KING FOX

King Fox was a Sydney pop band formed in 1967 by a group of schoolfriends from that city's eastern suburbs. The initial line-up was Chris Pokorny on bass guitar , Dave King on lead vocals, guitar and harmonica, Paul Radcliffe on flute, vocals, guitar and Mellotron and Andy Evans on drums. Billy Field replaced Pokorny on bass and vocals and they were later joined by Peter Muller on organ and piano.

King Fox came to prominence in Sydney in mid-1969 after entering a talent competition run by Sydney radio station 2UW and independent producer Martin Erdman. The group's average age was 16 at the time. King Fox's entry was an original song called "Unforgotten Dreams", an atmospheric psych-pop original written by Radcliffe and King, featuring flute by Radcliffe. It was produced by Martin Erdman and recorded at his studio in just one hour. The song generated a strong public reaction when played on air, and King Fox ended up being one of four groups out of more than 150 whose work was selected for release as a single on Erdman's Du Monde Records. "Unforgotten Dreams" became a Top five hit in Sydney, charting for over four months, a feat that was also remarkable because of the song's length, 4 min 56 sec, almost double the average length of a pop single at that time.

In January 1970, during the summer vacation, King Fox recorded an album at Erdman's World of Sound Studios in Ramsgate, the first recordings to be made on Erdman's newly purchased 4-track recording gear. Most accounts of King Fox mention the affluence of the members' home suburbs. It has often been claimed that the band broke up in 1970 when the boys' instruments, payrolled by their parents, were confiscated because they were neglecting their studies. This however is not true—in an  interview on the ABC-TV current affairs show Stateline, Radcliffe and King revealed that the parents of the group members demanded an end to the band after Sydney tabloid the Sunday Mirror published an intrusive article about the band which named the private schools that several of the boys attended and mocked their supposedly affluent family backgrounds.

The group briefly reformed in 1972 and released one unsuccessful single, ''I Think You're Fine'' on the Festival Records label, but broke up permanently soon after. The tracks the band had recorded for their proposed LP were never mixed or released at the time, because the group broke up just days after the last track was recorded. Erdman long thought that the tapes had been lost after he moved his studio, but they were rediscovered a few years ago and in May 2007 Radcliffe and Erdman mixed the tracks and the 'lost' recordings, which were then compiled with the other existing King Fox tracks on the album '70207: The (Un)Forgotten Album', which was released on the revived Du Monde imprint in May 2008.

Bassist Billy Field went on to establish the renowned Paradise Studios in Sydney in 1979, and he then launched a solo career as a piano playing singer-songwriter. He had two nationwide hits in 1981 with "Bad Habits" and "You Weren't In Love With Me" (a national #1), and his album 'Bad Habits'was a best-seller. Paul Radcliffe died in 2020.

Members

Billy Field (vocals, bass, guitar), Paul Radcliffe (vocals, guitar, flute, piano, Mellotron), David King (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Peter Muller (vocals, organ, piano), Andy Evans (drums), Chris Pokorny (bass)

SINGLES

''Unforgotten Dreams (#27) / Alone, So Alone'' 1969 du Monde 
''Timepiece / Will You Love Me Tomorrow'' 1970 du Monde
''I Think You're Fine / We're Gonna Think Of A Name'' 1972 Festival

EPs

'Unforgotten Dreams' 1970 du Monde

ALBUMS

'70207-The (Un)Forgotten Album' 2008 du Monde

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Fox

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