The Aussie Music Blog: Blues Rock

Originally named Orange, Cold Chisel formed in Adelaide in 1973 as a heavy-metal cover-band comprising bassist Les Kaczmarek, keyboard player Don Walker, guitarist Ian Moss and drummer Steve Prestwich. Seventeen-year-old singer Jimmy Barnes joined in December 1973, taking leave from the band in 1975 for a brief stint as Bon Scott's replacement in Fraternity.

The group changed its name several times before settling on Cold Chisel in 1974 after writing a song with that title. Barnes' relationship with other band members was volatile; as a Scot he often came to blows with Liverpool-born Prestwich and he left the band several times. During these periods Moss would handle vocals until Barnes returned. Walker soon emerged as Cold Chisel's primary songwriter. Walker spent 1974 in Armidale, completing his studies, and in 1975 Kaczmarek left the band and was replaced by Phil Small. Barnes' older brother John Swan was a member of Cold Chisel around this time, providing backing vocals and percussion but after several violent incidents he was fired.

In May 1976, Cold Chisel relocated to Melbourne but found little success, moving on to Sydney in November. Six months later, in May 1977, Barnes announced he would quit Cold Chisel in order to join Swan in Feather, a hard-rocking blues band that had evolved from an earlier group called Blackfeather. A farewell performance in Sydney went so well that the singer changed his mind. The following month the Warner Music Group picked up Cold Chisel.

Full biography on Wikipedia HERE

Visit my other blogs and pages here:

Blues Jam Session Blog

Music from Our World

Facebook

Twitter

Sunday, May 22, 2016

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

Visit my other music blogs here:

Martin's Music Machine

Facebook

Twitter @islandmanrocks

Monday, December 14, 2015

Kevin Borich Express...Celebration....first album from 1977

Kevin Borich Express was formed in early 1976 by Borich on lead guitar,lead vocals and occasional flute with Harry Brus on bass guitar (ex-Blackfeather) and Barry Harvey on drums (Wild Cherries, Chain). They recorded a track, "The End of Me" before Brus and Harvey were soon replaced by Reuben San Fiansco on bass guitar and Gil Matthews on drums.Subsequent line-ups were typically a three piece with a succession of bass guitarist and drummers.They released their debut single, "Goin' Somewhere" in October using Fiansco, and John Annas on drums (Wendy Saddington Band), following in March 1977 was their debut album, Celebration! with Annas, and Tim Partridge on bass guitar (Mighty Kong, The Johnny Rocco Band).The album was favoured by critics and peaked in the top 30 on the Australian albums charts.

Visit my other music blogs here:

Martin's Music Machine
Facebook

Twitter @islandmanrocks

Sunday, September 27, 2015

Rose Tattoo...Aussie hard rockers self-titled debut album from 1978

Rose Tattoo, led by Angry Anderson, formed in Sydney in 1976 with Leigh Johnston on rhythm guitar, Tony Lake on lead vocals and were led by slide guitarist Peter Wells—who had just departed as bass guitarist of heavy metal band Buffalo. Drummer Michael Vandersluys completed the line-up and Ian Rilen from Band of Light joined on bass guitar. . Their sound is hard rock mixed with blues rock influences, with songs including "Bad Boy for Love", "Rock 'n' Roll Outlaw", "Nice Boys", "We Can't Be Beaten" and "Scarred for Life". Their first four albums were produced by Harry Vanda and George Young who also worked with AC/DC. They disbanded in 1987, subsequently reforming briefly in 1993 to support Guns N' Roses on an Australian tour. They reassembled again from 1998 and have since released two more studio albums.

According to Australian rock music historian Ian McFarlane, Rose Tattoo are "one of the most revered bands of all time. The Tatts played peerless, street-level heavy blues with the emphasis on slide guitar and strident lyric statements". Guns N' Roses, L.A. Guns, Keel, Nashville Pussy, Motosierra, Pud Spuke Helen Schneider, and the Uruguayan band The Knight's Night have covered Rose Tattoo songs. On 16 August 2006, they were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame. Six former members have died in recent years including four of the original recording line-up, Dallas Royall (1991), Peter Wells (2006), Ian Rilen (2006), Mick Cocks (2009), and Lobby Loyde (2007), who was a member between October 1979 and September 1980, and Neil Smith (2013), who played bass temporarily prior to Loyde.

