The Easybeats were an Australian rock band. They formed in Sydney in late 1964 and disbanded at the end of 1969. They are regarded as the greatest Australian pop band of the 1960s, echoing The Beatles' success in Britain, and were the first Australian rock and roll act to score an international pop hit with their 1966 single "Friday on My Mind". The band's line-up exemplified the influence of post-war migration on Australian society.
All five founder members were from families which had migrated to Australia from Europe: lead singer Stevie Wright and drummer Gordon "Snowy" Fleet were English-born; rhythm guitarist George Young was Scottish-born; lead guitarist Harry Vanda and bassist Dick Diamonde were Dutch-born. The band formed at the Villawood Migrant Hostel. The families of the band members spent their first years in Australia housed at the hostel in the early and mid-sixties.
The Easybeats' first gigs were in late 1964 at a music venue called Beatle Village, located in the basement of the Courthouse Hotel in Taylor Square in Darlinghurst, Sydney. The band were inspired by the "British Invasion" spearheaded by the Beatles. The Easybeats quickly rose to become one of the most popular groups in Sydney. Real estate agent turned pop music entrepreneur Mike Vaughan became their manager. Through his efforts, they were signed to a contract with Albert Productions, one of Australia's first independent record production companies. The company was established by Ted Albert, whose family-owned J. Albert & Sons, a prominent music publishing company. Albert signed the band to a recording contract with EMI's Parlophone label. The group recorded a number of songs at the 2UW Theatre, owned by the parent company of Albert Productions, J. Albert and Son. They chose the bluesy "For My Woman" as their first single. It was picked up by Sydney radio and became a minor hit, reaching #33 on the charts.
Although "For My Woman" gained them some attention, the band felt they needed a more up-tempo song to break through commercially. Their next single, "She's So Fine", gave them that commercial success, reaching #3 on the Australian charts and launching them to national stardom. Their concerts and public appearances were regularly marked by intense fan hysteria similar to "Beatlemania", soon dubbed "Easyfever" by the Australian press.
The band's follow-up single, the high-energy "Wedding Ring", released on 26 August 1965, was also a hit, reaching #7. On 23 September 1965, the group released its first album, 'Easy'. It was one of the earliest albums of all original material written by an Australian rock group. All the songs were written by group members, with vocalist Stevie Wright and guitarist George Young co-writing eight of the fourteen songs on the album.
For the next single, "Sad and Lonely and Blue", the band returned to the blues based feel of "For My Woman". However, like "For My Woman", it failed to make the top 10, only reaching #21. Both "Wedding Ring" and "Sad and Lonely and Blue" were included on the group's second album, 'It's 2 Easy', released 24 March 1966. The lead singles from that album, "Women (Make You Feel Alright)" and "Come and See Her", put the group back in the top 10, reaching #4 and #3 respectively on the Australian charts. This time, Stevie Wright and George Young wrote all fourteen songs on the album. The Wright-Young songwriting team also wrote songs for other artists at this time, including "Step Back", which became a #1 hit for Johnny Young (no relation) in 1966.
In early 1966, while the group was still touring Australia, manager Mike Vaughan flew to New York City to attempt to secure an American recording contract for the band. Despite an initial lack of interest, Vaughan was able to convince United Artists Records to sign the band. Just before relocating to London in 1966, they recorded a farewell TV special for the Seven Network, titled The Easybeats (more commonly known as The Coca-Cola Special), one of the few surviving appearances from the band's career during this period. The group left for the UK on 10 July 1966.
In August 1966, Albert Productions released an EP of material recorded before the group left Australia. Titled Easyfever, it reach #1 on the Australian singles charts. Albert Productions then released an entire album of material titled 'Volume 3' on 3 November 1966. This too was a commercial success and its lead single, "Sorry", topped the Australian charts. Again, Stevie Wright and George Young wrote all thirteen songs on the album.
After arriving in London the band recorded a number of songs with Ted Albert at EMI's Abbey Road Studios, but these were deemed unsuitable by United Artists Records and Albert was removed as producer. The band was then teamed with freelance producer Shel Talmy, who had achieved great success with his production for the Who and the Kinks. United Artists also felt that the band's song writing was too "unsophisticated" for the competitive UK market. The label had already released the Wright/Young composition "Come And See Her" as a single in the UK on 15 July and it had not sold well. Dutch-born Vanda, now having a stronger grasp of English, replaced Wright as Young's song writing partner at this point.
