Skyhooks - A Collection

 

Skyhooks were an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1973. Their classic lineup (1974–1977) comprised Graeme "Shirley" Strachan (vocals), Greg Macainsh (bass and backing vocals), Red Symons (guitar, vocals, keyboards), Bob "Bongo" Starkie (guitar and backing vocals), and Imants "Freddie" Strauks (drums).

Known for their flamboyant costumes and makeup, their music addressed a variety of issues including drugs, sex, and the gay scene while frequently referencing Australian places and culture. Evolving from a series of groups with Macainsh and Strauks in the late 1960s and early 1970s, they rose to national prominence when their debut album Living in the 70's (1974), which was initially a moderate success upon release, gained unprecedented popularity the following year, aided by the nascent ABC music show Countdown; the album topped the Australian Kent Music Report chart for a record-breaking 16 weeks and sold over 200,000 copies, becoming the best-selling Australian album at the time. Their second album Ego Is Not a Dirty Word (1975) topped the Kent Music Report for 11 weeks.

Symons and Strachan left in 1977 and 1978 respectively and became media personalities; Symons was replaced with Bob Spencer and Strachan was replaced with Tony Williams, before they disbanded in 1980. The classic lineup reunited four times in the ensuing years, with reunions in 1990 and 1994 producing new material, including the number-one song "Jukebox in Siberia" in 1990. Strachan died in a helicopter crash in 2001; original lead singer Steve Hill, who left and was replaced by Strachan, died in 2005, and original guitarist Peter Starkie died in 2020.

Music historian Ian McFarlane stated that the band "made an enormous impact on Australian social life". In 1992, the group was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame. In 2011, the Skyhooks album Living in the 70's was added to the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's Sounds of Australia registry.

Living In The 70's (1974)

Ego Is Not A Dirty Word (1975)

Straight In a Gay Gay World (1976)

The Skyhooks Tapes (1977)

Guilty Until Proven Insane (1978)

Live! Be In It (1978)

The Best of Skyhooks (1979)

Hot For the Orient (1980)

Live In The 80's (1983)

Living In The 70's (1984 reissue)

Red Symons - The Big Time (1987 single)

Skyhooks Flexidisc (1988)

The Latest and Greatest (1990)

Happy Hippy Hut / Ballad Of Oz (1994 single)

Skyhooks/Daddy Cool

Singles And B Sides (1994)

The Collection (1999)

Don't You Believe What You've Seen Or You've Heard (2015)

Hits'N'Riffs (2015)

(When The Sun Sets Over) Carlton (Melbourne's Countercultural Inner City Rock Scene Of The '70s)

 

1-1 Skyhooks– Carlton (Lygon Street Limbo)

1-2 The Sports– Who Listens To The Radio?

1-3 Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons – So Young

1-4 The Dots – Lowdown

1-5 Stiletto – Middle Of The Bed

1-6 The Bleeding Hearts – Hit Single

1-7 Daddy Cool – Boy You're Paranoid

1-8 Mighty Kong– Hard Drugs (Are Bad For You)

1-9 Mondo Rock– Primal Park

1-10 Mark Gillespie – Suicide Sister

1-11 High Rise Bombers– Faster Than Light

1-12 The Toads – Eudil

1-13 The Pelaco Bros – Mechanics In A Relaxed Manner

1-14 The Relaxed Mechanics – Truckin' Casanova

1-15 Millionaires*– Gossip

1-16 The Kevins – Out At Night

1-17 Martin Armiger & Buzz Leeson – No Reason

1-18 Parachute – The Big Beat

1-19 Spare Change – Let's Get Rich Together

1-20 Glory Boys – The Ballad Of Good & Evil

1-21 Eric Gradman Man & Machine– Crime Of Passion

2-1 Martin Armiger– I Love My Car

2-2 The Bleeding Hearts – Boys (Greg Macainsh Demo Version)

2-3 Stiletto – Rozalyn

2-4 The Dots – I See Red

2-5 Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons – Only The Lonely Hearted

2-6 The Sports– Suddenly

2-7 Mondo Rock– Telephone Booth

2-8 Daddy Cool – Saturday Night

2-9 Skyhooks– Hey, What's The Matter (Steve Hill Demo Version)