Visit my other music blogs here:

Martin's Music Machine

Twitter @islandmanrocks

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

The La De Da's..Rock and Roll Sandwich...classic boogie-rock from 1973

This brilliant album , Rock'n'Roll Sandwich, which Glenn A.Baker rightly lauds as "one of Australia's finest rock albums; a fiery, cohesive work dominated by the superbly talented Kevin Borich and carried off by the reliable gutsiness of Ronnie Peel and Keith Barber." Touring around the new LP, released in November 1973, the La De Das enjoyed their most successive period in their career, including supports for Elton John and Suzi Quatro on their Australian tours.

Tracks:
"No Law (Against Having Fun)" (Kevin Borich)""
"The Place" (Kevin Borich - Keith Barber)
"Searchin' "(Kevin Borich)
"She Tell Me What to Do "(Kevin Borich - Keith Barber)
"Temple Shuffle" (Kevin Borich)
"To Get Enough" (Kevin Borich)
"Who's The One You Love? "(Kevin Borich)

Recorded at the Doncaster Theatre and EMI Studio 301, Sydney
Producer by Rod Coe
Engineered by John Taylor

read more on Milesago here

see also from this blog:

The La-De-Da's ..How Is the Air Up There? 1966-1967

The La De Da's...first 3 albums 1966 - 1969

Visit my other music blogs here:

Martin's Music Machine

Twitter @islandmanrocks

Friday, April 3, 2015

Singer-Songwriter Boroko releases 2 new singles ahead of second album Western Child

Melbourne singer-songwriter, Boroko (aka Tim Fontaine), is set to release his second full-length album, Western Child, this year. He has released 2 singles from the album, "Because Life" and "Lonely Tower".

2 stunning videos have also been released:

Because Life

Lonely Tower (filmed in New York City)

Marty's review: Boroko's music is roots rock based with a hard edged sound. He writes and sings about life as he sees it with well constructed lyrics and a musical backing that shines through with unbridled professionalism. Sometimes dark, sometimes poignant, these are songs that are delivered with a passion and come from the soul.

Stream Boroko's music on Soundcloud here

Facebook

Website

Visit my other music blogs here:
Soundtrack Heaven
The Aussie Music Blog
The Vintage Music Blog
The Jazz Music Blog
This Jukebox Rocks
The Blues and Roots Music Blog
Martin's Music Machine
Twitter @islandmanrocks

Friday, March 13, 2015

Group Therapy..All Aussie 70's Blues and Progressive Rock Compilation on the Infinity Label

This 8 track compilation was released in the 70's on the Infinity label and features some classic blues and progressive rock artists like Chain, Blackfeather, Aztecs, Moonstone and a few other hard to find rarities. Take a trip back.

Friday, January 2, 2015

Coloured Balls..Ball Power...1973 debut album. Greasy, no-frills boogie from Sharpie-Rock legends

Lobby Loyde formed the psychedelic/hard/blues-rock group Coloured Balls in March 1972 with Andrew Fordham on guitar and vocals, Janis Miglans on bass guitar and Trevor Young on drums.Their first single, "Liberate Rock", had been recorded by Loyde with Aztecs' members, Gil Mathews (on drums), Morgan and Wheeler as studio musicians – it was issued in August.

In January 1973, Coloured Balls teamed with guest vocalists Thorpe and Leo de Castro at the Sunbury Pop Festival, their performance was released in November as the "Help Me" / "Rock Me Baby" track on the live album, Summer Jam.The album included Coloured Balls' 16-minute version of "G.O.D.". Fordham had been replaced on guitar by Ian Millar early in the year. Coloured Balls released three singles including "Mess of the Blues" which reached the Top 40 in October.They supported Marc Bolan & T. Rex on their Australian tour.

Coloured Balls released their debut studio album, Ball Power, in December, 1973 on EMI, which peaked at No. 13 on the Go-Set National Top 20 albums chart in February 1974. In January'74, Coloured Balls played at the Sunbury Pop Festival alongside hard rockers, Buster Brown, which included Angry Anderson on vocals and Phil Rudd on drums.

An article on rare albums in the December 2014 issue of Record Collector magazine had this to say about the album: "Coloured Balls personified the uber-macho "sharpie rock" style beloved of skinheads, men at work and other assorted ne'er do wells who frequented urban Australia's fearsome 70's pub scene. They were a mean bunch, and this record remains a rough-as-arseholes testament to antipodean rock'n'roll. The original EMI pressing is as scarce as a teetotaller in Alice Springs!"

