Robert Hudson was born in Sydney in 1946 and grew up in Grafton. He attended Newcastle Teacher's College during the mid-1960s. He started working as a geography teacher but switched to psychiatric nursing and then general nursing. In the late 1960s he also began performing as a solo folk and comic singer. He was the lead singer in the Electric Jug Band that included Angie Pepper, which played at the Star Hotel, Newcastle during the early 1970s – the site of the Star Hotel riot in September 1979.
Hudson had joined the Teen Angels by 1973 with Jean Lewis and Roy Ritchie, which performed "vintage rock'n'roll and doo wop songs." He was a member of a touring revue, Rock 'N' Roll Refugees, alongside, John J. Francis, Alan Luchetti, Margret Roadknight and Glenn Cardier. With fellow folk musician, Graham Lowndes, he co-wrote music for plays presented by the Australian Free Theatre Group. Hudson described his musical influences as Chad Morgan, Phil Ochs and Jon Hendricks.
He teamed up with ABC musical director, record producer and song writer, Chris Neal, to record an in-concert album, 'The Newcastle Song', in 1974. From August 1974 he was performing a concert-drama of the same name with actors, Arthur Dignam and Jane Harders and jazz pianist Judy Bailey, brilliant young composer/guitarist Roy Ritchie, rock and orchestral bass player Dave Ellis and singers Graham Lowndes, Starlee Ford and Bobbie Gledhill. The title track, "The Newcastle Song" (March 1975), was trimmed down from the ten-minute album version for the single, which topped the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart for four weeks. The single was also released in the UK and NZ.
Hudson, with Neal, co-wrote and recorded a response song, "Rak off Normie", which was covered by Maureen Elkner and became a top ten hit for her in mid-1975. At the Australian Radio Records Awards of October 1975 Hudson won Record of the Year for ''The Newcastle Song'' and the New Talent Encouragement award. Another album track, "Girls in Our Town", was a top 40 single for RoadKnight in January 1976.
Other albums by Hudson are 'After Me Cat Left Home' (1975) and 'Party Pieces' (1980). Hudson was one of the original on-air team at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) rock radio station 2JJ (Double Jay, now Triple J) in 1975, and later presented Music Buffs' Talk Back Show, with Glenn A. Baker, on the ABC radio station 2BL. Hudson also worked on ABC radio's international news desk. In the 1980s he was involved in the publishing of a book about Australian language. Hudson completed a PhD in archaeology at the University of Sydney and conducts research on ancient Myanmar (Burma).
''The Newcastle Song (#1) / Ventriloquist Love'' 1974 M7
''Waltzing Matilda Rock / Heartsmasher'' 1975 M7
''After Me Cat (Left Home) / And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda'' 1975 M7
''The Girls In Our Town / Who's Your Friend?'' 1977 M7
EPs
'The Newcastle Song' 1975 M7
'Newcastle Song' (#6) 1974 M7
'After Me Cat Left Home' 1975 M7
'Party Pieces' 1980 Larrikin
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Hudson_%28singer%29
http://top100singles.blogspot.com.au/
'and later presented Music Buffs' Talk Back Show, with Glenn A. Baker, on the ABC radio station 2BL.'
ReplyDeleteOne of the products of the pairing of Hudson & Baker was the album 'Antipodean Atrocities'.