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...
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
If I said the following ...."Get That Jive", "Sunshine", "Are You Old Enough?" "I'm Still In Love With You" and "April Sun in Cuba", there are almost no aussie's of my vintage who don't know who I'm talking about, of course, I'm talking, about the mighty, Dragon, what a band, seriously, they deserved more than they achieved, that's for sure, although what they achieved ain't a kick in the nuts by any stretch of the imagination......
On stage, they were brilliant, out of control, with their darker side at the forefront, sometimes all on the same night.!!...you never knew which Dragon you were gonna get, but you knew it was going to be shit hot...many's the night I was at the Maroubra Seals, the Lifesaver or Bexley North, when Marc wowed, rocked and occasionally got into a stink with the crowd...yeh, he was different alright Marc Hunter, by any stretch of the imagination, was the focal point of the live show, and he possessed a striking presence on the boards that kept your eyes locked firmly on him –- his androgynous looks and imposing height were matched by an absolute lack of fear in front of audiences, hostile or otherwise.
Everyone has heard stories of Dragon’s rock’n’roll exploits, and tales of horrendous drug habits..just before embarking on the move to Australia, their manager at the time, Graeme Nesbitt was jailed for drug trafficking, and only two weeks after "This Time" was released drummer Neil Storey died of a heroin overdose, an event that almost had the band pulling the pin.. However they decided to go on, and Storey was replaced by Kerry Jacobsen.
At the peak of the band’s career Marc Hunter and Paul Hewson reputedly maintained $200-a-day heroin habits and remember, this was the late 70's, smack wasnt that dear, so $200 bucks a day was a habit and half.....Dragon was even mentioned in evidence during a royal commission into drugs because of links to the infamous “Mr Asia” drug syndicate.
By 1978 Dragon were one of the top five acts in the country. America was the obvious next step, CBS were behind them, and success was almost a deadset certainty
. But the group blew it big time, with a U.S tour in 1978 that was just this side of disasterous, they were supporting the Johnny Winter Band. Facing joints full of hostile blues loving nrednecks, who probably didnt enjoy Marcs stage gear, the singers unpredictable side kicked in, culminating in an infamous gig in Austin, Texas where they were bottled off the stage after Marc taunted the crowd and intimated that "all Texans are faggots", its been said that while Marc was creating his latest ruckus, Johnny Winter and his band were taking bets from the side of the stage over who would shoot hunter first. Despite the American debacle, they were still huge in Oz and they scored another Top Ten hit in early '79, but five years of hell raising and wild living had taken its toll on the band, especially on Marc, whose voice failed. With Marc’s drink and drug use spiralling out of control, big brother Todd, now virtually, the only functional member of the band, was forced to give Marc his marching orders in 1979 in order to save him from himself. They replaced Marc with Singer Billy Rogers formerly of Perth group Last Chance Cafe and violinist Richard Lee from Melbourne band Sidewinder and recorded "PowerPlay" which flopped
Marc was shocked at the sacking and instead of giving up, cut back on the drug and booze excess's and embarked on a successful solo career in the early '80s. He scored moderate hits with the singles "Island Nights"in 1979 and "Big City Talk" in 1981, he also released released two solo albums Fiji Bitter (1979) and Communication (1986), and guested with the ever revolving Party Boys. Todd meanwhile teamed up with former XL Capris singer-songwriter Joanna Pigott to form Scribble. Todd and Joanna subsequently married, and became a successful songwriting team, with credits including John Farnham’s "Age Of Reason".
Due to an mountain of unpaid debts, Dragon were forced to do a reunion tour in the early '80s to pay them off , they decided to give it another shot and stayed together. Marc had been working with producer and multi-instrumentalist Alan Mansfield on tracks for his second solo album, so he brought Alan in to produce a the single "Rain" written by Marc, Todd and Joanna. It stormed into the Top 10 in days of release in 1984, Rain also earned Dragon their first American chart placing peaking at #88 and the song became a favourite on US college radio......
