NINETEEN 87

Nineteen 87 was an Australian band that played extensively around Melbourne and country Victoria in the second half of the 1960s and made many appearances on the Uptight / Happening Saturday morning TV shows. They shared the stage with bands like The Easybeats, The Masters Apprentices, The Valentines, The Twilights and Max Merritt and the Meteors. They won the Geelong elimination contest for Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds competition, which put them into the Victorian Country Final at Festival Hall, Melbourne, on July 7th, 1968.

Their first single "Engagement Party / Mr John" was recorded around January 1968 at Bill Armstrong's Studios and released on the Parlophone label. During the same recording session, the band, with a little help from the Johnny Hawker Big Band, also recorded what was to be a follow-up single: "Pretty Ballerina / Lucky Old Sun". This was eventually released as a Gill Roberts single on the fledgling Rebel label after the break-up of the band in 1969. Bill Armstrong's was the most popular studio of the day and was used to pre-record songs for the Channel 0 Saturday morning like Uptight. Nineteen 87 made several recordings for their appearances on these shows.

 Nineteen 87 also released a cover of The Young Rascals song "It's Wonderful" for one of their TV appearances. It appears on 'A Magical Mystery Tour (1967-1971) (The David Fraser Tapes Vol. 1)' on Cane Toad Records. "Engagement Party" was later released on the compilation album 'Kicks - The Great Lost Australian 60s Pop Album'. The band broke up in mid 1969, mainly because the members' musical tastes became more and more incompatible. After forming the band Kaamra with Gill Roberts, Fred Cass played with Paul Kelly and with the Stephen Cummings bands for some time. Lee Neale went on to join Spectrum in 1969. Lee Neale died in 2019.

Members

Gill Roberts (lead vocals), Richard Hammond (bass, vocals), Nigel Hammond (guitar, vocals), Keith Elliott (guitar), Ray Novosel (drums), Fred Cass (drums), Lee Neale (organ)

SINGLES

''Engagement Party (#88) / Mr. John'' 1968 Parlophone

References

http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/nineteen_87

http://top100singles.blogspot.com.au/