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Origin | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
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Pseudo Echo are an Australian New wave band formed in 1982 by Brian Canham (vocals, guitar, and keyboards), Pierre Gigliotti (bass keyboards and bass guitar), and Tony Lugton (keyboards). Later members included Anthony Argiro (drums), Vince Leigh (drums), and James Leigh (keyboards). In the 1980s, Pseudo Echo had multiple Australian top 20 hits with "Listening", "A Beat for You", "Don't Go", "Love an Adventure", and "Living in a Dream". Their 1986 cover of "Funky Town" (a 1979 Disco hit by Lipps Inc.) was an international success, peaking at No. 1 in Australia and New Zealand and becoming a top ten hit in Sweden, Canada, the United States, and in the United Kingdom.
Their 1984 debut album, Autumnal Park , peaked at No. 11 on the Australian Kent Music Report. Love an Adventure followed in 1985 and reached No. 14. Their third album, Race (1988), peaked at No. 18. In 1990, the group disbanded. They reformed in 1998 and released the albums Ultraviolet (2014), Acoustica, and After Party (both 2020). Australian rock music historian Ian McFarlane described the band as "combin[ing] flash clothes, blow-wave hairstyles, youthful exuberance and accessible synth-pop to arrive at a winning combination".
Pseudo Echo was formed in Melbourne in 1982 by two high school friends Brian Canham on vocals, guitars, and keyboards, and Pierre Gigliotti (as Pierre Pierre) on bass guitar and keyboards. [1] [2] They were later joined by Tony Lugton (ex-Steeler, James Freud & the Radio Stars) on guitars and keyboards. [1] [2] The group were named for a sound effect available on their keyboards and were initially influenced by New Romantics bands, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet, and Ultravox. [1] [3] [4] Molly Meldrum, television presenter and talent co-ordinator for the pop music series Countdown , saw the group at a gig and aired them on his show with a demo version of "Listening" in June 1983. [3] [5] Originally the three-piece group had used a drum machine until Anthony Argiro joined on drums in July. [1] [2]
The band were signed to EMI Records and "Listening" – re-recorded and produced by Peter Dawkins – was issued in November as their debut single. [2] [6] It peaked at No. 4 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart. [6] Their debut album, Autumnal Park , produced by Dawkins and John Punter, was released in June 1984 and peaked at No. 11 on the Kent Music Report Albums Chart. [1] [2] [6] The album was released as Pseudo Echo for the North American market. [7] It yielded the singles "A Beat for You" (No. 12 in April), "Dancing Until Midnight", and "Stranger in Me". [1] [6] [8] Another track from Autumnal, "His Eyes", was used in the horror film, Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985). In October 1984, Tony Lugton left the band due to musical differences, [9] and was replaced by James Leigh (aka James Dingli) on keyboards. [1] [2] Lugton eventually joined synth rock band Talk That Walk. [2]
In November 1985, Pseudo Echo released their second album, Love an Adventure . It was co-produced by Brian Canham and Mark S. Berry. [2] Another line-up change occurred after its recording with Argiro replaced by James' brother Vince Leigh (aka Vincent Dingli) on drums. [1] [2] The album reached No. 14 in Australia. [6] Three of its singles reached the Top 20 including "Don't Go" (No. 4 in October), "Love an Adventure" (No. 6 in January 1986), and "Living in a Dream" (No. 15 in May). [6] A fourth single, "Try" (August), peaked at No. 60. [6] In November 1985, Canham was part of the supergroup the Incredible Penguins, who recorded a cover of the John Lennon and Yoko Ono hit "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" for charity; it peaked at No. 10 in December. [6] [10]
In November 1986, Pseudo Echo released a cover version of the Lipps Inc. disco song "Funky Town", which spent seven weeks at number one from December. [6] "Funky Town" brought Pseudo Echo their biggest international chart success. It reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, No. 8 on the UK Singles Chart in July 1987, [11] No. 1 in Canada, [12] (No. 17 on Canadian 1987 Year End) [13] and No. 1 in New Zealand. [14] While not initially included on Love an Adventure, "Funky Town" was included on reissues of the album that were released following the success of the single. In September 1986, James and Vince Leigh appeared in the music video for John Farnham's single, "You're the Voice" despite not contributing to its audio recording. [15]
