Sweet Jayne was the original Australian all girl hard rock band. Guitarist Cris Bonacci and bassist Sally Zylstra formed Sweet Jayne, in early 1975 in Melbourne with Robyn Clark on drums. They advertised for a lead singer and found Chris Scheri who also played the flute. The band performed over 700 gigs in six years, playing a mix of hard rock and heavy metal covers and a repertoire of over 50 original songs, written by Chris Scheri and Cris Bonacci. After Robyn Clarke and Sally Zylstra departed they were replaced by male musicians John Zaffarese (late 1979), Brendan O'Shea (1980), Fab Versace (1981) and Billy George (1982).
The band released a five-track vinyl EP after winning the Yamaha Australasian Battle of the Bands in 1978. They recorded Chris Scheri's "Images Fantasy King" as a soundtrack for the documentary Changes in which they made a cameo appearance in 1979. Other releases were on cassette format, the first engineered by Mark Moffat at TCS CH9 recording studios in 1977 and 1978. Their self-titled EP was issued in January 1980 and had five tracks, "Ambiguous Girl", "Omniscience", "Some People", "State of Mind" and "Crushed and Crazy". Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, opined that it "highlighted Bonacci's crunching guitar riffs offset by Scheri's melodic vocals and lilting flute lines." Record label Cleopatra released a single "Icarus / State of Mind" in 1981 produced by Gil Mathews. The band split up in 1983 after Mike Oldfield saw the band play at the Manzil Room in Sydney and offered Chris and Cris airfares to London to work with him in the UK.
Cris Bonacci joined Girlschool in 1985 and toured and recorded with the band for 10 years. She toured America with Deep Purple and Blue Oyster Cult and played guitar for Robert Plant. She also worked with Toyah Wilcox and Marc Almond and was manager and musical director for Samantha Fox for several years. Chris Scheri set up recording studio 7 in South Melbourne in 1986. That same year, Scheri and Bonacci produced a film clip for Scheri's "Pictures on The Wall", which was aired repeatedly on Basia Bonkvsky's Music Video show and released as a single through Rondor Music and Possum Records. The B-side "Heartbeat" was used as part of the soundtrack for Robert Herbert's film, He and She and reproduced in Holland by Mink DeVille. Zaffarese was later in Rosanna's Raiders.
Members
''Star Spinner / Bike Rider'' 1978
''Something To Believe In / Captives / Going Down'' 1981
''Icarus / State Of Mind'' 1982 Cleopatra
EPs
'Sweet Jayne' 1980
Use to watch you perform at Kingston Rock 1979 80.loved your music. Enjoyed finding this clip. RICHARD.
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