The Sports - A Collection

 

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 (such as Brinsley Schwarz) and British new wave (such as Elvis Costello). 

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 (February 1979), Suddenly (March 1980) and Sondra (May 1981).

In October 2010 Don't Throw Stones was listed in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums.

Fair Game EP (1977)

Reckless (1978)

Don't Throw Stones (1979)

O.K. U.K.! EP (1979)

Poor Mouth (single, 1980)

Suddenly (1980)

Sondra (1981)

The Sports Play Dylan (and Donovan) (1981 EP)

All Sports (1982, Compilation)

This Is Really Something (1997, Compilation)

re-uploads: Avalanche, Carson, Chain, Matt Taylor, Group Therapy compilation

 

Avalanche...boogie-rock from Melbourne..self-titled album from 1976

Carson...On the Air and Blown....classic blues and boogie

Chain..Toward the Blues...Classic Album from 1971

Chain...Two of A Kind...1973 album

Matt Taylor...Straight As A Die...1973 album from Aussie blues legend

Group Therapy..All Aussie 70's Blues and Progressive Rock Compilation

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