Thursday, December 4, 2014

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

Any student of Australian rock music would be hard-pressed to argue against the pure fact that, since its inception in the late sixties, Chain has remained our foremost blues-rock band. In keeping with its hallowed name, there are many links to the Chain story…throughout its six year heyday over the early seventies the band, in its many permutations, commanded an undisputed dominance in the blues idiom. Chain has seen many varied line-ups, no less than 40+ different musicians passing through its ranks. There isn't enough space on this humble little blog to tell the full Chain story, even in a brief form, so I'll just give the starting point and you can go to Milseago for the complete story.

Over the years, Perth has provided the setting for a thriving blues-rock scene, spawning many future stalwarts of the idiom who have gone onto greater national success. The original Chain grew out of this hotbed, forming from the ashes of The Beaten Tracks, who won the Perth heat of the 1967 Hoadley's Battle Of The Sounds. The band at that time comprised Warren Morgan (keys), Dave Hole (guitar), Ace Follington (dr), Murray Wilkins (bs) and Ross Partington (vcls); they moved to Melbourne in early 1968 to avail themselves of their prize, ostensibly recording and touring opportunities in the eastern states.

While in Melbourne, Dave Hole (long recognised as one of Australia's top blues perfprmers) quit The Beaten Tracks, to be replaced by Tasmanian guitarist Phil Manning (formerly of Tony Worsley & the Blue Jays, The Laurie Allen Revue and Bay City Union, among others) and the band returned to Perth, where they lost the services of Partington.

A return to Melbourne in December 1968 saw the group recruit ex-James Taylor Move singer Wendy Saddington, and the first incarnation of (The) Chain was established. Saddington was a blues/soul 'belter' in the vein of Janis Joplin and Aretha Franklin, and it was she who came up with the band's name, derived from Aretha's classic hit, "Chain Of Fools". Sadly, this line-up of Chain never recorded, Saddington having departed by May 1969 to join Copperwine, and later to forge an erratic but compelling solo career.

Chain relocated to Sydney in August and recruited bass player Tim Piper (ex-Chants R&B, Electric Heap, Wild Cherries) and legendary blind keyboardist Claude Papesch (who was also from Electric Heap, and who had been a member of Johnny Devlin & The Devils in New Zealand in the early '60s). This line-up stayed together long enough to record Chain's first single for Festival with house producer Pat Aulton -- "Show Me Home" b/w Morgan's "Mr Time", which was released in September. The single, while not a strong charter, convincingly displayed the group's abilities, and showed the strong and unmistakable influence of The Band -- who profoundly affected so many Aussie acts at the time -- as well as particularly showcasing Manning's fluid guitar style. The single is regarded by many as the earliest example of the "progressive" stance developing rapidly on the OzRock scene around this period.

Follington, Piper and Papesch left Chain late in '69, to form Savage Rose, and each went on to reputable careers in a number of other prominent bands. Chain moved back yet again to Melbourne, where its core hooked up with the ex-Wild Cherries rhythm section of Barry Sullivan (bass) and Barry Harvey (drums). Nick-named, respectively, "Big Goose" and "Little Goose", the two Barrys injected a 'fish-arse-tight' cohesion into the band's sound, and helped unveil what was to become the classic, and best-remembered Chain configuration, gaining considerable notice in the southern capital's burgeoning blues-rock performing circuit in the process. (text courtesy of Milesago)

click here to continue the full Chain story...

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Mackenzie Theory..Out of the Blue..1973..a unique style of progressive rock

Prior to forming Mackenzie Theory, Melbourne-born Rob Mackenzie had played as a guest guitarist with a number of bands, including Friends and Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs. Rob was a natural and gifted musician. He came from a musical family, and had been brought up playing a wide variety of musical styles. Cleis Pearce, who was born in Sydney, moved around Australia widely with her family as a child. She went through a very intensive and conventional regime of classical music training on violin, and as the eldest in the family, she says she bore the brunt of her parents’ high expectations.

