The Incredible Penguins | |
---|---|
Origin | Melbourne, Australia |
Genres | pop |
Years active | 1985 |
Labels | Mushroom |
Associated acts | Mother Goose, Wendy & the Rocketts, The Masters Apprentices, Axiom |
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 (War Is Over)" in December. [1] Contributors included Angry Anderson (Rose Tattoo), Bob Geldof, Brian Mannix (Uncanny X-Men), Scott Carne (Kids in the Kitchen), Colleen Hewett, and John Farnham. The charity project, for research on little penguins, was organized and produced by Countdown host, Ian Meldrum. [2]
After hosting Oz for Africa—the Australian leg of Live Aid—in mid-1985, Ian Meldrum decided to create a charity project for a local issue. Meldrum was talent coordinator and compere of national pop music show, Countdown . Late in 1985, he used his industry contacts to organise a charity single for research on fairy penguins. He produced the recording of a cover of John Lennon, Yoko Ono and Plastic Ono Band's 1971 hit, "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)".
The Incredible Penguins were a briefly existing covers band, [3] with members: Steve Donald (Wendy & the Rocketts) on percussion, Craig Johnston (ex-Mother Goose) on vocals, Wayne Matthews (ex-The Masters Apprentices) on bass guitar, John Moon (ex-Keays, W.H.Y.) on guitar, Pat Polo on guitar, and Marcel Rodeka (ex-Mother Goose) on drums. [2] [3]
In late October 1985, The Incredible Penguins entered the Flagstaff Studios in Melbourne with Meldrum and guest musicians: Angry Anderson (Rose Tattoo), Brian Canham (Pseudo Echo), Scott Carne (Kids in the Kitchen), John Farnham, Venetta Fields, Bob Geldof, Steve Gilpin (ex-Mi-Sex), Hare Krishna Chorus, Colin Hay (Men at Work), Colleen Hewett, Jim Keays (ex-The Masters Apprentices), Brian Mannix (Uncanny X-Men), Wendy Stapleton (Wendy & the Rocketts) and Chris Stockley (ex-Axiom, The Dingoes). [2] [3]
A three-track single, "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" was released by Mushroom Records and peaked at #10 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart in December. [1]
John Peter Farnham AO is a British-born Australian singer. Farnham was a teen pop idol from 1967 until 1979, billed then as Johnny Farnham, but has since forged a career as an adult contemporary singer. His career has mostly been as a solo artist, although he replaced Glenn Shorrock as lead singer of Little River Band from 1982 to 1985.
Pseudo Echo are an Australian new wave band that formed in 1982 by founding mainstay Brian Canham on vocals, guitar and keyboards. Other original members were Piero Gigliotti on bass keyboards and bass guitar, and Tony Lugton on keyboards. Later members included Anthony Argiro on drums, James Leigh on keyboards and his brother, Vince Leigh on drums. In the 1980s, Pseudo Echo had Australian top 20 hits with "Listening", "A Beat for You", "Don't Go", "Love an Adventure", "Living in a Dream" and their cover of "Funky Town", which peaked at No. 1 in 1986. In 1987, it reached No. 1 in Canada, No. 1 in New Zealand, No. 6 in the United States, and No. 8 in the United Kingdom.
"Happy Xmas " is a Christmas song released in 1971 as a single by John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir. It was the seventh single release by John Lennon outside his work with the Beatles. The song reached number four in the UK, where its release was delayed until November 1972, and has periodically reemerged on the UK Singles Chart, most notably after Lennon's death in December 1980, when it peaked at number two.
The John Lennon Collection is a posthumous compilation album of music from John Lennon's solo career.
John Lennon was an English singer-songwriter and one of the four principal members of the Beatles. His first three studio albums are experiments with Yoko Ono using tape loops, interviews, musique concrète, and other avant-garde performance techniques. Lennon also released one live album and three singles under his own name before the break-up of the Beatles. Studio album discography in Lennon's home idiom of rock and roll begins with Plastic Ono Band from 1970.
