THE RITZ

Canberra band The Ritz formed in early 1975, when former Heaven and Rain guitarist and musical visionary Peter Dodson teamed with talented ex-schoolmate Steve Maughan (from prominent Canberra all-rounders The Second Movement), Englishman George Bennett (who had a stint in mid-60s UK vocal outfit The Ivy League), seasoned keyboardist Alan Cook and charismatic frontman Richard Hauser (along with Dodson and Bennett, ex-Wally & the Wombats).

The group presented a colourful hybrid of sounds inspired by the likes of Yes, Focus, Pink Floyd and the later music of The Beach Boys, for an audience starved of such heady and sophisticated material presented in live performance. In concert, The Ritz certainly delivered the goods. While their main rivals, Snibbo, served up a popular repertoire of R&B and hard rock standards, The Ritz put on shows of amazing polish, clarity and musical dexterity, utilising their own in-house songwriting skills of Dodson, Maughan and Hauser. They were among the first bands to introduce the wonderful sounds of the Mellotron and Moog to live Aussie music.

The band released one jaunty single on the Wolf label, the Steve Maughan-penned "Pick Me Up", before themselves being picked up by Mushroom Records for their sole LP, 'A Diamond As Big As The Ritz' (the title of which was taken from the short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald), which featured a cover design by Keith D. Davis, who also designed albums for The Sensational Alex Harvey Band. Recorded at Melbourne’s TCS Studios under the production guidance of John French, the ambitious album displayed the strengths of the group and the great songwriting skills of Dodson in particular, but, while satisfying to the listener, it unfortunately failed to really capture the dynamic essence of the band.

The lacklustre production undermined the highly melodic, rich and inventive range of songs offered, and the album’s long gestation period before its eventual release did the band few favours. 'When A Diamond As Big As The Ritz' emerged in early 1977 it was, alas, met with general indifference -- a situation exacerbated by a distinct lack of support from their record company. Apparently at the time, Mushroom supremo Michael Gudinski, when asked what he considered his failures, cited The Millionaires and The Ritz as such. With the advent of punk and new wave, punter's taste for The Ritz’s ornate, highly orchestrated style of music -- essentially ‘prog’ -- quickly waned and signaled their death knell. Richard Hauser died in 2018.

Members

George Bennett (drums, vocals), Alan Cook (keyboards), Peter Dodson (guitar, vocals), Richard Hauser (lead vocals), Steve Maughan (bass),

SINGLES 
''Pick Me Up (#99) / In By Ten'' 1975 Wolf 
''Can't Get Enough Of You / A Diamond As Big As The Ritz'' 1977 Mushroom 

ALBUMS 
'A Diamond as Big as the Ritz' 1977 Mushroom

References

http://www.milesago.com/artists/ritz.htm

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