To promote his album 'Fleetwood Plain', Greg Quill formed the original line-up of Country Radio in June 1970. Other members were Orlando Agostino on guitar, Chris Blanchflower on harmonica, John Walsh on bass and Dave Hannagan on percussion and backing vocals. The group started as an acoustic act but from 1970 to 1971 its musical style evolved into electric country rock, a style then gaining popularity through the influence of albums like The Band's Music from 'Big Pink' (1968), The Byrds' 'Sweetheart of the Rodeo' (1968), and Bob Dylan's 'Nashville Skyline' (1969).
By May 1971 Country Radio's line-up had changed with Blanchflower and Quill joined by Mal Algar on bass guitar (ex-Chorus), John A. Bird on keyboards and Ace Follington on drums (ex-Chain). In October that year the group signed to Infinity Records, a new subsidiary of Festival Records and recorded their debut single, "Listen to the Children", which came out in November although it did not chart. Soon after, Follington left to join pop band, The Cleves, for a tour of Britain; he was replaced on drums by Kim Bryant, who was in turn was replaced a few months later by Tony Bolton (ex-The Affair, Freshwater). In January 1972 Algar left and they were joined by John Du Bois (ex-Circle of Love, New Dream) on bass guitar and Kerryn Tolhurst on guitar, lap steel and mandolin (ex-Adderley Smith Blues Band, Sundown). The addition of Tolhurst was crucial to the band's sound and style, Quill and Tolhurst began a songwriting partnership.
With the "classic" line-up of Quill, Tolhurst, Bird, Bois, Bolton and Blanchflower, Country Radio recorded their second and most successful single, "Gypsy Queen", with producer John French, in Melbourne in April 1972. It was co-written by Quill and Tolhurst, and featured a string arrangement by session musician, Peter Jones (who later worked on Quill's solo album, 'The Outlaw's Reply'). Released in August, the single spent 13 weeks in the Go-Set National Top 40 and peaked at #12. "Gypsy Queen" shared the APRA (Australasian Performing Right Association) Song of the Year award with Mississippi's "Kings of the World". It was featured on the soundtrack of director Rod Hardy's 2007 film, December Boys, starring Daniel Radcliffe, and in the 2009 ABC-TV series, East of Everything.
The chart success of the single and the interest of expatriate Canadian music promoter and label representative, Michael McMartin, led to a contract with Toronto-based MUCH Productions, which issued "Gypsy Queen" in Canada in 1972. At the end of that year they toured Canada to promote its release. The group's follow-up single, "Wintersong", appeared in December 1972 and made the Go-Set Top 40 in April, the next year. On 4 October 1972 the group had recorded a live-in-the-studio performance before an invited audience, which Infinity released as their debut album, 'Country Radio Live', in December. It included a selection of originals, plus two tracks, "Some Lonesome Picker" and "Never Goin' Back", written by John Stewart (ex-The Kingston Trio).
The band made several live TV recordings for the ABC-TV in-studio concert and interview series, GTK; including "Just Goodbye" (May 1971), "Last Time Around" (June), "Empty Pockets" (June), "Almost Freedom" (June), "Silver Spurs" (February 1972), "Commisar" (March), "Some Lonesome Picker" (April, May), "Listen to the Children" (October), "Fleetwood Plain" (November), "Gypsy Queen" (November), "Winter Song" (November), "I Need a Woman" and an interview on their break-up (April 1973). They appeared on concert and festival stages with different artists of the era, including Creedence Clearwater Revival, Elton John, Santana and Stephen Stills. They performed at the Rock Isle Mulwala Festival in 1972 and the Sunbury Pop Festivals in January 1972 and again the following year. Their live performance of "Silver Spurs" – written by Quill – at the latter festival, was included in Mushroom Records' triple live album, 'Sunbury 1973 – The Great Australian Rock Festival', released in April. Tolhurst abruptly left the band after the second Sunbury festival, briefly joining Mississippi, before forming The Dingoes in Melbourne, with singer-harmonicist, Broderick Smith. Soon after, both Bird and Blanchflower also left Country Radio.
Guitarists Les Stacpool (ex Levi Smith's Clefs) and Russ Hinton (ex-Moonstone) alternated on lead guitar after Johnson's departure. Hinton also performed on Quill's subsequent solo LP. Du Bois left in August 1973, rejoining Tolhurst in The Dingoes. Country Radio had toured relentlessly during 1972 to 1973 and according to Australian musicologist, Ed Nimmervoll, they were "driven into the ground to the point where disintegration was inevitable". Quill dissolved the group in December 1973 and decided to return to his solo music career. He also worked for a year as general features writer and news reporter for The Sunday Telegraph, then as editor of the suburban weekly newspaper, The Peninsula News. Sadly on May 5th 2013 Greg Quill died from complications from pneumonia after suffering health issues for a number of years. He was only 66. Chris Blanchflower died in 2018.
Members
Greg Quill (vocals, guitar), Chris Blanchflower (harmonica), John Walsh (bass),
Orlando Agostino (guitar), Dave Hannagan (drums), John A. Bird (piano), Mal Algar (bass),
Ace Follington (drums), Tony Bolton (drums), Kerryn Tolhurst (guitar, mandolin, dobro),
John Du Bois (bass), Russ Johnson (guitar), Les Stacpool (guitar)
SINGLES
Gypsy Queen
| 10 JUL '72 | #11 |
Wintersong
| 25 DEC '72 | #53 |
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Quill
http://top100singles.blogspot.com.au/
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