Neil Coombe formed Bad Habit in 1975 at age 15, along with fellow members Paul Wilton and Neal Ward. The group first started playing in Ipswich QLD where they were based. A short while after they started gigging in Brisbane and elsewhere throughout south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales. Bad Habit recorded some demos in early 1976 and supported AC/DC at Festival Hall later in the year (18 December). Early in 1977, Wilton left the group and was replaced by Steve Arthurson and John Pankoff . It was this line-up that recorded their debut album 'Stormchild'.
The group disbanded shortly after the LP was issued. 300 copies of the album were pressed through EMI Custom, with group members being responsible for sale and distribution. It is remarkable that 'Stormchild' appeared on vinyl at all, considering the difficulties that the group experienced during the recording and mixing of the album, and all on a budget of $600! Neil Coombe later appeared as a member of 42nd Street, Mr Meaner, Fear Of Falling and The Wishing Chair. Steve Arthurson died in 2001.
Members
Neil Coombe (vocals/guitar), Paul Wilton (vocals/bass), Neal Ward (drums), Steve Arthurson (vocals guitar), John Pankoff (bass)
The Pelaco Brothers formed in 1974 in Melbourne with Joe Camilleri (ex-King Bees, Lipp and the Double Dekker Brothers, Sharks) on saxophone and vocals, Stephen Cummings (ex-Ewe and the Merinos) on lead vocals, Peter Lillie on guitar and vocals, Johnny Topper on bass guitar, Karl Wolfe on drums and Chris Worrall on guitar. The group were named after the Pelaco sign which advertised a local shirt manufacturer. According to Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, they played "rockabilly, country swing and R&B that recalled American outfits like Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen and Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks. Yet, the band's delivery presented a fiercely Australian outlook". Only existing for 18 months, they later included Ed Bates on guitar and Peter Martin on slide guitar.
Their posthumous release was 'The Notorious Pelaco Brothers Show' a live six-track EP (also seen as The Pelaco Bros) on the Ralph imprint in 1976. The Pelaco Brothers disbanded in late 1975, Camilleri went on to form a blues and rock music band, Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons; meanwhile Cummings and Bates formed a new wave group, The Sports in 1976. In 1982 The Pelaco Brothers music was used for a suburban horror film, This Woman Is Not a Car. On 13 September 2012 Peter Lillie died of liver disease, aged 61. Chris Worrall died in 2024.
Members
Joe Camilleri (saxophone vocals), Stephen Cummings (vocals), Peter Lillie (guitar), Johnny Topper (bass), Karl Wolfe (drums) Chris Worrall (guitar), Ed Bates (guitar) Peter Martin (slide guitar).
There is very little information available about Sydney soft rock band Air. Signed to the Philips label they released two singles, ''Crazy Lady / So Many People'' (1972) and ''Ted's Saloon / Super Situation'' (1973). Both singles failed to chart. In 1974 they released a self-titled LP on the Polydor label produced by Freshwater's David Fookes. Jenny McGregor went on to become a successful opera soprano.
Members
Jenny McGregor (vocals), Philip "Pip" Owen (guitar, vocals), Steve Nicholas (guitar, vocals), Nicky Dunn (guitar, bass, vocals), Patrick Conroy (bass)
SINGLES ''Crazy Lady / So Many People'' 1972 Philips ''Ted's Saloon / Super Situation'' 1973 Philips
Short lived seventies glam rock band that released one album 'What The Hell Is Going On?' and a couple of singles ''Who Do / Jean Sea'' and ''I Said / Ziggy Stardust'' all in 1974 on the EMI label. The band appeared on Countdown. Guitarist Peter Laffy also played in bands Freeway, Mondo Rock and Jim Keay’s Southern Cross. Vocalist Michael Upton and Peter Laffy both died in 2011. Hodgson would later turn up in Tinsley Waterhouse.
Members
Peter Laffy (guitar), Neil Hodgson (bass, keyboards), Michael Upton (vocals) Les Oldman (drums)
SINGLES ''Who Do / Jean Sea'' 1974 EMI ''I Said / Ziggy Stardust'' 1974 EMI
Chris Neal was born in 1946 in Sydney. He studied AMEB (Australian Music Examinations Board) grades in classical piano and music theory to the age of sixteen. He attended North Sydney Boys High School and in 1964, began an arts degree at Sydney University with majors in music and Indonesian / Malayan studies. During his Uni years, he gigged around Sydney with rock bands - The Showmen and The Powerhouse.
In 1968, he worked extensively on the soundtrack of the Anglo/Australian feature film, Age of Consent with Peter Sculthorpe, writing and producing the majority of the incidental score. On the eve of completing his degree, Neal suffered a skull fracture during a game of rugby. The resultant Inertia and Tinnitus caused massive hearing loss and sleeplessness which prevented him sitting his final exams. Following a brief convalescence, he joined The Alpha-Omega Revue and headed off to the Vietnam War zone, entertaining US troops for several months in 1968-9.
While in Vietnam, he began writing what was intended to be the world's first rock musical, 'Man-Child'. However, by the time he had returned to Australia, the American show 'Hair' was already in the headlines. Nevertheless, he packaged the show and presented it at the Sydney Showground in the world's first "bubble" air-inflated theatre (financed by his brother, developer James Neal). The season was cut short when a freak storm picked up a design fault in the plastic theatre and destroyed it. So, the whole company (25 people in all) set off on a national capital city tour.
