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Monday 9 September 2013

BILLY THORPE AND THE AZTECS / BILLY THORPE


After The Vibratones broke up, Vince Melouney formed the band, together with John "Bluey" Watson, the bass player in the Vibratones. It took a while to figure out what to call it but looking through books, the two came across the Aztecs, so they called themselves The Aztecs. The Aztecs were Vince Melouney on lead guitar, John "Bluey" Watson on bass, Colin Baigent on drums, Johnny Noble on lead vocal and Valentine Jones on rhythm guitar. It was this lineup that recorded ''Smoke And Stack / Board Boogie'' in 1964 Linda Lee label. Because both sides were instrumentals Noble didn't participate on the recordings. Melouney said ''Valentine was a good guitar player but he was a jazz player and the band were morphing from surf music into rock and roll and he was not a rock and roller''.

Melouney arranged a gig at Surf City, which was the major venue in Sydney. It was a huge old theatre at the top of William Street, King's Cross and it was always packed. Melouney stated ''We used to play about once a week and every Sunday afternoon or something like that. One day, the manager of Surf City, John Harrigan introduced us to this blond-headed fella called Billy Thorpe. He wanted Billy to be the singer in our band, even though we had a singer, Johnny Noble. Johnny came from Newcastle and wasn't crazy about living in Sydney- he was more of a family man, so he took off back home and Billy joined the band. Not long after this, Valentine left the band and Tony Barber joined. Tony is an Englishman who had recently arrived from England and was living in a hotel opposite Surf City. Billy met Tony and, learning he was a guitar player and wrote songs, brought him along to rehearsals, He got the job. Tony didn't have a guitar and he was left handed. Billy had a Gretsch Country Gentleman so we turned it upside down and changed the strings around and Tony had a guitar. John Harrigan became our manager and all of a sudden we were doing many more gigs and started recording as Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs''. 

The group broke through in mid-1964 with a massive nationwide hit, their cover of the Leiber and Stoller classic "Poison Ivy", which famously kept The Beatles from the #1 spot on the Sydney charts at the very moment that the group was making its first and only tour of Australia—a feat which resulted in Thorpe being invited to meet the Fab Four at their hotel. The band supported Screaming Lord Sutch's and Billy J Kramer's tours in 1964. Over the next twelve months the band reigned supreme as the most popular 'beat' group in Australia, scoring further hits with the songs "Mashed Potato", "Sick And Tired" and "Over the Rainbow", until they were eclipsed by the emergence of The Easybeats in 1965. The band's recording success confirmed Albert Productions, their recording company, with its worldwide distribution deals through EMI and Parlophone, as one of the most important in Australia's embryonic pop industry. 

During 1965 the original Aztecs quit after a financial dispute, so Thorpe put together a new five-piece version consisting of drummer Johnny Dick (ex-Max Merritt and The Meteors), pianist Jimmy Taylor, guitarists Colin Risbey and Mike Downes all from Ray Hoff and The Offbeats and NZ-born bassist Teddy Toi (ex-Max Merritt and The Meteors). This group performed until 1966, scoring further hits with "Twilight Time", "Baby, Hold Me Close", and "Love Letters". Thorpe went solo in 1967 and for a brief time hosted his own TV show, It's All Happening, but personal problems and a widely publicised bankruptcy brought this phase of his career to an end in 1968. Thorpe was the support act for The Who's tour in 1968.

In 1969, Thorpe decided to try his luck England, after being offered a recording deal by the Australian-born, London-based impresario Robert Stigwood, who had risen to become manager of The Bee Gees and Cream. While rehearsing a backing band in Melbourne that would form the basis for a new Aztecs, the guitarist unexpectedly dropped out, leaving Thorpe to assume lead guitar role at short notice. It marked another turning point in his career and from this point on Thorpe played lead guitar in The Aztecs as well as continuing as lead vocalist. His planned six-week stay in Melbourne soon stretched into months and eventually Thorpe decided to remain in Australia and re-launch his career.

Thorpe himself openly acknowledges that this new 'heavy' version of the Aztecs owes much to 'guitar hero' Lobby Loyde. Loyde already had a cult following due to his stints in two of the most original Australian bands of the 1960s, The Purple Hearts and Wild Cherries. While his stint in the new Aztecs was short (from December 1968 to January 1971), his musical influence proved crucial in steering Thorpe in a completely new direction, and he strongly encouraged Thorpe to keep playing guitar.