In 1987, the band re-released their 1983 debut single "Listening" for the movie North Shore . In October, they won the 1987 World Popular Song Festival with "Take on the World", [16] which provided a prize of US$10,000. [1] They released the compilation album Long Plays 83–87 , re-titled Funky Town - The Album in New Zealand, where it peaked at No. 1. [14] In 1988, they released their third studio album Race . It was produced by Canham, Brian Malouf and Julian Mendelsohn. [1] [2] It spawned the Australian singles "Fooled Again", "Over Tomorrow", and "Eye of the Storm". The album reached No. 18 on the Kent Music Report Albums Chart and No. 32 on the ARIA Albums Chart. [6] Pseudo Echo disbanded after touring in support of Race in 1990. [1]
After Pseudo Echo disbanded, in 1990, bassist Pierre Gigliotti joined All the Young Dudes with former Geisha lead singer Chris Doheny. Lead singer Brian Canham moved into record production, [17] and produced Chocolate Starfish's 1994 debut album, Chocolate Starfish , which peaked at No. 2 on the ARIA Albums Chart. [1] [18] The Leigh brothers had a stint backing Tina Arena before forming Vertigo (later renamed as Invertigo) in 1996 with a third brother, Gerry Leigh on guitar. [19] In 1997, Canham formed Brill with Darren Danielson (ex-Chocolate Starfish) on drums. Andy McIvor was added on bass guitar and Dave Stuart on keyboards, and they toured as Brill, which issued a self-titled album in August 1997. [1]
Pseudo Echo reunited in March 1998, with Canham and Gigliotti joined by Danielson on drums and Tony Featherstone on keyboards (ex-the Badloves), and toured Australia. [1] In late 1999, Ben Grayson replaced Featherstone on keyboards. In 2000, they released "Funkytown Y2K: RMX" which included six new remixes of "Funky Town". In February of that year, they supported international visitors Culture Club and Village People on the Retro Event of the New Millenium tour. [1] In 2000, Pseudo Echo released Teleporter , a compilation of new tracks, remixes, and live performances. [20] [1] During 2002 Canham and Grayson were part of the dance pop group Origene with vocalist Matilda White. [21] Their debut single, "Suddenly, Silently" (March 2002), [21] peaked at No. 51 on the ARIA Singles chart. [22]
In 2005, Pseudo Echo toured extensively with Idols of the 80s and released Autumnal Park – Live. In 2006, Canham performed at the Countdown Spectacular . In 2007, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Pseudo Echo, Canham and Gigliotti were joined by previous members James and Vince Leigh for a sold-out show at the Crown Casino, Melbourne. This performance was followed by a short Australian tour before Canham and Gigliotti were rejoined by latter day members, Danielson and Grayson.
In 2012, co-founder Gigliotti resigned from the band and was replaced by Simon Rayner (bass keys, backing vocals). In July 2012, Pseudo Echo released "Suddenly Silently". This was followed by "Fighting the Tide" in 2013. In 2014, the band undertook a successful crowd-funding campaign which enabled them to release their fourth studio album, Ultraviolet . The band toured Ultraviolet extensively across Australia and to New Zealand. In January 2015, the group recorded a live performance in Hollywood's Viper Room in front of a sold-out crowd. This was released as Live at the Viper Room in June 2015. In December 2017, the group released a cover of "Nutbush City Limits".
In May 2020, the group released their fifth studio album, the acoustic album Acoustica, which was followed by the release of their sixth studio album After Party in September of the same year. In June 2021, the group released the album 1990: The Lost Album Demos, a compilation of songs that Brian Canham demoed in 1989 for what would have been Pseudo Echo's fourth studio album. [23]
In late 2022, Pseudo Echo tour entitled "The Ultimate Tour" to promote the compilation album released on that year. In July 2024, the lineup consists of Brian Canham, Matty Ray, James Mudd, Abigail Lula, Paul Checchinelli & new backing vocalist Valentina Taylor. In October 2024, Andrea Krakovská joined on guitars filling in for James Mudd (who is on hiatus).
