SKYHOOKS - THEY WERE A BIT DIFFERENT ;)

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)

ANYWAY...with Australian commercial success achieved, Skyhooks turned to the US market. Gudinski announced a $1.5 million dollar deal with Mercury Records/Phonogram Records, which released a modified version of Ego Is Not a Dirty Word with "Horror Movie" and "You Just Like Me Cos I'm Good in Bed"  on the release.....A US tour followed in March–April 1976, but them goofy yank critics described them as imitators of Kiss because of Reds make-up,

(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.

Shirl told band members he intended to pull the pin—but it was not officially announced for six months—he continued regular shows until his final gig with Skyhook's on 29 July.

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

After Skyhooks

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.

In 2011, the Skyhook's song Living in the 70s was added to the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia's Sounds of Australia registry....OH and to my pommy mates who say that The Hooks did a Iron Maiden cover...WRONG !!!!...Women in Uniform was written by Macainish..SO THERE...;)
...

Seeya's

BON SCOTT...DRINKER, FIGHTER, ROCK'n'ROLLER

Scott formed his first band, The Spectors, in 1964 and became the band's drummer and occasional lead vocalist. He performed in several other bands including The Valentines and Fraternity before replacing Dave Evans as the lead singer of AC/DC in 1974.

Now to be fair straight from the top, I never saw or heard Bon in The Valentines, so I wont yank your chain and tell you how great they are, if you want to find them, go right ahead..I'll have a dig around and see what I can find myself...SO ...I'm just gonna tell you about the Bon I remember........

It is Australian musical law that Bon replaced Dave Evans as the lead singer of AC/DC in 1974, when it became obvious the band and Evans were heading in different directions, with Evans having personal clashes with band members and management, I like Daves voice personally, his work with Rabbit is great...anyway....I trying to think what year it was, probably '75 i'm guessing...I went to Burwood Town Hall in the suburbs of Sydney to a gig that had AKKA DAKKA on the bill ( Sherbert was there too )

it was loud, it was sweaty, it was full of school girls yelling at Daryl, me and my mates were in pig heaven and it was there, at that gig, that ACDC  found a permanent home in my music collection

With Angus and Malcolm as lead and rhythm guitarists, session drummer Tony Currenti and George Young as a temporary bassist, AC/DC released High Voltage, their first LP in Australia in 1974 . Within a few months Currenti was replaced by Phil Rudd and Mark Evans was hired to play bass and AC/DC began recording their second album T.N.T., which was released in Australia in December 1975. The first AC/DC album to gain international distribution however was a compilation of tracks from the first two albums, also entitled High Voltage, which was released in May 1976. Another studio album, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap was released in the same year.

One favorite Bon Story is when ACDC appeared at Sunbury the same year as Deep Purple, alledgedly Deep Purple were getting on the locals nerves with their ridiculos demands, a fight breaks out between ACDC road crew and Purples Road crew...without hesitation Bon grabs hold of the biggest pommie roadie he can find and gets stuck in....thats Bon for you

The boys did the usual run of TV shows, Countdown, Sounds with Donnie Sutherland and they made a few promo clips, Jail Break and Long way to the top are arguably the two best known, apparently Bon thought up the flatbed truck going down the Flinders Street (?) in Melbourne and it gave the local constbulary fits when the people on the footpath started following the truck on the road

In the following years, AC/DC gained further success with their albums Let There Be Rock and Powerage. The 1978 release of Powerage marked the debut of bassist Cliff Williams (who had replaced Mark Evans), and with its harder riffs, followed the blueprint set by Let There Be Rock. The album was the last produced by Harry Vanda and George Young with Bon Scott on vocals and is, I reckon, a very underrated album. Only one single was released for Powerage – "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation" – and gave AC/DC their highest chart position at the time, reaching #24. An appearance at the Apollo Theatre in Glasgow during the Powerage tour was recorded and released as If You Want Blood You've Got It.

The band's sixth album, Highway To Hell, was produced by Robert "Mutt" Lange and was released in 1979. It became AC/DC's first LP to break the U.S. top 100, eventually reaching #17

On 19 February 1980, Bon, after a big night on the beer and bourbon died in the back seat of a mates car.

I was walking down the steps of Punchbowl station when a mate came running up and told me Bon had died...I sat on the steps for, I dunno, twenty minutes, then went and raised a glass or two to the great man


In the July 2004 issue of Classic Rock, Scott was rated as number one in a list of the "100 Greatest Frontmen Of All Time" ahead of Freddie Mercury and Robert Plant...COULDNT AGREE MORE !!

CRANK IT !!

JUMP ON HIS BANDWAGON......ITS TMG TIME

First time I can clearly remember seeing Ted was him singing Julia on a music show that was airing at the time, maybe GTK or early Sounds, dunno, it wasnt yesterday after all, however there was no gang in sight at that point

in 1972 he switched from acoustic guitar to bass and formed the now legendary ( in my mind anyway), Ted Mulry Gang, with guitarist Les Hall & drummer Herman Kovacs. The band were offered and almost immediately signed a recording deal with Albert Productions in 1974, as they were the label to be on for hard rocking bands of the time, they recorded and released their first album Here We Are. Guitarist Gary Dixon joined around this time to complete the foursome.

Their first major hit, and the biggest of their career was the 1975 single "Jump in My Car" which spent 6 weeks at number one on the Australian singles charts in 1976. It was the second single released from the Here We Are album . Over the next few years they achieved a string of hit singles including a rocked up version of the old jazz song, "Darktown Strutters' Ball", "Crazy", "Jamaica Rum" and "My Little Girl". and were in near constant rotation on Countdown and Sound Unlimited tv shows and, as in my case 2SM radio in Sydney, a high percentage of TMG hits were co-written with Les Hall,  as for live experiences, I saw them a few times around the pubs, but the biggest gig I remember was the one at the foot of the Harbour bridge in Sydney, chicks were jumping in the water to get at TMG..(oh and of course JPY in his sailor suit, but thats for another blog)

By the early 1980s, the new wave era had kicked off and radio was playing pommy techno bands like Flock of Seagulls, Duran Duran and other similar type acts.. TMG's chart success had ended but they remained popular performers on the Australian pub circuit throughout the decade.

I  still saw Ted and the boys gigging around town, still filling up places and having a rocking good time... In 1998 Ted released a solo CD called This Time featuring songs co-written by himself and his brother Steve Mulry (who sings lead for Black Label)

 In early 2001 the news came that Ted had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. the resulting GIMME TED concerts organized shortly before his death, brought together an assortment of Ted's 70's cohorts which included a reunion of his band Ted Mulry Gang with his brother ...I went to the 2nd night at Fox Studios and saw The Tatts, The Radiators  and Kevin Borich among others give Ted the homage he so richly deserved...Ted passed shortly after the gigs and shall forever be missed.....

As for TMG tunes , well, there  is all the usuals on the Reunion c.d...BUT...my all time favorite Gang song is "I'm Free"...give it a listen its a ripper

  Members

    Ted Mulry (September 2, 1947 – September 1, 2001) – Vocals and Bass
    Gary Dixon – Guitar
    Les Hall – Guitar
    Herman Kovac – Drums
    Mark Tinson – Guitar

Recordings

    Here We Are – 1974
    Struttin’ – 1976
    Steppin’ Out – 1976
    Greatest Hits – 1977
    TMG – 1977
    Disturbing The Peace – 1978
    TMG Live – 1979
    Locked In – 1980
    Re-Union – 1989
 

THE TED MULRY BENEFIT CONCERT DVD