I have had the pleasure of seeing The Hooks, and while I never got to see them at the height of their powers, they were still great live, saw them at the MCG with a huge crowd, little did we know that we were gonna end up on tele, WELL, I didnt anyway, and then I went and saw them on the tour supporting Jukebox at The Canberra Hotel in Lismore ( that's a whole other story)
ANYWHOO.....
Skyhooks were formed in Melbourne in March of '73 by Greg Macainsh and Imants "Freddie" Strauks on drums, they were soon joined, by possibly my favorite Hook,Bob "Bongo" Starkie on guitar ( who replaced his own brother, WEIRD HUH?), and Red Symons on guitar and part time carpenter and full time surfie, Graeme "Shirley" Strachan, named due to his curly hair, became lead vocalist in March 1974 after a mad rush to Tassie and back by Greg to recruit him after the Hooks current singer, Steve Hill quit the band after seeing himself on tele.......they had two tracks on the "Highlights of Sunbury '74" album, which was strange since they got booed off stage
Skyhooks were described as a glam rock band, because of flamboyant costumes and make-up, and yeh, they looked the part of a glam band, but the material they wrote about was hardly bubblegum pop, they addressed teenage issues including buying drugs, suburban sex and the gay scene AND they had a giant exploding penis onstage ......Greg McCainish, to put it mildly, in my opinion is a musical genius, and i'm an old stick in the mud, i dont throw about compliments like that everyday, he had a masterstroke of an idea and namechecked Melbourne suburbs and Australian themes into his song titles, I dont care what anyone says, but, that had to help sales somewhat, The first time i can remember seeing them was when the band appeared on the first color episode of Countdown, playing Horror movie ( i still dont get what that guy was doing crawling all over the stage while they were playing, something real fkn cryptic knowing the Hooks probably)
(YEH I WAS GET CONFUSED BY RED SYMONS & GENE SIMMONS NEAR IDENTICAL PHYSICAL AND VISUAL APPEAREANCE, YA MORONS)
and like many other Aussie acts at the time, doing the "College "circuit, they got a fair bit of success, sales and crowd wise in Boston and Florida, yet they failed to make gigantic in-roads into the general US market.
In January 1978 they toured New Zealand and performed at the Nambassa festival. In February their next single, "Women in Uniform" was issued and peaked at #8, while its album Guilty Until Proven Insane followed in March and reached #6 The album was produced by Americans Eddie Leonetti and Jack Douglas. The second single from the album, "Megalomania" issued in May, did not peak into the top 40.
He released further solo singles, "Mr Summer" in October and "Nothing but the Best" in January 1979, but neither charted in the top 50, Shirl also had a couple of runs with The Party Boys on the live circuit and on a couple of party Boys live albums.......Strachan's replacement in Skyhook's, on lead vocals, was Tony Williams (ex-Reuben Tice) Williams first single for Skyhooks, "Over the Border", reached the top 40 in April, and is quite possibly my fave Hooks song, the song talked about Jo Bheljke Peterson and his near tyrannical reign over the state of Queensland, they reckon Jo didnt like the song AT ALL, I seriously doubt he knew what the damn thing was about, I also seriously doubt if any of his like minded party mates could of explained it to him..probably sold a zillion copies north of the borser then..HAHAHAA, and their fifth studio album, Hot for the Orient, appeared in May 1980, but failed to peak into the top 50.
From 1975 to 1977, Skyhooks were—alongside Sherbet—the most commercially successful group in Australia, but over the next few years, Skyhooks rapidly faded from the public eye with the departure of key members, and in 1980 the band announced its break-up in controversial circumstances. Ian "Molly" Meldrum, usually a supporter of Skyhooks, savaged Hot for the Orient on Countdown, in reply to Mollys critique, the band to take out a page-sized ad in the local music press declaring "Why Don't You All Get F****d" and they played their last performance on 8 June in Kalgoorlie
Strachan and Symons each went on to successful careers in radio and television. Symons worked on HEY HEY ITS SATURDAY and the first AUSTRALIA'S GOT TALENT, which suited him down to the ground and Shirl had a good run with SHIRLS NEIGHBOURHOOD( I know you all remember Claude the Crow, dont deny it)
Bongo played locally with different bands including a run with my favorite "supergroup" Ol' Skydaddys,and also had a stint with Ram Band ....Strauks was drummer for rock band's
The Sports, Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons,and The Bushwackers and hit the skins for the the Ol' Skydaddys as well...Greg Macainsh played with John Farnham on his Whispering Jack Tour and with Dave Warner's from the Suburbs,[ in 1988 he put together and managed a very successful AC/DC tribute band called Back in Black who went on to support Skyhooks on their comeback tour....In 1990 the guys got together to do a video for "JukeBox In Siberia" to promote a compilation album , Latest and Greatest , a single with Jukebox and Happy Hippy Hut on the B side was also released, went to number one, so thats pretty good
Graeme Strachan was killed in an air crash in 2001, when the helicopter he was learning to fly solo crashed into Mount Archer near Kilcoy, northwest of Brisbane. A memorial concert was held on 11 September 2001 at the Palais Theatre, tributes were paid and some remaining members—Strauks, Macainsh, Starkie, Symons and Spencer—performed with guest vocalists Daryl Braithwaite and Wilson. It is the only time Symons and his replacement, Spencer performed together on stage. Braithwaite performed "All My Friends Are Getting Married" with the band whilst Wilson sang the rare Skyhooks track "Warm Wind in the City".
In 1992, Skyhooks were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame.
Their original lead singer, Steve Hill, died in October 2005, aged 52, of liver cancer.
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Seeya's
Nice Write Up Recky - some great photos also
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