Kerry Samuel Jacobson (born 19 April 1954) is a New Zealand musician, educator, ARIA hall of fame inductee and former drummer of rock band Dragon. Jacobson was a member from 1976 to 1983, played at their 30-year reunion and at the 2008 ARIA Hall of Fame in Melbourne, Australia. He continues to write and play with Ian Moss and is the drummer for Mondo Rock and his own band The Filthy Animals.
Kerry Jacobson | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Kerry Samuel Jacobson |
| Born | 19 April 1954 Wellington, New Zealand |
| Genres | Rock, pop, progressive rock |
| Occupation(s) | Drummer, songwriter, educator |
| Instrument(s) | Drums, percussion |
| Years active | 1970s-present |
| Labels | Vertigo, CBS, Portrait, Polydor, RCA, J & B, Liberation Music, Mushroom Publishing, Sony Music Australia |
Kerry Jacobson had been a member of various New Zealand groups including Mammal, Tapestry and Ebony [1] before moving to Australia in 1976 where he joined rock music group, Dragon, on drums. [1] [2] He replaced Neil Storey who had died from an accidental drug overdose. He went on to play with the band until their official break-up in 1979. In 1982 Dragon reformed with its original and most notable line-up, including Jacobson, as they needed to pay off some outstanding debts which had accumulated after their breakup in 1979. After the debt was paid off, the band continued to perform as they enjoyed the limelight again. Feeling exhausted, Jacobson left the band in 1983, after recording the single Rain, to become a session musician. He was then replaced by Terry Chambers from UK band XTC and later Doane Perry from Jethro Tull. [3] [4]
After leaving Dragon in 1983, Jacobson recorded several albums including "Dark Spaces" by Richard Clapton, "Big City Talk" by Marc Hunter and "Shy Boys Shy Girls" by the Kevin Borich Express. He also recorded several tracks on Ian Moss' 2018 album, self-titled Ian Moss, and co-wrote the track "If Another Day (Love Rewards Its Own)".
In 1990 Jacobson moved to Brisbane where he studied Jazz Drums and Piano at the Conservatorium of Music, earning him a diploma in music.
Jacobson joined Mondo Rock for a brief period of time before leaving the band in 1981. He later rejoined in 2003 to perform in the Hear and Now Tour which toured Australia nationally. He also performed with Mondo Rock at the 2006 Countdown Spectacular and still performs with the band at various outdoor festivals around Australia.
Since the 1990s, Jacobson has toured with many different acts, including a European tour with Cold Chisel guitarist Ian Moss. He continues to write and perform with Ian Moss to this day.
Jacobson is endorsed by Dixon drums, Bosphorus cymbals, Promark drumsticks and Evans drum heads (D'Addario). Jacobson currently teaches percussion at a private school in Brisbane, Australia. He still performs live with Ian Moss, Mondo Rock and many others. He also performs with his own band The Filthy Animals, a classic rock cover band formed during the 2021 COVID-19 lockdown. [6] The band usually plays cover songs at corporate gigs; the band often features, among many others, Kerry Jacobson (Dragon, Mondo Rock, Ian Moss), Brett Williams (The Choirboys), and Glen Muirhead (Eurogliders, James Reyne Band). [7]
| Year | Title | Label | Catalogue No. | Peak chart position | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUS [8] [9] | NZ [10] | ||||
| 1977 | Sunshine | CBS Portrait | SBP234946 JR35068 | 24 | — |
| 1977 | Running Free | Portrait CBS | PR33005 1989 CD: 465720-2 | 6 | 16 |
| 1978 | O Zambezi | Portrait | PR33010 | 3 | 17 |
| 1979 | Power Play | CBS | SBP237352 | 64 | — |
| 1984 | Body and the Beat ("Rain" only) | Polydor | 817874-1 | 5 | — |
| 1989 | Bondi Road ("Gold in the River" only) | RCA | SFCD0170 | 18 | — |
| Year | Title | Album | Label | Peak chart position | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AUS [8] [11] | NZ [12] | ||||
| 1977 | "Get that Jive" | Sunshine | CBS, Portrait | 13 | — |
| 1977 | "Sunshine" | Sunshine | CBS, Portrait | 36 | — |
| 1977 | "April Sun in Cuba" | Running Free | CBS, Portrait | 2 | 9 |
| 1977 | "Konkaroo" | Running Free | CBS, Portrait | 40 | — |
| 1978 | "Are You Old Enough?" | O Zambezi | Portrait | 1 | 5 |
| 1978 | "Still in Love with You" | O Zambezi | Portrait | 27 | 35 |
| 1979 | "Love's not Enough" | Single only release | CBS | 37 | — |
| 1982 | "Ramona" | Single only release | Polydor | 79 | — |
| 1983 | "Rain" | Body and the Beat | Polydor | 2 | — |
Kerry Jacobson was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2008 for his work with Dragon.