The new Aztecs' blues-based heavy-rock repertoire was dramatically different in style from the original group, and they quickly became famous (or notorious) for the ear-splitting volume at which they played. Thorpe had also drastically changed his appearance—he grew a beard, often wore his now shoulder-length hair braided in a pigtail, and he had long since traded the tailored suits for jeans and T-shirts. Needless to say this did not endear him to people who came to the shows expecting the 'old' Billy Thorpe of the "Poison Ivy" era, and this led to sometimes violent confrontations with disgruntled fans and promoters.

Their breakthrough recording was an ambitious album, 'The Hoax Is Over', recorded in September 1970 with new drummer Kevin Murphy. The album was an unequivocal signal of the Aztecs' new direction, containing only four tracks, three of which were Thorpe originals. The LP is dominated by two extended tracks: a version of Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "Gangster of Love", which clocked in at 24:35 and ran the entire length of Side 1 (an unprecedented move in Australian pop music) and Thorpe's own "Mississippi" which ran 19'35". According to Thorpe, the band (which at this time comprising himself, Murphy, pianist Warren Morgan, guitar legend Lobby Loyde and bassist Paul Wheeler), were all high on LSD and jammed continuously while engineer Ernie Rose just let the tapes roll. The result heralded the fully-fledged arrival of the new Aztecs and live shows at Melbourne venues consolidated the band's reputation and drew enthusiastic responses.

During 1971 they continued to win over Melbourne's audiences with their power-blues repertoire, A landmark event for the band took place on 13 June 1971. Now a four-piece following the departure of Loyde, the Aztecs (Thorpe, Morgan and Wheeler, with new drummer Gil Matthews (ex-Max Hamilton and The Impacts) headlined a major concert at the Melbourne Town Hall before a capacity crowd of 5000. The evening's performance, including Morgan's commandeering of the town hall organ, was captured on the album 'Live at Melbourne Town Hall', and which has since become known for the group's deafening performance, which (it was claimed) cracked the windows of neighbouring buildings.

By contrast, the pastoral-sounding "The Dawn Song" was released in 1971. A moderate hit, it displayed the musical diversity of Thorpe and his colleagues at this time. In early 1972 the Aztecs released what became their biggest hit, and Thorpe's signature tune – "Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy)", a song now widely regarded as one of the classics of Australian rock. It was a huge hit for the new Aztecs, peaking in the Go-Set National Top 40 Singles Chart at #3 in May 1972; propelled to the top of charts by the band's triumphant appearance at the 1972 Sunbury Music Festival. Thorpe himself claimed this as a pivotal moment in the development of Australian music, thanks to the promoters' decision to feature an all-Australian line-up, rather than relying on imported stars. Before disbanding, the Aztecs recorded one more album for Atlantic, the provocatively titled 'More Arse Than Class', after which Thorpe embarked on a solo career. 

From December 1976, Thorpe continued his musical career in the US. By 1979, he released his solo space opera, 'Children of the Sun', which reached the top 40 of the Billboard Pop Album chart, and top 50 in Australia. The related single, "Children of the Sun" reached #41 on the Billboard Singles chart. He released three more studio albums while living in the US, with '21st Century Man' (1980) peaking on the Billboard Pop Album chart top 200. "In My Room" from '21st Century Man' had top ten chart success in Canada. Other US-based releases were 'Stimulation' (1981) and 'East of Eden's Gate' (1982).

In 1984, Thorpe stopped performing live music. He had started an electronics consulting company which did work for The Walt Disney Company, Mattel and Universal Studios. By 1986, he owned a recording and production studio in Los Angeles, where he worked on musical scoring for television series, including: War of the Worlds, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Columbo, Eight Is Enough and Hard Time on Planet Earth. Former Aztec bandmate, Tony Barber had written a series of children's books, collectively called The Puggle Tales from 1981. Barber and Thorpe had formed a soft toy company in 1987, Sunshine Friends, and also released children's songs on cassettes and video. In 1989 Barber and Thorpe co-wrote three more stories for The Puggle Tales series: Double trouble, Flying's easy and Marco and the book of wisdom.

