Skyhooks LIve! Be In It ...70's live set from legendary rockers

Skyhooks formed in Melbourne in March 1973 by mainstays Greg Macainsh on bass guitar and backing vocals, and Imants "Freddie" Strauks on drums. They were soon joined by Bob "Bongo" Starkie on guitar and backing vocals, and Red Symons on guitar, vocals and keyboards; Graeme "Shirley" Strachan became lead vocalist in March 1974. Described as a glam rock band, because of flamboyant costumes and make-up, Skyhooks addressed teenage issues including buying drugs "Carlton (Lygon Street Limbo)", suburban sex "Balwyn Calling", the gay scene "Toorak Cowboy" and loss of girlfriends "Somewhere in Sydney" by name-checking Australian locales. According to music historian, Ian McFarlane "[Skyhooks] made an enormous impact on Australian social life".

Skyhooks had #1 albums on the Australian Kent Music Report with their 1974 debut, Living in the 70's (for 16 weeks), and its 1975 follow-up, Ego Is Not a Dirty Word (11 weeks). Their #1 singles were "Horror Movie" (January 1975) and "Jukebox in Siberia" (November 1990).

Live! Be in It was their first live album and was released by Mushroom Records on cassette and vinyl in 1978 in Australia and on CD in 1991. The live recordings are taken from various concerts around Melbourne from December 1975 to July 1978.

Be in It

Track listing
"Mercedes Ladies" – 3:41
"Balwyn Calling" – 4:52
"Smartarse Songwriters" – 5:20
"Sitting in a Bar In Adelaide" – 4:59
"All My Friends Are Getting Married" – 4:43
"The Bruce Suite" – 10:08
"Kaboodleschnitzer Kommercials" – 2:15
"Wild in the Streets" – 6:26
"Do the Hook" – 2:36
"Why Dont'cha All Get Fucked" – 3:56
"Brown Sugar" – 6:22
"Bondage on the Boulevard" – 3:51
"Party to End All Parties" – 3:27
"Sex Is Not a Dirty Word" – 4:38
"Women in Uniform" – 5:00
"The Bruce Suite" is made up of "Big Bad Bruce", "Straight in a Gay Gay World" and "I'm Normal"

Greg Macainsh – bass, vocals, production
Freddy Kaboodleschnitzer – drums, vocals
Bob Spencer – guitar, vocals (tracks 1–5, 7–15)
Bongo Starr – guitar, vocals (track 6)
Red Symons – guitar, vocals (track 6)
Merry Took – percussion (track 6)
Danny Robinson – vocals (track 6)

Shirley Strachan – vocals


Read more about Skyhooks on Wikipedia HERE

Tully..underground/progressive rock..3 albums...self titled 1970, Loving is Hard 1972 and Live in Sydney

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Tully formed in Sydney in late 1968, and along with Tamam Shud they were the doyens of the Sydney underground/progressive scene in the late 60's and early '70s. Their lyrical and expansive music and their interest in mysticism and esoteric philosophy was at some remove from the earthy blues/boogie ethos of contemporaries like The Aztecs, but they built up a strong following on the Sydney underground scene and the Melbourne concert circuit. Tully's members were all highly accomplished multi-instrumentalists, with years of experience behind them, and this musical breadth quickly earned them a reputation as one of the most adventurous and polished concert bands of the period.

They originally signed with EMI and their excellent self-titled debut LP was released on the Columbia label in July 1970; it charted well, spending eight weeks in the Top 40 and peaking at #8. Around this time Michael Carlos became the proud owner of one of the first Moog synthesisers to be brought into Australia, and they became the first local band to use one in live performance. Such was the public profile of Dr Bob's new instrument (thanks to The Beatles, the Beach Boys and Walter Carlos) that Tully's concerts were co-billed as "Tully and The Moog".

In 1971 Tully moved to EMI's new progressive label Harvest, and released their only single, the spiritually inspired Krishna Came / Lord Baba which came out in May. This was followed in June by their second LP Sea Of Joy, the soundtrack to the surf film of the same name by Paul Witzig, who had also previously worked with Tamam Shud. The band had stockpiled enough material prior to the split for EMI to compile a third and final LP which was released in 1972 as the album Loving Is Hard.