Countdown is an Australian pop music TV series which was broadcast nationwide on ABC-TV from 1974–1987 to present music awards from 1979–1987, known as the Countdown Music Awards. [24] [25]
Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
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1983 | "Listening" | Best Debut Single | Nominated |
themselves | Most Promising New Talent | Nominated | |
1984 | Autumnal Park' | Best Debut Album | Nominated |
themselves | Most Popular Australian Group | Nominated | |
Brian Canham (Pseudo Echo) | Most Popular Male Performer | Nominated | |
1986 | "Funkytown" | Best Group Performance in a Video | Nominated |
themselves | Most Popular Australian Group | Won | |
Brian Canham (Pseudo Echo) | Most Popular Male Performer | Won |
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. In 1987, Pseudo Echo were nominated for four awards. [26]
Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
---|---|---|---|
1987 | "Funky Town" | Highest Selling Single | Nominated |
themselves for "Funky Town" | Best Group | Nominated | |
Producer of the Year | Nominated | ||
Love An Adventure | Best Cover Art | Nominated |
World Popular Song Festival [27]
Year | Award | Winner Song | Result |
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1987 | Grand Prix International | Take On the World (Pseudo Echo song) | Won |
Air Supply is a soft rock duo formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1975, consisting of Englishman Graham Russell and Australian Russell Hitchcock (vocals). With record sales of 100 million worldwide, they had a succession of hits worldwide, including eight top-five hits on the US Billboard Hot 100, "Lost in Love" (1979), "All Out of Love", "Every Woman in the World", "The One That You Love", "Here I Am", "Sweet Dreams", "Even the Nights Are Better" and "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" (1983). In Australia, they had four top ten placements with "Love and Other Bruises" (1976), "All Out of Love", "Every Woman in the World" and "The One That You Love". Their highest charting studio album, The One That You Love (1981) reached number ten in both Australia and the US. The group, which relocated to Los Angeles in the late 1970s, has included many members, with Hitchcock and Russell at the core. The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) inducted Air Supply into their Hall of Fame on 1 December 2013, at the annual ARIA Awards.
Models are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne, Victoria in August 1978. They went into hiatus in 1988, but re-formed in 2000, 2006 and 2008 to perform reunion concerts. The band began regularly performing again from 2010 onwards. "Out of Mind, Out of Sight", their only No. 1 hit, appeared on the Australian singles charts in July 1985. The related album, Out of Mind, Out of Sight, peaked at No. 3 on the Australian albums charts after its release in August. Out of Mind, Out of Sight appeared on the Billboard 200 albums chart, with the single, "Out of Mind, Out of Sight", peaking at No. 37 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. An earlier song from the same album, "Barbados", had peaked at No. 2 on the Australian singles chart.
Icehouse are an Australian rock band, formed in Sydney in 1977 as Flowers. Initially known in their homeland for their pub rock style, the band later achieved mainstream success playing new wave and synth-pop music and attained Top 10 singles chart success locally and in both Europe and the U.S. The mainstay of both Flowers and Icehouse has been Iva Davies supplying additional musicians as required. The name "Icehouse", adopted in 1981, comes from an old, cold flat Davies lived in and the strange building across the road populated by itinerant people.
Eurogliders are a band formed in 1980 in Perth, Western Australia, which included Grace Knight on vocals, Bernie Lynch on guitar and vocals, and Amanda Vincent on keyboards. In 1984, Eurogliders released an Australian top ten album, This Island, which spawned their No. 2 hit single, "Heaven ". "Heaven" also peaked at No. 21 on the United States Billboard Mainstream Rock charts and appeared on the Hot 100. Another Australian top ten album, Absolutely, followed in 1985, which provided two further local top ten singles, "We Will Together" and "Can't Wait to See You". They disbanded in 1989, with Knight having a successful career as a jazz singer. Australian rock music historian Ian McFarlane described Eurogliders as "the accessible face of post-punk new wave music. The band's sophisticated brand of pop was traditional in its structure, but displayed the decidedly 'modern veneer' ". The band reformed in 2005 releasing two new albums followed in 2014 by their seventh album.
Big Pig was an Australian funk, rock and pop band that existed from 1985 to 1991. An early line-up was Sherine Abeyratne on lead vocals and percussion ; Tony Antoniades on vocals and harmonica; Neil Baker on drums; Nick Disbray on vocals and percussion; Tim Rosewarne on vocals and keyboards (ex-Bang); Adrian Scaglione on drums; and Oleh Witer on vocals and percussion (ex-Bang). They issued two albums, Bonk and You Lucky People, on the White Label Records imprint of Mushroom Records.
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.
Chocolate Starfish is an Australian rock band formed in 1992 and disbanded in 1998. Their self-titled debut album, issued in April 1994, peaked at No. 2 on the ARIA Albums Chart. It was followed in October 1995 by their second album, Box, which reached No. 6. Their highest-charting single, "You're So Vain", was a cover version of Carly Simon's 1972 hit. It peaked at No. 11 on the ARIA Singles Chart in September 1993. They had another hit with "Mountain" in March 1994, which reached No. 12.
