George Young ...1946-2017...former Easybeats guitarist and songwriter tribute post

Former Easybeats guitarist/songwriter and older brother of ACDC's Angus and Malcolm Young has died at the age of 70.

George Redburn Young (born 6 November 1946) was an Australian musician, songwriter and record producer. Born in Scotland, he moved to Australia with his family as a teenager, and became a naturalised citizen. He was a member of the 1960's Australian rock band the Easybeats, and with band mate Harry Vanda he was a co-writer of the international hits "Friday on My Mind" and "Love Is in the Air", the latter recorded by John Paul Young (no relation). Vanda & Young were also the producers of some work by the Australian hard rock band AC/DC, formed by his younger brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Vanda & Young were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1988 and The Easybeats in 2005. 

George Young started his music career in Sydney, after attending Sefton High School as his secondary school. He formed a beat pop band, The Easybeats in late 1964, on rhythm guitar alongside Dick Diamonde (born Dingernam Vandersluys) on bass guitar, Gordon "Snowy" Fleet on drums (ex-Mojos), Harry Vanda (born Johannes Vandenberg) on lead guitar (ex-Starfighters, Starlighters) and Stevie Wright on lead vocals. Aside from performing and recording, Young co-wrote nearly all of their tracks. Early top 10 hits on the Australian singles chart for the Easybeats were co-written by Young with band mate Wright. The group had relocated to United Kingdom to record and perform; they disbanded in late 1969.

After the Easybeats dissolved Young formed a production and song writing duo with Vanda, as Vanda & Young in 1970, initially living in London.They provided pop and rock songs for other recording artists, and for themselves under various stage names: Paintbox, Tramp, Eddie Avana, Moondance, Haffy's Whiskey Sour and Band of Hope. The pair worked with Young's elder brother Alex in Grapefruit. Young and Vanda returned to Sydney in 1973 where they worked for Ted Albert, at his Albert Productions recording studio to become the in house producers.

One studio-based group Marcus Hook Roll Band, was joined in 1974 by Young's brothers, Malcolm and Angus. The brothers had already formed a hard rock group, AC/DC, in 1973. Young helped them with AC/DC, which went on to become a success internationally. Young briefly played as AC/DC's bass guitarist for a short stint, early in their career.

In mid-1976 Young formed Flash and the Pan, initially as a studio-based duo with himself on guitar, keyboards and vocals, and Vanda on guitar and keyboards. They had local top 10 hits with "Hey, St. Peter" (No. 5, September 1976) and "Down Among the Dead Men" (No. 4, July 1978).

Vanda & Young also co-produced Rose Tattoo, The Angels and John Paul Young (no relation).

After retiring from the music industry in the late 1990's, Young resided mainly in Portugal with his family. George Young died on 22 October 2017.

See also Easybeats post on this blog: http://theaussiemusicblog.blogspot.com.au/2013/04/the-easybeatsthe-definitive-anthology.html

Stevie Wright 1947-2015 RIP - Former Easybeats vocalist dies aged 68. Tribute post.

From ABC news: Stevie Wright, who fronted rock outfit The Easybeats in the 1960's, and is widely regarded as Australia's first international pop star, has died at the age of 68. The ARIA hall of famer became ill on Boxing Day and was taken to Moruya Hospital on the New South Wales south coast, where he died on Sunday night with his son Nick by his side. Rock historian Glenn A Baker said Wright "was a dynamo on stage". Read full article HERE.

Stephen Carlton "Stevie" Wright (20 December 1947– 27 December 2015), formerly billed as Little Stevie, was an Australian musician and songwriter who has been called Australia's first international pop star. During 1964–1969 he was lead singer of Sydney-based pop/beat/rock and roll band The Easybeats, widely regarded as the greatest Australian pop band of the 1960's (see original post on this blog about The Easybeats HERE).

After The Easybeats disbanded in 1969, Wright fronted numerous groups including The Stevie Wright Band and Stevie Wright and The Allstars; his solo career included the 1974 single, "Evie (Parts 1, 2 & 3)", which peaked at No. 1 on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart. (See original post on this blog HERE).

Wright's life was detailed in two biographies, Sorry: The Wretched Tale of Little Stevie Wright by Jack Marx (1999) and Hard Road: The Life and Times of Stevie Wright by Glenn Goldsmith (2004). On 14 July 2005, The Easybeats, with Wright as a member, were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame alongside Renée Geyer, Hunters & Collectors, Smoky Dawson, Split Enz and Normie Rowe.

