TONI McCANN

Toni McCann  (born Susan Judith Hutson) released her first single in 1965, when she was only fifteen years old. Born and raised in London, McCann’s world changed forever after seeing The Rolling Stones live. Inspired to play tough R&B, she was ready to sign a recording contract in the UK when her father announced that the family was immigrating to Brisbane. So McCann pursued a career as an entertainer in Australia instead, a challenging proposition given that she bucked then-current trends of what a female performer was and should be. In her own words, she wasn’t “girly-girly with pretty sounds and pretty dresses”. Instead McCann grew her hair long and wild, wore tight pants or bellbottoms, sang in a lower key than most of her peers with a rough blues-y voice, and played harmonica like Jagger himself “It tended to mess up your lipstick”, she later laughed, “you could always spot my harps because they had pink stuff all over them”.

Discovered by producer Pat Aulton at a Brisbane talent quest, McCann was introduced to famed promoter Ivan Dayman, who began touring her across the country backed by Melbourne rockers, The Fabulous Blue Jays (who found fame with singer Tony Worsley). Aulton then took her and the band into the studio to record McCann’s debut 45 for the Sunshine label, a storming garage-rock double punch: ''My Baby'', backed by ''No'' on the flipside. Both songs were frenetic fast-paced originals, with the potent ''My Baby'' still having the power to set dance floors alight, while the nihilistic sentiments and furious pace of ‘No’ are almost proto-punk.

The single didn’t chart however, nor did her next release, the similarly stupendous ''Saturday Date'' single, which was the theme song for the music television show of the same name, with its unforgettable refrain of ‘You’ve gotta go, go go go!” How could such catchy, original music fail to find an audience? In a later interview McCann said, “I think the songs weren’t really going to be accepted by the public. People expected women to do cute songs. What I did worked in a live context, but the image didn’t really have anywhere to go in Australia in those days”. In June 1965 she supported a national tour by The Dave Clark Five and The Seekers.

It would be a few more years before Australian audiences would accept such a tough, no-nonsense image from female singers like Wendy Saddington, Renee Geyer and later Chrissie Amphlett. But pioneers like Toni McCann deserve more recognition and respect nonetheless. In 2008 Zenith Records released her Sunshine label songs on an EP (pictured below). In 1966 McCann and her future husband ex- Blue Jay Royce Nicholls formed a duo and recorded a number of singles on the CBS and M7 labels. You can check that out their career. CLICK HERE. In the 1970s she recorded a folk album 'Banjo Flat' under the name of Toni McRae.

SINGLES

''My Baby / No'' [with The Blue Jays] 1965 Sunshine
''Saturday Date / If You Don't Come Back'' 1965 Everybody's

''Fairy-Tales / The Carpet Snake Song'' [as Toni McRae] 1975 Good Thyme

ALBUMS

'Banjo Flat' [as Toni McRae] 1975 Good Thyme