THE GREEN HILL SINGERS

The Green Hill Singers were three Melbourne boys who enjoyed their “15 minutes of fame” in Sydney during the folk boom: unashamedly commercial, consciously non-political and unaffected by division among their peers over ethnic vs popular folk. “I make no apologies for the fact we tried to copy The Kingston Trio, with the ivy-league shirts and the whole thing”, remembers group leader John McMillan. “As far as we were concerned, we wanted to just make music … The beauty of it was working alongside the Marian Hendersons, the Declan Affleys and the Danny Spooners”. 

McMillan, his brother Alec and schoolfriend John Jenkinson had earlier enjoyed minor success, as The Vedetts, appearing every Sunday night on Dick Cranbourn’s 3UZ Radio show. Early in 1964 the McMillans teamed up with bass-player Chris Bonett and “it just all clicked. Chris was the talent we had to have to form a trio as we wanted it”. As The Green Hill Singers, the boys played on In Melbourne Tonight (IMT) and had the distinction of succeeding The Seekers as resident group at the Treble Clef in South Yarra. Winning Everybody’s Magazine’s ‘Big New Sound of 1964’ talent quest gained the trio a recording contract with HMV and a season supporting Shirley Bassey at the Palais in Melbourne and Chequers in Sydney. A single ''Big Land'', a catchy celebration of the outback penned by Bonett, received substantial airplay, and the boys threw up their day jobs and moved to Sydney to appear regularly on the ABC TV series Jazz Meets Folk.

Throughout 1965 The Green Hill Singers teamed work in the folk clubs with gigs at RSL and Leagues clubs and appearances on Bobby Limb’s Sound of Music and Dave Allen’s Tonight Show. For a while, they were flown down every Friday to play on Noel Ferrier’s IMT, and at mid-year they recorded an LP for Festival, 'The Folk Sound of The Green Hill Singers'. John McMillan remembers the trio’s excitement when Dave Guard was called in to provide instrumental support on several cuts: “Am I dreaming here? This is the man I went to see in concert [i.e. with The Kingston Trio]. He’s sitting here in the studio playing 12 string guitar and banjo”. ''An even bigger thrill was meeting Peter Paul & Mary at Gary Shearston’s house, and having Paul Stookey walk in, sit down and play guitar with me”. 

Interestingly, Guard’s interest in the trio heralded a decisive personnel change. In the middle of recording the LP, he head-hunted Bonett to appear in his own (Guard’s) group on the TV series Dave’s Place. Brian Godden (ex-The Raiders) was brought in to fill Bonett’s place and finish the album (which sank without trace). McMillan believes The Green Hill Singers was never quite the same without the versatile Bonett, and the trio disbanded, due to lack of work, in November 1965. Chris Bonett and Brian Godden started a new band. Pulling in jazz drummer Laurie Kennedy and singer/songwriter Norma Stoneman they embarked on a new project they called The Grape Escape.

Members

Chris Bonett (bass), John McMillan (vocals/guitar), Brian Godden (bass), Alex McMillan (vocals/guitar)

SINGLES

''Twenty Long Years / Big Land'' 1964 HMV

ALBUMS
'The Folk Sound of The Green Hill Singers' 1965 Festival

References

http://www.warrenfahey.com.au/early-sydney-part3/