2-10 Company Caine– Buzzin' With My Cousin

2-11 The Indelible Murtceps – Blue Movies

2-12 Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band– Roll That Reefer

2-13 Stephen Cummings & Dave Flett – The Third Degree

2-14 Rock Granite– You Got Me Where You Want Me

2-15 Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons – Someday It's Gonna Come To You (1976 Demo Version)

2-16 Mark Gillespie – Comin' Back For More

2-17 Autodrifters – Locked Out Of Love

2-18 Fabulous Nudes– I'll Be A Dag For You, Baby

2-19 The Pelaco Bros – Truckdrivin' Guru

2-20 Peter Lillie & The Leisuremasters– Hangin' Round The House

2-21 The Sports– Live, Work & Play (Nightmoves Live Version)

2-22 High Rise Bombers– Radio Show

2-23 Eric Gradman Man & Machine– The Bright Boy

2-24 Skyhooks– This Is My City

(When The Sun Sets Over) Carlton

All Fired Up - The Lost Treasures Of Australian Music 1970-1990

 

All Fired Up is a collection of Australian rock rarities released by ScreenSound Australia, the National Screen and Sound Archive, which features "hits, near misses and obscurities" of Australian music. The lineup includes famous Australian acts such as Mondo Rock, Icehouse, Redgum, Richard Clapton, John Paul Young, Ted Mulry and Goanna, and is especially welcome for the inclusion of some long-lost rarities by cult acts like Friends and Mandu.

The compilation presents an eclectic sampling of OzRock from the 70s to the 90s, and many tracks, most lifted from the B-sides of rare singles, have never before been released on CD. These include the original Australian version of the Pat Benatar hit All Fired Up (performed by Rattling Sabres), the Franklin Dam protest song Let the Franklin Flow performed by members of bands Goanna and Redgum, and the novelty song How About a Beer for the Horse performed by John Paul Young and the All Stars under the jokey guise of 'Sandshoe Willie and The Worn Out Soul Band'. The tracks were selected by Canberra music historian and radio presenter Paul Conn, author of 2000 Weeks: The First Thirty Years Of Australian Music And Then Some.

1 Rattling Sabres– All Fired Up

2 Sharon O'Neill– Power

3 Friends – B B Boogie

4 Richard Clapton– Goodbye Barbara Ann

5 The Chinless Elite – I Heard It Through The Grapevine

6 Sandshoe Willie & The Worn Out Soul Band– How About A Beer For The Horse

7 Mario Millo– Rebecca

8 Gordon Franklin And The Wilderness Ensemble– Let The Franklin Flow

9 Mondo Rock– Il Mondo Cafe

10 Redgum– Roll It On Robbie

11 Mandu– To The Shores Of His Heaven

12 Doug Parkinson– Arcade

13 Split Enz– Two Of A Kind

14 Ted Mulry– So Much In Love

15 Flowers – Sorry

All Fired Up

re-uploads - Hot Generation, Do the Pop!, The Missing Links, The Purple Hearts, The Town Criers

 

More re-uploads of dead links of past posts. Just click on the links below the image to go the original post.

Hot Generation...1960's Punk from Down Under

Do the Pop! The Australian Garage-Rock Sound 1976-87

The Missing Links...Driving You Insane..Aussie Punk Rock from the 1960's

The Purple Hearts and The Coloured Balls...Benzedrine Beat! 1964-1970

The Town Criers...Complete Recordings

Morning of the Earth...1972 original film soundtrack...music by Taman Shud, Brian Cadd, G.Wayne Thomas

Morning of the Earth is arguably the first surf movie that went beyond waves and into something of a (wordless) meditation on life based on surfing. The film is a product of it's time (very early '70's - first years of shortboard transition) and is full of back-to-the-country hippy vibes as well as some beautifully filmed surfing on Australian, Hawaian and Bali waves. The soundtrack is therefore a mixed bag of Australasian country folk (G.Wayne Thomas, Brian Cadd) and psychedelic prog-rock (Taman Shud). Like the film the soundtrack is a bit of a time machine back to a by-gone era. It is for the nostalgic or those wanting a good compilation of early 70's Australasian psych-folk stuff. The film is still one of the all-time classic surf movies too so check it out. (Amazon review)