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Kids in the Kitchen were an Australian pop, funk and new wave band which formed in 1983. They enjoyed chart success with four top-20 hits on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart, "Change in Mood" (1983), "Bitter Desire" (1984), "Something That You Said" and "Current Stand". The related album, Shine, reached No. 9 on the Kent Music Report Albums Chart and was the 16th-biggest-selling album of 1985 in Australia. A second album, Terrain, followed in August 1987 but did not chart and the group disbanded in 1988. Kids in the Kitchen supported the Australian leg of Culture Club's 2016 world tour.
Colleen Hewett is an Australian theatre and TV actress, and a popular singer and recording artist
"I'll Be Gone" or "Some Day I'll Have Money" is a song by Australian progressive rock group Spectrum released as their debut single by EMI on Harvest Records in January 1971. It peaked at #1 on the national singles chart, while it reached Top 5 in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. The song was written by guitarist and vocalist Mike Rudd, and produced by Howard Gable. The B-side, "Launching Place Part Two" was written to promote a music festival. Spectrum never repeated the success of "I'll Be Gone".
Uncanny X-Men were an Australian pop rock band which formed in late 1980. Their founding mainstay was lead singer Brian Mannix. Originally with Nick Matandos on drums and Ron Thiessen on guitar, they were soon joined by Chuck Hargreaves on guitar and Steve Harrison on bass guitar. John Kirk replaced Harrison and Craig Waugh replaced Matandos by 1984. The band's debut album, 'Cos Life Hurts, peaked at No. 3 on the Australian Kent Music Report, and provided their highest charting single "50 Years" which reached No. 4 on the related singles chart. Thiessen left to be eventually replaced by Brett Kingman. Their second album, What You Give is What You Get, reached No. 19, and included a top 20 single, "I Am" (April). The group disbanded in 1987 and have occasionally reunited to play live concerts. Mannix has had a solo career as a singer, TV personality and actor.
"Sadie " was Australian pop singer Johnny Farnham's first solo single. The novelty song was released in November 1967 and was No. 1 on the Go-Set National Singles Charts for five weeks in early 1968. It was the largest selling single in Australia by an Australian artist in the 1960s. The single, "Sadie" sold approximately 180,000 copies in Australia, and was also released in New Zealand, Denmark and Germany. The B-side, "In My Room" was written by Farnham. The A-side's label includes the acknowledgement "Vacuum cleaner solo: Mr. Jolly".
Whispering Jack is the twelfth studio album by Australian adult contemporary pop singer John Farnham. It was produced by Ross Fraser, and released on 20 October 1986, peaking at #1 on the Australian Kent Music Report Album Charts. Whispering Jack has become the second best-selling-album in Australia, behind Meatloaf's album Bat Out of Hell, and the highest selling album in Australia by an Australian artist - 24x platinum indicating sales of over 1.68 million copies sold. It spent 25 weeks at the No. 1 spot on the Album Charts during 1986–1987, it was awarded the 1987 ARIA Award for "Album of the Year", and was the best charting album for the decade of the 1980s in Australia. It was the first Australian-made album to be released on Compact Disc within Australia. One of Farnham's biggest hits, "You're the Voice" was issued as the lead single from this album and peaked at No. 1 on the Kent Music Report Singles Charts.
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Australian pop music awards are a series of inter-related national awards that gave recognition to popular musical artists and have included the Go-Set pop poll (1966–1972); TV Week King of Pop Awards (1967–1978); TV Week and Countdown Music Awards (1979–1980); the Countdown Awards (1981–1982) and Countdown Music and Video Awards (1983–1987). Early awards were based on popular voting from readers of teenage pop music newspaper Go-Set and television program guide TV Week. They were followed by responses from viewers of Countdown, a TV pop music series (1974–1987) on national broadcaster Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Some of the later award ceremonies incorporated listed nominees and peer-voted awards. From 1987 the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) instituted its own peer-voted ARIA Music Awards.
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