Wendy Joan Matthews is a Canadian-born Australian singer-songwriter who has been a member of Models and Absent Friends and is a solo artist. She released Top 20 hit singles in the 1990s including "Token Angels", "Let's Kiss ", "The Day You Went Away" and "Friday's Child" with Top 20 albums, You've Always Got The Blues, Émigré, Lily, The Witness Tree and her compilation, Stepping Stones. She has won six Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Awards. According to rock music historian, Ian McFarlane she provides "extraordinary, crystal-clear vocals [...] a soulfulness that was the mark of a truly gifted singer".
The Sports were an Australian rock group which performed and recorded between 1976 and 1981. Mainstay members were Stephen Cummings on lead vocals and Robert Glover on bass guitar, with long-term members such as Paul Hitchins on drums, Andrew Pendlebury on lead guitar and vocals, and Martin Armiger on guitar. Their style was similar to both 1970s British pub rock bands and British new wave. The Sports' top forty singles are "Who Listens to the Radio", "Don't Throw Stones", "Strangers on a Train" and "How Come". Their top 20 releases on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart are Don't Throw Stones, Suddenly and Sondra.
The Swing is the fourth studio album by Australian rock band INXS, released in April 1984. It peaked at number one on the Kent Music Report Albums Chart for five non-consecutive weeks from early April to mid-May 1984. The lead single "Original Sin" was recorded in New York City with Nile Rodgers and featured Daryl Hall on backing vocals. Overall, the album featured a slightly harder-edged sound than their previous releases.
INXS is the debut studio album by Australian rock band INXS. It was released on Deluxe Records in Australia on 13 October 1980. The band recorded the album in midnight to dawn sessions during 1979 to 1980 after performing, on average, two gigs a day at local pubs around Sydney. All tracks were credited to band members, Garry Gary Beers ; brothers Andrew, Jon and Tim Farriss ; Michael Hutchence ; and Kirk Pengilly. The album was co-produced by the band and Duncan McGuire. It spawned the single, "Just Keep Walking", which became their first Australian Top 40 hit. INXS peaked in the Top 30 of the related Kent Music Report Albums Chart. The album did not appear internationally until 1984.
Flash and the Pan were an Australian new wave musical group formed in 1976 by Harry Vanda and George Young, both former members of the Easybeats, who formed a production and songwriting team known as Vanda & Young. The group's first chart success was their 1976 debut single, "Hey, St. Peter", which reached number five in the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart. The next single, "Down Among the Dead Men", peaked at number four in Australia in 1978. For international release, it was re-titled "And the Band Played On".
Indecent Obsession were an Australian pop rock band formed early in 1987 in Brisbane with founding mainstays Daryl Sims on drums and Michael Szumowski on keyboards. By 1988 the line-up also included Andrew Coyne on lead guitar and David Dixon on lead vocals. They released three studio albums, Spoken Words and Indio, both reached the top 50 on the ARIA Albums Chart. In 1990 Spoken Words was repackaged for United States market as Indecent Obsession, which reached the Billboard 200. In May 1989 they issued their debut single, "Say Goodbye", which peaked at No. 6 on the ARIA Singles Chart – their highest position in Australia. Their second single, "Tell Me Something" (September), reached No. 17 nationally. When issued in the US it peaked at No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100. It reached No. 1 in Indonesia and Hong Kong, and Top 10 in Japan and South Africa. For the Asian market the band used the shortened name, Obsession. In 1992 they were the first Western act to tour South Africa after the lifting of the cultural isolation during the apartheid era. They were "greeted by screaming fans and scenes of mass hysteria", both their second album, Indio, and one of its singles, "Kiss Me", peaked at No. 1 on the relevant South African charts. By 1993 Sims and Szumowski were joined by Mark Gray on bass guitar, Richard Hennassey on lead vocals and Graham Kearns on lead guitar. The following year they issued another studio album, Relativity, before disbanding a year later.
#4 Record or You Am I's #4 Album is the fourth studio album by Australian rock band, You Am I, which was released in April 1998. It reached No. 1 on the ARIA albums chart. It was the group's third consecutive album to debut at No. 1, a then-record by an Australian band. Its third single "Heavy Heart", is one of their well known songs and has been covered by different artists, Paul Kelly, Ben Lee, Lisa Mitchell, TZU, Courtney Barnett, and the Supersuckers.
Mondo Rock are an Australian rock band, formed in November 1976 in Melbourne, Victoria. Singer-songwriter Ross Wilson founded the band, following the split of his previous band Daddy Cool. Guitarist Eric McCusker, who joined in 1980, wrote many of the band's hits, and along with Wilson formed the core of the group. They are best known for their second album, Chemistry, which was released in July 1981 and peaked at number 2 on the Australian Kent Music Report. Their song "Come Said the Boy" peaked at number 2 in Australia in 1983.