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Dragon | ARIA Hall of Fame | Inducted |
Kerry Jacobson was inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame in 2011 for his work with Dragon.
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Dragon | New Zealand Music Hall of Fame | Inducted |
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."
Yothu Yindi are an Australian musical group with Aboriginal and balanda (non-Aboriginal) members, formed in 1986 as a merger of two bands formed in 1985 – a white rock group called the Swamp Jockeys and an unnamed Aboriginal folk group. The Aboriginal members came from Yolngu homelands near Yirrkala on the Gove Peninsula in Northern Territory's Arnhem Land. Founding members included Stuart Kellaway on bass guitar, Cal Williams on lead guitar, Andrew Belletty (drums), Witiyana Marika on manikay, bilma and dance, Milkayngu Mununggurr on yidaki (didgeridoo), Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu on keyboards, guitar and percussion, past lead singer Mandawuy Yunupingu and present Yirrnga Yunupingu on vocals and guitar.
Ian Richard Moss is an Australian rock musician from Alice Springs. He is the founding mainstay guitarist and occasional singer of Cold Chisel. In that group's initial eleven year phase from 1973 to 1984, Moss was recorded on all five studio albums, three of which reached number one on the national Kent Music Report Albums Chart. In August 1989 he released his debut solo album, Matchbook, which peaked at number one on the ARIA Albums Chart. It was preceded by his debut single, "Tucker's Daughter", which reached number two on the related ARIA Singles Chart in March. The track was co-written by Moss with Don Walker, also from Cold Chisel. Moss had another top ten hit with "Telephone Booth" in June 1989.
Dragon are a New Zealand rock band which was formed in Auckland in January 1972, and, from 1975, based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The band was originally fronted by singer Graeme Collins, but rose to fame with singer Marc Hunter and is currently led by his brother, bass player and vocalist Todd Hunter. The group performed, and released material, under the name Hunter in Europe and the United States during 1987.
The Angels are an Australian rock band that formed in 1974 in Adelaide as the Keystone Angels with Bernard "Doc" Neeson on lead vocals and bass guitar, John Brewster on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, his brother Rick Brewster on lead guitar and backing vocals, and Peter "Charlie" King on drums. In 1976, King was replaced by Graham "Buzz" Bidstrup on drums, Chris Bailey took over bass duties so Neeson could focus solely on vocals, and they changed their name to just 'the Angels'. Their studio albums that peaked in the Australian top 10 are No Exit (1979), Dark Room (1980), Night Attack (1981), Two Minute Warning (1984), Howling (1986) and Beyond Salvation (1990). Their top 20 singles are "No Secrets" (1980), "Into the Heat" (1981), "We Gotta Get out of This Place" (1987), "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again", "Let the Night Roll On" and "Dogs Are Talking".
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.
Kevin Nicholas Borich is a New Zealand-born Australian guitarist and singer-songwriter. He was a founding member of The La De Das, the leader of Kevin Borich Express, and a founding member of The Party Boys, as well as a session musician for numerous acts.
Richard Champion is a former Australian rules footballer in the Australian Football League (AFL) and South Australian National Football Leagues (SANFL).
Todd Stuart Hunter is a New Zealand musician and composer known for his involvement in the band Dragon. Their best known songs are "April Sun in Cuba", "Are You Old Enough?", "Still in Love With You", and "Rain". Hunter also composed John Farnham's hit song "Age of Reason" with Johanna Pigott and music for film Daydream Believer (1991) and TV series Heartbreak High (1994–1999).
Scented Gardens for the Blind is the second album by New Zealand group Dragon released in February 1975 on Vertigo Records before they relocated to Australia in May. Scented Gardens for the Blind, along with their first album Universal Radio, is in the progressive rock genre—all subsequent albums are hard rock/pop rock. "Vermillion [sic] Cellars" was released as a single in March and was followed by non-album singles, "Education" in May and "Star Kissed" in August but neither albums nor singles had any local chart success.
