PEACHES

The Vamps were an Australian all-female pop rock band formed in April 1965 by founding mainstay Margaret Britt on guitar. Between 1965 and 1969 they toured extensively in Australia, New Zealand, South East Asia and the Pacific Islands, including six months performing at military bases in South Vietnam during 1967–1968. In 1969 they relocated to the United States, and performed there through to early 1975, before returning to Australia. In 1977 Margaret Britt put together a new all-female line-up of The Vamps. Upon the recommendation of Gene Pierson of Laser Records, Margaret decided to drop The Vamps moniker and replace it with Peaches. “Margaret wanted another all-girl group,” Pierson recalled in 2011 in an interview with a journalist from The Cairns Post. “I think the timing was absolutely perfect. There were so many boy bands around then.”

She approached Pierson with an original song she wrote called ''Keep on Dancin’'', which he put on the B side after finding a funkier tune for the A side, a cover tune of a hit that was a #1 at the time for Clout, a South African girl group – ''Substitute'' (originally recorded by Righteous Brothers and composed by Willie Wilson). Peaches’ cover of the song became a massive hit in Australia. It was recorded at Atlantic Studios, released through RCA Records and was the Laser label’s first charting song. Peter Hood, then owner and head engineer of Atlantic Chicago Records, said Peaches had great potential to be world-class stars. “They were really very good,” he said years later. ''Margaret, the lead singer, was world-class; she was better than Suzie Quatro. We thought they would be a world-wide hit''. 

While some thought it was a risk for the Laser Label to take on an all-female group, Pierson was prepared to take the chance. “I saw an opening for girls,” he said. “In those days there was nothing really for female artists in Australia''. Peaches became the first real all-girl group. “Because of its huge success we started a bit of a revolution where everyone started to look at girl groups and girl artists.” After appearing on Countdown, a popular weekly music TV show in 1978, Peaches started touring. “We released another single, but it didn’t go anywhere,” Pierson said. “They (the band members) wanted to do original songs and were more into blues music, but blues wasn’t commercial back then.” Britt had to disband Peaches in Perth during 1980 due to ill health, resulting in part from the ill-effects of Agent Orange arising out of her tour of Vietnam in 1968, and also a road accident she was involved in shortly after returning from the United States.

Members

Margaret Britt (vocals, guitar); Huck (vocals, drums); Trop [Sue Kirby] (bass); The Nun (vocals, keyboards).

SINGLES 
''Substitute (#15) / Keep On Dancin' 1978 Laser 
''Long Long Week-End / Time Won't Make It Better'' 1978 Laser 
''You've Got All Of Me / Oh Me Oh My Goodbye'' 1979 Laser 

References

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