett Myers in Sydney in 1983. Their music started from a base of early electric Bob Dylan with psychedelic influences, including The Velvet Underground and Television. They were managed by John Needham, who is the owner of Citadel Records, their main label.
Magic Dirt is an Australian rock band, which formed in 1991 in Geelong, Victoria, with Daniel Herring on guitar, Adam Robertson on drums, Adalita Srsen on vocals and guitar, and Dean Turner on bass guitar. Initially forming an alternative underground band called Deer Bubbles which split and formed into the much heavier, rock based group called The Jim Jims, they were renamed as Magic Dirt. Their top 40 releases on the ARIA Albums Chart are Friends in Danger (1996), What Are Rock Stars Doing Today (2000), Tough Love (2003) and Snow White (2005). They have received nine ARIA Music Award nominations including four at the ARIA Music Awards of 1995 for Life Was Better – their second extended play. Turner died in August 2009 of dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans. From 2010 to November 2018, the band were on hiatus.
Rock music in Australia, also known as Oz rock, Australian rock and Aussie rock, has a rich history, rooted in an appreciation of various rock genres originating in the United States and Britain, and to a lesser extent, in continental Europe and Africa. Australian rock has also contributed to the development of some of these genres, as well as having its own unique Australiana sound with pub rock and its indigenous music.
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.
John Clifford Farrar is an Australian music producer, songwriter, arranger, singer, and guitarist. As a musician, Farrar is a former member of several rock and roll groups including The Mustangs (1963–64), The Strangers (1964–70), Marvin, Welch & Farrar (1970–73), and The Shadows (1973–76). In 1980, he released a solo eponymous album. As a songwriter and producer, he worked with Olivia Newton-John from 1971 to 1989. He wrote her U.S. number-one hit singles: "Have You Never Been Mellow" (1975), "You're the One That I Want", "Hopelessly Devoted to You" (1978), and "Magic" (1980). He also produced the majority of her recorded material during that time, including her number-one albums, If You Love Me, Let Me Know (1974), Have You Never Been Mellow (1975), and Olivia's Greatest Hits Vol. 2 (1982). He was a co-producer of the soundtrack for the film Grease (1978).
Dave Graney is an Australian rock musician, singer-songwriter and author. Since 1978, Graney has collaborated with drummer-multi instrumentalist Clare Moore. The pair have fronted or been involved with numerous bands including The Moodists, Dave Graney and The White Buffaloes, Dave Graney and The Coral Snakes, The Dave Graney Show, Dave Graney and Clare Moore featuring The Lurid Yellow Mist or Dave Graney and The Lurid Yellow Mist and Dave Graney and The mistLY. Everything Was Funny was credited to Dave Graney and Clare Moore.
The Go!! Show was an Australian popular music television series which was produced before a live audience and aired and on Network Ten ATV-0, Melbourne, from August 1964 to August 1967, running one hour three nights a night.
Ronald Leslie BurnsAM is an Australian retired rock singer-songwriter and musician.
The Strangers were an Australian rock band, which existed from 1961 to 1975. The band started out playing instrumental songs in a style similar to the Shadows, with influences from Cliff Richard. The original line-up was Laurie Arthur, Peter Robinson, Graeme "Garth" Thompson (drums) and Fred Wieland. Robinson had previously played with fellow local band the Thunderbirds and went on to replace Athol Guy in the Seekers from the late 1970s.
The Deakins were an Australian rock group which formed in 1963. This was the era of the local version of beat music; which included 1960s garage rock, proto-punk and pop. Their initial line-up included Jeff W Donoghue on bass guitar, Ian Kinkead on drums, and Bob Millar and Gary Schober on guitars. The later Deakins 'trio' released two singles in 1966, "Tonight You're Gonna Fall in Love with Me" and "Take Me for a Little While", via GO!!. The band regularly appeared on the related TV pop music weekly series, The Go!! Show, and on daily weekday show, Kommotion, both broadcast by ATV-0. The Deakins disbanded in 1973.