Albums:

Hard Road - 1974

Black Eyed Bruiser  - 1975

Live at the Bridgeway Hotel - 1987

see also: Stevie Wright Sings The Easybeats at Ozzie Music Man

The Easybeats - Definitive Anthology

see original post from this blog HERE

Anthology #1 / Anthology #2

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Down Under Nuggets - Original Australian Artyfacts 1965-1967..Various Artists

Down Under Nuggets is a collection of 29 gems from the heyday of Aussie sixties music. From garage to punk, surf, mod, beat, psychedelic and just plain groovy! Many well known artists like The Easybeats, The Atlantics, Bobby and Laurie, Bee Gees, Wild Cherries, Cherokees, The Loved Ones, Purple Hearts, Missing Links, MPD LTD plus a few more lesser known for you to discover. I'm not going to say much more about this release so I'll let the track listing do the talking. Enjoy!

The Master's Apprentices– Buried And Dead 2:39

The Elois– By My Side 2:15

The Black Diamonds– I Want, Need, Love You 3:00

The Atlantics– Come On 2:54

The Purple Hearts– Early In The Morning 2:08

The Missing Links– Wild About You 2:36

The Creatures – Ugly Thing 3:18

The Lost Souls– This Life Of Mine 2:41

The Moods – Rum Drunk 2:19

Derek's Accent– Ain't Got No Feeling 2:14

The Bee Gees*– Like Nobody Else 2:35

Barrington Davis– Raining Teardrops 2:29

The D-Coys– Bad Times 2:54

The In-Sect – Let This Be A Lesson 2:42

Steve & The Board*– I Want 2:37

Toni McCann– No 1:49

Peter & The Silhouettes– Claudette Jones 2:04

The 5*– There's Time 2:18

Bobby & Laurie*– No Next Time 2:25

MPD Ltd*– I Am What I Am 2:25

The Cherokees – I've Gone Wild 2:41

The Loved Ones – The Loved One 2:51

Phil Jones & The Unknown Blues*– If I Had A Ticket 2:39

The Throb – Black 3:11

The Blue Beats – She's Comin' Home 2:24

The Easybeats– Sorry 2:35

Bobby James Syndicate*– Hey Hey Hey 2:31

The Wild Cherries– Krome Plated Yabby 2:58

The Sunsets – The Hot Generation (Soundtrack Version) 5:29

Down Under Nuggets

Stevie Wright..Hard Road...1974...blockbuster solo debut from legendary Easybeats singer

Stevie Wright's first taste of fame was with the now legendary 60's group, The Easybeats. Together with Harry Vanda and George Young, they created some of the most memorable and iconic music to come out of Australia in the 1960's. They rivaled The Beatles in their talent and success and scored an international hit with "Friday On My Mind".

After the breakup of The Easybeats, Stevie went solo and released his debut solo album, Hard Road, in 1974. Produced by none other than his former Easybeats partners, Harry Vanda and George Young, the album was a huge success in Australia, topping the charts everywhere.

Hard Road is without question Stevie's finest hour, and it remains one of the best Australian albums of the period. The classic Vanda-Young tracks -- the autobiographical "Hard Road", "Didn't I Take You Higher?" and the epic "Evie" were ably complemented by Stevie's own strong compositions "Movin' On Up", "Commando Line", "Life Gets Better" and "Dancing in the Limelight".

Stevie's groundbreaking debut solo single "Evie (Parts I, II and III)" is a genuine rock epic. It is arguably the perfect rock'n'roll song, encapsulating the three basic themes of all love songs -- (A) "Baby it'll be great once we're together, (B) "Baby, it's so great now that we're together" and (C) "Baby, it's so bad since you left me". Clocking in at a whopping eleven minutes in total, it seemed an unlikely chart contender, but the three parts were wisely split across the two sides of the single, and the head-on power rock of "Evie Part I" proved irresistible. Lyrically, it revisited the perennial "gonna have a good time tonight" theme of "Friday On My Mind" and "Good Times" and musically it is perhaps the ultimate distillation of the full-frontal hard rock Vanda & Young had previously essayed on V&Y classics like "Good Times", and showcased the no-frills hard-rocking sound which they would soon hone to perfection with AC/DC.

Released in May 1974, Evie shot to the top of charts, peaking at #2 nationally during July. It did especially well in Melbourne, where it stayed at #1 for seven weeks. The Hard Road album also peaked at #5 nationally and #1 in Melbourne. It was released on Atlantic in the USA and Polydor in the UK and made a strong impression overseas -- Suzi Quatro later covered "Evie", and Rod Stewart included a version of "Hard Road" on his Smiler album. "Evie" is now widely considered to be one of best Australian singles of Seventies.