The Party Boys was an Australian rock supergroup with a floating membership commencing in 1982. Created by Mondo Rock's bass guitarist, Paul Christie, with founding member Kevin Borich as a part-time venture for professional musicians with downtime from their other projects; the group had temporary members from Status Quo, the Angels, Sherbet, Skyhooks, Rose Tattoo, the Choirboys, Australian Crawl, Divinyls, Models, Dragon and Swanee, plus international stars such as Joe Walsh, Eric Burdon, Alan Lancaster, and Graham Bonnet.
Marc Alexander Hunter was a New Zealand rock and pop singer, songwriter and record producer. He was the lead vocalist of Dragon, a band formed by his older brother, Todd Hunter, in Auckland in January 1972. They relocated to Sydney in May 1975. He was also a member of the Party Boys in 1985. For his solo career he issued five studio albums, Fiji Bitter, Big City Talk, Communication, Night and Day and Talk to Strangers. During the 1970s Hunter developed heroin and alcohol addictions and was incarcerated at Mt Eden Prison in Auckland in 1978. He was recklessly outspoken and volatile on-stage. In November 1978, during the band's American tour, supporting Johnny Winter, they performed in Dallas, Texas, where "he made some general stage observations about redneck buddies, illegal oral sex and utility trucks" and called the audience members "faggots". Upon his return to Australia, in February 1979, he was fired from the group by his brother, Todd.
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 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.
Michael Thomas Cocks was an Australian musician, most noted for his guitar and songwriting work with Rose Tattoo. His original sound and style heavily influenced Guns N' Roses, who recorded a cover of the Rose Tattoo song "Nice Boys". He was also a member of Heaven, The Headhunters, Illustrated Men, Doomfoxx, Pete Wells Heart Attack and the Ted Mulry Gang. On 16 August 2006, Rose Tattoo were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame. In April 2009 Cocks was diagnosed with liver cancer and died from the disease on 22 December 2009. He was the fifth member of Rose Tattoo to die of cancer, he was predeceased by Dallas Royall (1991), Peter Wells (2006), Ian Rilen (2006), and Lobby Loyde (2007).
Sunshine is the third studio album by New Zealand rock band Dragon, it was their first album after they had relocated to Sydney, Australia in May 1975. Sunshine was released in February 1977 by CBS Records and peaked at #24 on the Australian national albums charts. The album was certified gold. The single "This Time" had been released in late June 1976, which peaked at #26 on the Australian national singles charts. The second single "Get that Jive" was the best charting peaking at #13 and the third single "Sunshine" reached #36. The album had US and International releases in 1978 on Portrait Records, with "This Time" called "In the Right Direction" and an alternative cover used.
Running Free is the fourth studio album by New Zealand rock band Dragon. It was produced by Peter Dawkins and was originally released in November 1977 on vinyl and re-released on CD in 1989. The album peaked at number 6 on the Australian Kent Music Report. The album was certified triple platinum in Australia.
O Zambezi is the fifth studio album by New Zealand rock band, Dragon. It was produced by Peter Dawkins and was released in September 1978 on vinyl and re-released on CD in 1988. The album peaked at number 3 on the Australian Kent Music Report which remains the band's highest charting album in that country. The album was certified platinum in Australia.
"Treaty" is a protest song by Australian musical group Yothu Yindi, which is made up of Aboriginal and balanda (non-Aboriginal) members. Released in June 1991, "Treaty" was the first song by a predominantly Aboriginal band to chart in Australia and was the first song partly in any Aboriginal Australian language to gain extensive international recognition, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play singles charts. The song contains lyrics in Gumatj, one of the Yolngu Matha dialects and a language of the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land in northern Australia.
This is the discography of Dragon, a popular rock band formed in Auckland, New Zealand, in January 1972, who relocated to Sydney, Australia in May 1975. They were previously led by singer Marc Hunter, and are currently led by his brother, bass player Todd Hunter. They performed and released material under the name Hunter in Europe and United States during 1987.
"Rain" is a song by New Zealand rock group Dragon released in July 1983 as the first single ahead of their seventh studio album, Body and the Beat. It is co-written by the group's brothers, Marc and Todd Hunter, with Johanna Pigott, Todd's then-domestic partner. "Rain" peaked at number 2 and stayed in the Kent Music Report singles chart for 26 weeks. The song reached number 88 on the United States Billboard Hot 100 charts in mid-1984. For the original single version the group's Kerry Jacobson had provided drums and percussion; he left the group in September 1983 and was replaced by Terry Chambers, who is shown in promotional material including cover art and music videos.