Linda George is an Australian pop, jazz fusion and soul singer from the 1970s. In 1973, George performed the role of Acid Queen for the Australian stage performance of The Who's rock opera, Tommy. She won the TV Week King of Pop award for "Best New Female Artist". Her cover version of "Neither One of Us", peaked at No. 12 on the Australian Singles Chart and her 1974 single "Mama's Little Girl" reached the Top Ten. From 1972 to 1998, George also worked as a session singer and later became a music teacher. Her last CD recorded in the late 1990s would be available in 2012.
Bobby & Laurie were an Australian beat pop duo of the 1960s, with Laurie Allen on vocals, guitar and keyboards and Bobby Bright on vocals and guitar. Their regular backing band were the Rondells. The duo's most popular singles were, "I Belong with You" (1964) and "Hitch Hiker" (1966). Their debut album, Bobby and Laurie (1965), was the first for independent label, Go!! Records. The duo disbanded in 1967 to pursue solo careers and briefly reformed from 1969 to 1971. Laurie Allen died in 2002, aged 60, after a heart attack.
Daddy Cool is an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1970 with the original line-up of Wayne Duncan, Ross Hannaford, Ross Wilson and Gary Young. Their debut single "Eagle Rock" was released in May 1971 and stayed at number 1 on the Australian singles chart for ten weeks. Their debut, July 1971's LP Daddy Who? Daddy Cool, also reached number 1 and became the first Australian album to sell more than 100,000 copies. The group's name came from the 1957 song "Daddy Cool" by US rock group The Rays. Daddy Cool included their version of this song on Daddy Who? Daddy Cool.
Witch Hats are a rock band based in Melbourne, Australia.
Natalie Alexis Duncan is a British soul musician from Nottingham, England, currently signed to British music producer and DJ Goldie’s record imprint Fallen Tree 1Hundred. Duncan released her eponymous debut EP Natalie Alexis Duncan under the Farmyard Records label in 2009, shortly after which she was selected as one of a group of young musicians chosen to take part in the BBC Two series Goldie's Band: By Royal Appointment, which was broadcast in March and April 2011. On the back of her appearance on the programme, Duncan was offered a recording contract with Verve Records and began recording her debut album in early 2011, produced by Joe Henry, with the majority of recording sessions taking place at Real World Studios. The lead single from the album "Sky Is Falling" was released in March 2012, followed by the album Devil In Me on 16 July 2012. After the release of her Black & White EP in 2015, her second studio album Free was released on 31 July 2020 under Goldie’s Fallen Tree 1Hundred label.
Kommotion was a popular Australian "Top 40" pop music TV show that premiered in December 1964. The program was hosted by popular disc jockey Ken Sparkes, who was one of the main presenters at Melbourne pop radio station 3UZ. In 1965, after the end of his previous series, Teen Scene, pop singer Johnny Chester became the associate producer of the program.
Hunters & Collectors is the self-titled debut studio album by Australian rock band, Hunters & Collectors, which was released on 26 July 1982. It was produced by the band with Tony Cohen as audio engineer. The album peaked at No. 21 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart and No. 14 on the New Zealand Albums Chart. The album's first single, "Talking to a Stranger", was released ahead of the album on 12 July, and was accompanied by a music video directed by film maker Richard Lowenstein, but it did not reach the Top 50 on the related singles chart.
Independent record labels proliferated in Australia during the 1960s. The local branch of the British-owned EMI company had dominated the Australian record market since the 1920s, but in this period it faced increasing challenges from its rivals, including the Australian arm of the American CBS Records and particularly from the Sydney-based Festival Records, a division of Rupert Murdoch's News Limited.
Fable Records was an Australian independent record company which operated from 1970 to 1984. It was one of the most successful and productive Australian 'indie' labels of the period, issuing over 300 singles and dozens of EPs and LPs. Fable made a significant initial impact in Australia in 1970-71, scoring a string of hits by new Australian artists, and throughout its history the company discovered and promoted local talent. Fable enjoyed further success between 1972 and 1975 through its subsidiary label Bootleg Records, which racked up a string of hit albums and singles by artists including Brian Cadd, the Bootleg Family Band and Kerrie Biddell.