After auditioning several titles for Talmy, "Friday on My Mind" caught the producer's ear as the next single. The band recorded the song with Talmy at IBC Studios, London in September. "Friday on My Mind" was released in the UK on 14 October 1966. It reached #6 on the UK Charts making it the group's first big international hit. The song charted in multiple countries: #1 in Australia, #13 in Canada, #16 in the US, and the Top 10 in Germany, the Netherlands and France, and sold over one million copies worldwide. It was awarded a gold disc.
On 17 March 1967, United Artists released the follow-up single to "Friday on My Mind"; "Who'll Be The One". The single was a commercial failure and did not make the UK charts (although it was #14 in Australia). The band was against releasing the single to begin with, as they felt it was not a strong enough track to follow "Friday on My Mind". Later that month, they toured Europe in support of The Rolling Stones. During this period, the band was filmed by Australian director Peter Clifton for a proposed documentary for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Filmed under the title Between Heaven and Hell (which was later changed to Easy Come, Easy Go), the documentary was lost for nearly 42 years. It was restored, reedited and shown at film festivals in 2012.
In May, their first album for United Artists was released: 'Good Friday' (re-titled 'Friday on My Mind' in the US). That same month, they returned to Australia for a nationwide tour. After the tour, drummer Snowy Fleet decided to quit the band. Fleet was unhappy at the amount of time he had to spend away from his wife and young children. Returning to the UK without a drummer, the group began several recordings with a session drummer, Freddie Smith – a Glaswegian who had played with George Young's older brother Alex (stage name George Alexander) in Bobby Patrick & The Big Six.
During this period, the band recorded their next single, "Heaven And Hell", which marked a turning point for the group, with its sophisticated songwriting and arrangements. Vanda and Young were influenced by the current psychedelic pop, popular in the UK and US. The single was produced by Glyn Johns, who had worked as an engineer on the Shel Talmy sessions. The band also began work on a new album with Johns, most of which was recorded and prepared for issue but was never released because of the band's complicated financial and contractual problems.
"Heaven And Hell" was released in June and, like the previous single, it also failed to make a mark on the UK charts. This was due, in part, to the song being banned by the BBC. The single also ran into problems in the US, where a censored version titled "Heaven", replaced the lyric "Discovering someone else in your bed" with "discovering that her love has gone dead". In Australia the single did much better; reaching #8. After extensive auditions in London a replacement drummer was found in Tony Cahill (born 20 December 1941) who had formerly played with Brisbane band The Purple Hearts. With Cahill, the band toured the US in August, supporting Gene Pitney. During their US visit, they recorded their next single, "Falling Off the Edge of the World", in New York. The single received moderate airplay in the US, but did not chart.
The band returned to London and continued to work in the studio. Their next single, "The Music Goes 'Round My Head", again written by Vanda and Young, is considered to have been influenced by the emerging UK Rocksteady/Ska scene. In late 1967, Vanda and Young began writing for other artists. Two of their songs, "Bring a Little Lovin'" and "Come In, You'll Get Pneumonia", were covered by Los Bravos (and later by Ricky Martin as "Dime Que Me Quieres") and Paul Revere and The Raiders respectively. Still trying to get back into the UK charts, the band moved to a more pop-friendly sound and released the soft rock, ballad "Hello, How Are You" on 8 March 1968. The plan worked and the song reached #20 in the UK charts. However, in retrospect, the band have cited the change in sound as a mistake, stating that it alienated the band's longterm fans.
In May, the band finally released their second album for United Artists; 'Vigil' (re-titled Falling Off The Edge of the World in the US). The album was a mixture of recent singles, new recordings and out-takes from the scrapped 1967 album. Two of the songs recorded for the abandoned LP, "Land of Make Believe" and "Good Times", were released as singles. The baroque pop ballad "Land of Make Believe" was released in the UK on 5 July and in Australia on 18 July. Although failing to chart in the UK, it reached #18 on the Australian charts. The B-side to the Australian single was the next UK single; "Good Times". Released on 13 September, "Good Times" again failed to chart in the UK. An often-told story about the song is that when the track was broadcast on BBC radio, it was reputedly heard by Paul McCartney on his car radio; McCartney apparently rang the station immediately to request a repeat playing. The song featured Steve Marriott of the Small Faces on backing vocals and Nicky Hopkins on piano. In November, Albert Productions released the UK B-side to "Good Times", the instrumental track "Lay Me Down and Die", as a single in Australia. The single was slammed by critics and reached #59 on the Australian chart; their lowest-charting single to date.
Through late 1968, the formerly tight-knit band began to drift apart. Drugs were a factor, but the growing independence of the Vanda and Young team as a creative unit was also a major catalyst. By this time the duo were working substantially on their own and between them they could now play almost any instrument needed for recordings and had become skilled in engineering and producing their own recordings. They wrote prolifically, but many of their songs from this period remained unreleased for many years. They were also reluctant to do more than a few gigs per month, and so the band only came together for occasional performances or for 'demo' sessions at Central Sound Studios in Denmark Street.
