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Saturday, 7 September 2013

THE DE KROO BROTHERS


Leo and Doug De Kroo (real name Doug Brewer who changed his surname to De Kroo so they could take the stage name, as well as travel overseas, under the name of The De Kroo Bros) were originally from Perth but based themselves in Sydney from 1960. In March 1960, Columbia released their debut single ''On The Job Too Long'' and then much to their surprise, Columbia released their second ''Loveland'' six days later. With little airplay both records flopped. In March 1961, Columbia issued their third and final single, ''Cave In'' but once again it failed to make an impression on the charts. When Columbia didn't take up the option on their contract they moved to Festival Records. In October they played on the support bill for the Cliff Richard and the Shadows Show tour of Australia and New Zealand. In September 1963 they finally scored their first Top 10 hit with their fourth Festival single ''(And Her Name Was) Scarlet''. Festival released three more singles over the next year or so without much success. 

During this period The De Kroo Bros entered the world of all the major television shows at the time simply by telling the producers they were good enough. Accepted at the time by the television studios, The De Kroo Bros soon became known for their playing of live gigs on Bandstand, Australia's Amateur Hour, The Graham Kennedy Show, The Bobby Limb Show, Six O'Clock Rock, Teen Time and the Youth Show.

Brian Henderson and Bandstand travelled with The De Kroo Bros in 1965 to Canberra for early versions of today's ubiquitous talent shows, and even to Papua New Guinea for filming and such. They continued to perform on the club circuit until 1972 when they decided to call it quits. Doug opened up a music teaching business in Sydney and continued playing with various rockabilly groups while Les bought a farm in Dubbo and worked as a weekday morning radio announcer with 2DW. In 1987 Canetoad Records released a compilation album. In 1988 Festival Records also released a compilation album. The compilation albums have tracks included that were not part of The De Kroo Bros singles releases.




SINGLES
''On The Job Too Long / Head Over Heels'' 1960 Columbia
''Loveland / Cause I Like It'' (#99) 1960 Columbia
''Cave In / Love's A Funny Little Game'' (#90) 1961 Columbia
''Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes / All For The Love Of You'' 1961 Festival
''The Road To Gundagai / Peggy Sue'' 1962 Festival
''Tears Of Pity / It Never Came True'' (#50) 1963 Festival
''(And Her Name Is) Scarlet (#9) / All Right, Be That Way'' 1963 Festival
''Foggy Mountain Top (#68) / Movin' Out'' 1964 Festival
''Buena Suerte / Love Is A Meaningless Word'' 1964 Festival
''Oh! Susie Darlin' / I Run In Circles'' 1965 Festival

ALBUMS
'The De Kroo Bros' 1963 Festival




References

https://www.facebook.com/CohunaRockNRollHallOfFame/posts/601375689973692:0

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



1 comment:

  1. Travelled on P&O Iberia with Leo & Doug still have the original pic of them on the deck.

    ReplyDelete