BIRTLES AND GOBEL

Birtles and Goble were a pop music duo composed of Beeb Birtles (born 28 November 1948 in Amsterdam, Netherlands) and Graeham Goble (born 15 May 1947 in Adelaide). Although they were both fulltime members of the Little River Band, they released an album and three singles as a duo. Birtles and Goble had worked together since 1972, first in the band Mississippi and then in the Little River Band (LRB). LRB had an abundance of songwriters, with Birtles, Goble, Glenn Shorrock and David Briggs all contributing hit songs. Birtles and Goble were prolific songwriters so, despite contributing to four LRB albums by 1978 ('Little River Band', 'After Hours', 'Diamantina Cocktail' and 'Sleeper Catcher'), they had a wealth of material left over. Their first recording was ''Lonely Lives'' recorded in 1978 which charted in Brisbane and Perth. This single was also released in Canada, Japan and NZ.

Birtles noted that "we had so many good songs left over which the guys thought were unsuitable for Little River Band, that we decided to approach Glenn Wheatley with the idea of recording a duo album using our unwanted songs". 'The Last Romance' was recorded with numerous musicians including current and future members of the Little River Band. Birtles and Goble each wrote three of the songs, three songs were co-compositions and one track ("He Gives Us All His Love") was written by Randy Newman. The first single "I'm Coming Home" was a top ten hit in Australia and also sold over 100 000 copies in The Philippines. Birtles & Goble performed the song live on television programs such as The Don Lane Show and The Paul Hogan Show. The song earned Birtles and Goble a nomination for Best Recorded Songwriters at the 1979 Australian Pop Music Awards.

Goble believes that the duo suffered from a lack of promotion: "If The Last Romance album had been successful, I expect that Beeb and I would have left Little River Band and recorded as a duo, e.g. 'Hall & Oates'. Our record company (Capitol) were concerned about this possibility and so our album received little support. It was a great experience to record 'The Last Romance' and it remains one of my favorite recordings." Birtles and Goble did not record again as a duo. Songs from 'The Last Romance' were recorded subsequently by other artists: Mark Holden had an Australian top ten hit with the song "Last Romance", and The Imperials recorded "Into My Life". The third single from 'The Last Romance', Birtles' paean to his country of birth ("The Netherlands"), subsequently appeared in demo form as a bonus track on the 1997 re-release of the the Little River Band album 'No Reins', showing just how close the song came to being released initially by LRB.

SINGLES 
''Lonely Lives (#66) / Megan'' 1978 EMI
''I'm Coming Home (#6) / You'll Never Change Your Mind'' 1979 EMI
''How I Feel Tonight / The Netherlands'' 1980 Capitol 

ALBUMS 

'The Last Romance' 1980 Capitol 

References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birtles_%26_Goble

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