Very few soundtrack recordings give themselves to anything more than a passing link to the film as a movie soundtrack should. Morning Of The Earth defies that definition! it cleverly assembles (in that era) Australia's finest musicians and makes a group statement through the music of a land that existed once where you could grab a change of shorts a board and a couple of cassettes in the panel van and head on up the coast! (discogs review)

Tracklist:
–G. Wayne Thomas Morning Of The Earth 5:09
–Terry Hannigan I'll Be Alright 4:05
–Taman Shud First Things First 4:09
–Brian Cadd Sure Feels Good 3:44
–G. Wayne Thomas Open Up Your Heart 3:41
–John J. Francis Simple Ben 7:41
–Taman Shud Bali Waters 6:13
–Brian Cadd Making It On Your Own 6:00
–G. Wayne Thomas Day Comes 2:55
–Taman Shud Sea The Swells 6:13
–Peter Howe I'm Alive 3:41
–Brian Cadd Come With Me 4:56

Morning of the Earth

Australian Rock 71-72 Vol.1 Collectors Album - Havoc label vinyl release

This is a vinyl rip from an album released on the Havoc label in the early 1970's. It features several Havoc label artists of the time such as Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, Carson and The Wild Cherries featuring Lobby Loyde.

These are the original album liner notes:

Australian Rock has fought long and hard for recognition.  The medium that has been directly responsible for Rock culture is radio. Most Australian radio is modeled on American and than anything else has shaped the audience and the criticism of Australian Rock.

To compete in the play list war, an Australian musical group has to deliver an American or English sounding rock number. This retarding condition is now beginning to change. Australian Rock has a high energy potential - the same high energy potential that was found in early Little Richard, Presley, Berry and Domino rock. The same high energy potential as early English rock by the Animals, Stones, Kinks and some Beatle Rockers. Other high energy potential groups were Cream, Hendrix, Yardbirds and The Who.

American and English Rock differ in their high energy potential distribution and Australian Rock differs from both of these by its high energy rhythm sections with high density colour trips. Australian Rock is at last becoming noticed by the Australian media and the Australian audience. Given time, Australian Rock will be heard and appreciated everywhere . So - "Watch out World".
Lobby Loyde - September 72.

Australian Rock

Track Listing:
01 - Dawn Song (Aztecs)
02 - Traveling South (Carson)
03 - Pattern Of My Life (Michael Turner In Session)
04 - Time To Live (Aztecs)
05 - Moonshine (Carson)
06 - Slowest Guitar On Earth (Lobby Loyde)
07 - Most People I Know (Aztecs)
08 - Liberate Rock (Lobby Loyde and the Coloured Balls)
09 - Cold Feet (Chook)
10 - Don't Worry (Carson)
11 - I Am The Sea (Wild Cherries)
12 - Just Around Midnight (Michael Turner In Session)
[Bonus Missing Tracks]
13 - Daily Planet (Wild Cherries)
14 - Regulation Puff (Aztecs)

https://youtu.be/5BFNk7QUZ9w

Wide Open Road..a road trip through Australia's musical landscape...various artists

An excellent 31 track compilation featuring a cross section of Australian artists from the 60's to the 90's...

Tracklist
1-1 –The Triffids Wide Open Road
1-2 –Hunters & Collectors 42 Wheels
1-3 –The Saints (I'm) Stranded
1-4 –The Cruel Sea This Is Not The Way Home
1-5 –Dave Graney & Clare Moore I Was A Country Boy
1-6 –Darren Hanlon Manilla, NSW
1-7 –No Fixed Address We Have Survived
1-8 –Midnight Oil The Dead Heart
1-9 –The Reels World's End
1-10 –Hilltop Hoods City Of Light
1-11 –TISM Morningtown Ride
1-12 –Cold Chisel Khe Sanh
1-13 –Skyhooks Balwyn Calling
1-14 –Hard-Ons Wog Food
1-15 –TZU City
1-16 –Weddings, Parties, Anything Under The Clocks
1-17 –You Am I Soldiers

