SHERBET ROCKED US ..not so gently

FIRSTLY...let me state from the off that when Sherbet was ruling the aussie charts, I was more interested in chasing their fans than chasing the band...sure they had some cracking tunes, but they were a chicks band...RIGHT...although I know of at least one male cousin of mine who had a copy of HOWZAT...and I, myself of recent time have grabbed a couple of compilations and the most recent DVD release, I got 'em for  the wife,Deb ( and everyone out there in 3 part harmony goes SURE YOU DID)...SHERBET LIVE..and the crowd went wild, and I will admit to digging the set they did at the Countdown Spectacular, they sure didn't rock me gently that night...yeh yeh I know crap pun.....ANYWAY

Sherbet (or Highway or The Sherbs) are one of the most successful Australian rock bands of that came roaring out of the 70's. The 'classic line-up' of Daryl Braithwaite on vocals, Tony Mitchell on bass guitar, Garth Porter on keyboards, Alan Sandow on drums, and Clive Shakespeare on guitar provided some of the best pop songs ever heard in the aussie charts

In 1971, Sherbet entered Australia's prestigious national rock band contest, Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds, and won the New South Wales final but lost the national final to Adeliade-based band Fraternity (led by Bon Scott) They entered again in 1972 and won the national final,

 In 1976 Shakespeare left and was soon replaced by Harvey James. Sherbet's biggest singles were "Summer Love" (1975) and "Howzat" (1976), both reaching number one in Australia. "Howzat" was also a top 5 hit with the poms. The band, like a lot of aussie bands, was less successful in the United States, where "Howzat" peaked at No. 61. As The Sherbs they also reached No. 61 in 1981 with "I Have the Skill".and also, they were the first Australian band to turn their merchandising into a huge industry; and they pioneered the concept of massive regional tours. In December 1976, the book Sherbet on Tour, by Christie Eliezer, sold 30,000 copies in its first week

 According to rock music historians, alongside Skyhooks, Sherbet were the most successful Australian pop band of the 1970s. With a run of 20 consecutive hit singles to its credit, and 17 albums that yielded ten platinum and 40 gold, Sherbet was the first domestic act to sell a million dollars worth of records in Australia".

Sherbet have reunited on occasion over subsequent years. Their first reunion was an ABC-TV special on New Year's Eve 1998. They performed "Howzat" and "Summer Love" without Alan Sandow – John Watson (ex-Kevin Borich Band, Australian Crawl) filled in on drums. In March 2001 with Sandow on board, the band reunited for Gimme Ted – a benefit concert for Ted Mulry.] In June 2003 Sherbet performed at another benefit show for former roadie, Wane Jarvis

At the May 2006 Logie Awards Sherbet reunited as a six-piece: Braithwaite, James, Mitchell, Porter, Sandow and Shakespeare, where they performed "Howzat". The band played three shows in late August 2006 billed as Daryl Braithwaite and Highway. They followed by joining the Countdown Spectacular tour throughout Australia during September and October. 2006 also saw the release of two newly recorded tracks on the compilation album, Sherbet – Super Hits, "Red Dress" (Porter, Shakespeare, Braithwaite, Mitchell, James, Sandow) and "Hearts Are Insane" (Porter), both produced by Ted Howard.

As with a goodly percentage of Aussie bands, they released a fair share of covers throughout the 1970s: Leiber and Stoller's "Hound Dog", The Beatles' "Nowhere Man" and Free's "Wishing Well". From 1972 to 1976, Sherbet's chief songwriting team of Porter and Shakespeare were responsible for co-writing the lion's share of the band's material,

2007 saw the release of a live compilation on CD and DVD entitled Live – And the Crowd Went Wild encompassing material recorded in the 1970s at shows in Sydney, Melbourne and the UK. Sherbet performed on the Countdown Spectacular 2 in August and September. Their song "Howzat" is played at Twenty20 cricket matches.