Machinations are an Australian synthpop band which formed in 1980. They reached the top 20 on the Kent Music Report albums chart with Big Music in 1985. Their top 30 hits on the related singles chart are "Pressure Sway", "No Say in It", "My Heart's On Fire" and "Do to You". By 1989 the group had disbanded. They briefly reunited in 1997 and then reformed in 2012.
Alison MacCallum, also written Alison McCallum, is an Australian rock singer from the late 1960s and 1970s. Her two studio albums are Fresh Water and Excuse Me. In March 1972 she issued her most successful charting single, "Superman", which peaked at No. 12 on Go-Set's National Top 40. In August that year MacCallum provided lead vocals for the Labor Party's campaign theme song, "It's Time", for the 1972 election. By the late 1970s, she had concentrated on session work and then "disappeared from public view". According to Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, MacCallum was "a soul/blues stylist of considerable flair and passion". In September 2014 Sony released a 2× CD compilation album, The Essential Alison MacCallum.
Cherry were an Australian pop music group from the late 1990s. The five founding vocalists were Amy Canto, Empress Camielle, Hayley Toomey, Gerri Mackay and Zoe Trilsbach. Two of their singles reached the ARIA Singles Chart top 60, "S.O.S." and "Saddest Song". Amy and Zoe left the group, which continued as a trio but disbanded soon after in 1999.
Stars are an Australian country rock band formed in Adelaide, South Australia in 1975 and disbanding in 1979, before re-forming in 2019. Founding members were Glyn Dowding on drums; Malcolm Eastick on guitar and vocals; Mick Pealing on vocals; and Graham Thompson on bass guitar. They were joined by guitarist, songwriter, Andrew Durant in 1976 and relocated to Melbourne. Thompson then left and was replaced by a succession of bass guitarists including Roger McLachlan and Ian McDonald.
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.
"Come Back to Me" is the third by Australian pop rock band Indecent Obsession, released by Melodian Records and MCA Records in January 1990 off their debut album Spoken Words. The single peaked at number 40 on the Australian ARIA Chart, but was a number-one hit in Hong Kong. The band promoted the song, supporting Debbie Gibson on the Australian leg of her Electric Youth world tour.
"Kiss Me" is the fifth single by Australian pop rock band Indecent Obsession, released by Melodian Records and MCA Records in March 1992 off their second album Indio. The single peaked at number 27 on the ARIA Chart.
"Indio" is the sixth single by Australian pop group Indecent Obsession, released by Melodian Records and MCA Records on 27 July 1992 off their second album Indio. The single peaked at number 41 on the ARIA Chart.
"Whispers in the Dark" is the seventh single by Australian pop rock band Indecent Obsession, released in Europe by MCA Records in September 1992 off their second album Indio. The single peaked at number 7 in France, becoming the band's highest-charting single in that country.
Indio is the second studio album by Australian pop rock band Indecent Obsession, released in Australia by Melodian Records and internationally by MCA Records in August 1992. It features the singles "Kiss Me", "Indio", and "Whispers in the Dark".
The Bootleg Family Band were an Australian folk, R&B and rock band formed in 1973 by Brian Cadd on lead vocals with Geoff Cox on drums, Tony Naylor on lead guitar, Penny Dyer on backing vocals, Gus Fenwick on bass guitar, Brian Fitzgerald on keyboards, Angela Jones on lead and backing vocals, Louise Lincoln on backing vocals and Russell Smith on trumpet. The group became the in-house band for Cadd's label, Bootleg Records. They also released their own material and had chart success with cover versions of "Your Mama Don't Dance" and "The Shoop Shoop Song ", which both reached the top 10 on Australian singles charts. The group toured the United States and performed on the TV shows, The Midnight Special and Don Kirshner's Rock Concert in 1974. Early in the following year they trimmed back to a five-piece line-up as The Bootleg Band. Late that year, Cadd left to work in the US and the remaining members renamed themselves as Avalanche. That group issued a self-titled album in September 1976 and disbanded in 1978. Cadd reassembled the Bootleg Family Band in 2015 to release a studio album, Bulletproof, which was supported by a short tour.
The Way to Go Out is a 1985 live album by Australian rock band Hunters & Collectors, which was first released on 6 May 1985. It was recorded at Earl's Court in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda in two days on 24 and 25 August 1984, and reached No. 76 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart and No. 21 on the New Zealand Albums Chart. Six of the eight tracks were from their 1984 album The Jaws of Life, and "Throw Your Arms Around Me" had been released as a non-album single. "Follow Me No More" had not been released in Australia but had been part of the UK-only single "Carry Me" in 1984. Under the shortened title "Follow Me" it would become the B-side to their "Say Goodbye" single a year after The Way to Go Out was released.
