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.
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.
The Twilights were an Australian rock band, which formed in Adelaide in 1964 by Peter Brideoake on rhythm guitar, John Bywaters on bass guitar, Clem "Paddy" McCartney and Glenn Shorrock both on lead vocals. They were joined by Terry Britten on lead guitar and Laurie Pryor on drums within a year. Heavily influenced by the British Invasion, they became a significant Australian band during the mid-1960s. They were noted for their musicianship, on-stage humour and adoption of overseas sounds and trends. Their most popular single is a cover version of "Needle in a Haystack", which topped the Go-Set singles chart in 1966. Also in that year, they won the Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds competition and were awarded a trip to London.
"Eagle Rock" is the debut single by Australian rock band Daddy Cool, released in 1971 on the Sparmac record label. It went on to become the best-selling Australian single of the year, achieving gold status in eleven weeks, and remaining at No. 1 on the national charts for a (then) record ten weeks. "Eagle Rock" also spent 17 weeks at the No. 1 spot on the Melbourne Top 40 Singles Chart. The song was re-released by Wizard Records in 1982, and reached No. 17 on the Australian singles chart.
Ross Andrew Hannaford was an Australian musician, active in numerous local bands. He was often referred to by his nickname "Hanna". Widely regarded as one of the country's finest rock guitarists, he was best known for his long collaboration with singer-songwriter Ross Wilson, which began as teenagers, with The Pink Finks and forming the seminal early '70s Australian rock band Daddy Cool. Hannaford died of cancer after being diagnosed a year earlier.
Ray Arnott is an Australian rock drummer, singer-songwriter, he was a member of Spectrum (1970–1973), which had a number one hit with "I'll Be Gone". He also played drums for The Dingoes in the 1970s and Cold Chisel in 1980s.
Oz is a 1976 Australian film written, directed and co-produced by Chris Löfvén. It stars Joy Dunstan, Graham Matters, Bruce Spence, Gary Waddell, and Robin Ramsay; and received four nominations at the 1977 AFI Awards. The musical score is by Ross Wilson. The plot is a re-imagining of the 1939 The Wizard of Oz film transferred to 1970s Australia and aimed at an older teen / young adult audience. It was released on DVD in 2004 as Oz - A Rock 'n' Roll Road Movie : Collector's Edition with additional material. The poster and album sleeve for the American release was done by rock artist Jim Evans.
Cheetah were an Australian hard rock band, active between 1976 and 1984.
The Flying Circus were an Australian pop and country rock band with founding mainstays, Doug Rowe on lead guitar and vocals and Colin Walker on drums. They had three top 30 pop hits, "Hayride", "La La" and "Run Run Run", in Australia from 1968 to 1971. These were not typical of their live work nor later recordings. They re-located to Canada from 1971 to 1974 where they achieved chart success with "Old Enough " and "Maple Lady". Doug Rowe died in July 2015.
"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.
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.
Sons of the Vegetal Mother were an Australian "esoteric special-occasion progressive band", formed in late 1969, with a floating line-up based around the nucleus of Ross Wilson and Ross Hannaford. A side-project of the band, formed in 1970 was Daddy Cool, which played 1950s doo-wop music plus some originals. Daddy Cool were to eclipse their parent band when their debut single "Eagle Rock" reached No. 1 on the Australian National charts.
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.
"Run to Paradise" is a song by Australian hard rock group The Choirboys which reached No. 3 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart in December 1987. The related Big Bad Noise album peaked at No. 5, and was the twenty-first highest-selling album of 1988 in Australia. In New Zealand, "Run to Paradise" attained No. 13 on the RIANZ Singles Chart. Released in the United States in 1989, it appeared on the Billboard Hot 100 and Mainstream Rock charts. The song was re-worked for a 2004 release credited to Nick Skitz vs. Choirboys and reached No. 16 on the ARIA Singles Chart. In January 2018, as part of Triple M's "Ozzest 100", the 'most Australian' songs of all time, "Run to Paradise" was ranked number 24.
Buster Brown was an Australian rock band, which featured vocalist Angry Anderson and drummer Phil Rudd, that was formed in Melbourne in 1973. Their sound was hard rock mixed with blues rock influences. Their first album, Something to Say was produced by Lobby Loyde and released in 1974. Rudd left to join an early version of AC/DC while Anderson continued with new line-ups and eventually disbanded the group in November 1975. Anderson joined Rose Tattoo which later included former Buster Brown bandmates, Geordie Leach on bass guitar and Dallas "Digger" Royall on drums.
Mushroom Evolution Concert is a live album and video recorded by various Australian artists at celebratory performances held over two days of the Australia Day weekend 1982. The Mushroom Evolution Concert was staged for Mushroom Records' tenth anniversary at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl and was organised by label boss, Michael Gudinski. It included a wide range of Australian performers from the label's roster. An estimated audience of 100,000 attended the concerts. In late 1972 Gudinski had been an artist manager and concert promoter when he and business partner, Ray Evans, founded Mushroom Records. The concert was recorded both for audio as a triple-LP and for video on double-VHS and released in 1982 under the same name. Subsequently, these were re-released on 2× CD (2005) and on 3× DVD respectively. Although a prominent Mushroom Records artist from the 1972–1981 era, Skyhooks did not appear at the concert – they had disbanded in 1980.
Cam-Pact was an Australian soul and psychedelic pop band which formed in April 1967. Originally they performed as The Camp Act but soon changed to Cam-Pact. Although little known outside Melbourne at the time, the various lineups of the group featured a number of young Melbourne musicians who went on to become significant figures on the Australian music scene, including Ray Arnott, Keith Glass, Chris Löfvén, Russell Smith, Robert Lloyd, and Chris Stockley. Cam-Pact issued five singles and three extended plays on Festival Records before disbanding in March 1970.
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).
Wayne Ian Duncan was an Australian rock musician. In 1970 he was a founding member of the doo-wop band, Daddy Cool, providing bass guitar and backing vocals. They were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2006. During his career he had also been a member of the Rondells, Sons of the Vegetal Mother, Gary Young's Hot Dog, Jane Clifton and the Go Go Boys, the Black Sorrows, and the Hornets. In late November 2016 Duncan had a stroke and died a week later, he was survived by his domestic partner, Anne, and by two children. According to Australian music journalist, Ian McFarlane, "Duncan was never a sedate bassist. One only has to listen to some of the latter-day DC material... to hear how inventive his playing could be."