Invertigo were an Australian four-piece pop rock group active in the early 2000s. They originally formed as Vertigo in 1996, by the three Leigh brothers: Gerry on guitar, James on keyboards and Vince on drums ; together with Hugh Wilson on lead vocals. They had a top 40 hit on the ARIA Singles Chart with "Forever Lately" and released an album before disbanding in 1999. The Leigh brothers formed Invertigo in 2000 with Christian Argenti on lead vocals. Their highest charting single, "Chances Are...", reached No. 19 and their sole album, Forum, peaked at No. 11. That group broke up in 2003.
The Chantoozies are an Australian pop group, formed in 1986. The group featured four female vocalists: Eve von Bibra, Angie La Bozzetta, Ally Fowler and Tottie Goldsmith, and four male musicians: Brett Goldsmith, Scott Griffiths, Frank McCoy and David Reyne. Their name is an intentional mispronunciation of the French word for a female singer, "chanteuse".
Autumnal Park is the debut studio album by Australian new wave band Pseudo Echo. Autumnal Park peaked at No. 11 in Australia and produced two Top 20 singles, including "Listening", which peaked at No. 4 in Australia. It was released in North America under the title, Pseudo Echo.
The Incredible Penguins were an Australian supergroup formed in 1985, which reached the top ten on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart with their cover of "Happy Xmas " in December. Contributors included Angry Anderson, Bob Geldof, Brian Mannix, Scott Carne, Colleen Hewett, and John Farnham. The charity project, for research on little penguins, was organized and produced by Countdown host, Ian Meldrum.
Geisha are an Australian pop rock band, which formed in 1983 as Geisha Detail with founding mainstay Chris Doheny on lead vocals and guitar. Their highest-charting single, "Part Time Love Affair" (1986), peaked at No. 24 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart. They issued two albums, Geisha and Midnight to Dawn, before disbanding in mid 1988. Geisha briefly reformed in April 1998 and released a compilation album, The Very Best of Geisha, late that year. Australian musicologist Ian McFarlane described their style as "1970s glam rock and early 1980s English New Romantic bands such as Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet". Another version of Geisha was established by Doheny in 2007.
Long Plays 83–87 is the first compilation album released by Australian new wave band, Pseudo Echo. It was released in 1987. It included extended and dance versions of their previously released singles between 1983 and 1987. It was released on CD in 1990.
Love an Adventure is the second studio album by Australian new wave band Pseudo Echo, released in 1985 by EMI Australia. The album peaked at No. 14 in Australia and produced three Australian top twenty singles, including "Don’t Go", which peaked at No. 4.
Race is the third studio album released by Australian new wave band Pseudo Echo. It was released via EMI Australia in 1988 and RCA Records internationally in 1989. Race resulted in a musical change for the group as it mirrored the music landscape at the time; dominated by big hair, big guitars and rock. While the album no doubt alienated the majority of the band's fan base, it equally attracted a new breed of rock loving fans.
Best Adventures is a compilation album by Australian band, Pseudo Echo, released in October 1995, spanning the band's entire career.
Ultraviolet is the fourth studio album by Australian band Pseudo Echo. It was the group's first studio album since the release of Race in 1988.
Live at the Viper Room is a live album by Australian band Pseudo Echo. The album was recorded on 7 February 2015 at The Viper Room, West Hollywood, United States.
"Listening" is the debut single from Australian pop group Pseudo Echo. The song was released in November 1983 as the lead single from their debut studio album, Autumnal Park (1984). The song peaked at number 4 on the Australian Kent Music Report. Following the international success of "Funky Town", a remixed version of "Listening" was released in 1987 for the movie "North Shore" starring Nia Peeples.
"A Beat for You" is a song by Australian pop group Pseudo Echo. The song was released in April 1984 as the second single from their debut studio album, Autumnal Park (1984). The song peaked at number 12 on the Australian Kent Music Report.
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Note: [on-line] version of The Who's Who of Australian Rock was established at White Room Electronic Publishing Pty Ltd in 2007 and was expanded from the 2002 edition. As from, September 2010 the [on-line] version shows an 'Internal Service Error' and was no longer available.
Simple minds, Ultravox, Japan and then later Durran Durran (sic) and Human League. I didn't realize how much we were influenced until now. It's quite obvious when I actually listen to our music and draw comparisons.
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