From 1990, Thorpe collaborated with Mick Fleetwood (of Fleetwood Mac) and Bekka Bramlett in Fleetwood's side project, a band called The Zoo, which resulted in "Shakin the Cage" (no apostrophe), a single featuring Billy Burnette and Kenny Gradney of Little Feat. This was followed by the 'Shakin' the Cage' (apostrophe included) album featuring an altered band line-up and a re-recorded version of the title track in March 1991. Thorpe had written all ten of the tracks, including one (the title track) co-written with Burnette, and another with Bramlett's father Delaney. The Zoo toured Australia during 1991 and while in the country Thorpe was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame on 25 March alongside Glenn Shorrock, Don Burrows and Peter Dawson. Fleetwood performed at the ARIA Awards ceremony held at the Darling Harbour Convention Centre in Sydney. Thorpe returned to touring with another set of Aztecs in 1993 and released a boxed set in 1994, 'Lock Up Your Mothers', which peaked at #15 on the ARIA Charts. The Lock Up Your Mothers tour included media appearances on Hey Hey It's Saturday, Denton and 60 Minutes.

In 1996 Thorpe formed the Billy Thorpe Band with Andy Cichon (bass, guitar, keyboards, vocals), Steve Edmonds (guitar, vocals), Paul DeMarco/Mick O'Shea (drums) and Randall Waller (guitar, vocals, keyboards), and toured Australia in July. He had returned to live in Sydney and authored his first autobiography, Sex and Thugs and Rock 'n' Roll, on his early experiences in Kings Cross and the formation of the Aztecs, which was released in November. He followed with an Australian TV appearance on This Is Your Life. In October 1998, he released his second autobiography, Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy). On 14 November 1998, with the Aztecs, Thorpe appeared at the Mushroom 25 Concert, singing "Most People I Know" and "Ooh Poo Pah Doo"; ex-Aztec Lobby Loyde joined them on-stage on guitar. At the Gimme Ted benefit concert on 9 March 2001 Thorpe performed five songs including a duet with INXS.

Long Way to the Top was a 2001 Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) six-part documentary on the history of Australian rock and roll from 1956 to the modern era. Episode 3: Billy Killed the Fish, broadcast on 29 August, featured interviews with Loyde, Michael Chugg (Thorpe's manager / promoter) and Thorpe. They described their Sunbury festival experiences and the development of pub rock in Australia. According to Chugg, an Aztec performance at Sydney's Bondi Lifesaver club in 1974 was so loud as to kill a tankful of tropical fish in an upstairs area – hence the episode title. During August 2002, promoters Chugg and Kevin Jacobsen with Thorpe as co-producer, organised a related concert tour, Long Way to the Top. Concerts included Thorpe performing with the 'original' Aztecs line-up in one set and the 'Sunbury' Aztecs in a second. Performances at two Sydney concerts in September were recorded, broadcast on ABC-TV and subsequently released on DVD in December.

Thorpe recorded material for a new album, 'Tangier', with the Symphonique Orchestra du Maroc in Casablanca, Morocco during September to November 2006 and was working on the album when he died in Sydney in February 2007. Tangier was produced by Daniel Denholm. In December 2006, Thorpe had recorded an acoustic live performance which was released posthumously in April 2007 on Liberation Records as Solo: The Last Recordings, which peaked at #19 on the ARIA albums chart. On 27 October 2010, Sony Entertainment announced the release of 'Tangier' at the ARIA Hall of Fame in Sydney. 'Tangier' was awarded the first-ever posthumous ARIA for best Contemporary Adult album in 

Afer Thorpe died he was posthumously appointed a Member of the Order of Australia on 11 June 2007, with the citation, "For service to the entertainment industry as a musician, songwriter, producer, and as a contributor to the preservation and collection of contemporary Australian music". "Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy)" was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry in 2008.In December 2020, Thorpe was listed at number 31 in Rolling Stone Australia's "50 Greatest Australian Artists of All Time" issue. Other Aztecs to pass on: Bruce Howard died in 2021. Teddy Toi died in 2022.

