Ronnie Charles Boromeo, began his professional singing career at just 16 when he joined Melbourne's The Jackson Kings (1965-66) followed by a very successful three-year stint in The Groop between 1966 and 1969. Both bands also featured the acclaimed singer-songwriter and keyboard player Brian Cadd. As well as his many fine recordings with The Groop, Ronnie also contributed vocals to the Pastoral Symphony single "Love Machine / Spread A Little Love Around", released in May 1968. This single was also released in NZ and the UK. Pastoral Symphony was a studio group put together by producer Jimmy Stewart and entrepreneur Geoffrey Edelsten, and the backing for the recording was anonymously performed by The Twilights, Terry Walker of The Strangers and the Johnny Hawker Singers.
He then cut two excellent singles for Festival which, according to Ian McFarlane, "echoed the big, booming pop sound of Love Machine". The first was "Katy Jane / No Face, No Name And No Number" (1969), the B-side being a track from Traffic's classic debut LP 'Mr Fantasy'. The second single was "It's Been So Long / Natural Man" (1970) but regrettably neither of these fine recordings made any impression on the charts. In 1970 he supported Frijid Pink's tour of Australia.
Ronnie's next venture, itself a supergroup, was Captain Australia & The Honky Tonk, and its membership was a classic illustration of the close connections between so many bands of that period. Besides Ronnie, the band included at various times, guitarist Brian Holloway (ex-The Dream, Image, Aesop's Fables), bassist Graham Jones (ex-Iguana), Ronnie's old Groop bandmate Richard Wright on drums and keyboardist Steve Yates (ex-Rush), Eric Cairns (ex-Somebody's Image/Image, Heart'n'Soul, Company Caine), bassist Les Gough (ex-Somebody's Image/Image, Heart'n'Soul) and Gary Moberley (ex-Aesop's Fables, Ramrods). Captain Australia recorded one single, "Excerpts from Muses/ Everybody I Love You" released on Havoc in early 1971, but just as the single came out, the group headed off for the UK. Like so many other hopeful Aussie groups, Captain Australia made no impression in the cutthroat and rapidly changing UK music scene and by 1972, the group had fizzled out.
Ronnie then formed an exciting new band called Atlas with Terry Gough and two English musicians, drummer Terry Slade (ex-Sunshine) and ace guitarist Glen Turner who had been an early (pre-recording) member of leading UK band Wishbone Ash. Ian McFarlane describes Atlas as "a hard rock/boogie outfit, fitting in with contemporary English bands like Wishbone Ash, Free, Status Quo". They signed with Warner-Reprise, who issued their well-regarded debut album and lifted two fine hard rock singles "Rock 'n'Roll Wizards / Military Rag'' and "They Don't Know / The Knowing before breaking up in 1974.
While still in the UK, Ronnie recorded two more solo singles, "Yesterday's Witness / Can You See", followed by "Layla, Part 1" / "Layla, Part 2". The latter single was lifted from Ronnie's extraordinary solo album, 'Prestidigitation', released on the 20th Century label in 1976 and produced by Lou Reizner, who had overseen the landmark 1971 orchestral version of The Who's 'Tommy'. It featured Ronnie and a small rock ensemble, swathed in lavish orchestral-vocal arrangements performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and the English Chamber Choir.
Ronnie, at the peak of his vocal prowess, tackled an ambitious and eclectic range of material, including a dazzling rendition of the title track penned by Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse and featuring renowned pianist-composer Keith Tippett on piano. It arguably equals anything that Scott Walker ever recorded and powerful orchestral-rock versions of Free's "Wishing Well", and Derek & The Dominos "Layla"; Unfortunately, the timing of the LP could hardly have been worse, England was about to be hurled headlong into the punk revolution, while the USA and Australia were still in the midst of the disco craze. The result was that this remarkable LP vanished without trace, becoming one of the great 'lost' recordings of the era.
Ronnie returned to Australia in the late 1970s. In 1980 he recorded a single backed by Melbourne band The Runners, "Rock and Roll Hoodlum / Aim for the Stars", which came out on the Full Moon label. As well as issuing a second solo album, 'Hands Off', in 1983 (which wasn't released in Australia), Ronnie also performed with White Light Orchestra, Turbo Luv Nuns, Running Scared and Post Mortem during the 1980s. He still lives and performs in Melbourne.
''Katy Jane (#44) / No Face, No Name And No Number'' 1969 Festival
''Natural Man / It's Been So Long'' 1970 Festival
''Yesterday's Witness / Can You See'' 1972 Interfusion
''Layla (Part I)'' 1975 20th Century
'Prestidigitation' 1975 20th Century
References
http://www.milesago.com/artists/charles-ronnie.htm
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