One fateful night in September 1971, Cleis attended an Arts Factory performance by a trio from Melbourne. She was immediately enthralled with the music and playing style of the young guitarist, Rob Mackenzie, and when she introduced herself Rob invited her to join them in a jam at the following night's performance. This she did, and on the strength of that one evening’s jamming, Rob obviously realised that he had found a kindred spirit. He invited Cleis to come to Melbourne and form a band with him. After arriving in Melbourne, Rob recruited bassist Mike Leadabrand and drummer Andy Majewski and Mackenzie Theory was born. The name, says Cleis, was simply the expression of Rob’s outlook. He lived for music, constantly talking and theorizing about music and its relationship to life, and putting the band together was the embodiment of his philosophies.

Mackenzie Theory's unique style and presentation quickly established them as a major presence on the flourishing early ‘70s Melbourne scene, playing at venues like the TF Much Ballroom, Sebastians and Berties. It's safe to say that there were few, if any rock bands following anything like the same path in Australia.

As their popularity grew, Mackenzie Theory made regular appearances alongside the likes of Spectrum, Madder Lake, Chain, The Aztecs and Band of Light. The first MacKenzie Theory recording to be released was the eight-minute "New Song and", which was included on Mushroom's inaugural release, the live triple album The Great Australian Rock Festival Sunbury 1973, issued in April.

Cleis recalled the Sunbury performance as a memorable experience. Mackenzie Theory were scheduled to go on at midnight, immediately after a blistering two-hour set by The Aztecs, and it's hard to think of two more wildly contrasting acts. (Cleis says she suspects that some expected Theory's set to be a flop). But in fact, Mackenzie Theory proved to be the perfect “chill out” music to follow the Aztecs' sonic assault and they were warmly received.

The band attempted some studio recordings, but, according to Cleis, her complete lack of studio experience combined with what she felt was the unsympathetic attitudes of the studio staff, she does not have happy memories of the experience. Whatever results there might have been were deemed unusable, so Mushroom opted for a compromise and recorded a live-in-the-studio set, which was released as their debut album, the highly-regarded Out of the Blue in July 1973. Cleis concurs with Ian McFarlane's observation that it “did not do justice to the band's powerful stage presence” but it is invaluable as a snapshot of the band in performance and as a document of at least some of what they were capable of.

text courtesy of Milesago

Monday, June 16, 2014

The La De Da's...first 3 albums 1966 - 1969.. New Zealand band who made success across the Tasman

Talented, sexy, sophisticated, adventurous, dynamic, innovative -- just some of the many tags that have been been attached to The La De Das' name. But one word was always associated with them more than any other - the La De Das were cool.

Their career spans the entire '64-'75 period. Formed in New Zealand at the very start of the beat boom, they were already major stars at home when they relocated across the Tasman a couple of years later. They're practically the only major group (on either shore) to emerge from the beat boom of 1964-65 who managed to ride out the massive musical changes of the Sixties and adapt to the new scene in the Seventies, emerging as one of Australia's most popular hard rock groups during the first half of the Seventies.

There are a lot of similarities to their Aussie contemporaries The Masters Apprentices. Both were touted as their country's answer to The Rolling Stones. Both survived for so long in that mercurial era because they had tons of talent, determination and the ability to adapt their sound and look to align with prevailing trends. Both groups went through major personnel changes -- by the time the Masters split, singer Jim Keays was the only remaining original member, and by the time of their final 1973-74 'power trio' incarnation, only guitarist and singer Kevin Borich remained from the original La De Das lineup.

Like the Masters, they started off as blues/R'n'B purists, and their original style leaned heavily on British R'n'B practitioners - The Rolling Stones, The Yardbirds and John Mayall's Bluesbreakers - and on the American originals like John Lee Hooker, Elmore James and Muddy Waters. They moved into their 'mod' period - with covers of Ray Charles, Motown and Northern Soul favourites, replete with tartan trousers, satin shirts and buckle shoes. Then they plunged headlong into psychedelia (the obligatory concept album, covers of songs from West Coast outfits like Blues Magoos, paisley shirts, sitars, long hair and moustaches). They almost came unstuck after the inevitable -- and ultimately futile -- attempt to "make it in England". But it's here that the stories diverge -- the Masters fell apart in England in 1972, but the Las De Das survived (just) limped back to Australia, regrouped, and bounced back with a mature and reinvigorated take on their R'n'B roots. Their final incarnation as a hard-rockin', no-frills, blues & boogie band carried them very successfully through to the mid-70s.

Here are there first 3 albums which were all originally released in the sixties.