In 1969, the band parted ways with United Artists and their production company Albert Productions to sign with Polydor Records. In April, the group went into London's Olympic Studios to record their first single for Polydor. They teamed up with producer Ray Singer, a former member of UK band Nirvana, who had made a name for himself as a producer with Peter Sarstedt's "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)". "St. Louis" was released on 27 June 1969, but failed to chart in the UK. However, it reached #21 on the Go-Set charts in Australia. In July 1969, it was announced that the working relationship between manager Mike Vaughan and the group had come to an end.
To continue their work as songwriters for hire, Vanda and Young took over a flat on Moscow Road in Bayswater in London which had previously been used as a jingle studio for pirate radio stations. With modifications, it became a 4-track home studio and Vanda and Young began producing demos, working mostly on their own. As with their Central Sound records, they played most of the instruments on their recordings with the other Easybeats members occasionally contributing. Nine of these demo recordings (with single "St. Louis" and "Can’t Find Love") were released by Polydor as an album under The Easybeats' name as Friends. This album was released after their break-up.
In September 1969, the band undertook a short European tour and then reluctantly accepted the offer of a five-week Australian tour. The tour was reported as being a last-ditch attempt to bail the group out of its mounting pool of debts. A number of factors made the Australian tour less than successful. Rather than playing larger venues as they did on the 1967 tour, the band was booked to play mainly smaller clubs and dance halls. Also, the band had reverted to 'no frills' hard rock whereas the Australian pop scene was preoccupied with progressive rock, soul, and bubblegum pop.
The situation was further complicated by Albert Productions' unwelcome release (against the band's wishes) of several lo-fi demo recordings on 'The Best of The Easybeats Volume 2'. The recordings were songwriter demos sent to Albert Productions in 1967 and 1968 for other artists to record. "Peculiar Hole in the Sky" from that album was released as a single, it was originally recorded by Australian band the Valentines.
In October 1969 the band made a valedictory TV appearance in the ATN-7 Easybeats Special (which was broadcast after the tour on 2 November). After their performance at Caesar's Place Disco, Sydney, on 25 October, a wedding was held for Diamonde and actress Charlene Collins. The following day, the Easybeats travelled to Orange, New South Wales. There they made a television appearance at the CBN-8 television studios and performed a show at the Amoco Centre in Orange city centre. However, the show was interrupted by hostile audience members and was cancelled after only 20 minutes. This was The Easybeats' final performance. After the tour, the band went their separate ways. Tony Cahill died in 2014. Stevie Wright died in 2015. In 2017 George Young died at the age of 70. Dick Diamonde died in 2024.
Members
Stevie Wright (vocals), Harry Vanda (guitar), George Young (guitar), Dick Diamonde (bass), Gordon "Snowy" Fleet (drums), Tony Cahill (drums)
''She's So Fine (#3) / The Old Oak Tree'' 1965 Parlophone
''Wedding Ring (#7) / Me Or You'' 1965 Parlophone
''Sad And Lonely And Blue (#21) / Easy As Can Be'' 1965 Parlophone
''Women (Make You Feel Alright) (#4) / In My Book'' 1965 Parlophone
''Come And See Her (#3) / I Can See'' 1966 Parlophone
''Sorry (#1) / Funny Feelin' 1966 Parlophone
''Friday On My Mind (#1) / Made My Bed: Gonna Lie In It'' 1966 Parlophone
''Who'll Be The One (#14) / Do You Have A Soul'' 1967 Parlophone
''Heaven And Hell (#8) / Pretty Girl'' 1967 Parlophone
''The Music Goes 'Round My Head (#33) / Come In You'll Get Pneumonia'' 1967 Parlophone
''Hello, How Are You (#34) / Falling Off The Edge Of The World'' 1968 Parlophone
''Land Of Make Believe (#18) / Good Times'' 1968 Parlophone
''Lay Me Down And Die (#59) / See Line Woman'' 1968 Parlophone
''St. Louis (#21) / Can't Find Love'' 1969 Polydor
''I Love Marie'' (#93) / Gonna Make It'' 1969 Polydor
''Friends / Rock And Roll Boogie'' 1970 Polydor
'Easy As Can Be' 1966 Parlophone
'Easyfever' (#1) 1966 Parlophone
'Friday On My Mind' 1967 Parlophone
'Pretty Girl' 1967 Parlophone
'Easyfever Volume 2' 1968 Parlophone
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Easybeats
http://top100singles.blogspot.com.au/
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