2-1 –The Birthday Party Cry
2-2 –Laughing Clowns Holy Joe
2-3 –The Scientists Murderess In A Purple Dress
2-4 –The Celibate Rifles Kent's Theme
2-5 –Spiderbait Sam Gribbles (Live)
2-6 –Custard Music Is Crap
2-7 –The Grates Inside Outside (Live)
2-8 –The Atlantics Bombora
2-9 –James Reyne The Boys Light Up (Acoustic)
2-10 –Taman Shud What's Come Over You
2-11 –The John Butler Trio Home Is Where The Heart Is
2-12 –The Waifs Highway One
2-13 –The Pigram Brothers  Saltwater Cowboy
2-14 –Warumpi Band My Island Home

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The Glory Days of Aussie Pub Rock Vol.2....various artists compilation

Volume 2 of The Glory Days of Aussie Pub Rock gathers once again gathers the cream of Aussie Rock from the 70's, 80's and 90's. 

It features different tracks from the much the same list of big names as last time and much much more. That list of big names is massive. Cold Chisel, The Angels, Men at Work, Australian Crawl, the Sports, Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons, Mental As Anything, Split Enz, Sunnyboys, Screaming Jets, Rose Tattoo, the Radiators, Paul Kelly & The Coloured Girls, the Dingoes, Ian Moss, Goanna, Dragon, Flowers, Noiseworks, Hunters & Collectors, Skyhooks (their lone post-Shirl hit 'Over the Border'), Baby Animals, Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs, TMG, Dragon, Dave Warner's From the Suburbs, Choirboys, Richard Clapton, the Saints, the Reels, Mi-Sex, Mondo Rock, the Models, The Badloves (with Jimmy Barnes), Matt Finish, V Spy V Spy, Uncanny X-Men, Warumpi Band, Weddings Parties Anything, Russell Morris, Black Sorrows; all these and more are represented by tracks that not only shook pub walls back in the day but pumped out of transistor radios and, in most cases, Sunday night ABC TV screens too. 

Also featured are plenty of big names who weren't included last time, including the Hoodoo Gurus, Jim Keays with his 1975 remake of 'Undecided', Ol'55, Kings of the Sun, Daddy Cool (with the rare 1975 comeback single 'All I Wanna Do Is Rock'), Little River Band, Mother Goose, Kevin Borich Express, Rose Tattoo slide guitarist Peter Wells' brilliant 'Between the Saddle and the Ground', Little Heroes with 'One Perfect Day', indigenous reggae-rock trailblazers No Fixed Address with 'Black Man's Rights', Vika & Linda rocking up a storm on a song that Paul Kelly wrote but never recorded with the Dots 'I Didn't Know Love Could Be Mine', Sydney '80s faves Flaming Hands, the Riptides and Dynamic Hepnotics, Melbourne mainstays Nick Barker & The Reptiles, Mike Rudd & the Heaters and the Spaniards (featuring Billy Miller & Mick Pealing), and glam-era pub favourites Hush, Taste and Supernaut. 

Other noteworthy tracks include rare singles by Stars (1976's 'With A Winning Hand', which never appeared on an album) and post-Ol'55 power poppers the Breakers who featured in the original 'Puberty Blues' movie, and the first ever reissue of anything by Gary Young & the Rocking Emus (the great single 'Rockabilly Heaven', featuring the great Daddy Cool/Jo Jo Zep drummer together with late fellow DC members Wayne Duncan and Ross Hannaford). There's also the rare but great 1971 single 'If You Got It' by legendary Adelaide group Fraternity, featuring Bon Scott on vocals. 

The collection ends with the Party Boys and John Swan - John had replaced Bon in Fraternity - who together give us an idea of what AC/DC might've sounded like if Swanee had also replaced Bon (or Brian) in AC/DC, with a ripping 'High Voltage.'

A sheer smörgåsbord for lovers of classic Aussie Rock!

see also blog post for Vol.1: https://theaussiemusicblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/the-glory-days-of-aussie-pub-rockvol1.html

available on Amazon HERE:

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The Glory Days of Aussie Pub Rock..Vol.1

This very generous 91 track compilation brings together the cream of the Aussie pub rock scene from the 1970's/80's with artists such as Skyhooks, The Sports, Jo Jo Zep and The Falcons, The Angels, Cold Chisel, Hunters and Collectors, Midnight Oil, Paul Kelly, Richard Clapton, Mondo Rock and a host more. Also included are many rarities and not so well known artists like The Elks, Heroes, Ray Arnott, The Hitmen, The Screaming Tribesmen, The Johnnys and The Aliens. A treat for the Aussie music enthusiast and one for the collection.