Members

Vince Melouney [aka Vince Maloney] (guitar), Val Jones (guitar), John "Bluey" Watson (bass), Colin Baigent (drums), Billy Thorpe (vocals, guitar), Tony Barber (guitar, vocals), Col Risby (guitar), Mike Downes (guitar), Jimmy Taylor (piano), Teddy Toi (bass), Johnny Dick (drums), Tony Buchanan (sax), Mick Liber (guitar), Paul Wheeler (bass), Jimmy Thompson (drums), Lobby Loyde (guitar), Kevin Murphy (drums), Warren Morgan (piano), Gil Matthews (drums), Bruce Howard (keyboards), Derek Griffiths (guitar), John LeVine (keyboards), Billy Kristian (bass)




SINGLES (as The Aztecs)
''Smoke And Stack / Board Boogie'' 1964 Linda Lee
''Most People I Know Think That I'm Crazy (#2) / Regulation 3 Pufff'' 1972 Havoc
''Believe It Just Like Me (#25) / Get To Hell Out Of Here'' 1972 Havoc

SINGLES (As Billy Thorpe and The Aztecs)
''Blue Day (#51) / You Don't Love Me'' 1964 Festival
''Poison Ivy (#3) / Broken Things'' 1964 Festival
''Don't Cha Know (#9) / Mashed Potato'' (#9) 1964 Parlophone
''Sick And Tired (#11) / About Love'' 1964 Parlophone
''That I Love / Over The Rainbow'' (#2) 1964 Parlophone
''I Told The Brook (#1) / Funny Face'' 1965 Parlophone
''Twilight Time (#2) / My Girl Josephine'' 1965 Parlophone
''Baby, Hold Me Close (#16) / Hallelujah, I Love Her So'' 1965 Parlophone
''Love Letters (#3) / Dancing In The Street'' 1965 Parlophone
''The Word For Today / The New Breed'' 1966 Parlophone
''Wee Bit More Of Your Lovin' / I've Been Wrong Before'' (#57) 1966 Parlophone
''Good Mornin' Little School Girl / Rock Me Baby'' 1970 Festival
''The Dawn Song (#41) / Time To Live'' 1971 Havoc
''Movie Queen (#32) / Mame'' 1973 Atlantic
''Don't You Know You're Changing / Yes I'm Tired'' 1973 Atlantic
''Cigarettes And Whiskey (Live) / Back Home In Australia (Live)'' 1974 Atlantic
''Over The Rainbow (#20) / Let's Have A Party'' 1974 Atlantic

SINGLES (As Billy Thorpe)
''Dream Baby (#55) / You Don't Live Twice'' 1967 Festival
''It's Almost Summer (#44) / Drive My Car'' 1975 Infinity
''Blue Mary / Good Night Out'' 1976 Infinity
''Do The Best You Can / Mama Told Her'' 1976 Infinity
''Wrapped In The Chains Of Your Love (#85) / Goddess Of The Night'' 1979 Interfusion
''Children Of The Sun (Edited Version) / Simple Life'' 1979 Interfusion
''In My Room (Edited Version) / She's Alive'' 1981 Mushroom
''Just The Way I Like It / Rock Until You Drop'' 1981 Mushroom

EPs (As Billy Thorpe and The Aztecs)
'Poison Ivy' 1964 Linda Lee
'Sick And Tired' 1965 Parlophone
'On Stage' 1965 Parlophone
'I Told The Brook' 1965 Parlophone
'Stand By Me' 1965 Parlophone
'Twilight Time' 1966 Parlophone

EPs (As Billy Thorpe)
'Love Letters' 1967 Parlophone

ALBUMS (As Billy Thorpe and The Aztecs)
'Poison Ivy' 1964 Linda Lee
'Billy Thorpe And The Aztecs' 1965 Parlophone
'Don't You Dig This Kind Of Beat' 1966 Parlophone
'Live' (#8) 1971 Havoc
'The Hoax Is Over' (#8) 1971 Infinity
'Aztecs Live! At Sunbury' (#4) 1972 Infinity
'More Arse Than Class' (#14) 1974 Atlantic
'Steaming At The Opera House' (#71) 1974 Atlantic
'Pick Me Up And Play Me Loud' 1976 Infinity

ALBUMS (As Billy Thorpe)
'Million Dollar Bill' 1975 Infinity
'Children Of The Sun' (#44) 1979 Interfusion
'21st Century Man' 1980 Mushroom
'Solo: The Last Recordings' (#19) 2007 Liberation
'Tangier' (#14) 2010 Sony




References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Thorpe

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


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