To promote the records, Stevie hit the road with his aptly-named backing group, The All Stars. The band's lineup shifted several times during its existence but it featured many top-flight players including Warren "Pig" Morgan (piano; ex-Chain, Aztecs), Tim Gaze (lead guitar; ex-Tamam Shud, Kahvas Jute, Ariel) and Johnny Dick (drums; ex-Meteors, Doug Parkinson In Focus, Aztecs).

click here for more information

Ray Brown & The Whispers.. Sydney,1964-66 ...short lived but very successful beat band

Ray Brown and the Whispers were in the vanguard of the first wave of Australian beat pop, from 1964-67, and during their brief career they were one of the most successful and celebrated bands in the country. Aided by his boyish good looks and considerable charm, singer Ray Brown ranked alongside Stevie Wright, Billy Thorpe and Normie Rowe as one of the most popular stars of the period, and The Whispers are now widely recognised as being one of its most accomplished bands. Although they enjoyed unprecedented success at the time, the group was short-lived, and their contribution to Australian music, both during and after the beat boom, is still sadly under-appreciated.

From the outset, Ray and The Whispers distinguished themselves as a top-notch performing unit, both live and on record, and they thoroughly road-tested all their material. In retrospect their only real weakness, as far as a long-term career was concerned, was that there were no writers in the group (unlike The Easybeats, The Blue Jays and their label mates The Bee Gees). But like The Blue Jays, their choice of material showed off both their versatility and their wide-ranging tastes.

Probably the Whispers' greatest love, though, was American soul and R'n'B, and they were tireless champions of the style, covering many numbers by the top performers of that period.Their first major break in came late in the 1964 when they secured the gig as resident band at Sydney's Surf City and The Beach House, taking over from Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs. Within a short time the Whispers were regularly pulling in 2000 punters per night on Fridays and Saturdays, and by the new year they were rivalling The Easybeats for popularity in Sydney.

Their rise to national fame was meteoric -- in just six months they scored four Top 5 hits in a row in Sydney, including their record achievement -- still unbroken -- of three consecutive #1 hits from their first three releases! They were also among the most prolific recording outfits of the day, with a nine singles, ten EPs and five albums to their credit in in little more than two years.

This 2 for 1 album combines their first 2 albums and contains all their hits.

click here for more information

Ray Brown & The Whispers 

Lawrie Barclay (rhythm guitar) 

Ray Brown (vocals) 

Al Jackson (lead guitar) 

Pat Jeffrey (drums) 

John Manners (bass) 

Bobby Richardson (lead guitar) 1964

Ray Brown & The New Whispers (early 1967) 

Ray Brown (vocals) 

Dave Russell (guitar) 

Ronnie Peel (bass) 

Steve Hardy (drums)

 

The Easybeats...The Definitive Anthology..Aussie Beat That Shook the World

"Aussie Beat That Shook the World"

The Easybeats formed in Sydney in late 1964 and disbanded at the end of 1969. They are regarded as the greatest Australian beat/pop band of the 1960s, echoing The Beatles' success in Britain, and were the first Australian rock and roll act to score an international pop hit with their 1966 single "Friday on My Mind".

The band's line-up exemplified the influence of post-war migration on Australian society. All five founding members were from families who had migrated to Australia from Europe: lead singer Stevie Wright and drummer Gordon "Snowy" Fleet were from England; rhythm guitarist George Young was from Scotland; lead guitarist Harry Vanda and bassist Dick Diamonde were from the Netherlands.The band formed at the Villawood Migrant Hostel where the members' families spent their first years in Australia.

Beginning their career in Sydney in late 1964, the band was inspired by the "British Invasion" spearheaded by The Beatles. They quickly rose to become one of the most popular groups in the city. Real estate agent turned pop manager Mike Vaughan took over as their manager and through his efforts they were signed to a production contract with Albert Productions, one of Australia's first independent record production companies. It was established by Ted Albert, whose family owned J. Albert and Sons, one of Australia's oldest and largest music publishing companies.

Albert then signed the band to a recording contract with EMI's Parlophone label, and they began a meteoric rise to national stardom. By the end of 1965 they were the most popular and successful pop band in Australia, and their concerts and public appearances were regularly marked by intense fan hysteria which was very similar to 'Beatlemania' and which was soon dubbed 'Easyfever'.

Easybeats 001

Easybeats 002