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non album live TV program Tully and Wendy Saddington on Fusions 1969
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Colin Campbell (guitar) 1971-72 
Michael Carlos (keyboards)
Graham Conlan (bass) 1969
Richard Lockwood (flute/sax/clarinet/piano) 1968-72 
John Blake (bass) 1968-69
Ken Firth (bass) 1970-72
Shayna (Karlin) Stewart (vocals) 1971-72
Robert Taylor (drums) 1968-70

text courtesy of Milesago

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Wendy Saddington and Copperwine Live 1971..rare release from sensual blues and soul vocalist

Wendy June Saddington also known as Gandharvika Dasi (26 September 1949 – 21 June 2013) was an Australian blues, soul and jazz singer, and was in the bands Chain, Copperwine and the Wendy Saddington Band. She wrote for teen pop newspaper Go-Set from September 1969 to September 1970 as an agony aunt in her weekly "Takes Care of Business" column, and as a feature writer. Saddington had Top 30 chart success with her 1972 solo single "Looking Through a Window", which was written and produced by Billy Thorpe and Warren Morgan of the Aztecs. After adopting Krishna Consciousness in the 1970s she took the name, Gandharvika Dasi. In March 2013 she was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and died on 21 June 2013, aged 63. An underrated talent and very sad loss.

Wendy Saddington's musical influences included the likes of Bessie Smith, Etta James, Mahalia Jackson, Odetta, Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone, Janis Joplin, and the raw blues from the Mississippi delta, along with the swanky soul coming from the American Stax, Atlantic and Motown labels. There was also something of the vulnerability of Edith Piaf in Wendy's pleading, bleeding vocal entreaties.

Saddington first came to notice in Melbourne psych-soul outfit The Revolution, before swiftly joining Adelaide's psychedelic/classically flavoured James Taylor Move around late 1967. When Wendy joined the emerging blues-rock ensemble Beaten Tracks, which she named (The) Chain, after the song by one of her heroines, Aretha Franklin's soul classic, "Chain Of Fools". Wendy spent around 18 months touring with Chain, and it was during this time that her passionate, earth-mother Joplin/Franklin vocal style came to prominent notice among promoters and punters alike. Also, her 'outlandish' appearance attracted magazines like Go-Set: a sad waif-like face, heavily mascara-ed around the eyes, framed by the hugest of afro 'do' this side of Jimi's Experience! Wendy favoured simple Levi's, with a basic shirt or cheesecloth kaftan top, copiously accessorised with love-beads and bangles.

Saddington's next musical outing was with Jeff St John's highly acclaimed and well-established group, Copperwine, and it's here that we finally have an officially-released recording of her sublime vocal performances! Wendy joined the band in March 1970, just after the release of Copperwine's superb Joint Effort album, and she sang live as co-lead with St John for a concentrated touring regime through to February 1971. In January of that year, with St John temporarily away from the band, Saddington fronted Copperwine for their acclaimed performance at the Wallacia Festival on the central-coast of New South Wales.

A live recording of the event was released on Festival's new progressive subsidiary Infinity during '71, which showcased Copperwine's sympathetic backing sensibilities for Wendy's distinctive vocals. On such cuts as the funky opener, Nina Simone's "Backlash Blues", and her heartfelt reading of Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues", Saddington continually astonishes with her sensual soul power. Another notable inclusion is Wendy's introspective and idiosyncratic reading of John Lennon's "Tomorrow Never Knows" (which Wendy introduces as a George Harrison composition!) Other highlights include "Five People Said I Was Crazy " (which, with its wild Ross East guitar solo, Barry Kelly's electric piano flourishes and Wendy's monumental banshee wail, certainly lives up to its title). The closing tour-de-force "Blues In A" completely satisfies the listener as a consummate combination of the music of one of Australia's premier all-purpose prog-blues bands of the time, with definitely one of our most unique and mesmerising blues-soul vocalists.

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