Available on Amazon and Ebay...

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Zoot Locker..The Best of The Zoot 1968-1971..featuring Rick Springfield, Darryl Cotton and Beeb Birtles

Zoot were a pop-rock band formed in Adelaide, South Australia in 1965 as Down the Line. They changed their name to Zoot in 1967 and by 1968 had relocated to Melbourne. They had a top five hit on the Go-Set national singles chart with a heavy rock cover of The Beatles' ballad "Eleanor Rigby" released in 1970; but they disbanded in May 1971.

Mainstay bass guitarist, Beeb Birtles, was later a founder of Little River Band in 1975 and guitarist singer-songwriter, Rick Springfield, who moved to the United States in 1972, achieved international fame as a solo artist, songwriter and actor.

Although Zoot were a popular band during the late 1960's, critics labeled them as teenybopper or light bubblegum due primarily to the Think Pink – Think Zoot publicity campaign devised by their management. After relocating to Melbourne in mid-1968, Zoot signed with Columbia Records/EMI Australia and were managed by Wayne de Gruchy. They recorded their first single, "You'd Better Get Goin' Now", a Jackie Lomax cover with David Mackay producing.

Zoot's second single, "1 × 2 × 3 × 4" was released in December and charted on the Go-Set National Top 40 Singles Chart. By early 1970, band members had tired of the garish pink outfits and associated harassment and physical abuse, hence, to rid themselves of the bubblegum/teen idol image, they burnt their outfits on TV music show, Happening '70. Zoot then promoted their fifth single "Hey Pinky", released in April, with an advertisement in Go-Set which featured a nude picture of their bums. "Hey Pinky" was a hard charging guitar oriented song but it failed to chart.

They released a hard rock cover of The Beatles' song, "Eleanor Rigby" which became their most popular single when it peaked at No. 4 in March 1971. It remained in the Top 40 for twenty weeks and reached No. 12 on the Top Records for the Year of 1971. Their next single, "The Freak" / "Evil Child", another hard rock song, was released in April and peaked into the top 30.

Zoot Locker

Billy Thorpe and The Aztecs....the "heavy" version...Lock Up Your Mothers

Billy Thorpe himself openly acknowledged that the 'heavy' version of the Aztecs owed much to 'guitar hero' Lobby Loyde. Lloyde already had a cult following due to his stints in two of the most original Australian bands of the 1960's, The Purple Hearts and The Wild Cherries. While his stint in the new Aztecs was short (from December 1968 to January 1971), his musical influence proved crucial in steering Thorpe in a completely new direction, and he strongly encouraged Thorpe to keep playing guitar.

The new Aztecs' blues-based heavy-rock repertoire was dramatically different in style from the original group, and they quickly became famous (or notorious) for the ear-splitting volume at which they played. Thorpe had also drastically changed his appearance—he grew a beard, often wore his now shoulder-length hair braided in a pigtail, and he had long since traded the tailored suits for jeans and T-shirts. Needless to say this did not endear him to people who came to the shows expecting the 'old' Billy Thorpe of the "Poison Ivy" era, and this led to sometimes violent confrontations with disgruntled fans and promoters.

Their breakthrough recording was an ambitious album, The Hoax Is Over, recorded in September 1970 with new drummer Kevin Murphy. The album was an unequivocal signal of the Aztecs' new direction, containing only four tracks, three of which were Thorpe originals. The LP is dominated by two extended tracks: a version of Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "Gangster of Love", which clocked in at 24:35 and ran the entire length of Side 1 (an unprecedented move in Australian pop music) and Thorpe's own "Mississippi" which ran 19'35". According to Thorpe, the band (which at this time comprising himself, Murphy, pianist Warren Morgan, guitar legend Lobby Loyde and bassist Paul Wheeler), were all high on LSD and jammed continuously while engineer Ernie Rose just let the tapes roll. The result heralded the fully-fledged arrival of the new Aztecs and live shows at Melbourne venues consolidated the band's reputation and drew enthusiastic responses.

Lock Up Your Mothers