At this point they realised they had another go at the big time, so they cleaned house and gave away the bad habits of the past. This led to the departure of both Robert Taylor (replaced by Mansfield) and Kerry Jacobsen (replaced by former XTC drummer Terry Chambers)...I saw them around this time at Bankstown RSL and they blew the roof off the joint
The success of Rain secured them an album deal with Polygram’s, Mercury label, and the venture proved to be a huge success, with four other charting singles lifted from the comeback album Body & The Beat, produced by Mansfield. Although, all the members had contributed to songs before, Marc and especially Todd were now reallycoming into their own as writers. Hewson found himself out of phase with their new direction and managed only one co-writing credit on the new album. His health was also deteriorating,(he suffered from scoliosis, and he was still using drugs heavily; he left the band just after the Body and the Beat tour in 1985. He returned to New Zealand and joined NZ group Pink Flamingos, but sadly he died only weeks later from a heroin overdose.
Terry Chambers was subsequently replaced by Doane Perry (ex-Jethro Tull), Mansfield doubled on keys and guitar, and they recruited rising star and hotshot guitarist, Tommy Emmanuel (ex-Goldrush, Southern Star Band) to play lead axe. This lineup recorded another very successful album, Dreams of Ordinary Men, produced by Todd Rundgren, and they toured Europe (billed as Hunter) with Tina Turner, to a great reception. Although they were probably at their peak as performing unit, and they put in 100%, BUT..their sucess this time was stalled by lack of product support from their label.... With varying lineups and between 30 and 40 members coming aned going, Dragon continued to record and tour occasionally into the 1990s, cutting two more albums, Bondi Road in 1989, which included the bittersweet single "Young Years" and Incarnations in 1995, which featured re-worked versions of their classic hits. Todd eventually left to concentrate on songwriting and soundtrack work, while Marc released two more albums of ‘adult contemporary’ material, Night and Day and Talk To Strangers....
I had the great, good pleasure to see the band play at Tweed Heads in 1996, although I cant recall if Marc had announced publicly the state of his health, you see, Marc, had gone to the doctor for a check-up and was diagnosed with malignant throat cancer.... Renee Geyer put together a tribute called "Night Of The Hunter," to raise money for treatment and his kids, it was held in February 1998 at the Palais Theatre in St. Kilda. It featured leading artists performing classic Dragon songs: "Are You Old Enough" by Tex Perkins and friends, Chris Wilson singing "O Zambezi", Paul Kelly and Renee Geyer singing a duet of "I'm Still In Love With You", Snout performing "Rain" and Men At Work’s Colin Hay performing a new song he wrote in Marc's honor. The finale, "April Sun In Cuba" was performed by John Farnham and his band, with Todd on bass. The house erupted when Renee Geyer led Marc onstage and he joined in his signature tune for what proved to be his very last stage appearance.
Another benefit was staged soon after in Sydney, and the 'Good Vibrations' concert proved to be an even more memorable event. The performers included Glenn Shorrock, James Reyne, Ross Wilson, Todd Hunter, Alan Mansfield, Robert Taylor and Tommy Emmanuel, and a host of other Oz music legends -- Men At Work regrouped for the first time in a decade to perform, and the remaining members of INXS performed live for the first time since the tragic death of their lead singer Michael Hutchence; Peter Garrett and Jimmy Barnes duetted on "Dreams of Ordinary Men" and "Speak No Evil". Sadly, Marc didnt attend as he was in Korea, undergoing alternative therapy to prepare for a major throat operation, but he sent a letter that was read to the crowd.
Marc spent the last months of his life with his family and friends. He died in his sleep in hospital at Berry in the NSW southern highlands on July 17 1998, aged just 44. His memorial service, held on July 29 at Sydney’s St Andrew’s Cathedral, was attended by hundreds of mourners, including many stars from the aussie music scene, and musical tributes were sung by Glenn Shorrock, Mark Williams and Wendy Matthews.....
Todd Hunter reformed Dragon in 2006 with a line-up of Mark Williams (vocals, guitar), Bruce Reid (guitar), and Pete Drummond (drums) The new line up released "Sunshine to Rain" On 1 July 2008, Dragon were inducted by Richard Wilkins into the ARIA Hall of Fame, Dragon were joined on-stage by James Reyne and Ian Moss to perform "April Sun in Cuba" and "Rain" During the version of "April" Marc Hunter, was incorporated into the chorus via a stirring performance video shown on a huge screen behind the band...I saw a clip of this and the crowd popped big time when Marc's section began...even in death, the man could captivate a crowd.