Sherbet's first chart hits on the Go-Set National Top 40 were covers of Blue Mink's "Can You Feel It Baby?" (September 1971), Delaney and Bonnie's "Free the People" (February 1972) and Ted Mulry's "You're All Woman" (September 1972). Most of their early recordings were produced by Festival's in-house producer Richard Batchen's, who later produced albums and singles for another Infinity label mate, Richard Clapton. The band increased its profile with prestigious support slots on major tours by visiting international acts including Gary Glitter and The Jackson 5.

The group disbanded in 1984. Subsequent re-unions have occurred since 1998.

 In 1990 Sherbet were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame....On 15 January 2011 Harvey James died of lung cancer...the remaining members performed at Gimme that Guitar, a tribute concert for Harvey on 17 February.

 and just as I was getting ready to do the blog,  the news came through that Clive Shakespeare the musical and songwriting powerhouse of the band died of prostate cancer....yeh I know...

AUSSIE CRAWL....SONS OF BEACHES

Australian Crawl or to use the more popular vernacular, Aussie Crawl were a great fkn rock band founded by James Reyne (lead vocals/piano), Brad Robinson (rhythm guitar), Paul Williams (bass guitar), Simon Binks (lead guitar) and David Reyne (drums) in 1978.

first time I saw them, was in 1979 at Maroubra Seals, on a mate's say so, funnily enough, from Maroubra, a beach suburb of Sydney, he raved about 'em, so being westie smart arses we thought we would wear hawaiin shirts to the gig, and on a side note, i had a busted wrist at the time and was in a cast...WELL...the band came out , and bugger me drunk, if James Reyne didnt have a hawaiin shirt on AND 2 busted arms...didnt i look like a bloody super fan ..anyway from than on Aussie Crawl were a firm favourite in the record stack.

Australian Crawl were associated with surf suburbs and some say they played surf music..really... I didnt think so then and I dont think so know, they were however a solid rock band in every sense of the word, they sang about surfing and everything else, subjects like crass materialism, car accidents, and cautionary tales of romance...and Daughters of the Northern Coast
Mind you they did sponsor a surfing competition in 1984, so they must of hade a touch of fin-dick about them

Their 1980 debut album, The Boys Light Up reached #4, Australian Crawl had two #1 albums; 1981's Sirocco and 1982's Sons of Beaches.

Their early singles reached the top 25 but none broke into the Top Ten, their best performing single was #1 hit "Reckless" which showed a better song construction and more solid approach than earlier hits, and came from their 1983 Semantics EP

Some of my personal favourite songs and those that live on  my mp3 player to this day are:

BOYS LIGHT UP, RECKLESS, BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE, DAUGHTERS OF THE NORTHERN COAST ( SONS OF BEACHES), HOOCHI COOCHI FUROOCI MAMA, INDISPOSED
OH NO NOT YOU AGAIN, ERROL, LAKESIDE and THINGS DONT SEEM

However as with all good things, the band suffered from internal upheaval from 1983 onwards. First Bill McDonough left, then, and this shoked me and stunned the aussie music scene to its core,  his brother Guy McDonough died from pneumonia in 1984, then various other members left. Their 1985 release Between a Rock and a Hard Place was expensive but sales were diabolical and they disbanded early in 1986.

The band's status as an icon on the Australian music scene was acknowledged by induction into the 1996 Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame. Founding guitarist Brad Robinson was unable to attend the Hall of Fame induction in person, as he was hospitalised with lymphoma and died two weeks later.

Lead singer james Reyne kicked on with a solo career, having hits like Fall of Rome, motors too fast and a cover of the Dingoes hit Way out West with James Blundell, James also formed Company of Strangers with Daryl Braithwaite and Reyne sang lead for The Party Boys on more than a few nights and also appeared on tv in various tv shows and to be fair he wasnt too bad at the old acting

So there you go...there you have the Crawl...give em a listen , the songs deserve to live on....hers is some tunes..get in to it