The tour was successful, breaking box office records in several cities and a Man-Child soundtrack album was recorded for the then fledgling M7 record company. This caused Neal to turn his attentions for a time to the development of his skills as a record producer and sound engineer, while continuing to work as a songwriter and composer. In 1974, he recorded his second album, an instrumental rock LP called 'Winds of Isis'. This record created widespread interest and is a highly sought-after collector's item today. The album peaked at #74 in Australia. The multi-layered keyboard and guitar instrumentation was composed, performed and arranged by Neal. Following this, he worked in the Sydney scene as a session keyboardist and performed on literally hundreds of advertising and film soundtracks.
In 1978, Neal composed a complete score for Fritz Lang's silent movie masterpiece, Metropolis. The score was created using the massive Roland System-700 and MC-8 data entry device. (The MC-8 was the world's first fully functioning digital music sequencer). The score was performed live with the movie around several venues in Sydney. A cinema release with synchronised score was in development when Giorgio Moroder announced the release of his version and the local movie producer withdrew, cancelling the project.
In 1980, Neal again used the Roland system to create an electronic soundtrack for the feature film - Crosstalk. The score was released on vinyl and is still available today. As a record producer during the seventies. Neal produced records for the likes of the Marshall Brothers Band, the Nick Boston band, John Currie, Slim De Grey, Frankie Davidson and Lester Coombs. He produced Bob Hudson's smash hit "The Newcastle Song" and Maureen Elkner's hit single "Rak Off Normie", (co-written by Hudson and Neal).
As a screen composer his credits date from the late 1970s and include The Shiralee, Bodyline, Buddies, Rebel, Archer, Shadow of The Cobra and Emerald City. During the 1980s, Neal scored several films from the Winners series of telemovies, produced by Patricia Edgar of the Australian Children's Television Foundation. Five Times Dizzy, produced by Tom Jeffrey followed soon after. These projects kickstarted what would be a recurring part of his career; scoring and writing songs for children's television dramas including the timeless Johnson and Friends, Lift-Off, Kaboodle, Li'l Elvis and the Truckstoppers and more. Neal's songs and music were also featured in stage shows based on "Johnson and Friends", and in 1995-1996, Neal wrote the music for Lift Off Live; a stage musical based on the Lift-Off television series.
Feature film and television projects continued through the 1990s and 2000s, including Pacific Drive,Foreign Exchange and many more. Neal has worked frequently with Bob Ellis and Denny Lawrence on several musicals throughout the 1990s and 2000s. These include Neon Street (also known as "Man - The Musical" and "The Big Smoke") and High Time, a story about the 1979 Sydney Ghost Train fire at Luna Park. Both of these shows were written as vehicles for the acclaimed performer Philip Quast, who has lent his voice to many of the songs. These recordings still exist as unpublished demonstration tracks.
In 2018, Neal donated his music archive to independent historian and archivist Joseph Marshall, who Neal has mentored for many years. Marshall has taken up the responsibility of preserving and digitising Chris Neal's vast catalogue. Marshall has also sourced many of Neal's early screen works for a planned future YouTube Channel.
Recently, Neal has taken a step back from film scoring to write and release his own, independent rock-based songs under the pseudonym Sirclo. the first of these projects, 'Songs for an Empty Street', was released digitally in 2018. Two follow-up albums are due for release in 2021 - 'High Time - Songs From The Musical' and '70s Unreleased' (a re-mastering of a dozen songs written and recorded in the 70s).
SINGLES ''Kassa-Hoosee Wassawaya (Mother Sun) / Moments'' 1973 M7 ''The Rock Theme From "Winds Of Isis" / Isis Revisited'' 1975 M7 ''Crosstalk / The Sound Of Murder'' 1982 Grass Roots ''Buddies (Instrumental)'' 1983 Festival
ALBUMS 'Manchild' 1972 M7 'Winds Of Isis' (#74) 1974 M7 'Crosstalk' 1982 Grass Roots 'Buddies: Getting Even!' 1984 Festival 'Turtle Beach (Original Soundtrack)' 1992 Polygram
Mike Meade began life as a cameraman at STW 9 in Perth and then achieved a modicum of fame in the 70s as a pop singer and as the co compere of music show Flashez with Ray Burgess. He also appeared on Countdown as guest compere. In 1973 he released an album 'Isolation'.
In the mid-1960s John Kevans regularly performed at Irish ceilidhs in Sydney, and at the Irish music sessions at Tommy Doyle's pub in Ultimo, learning from and playing alongside some of the great expatriate Irish musicians. In Canberra he collaborated with another talented young local musician, Bob McInnes, appearing as the Monaro Boys. In 1969 the Wild Colonial Boys were formed with Kevans, McInnes, Jim Fingleton (Canberra), Tony Lavin (Ireland) and Bill Morgan (Newcastle). Famed for both its music and fighting, this wild-by-name, wild-by-nature group was short-lived, yet helped establish the template, style and repertoire for what was to become the "New Bush Band" movement of the 1970s and '80s. The band had a bit part in Tony Richardson's Ned Kelly film (1969), starring Mick Jagger, and travelled to Papua New Guinea, Melbourne and regional centres. Kevans died aged 62 in 2005.
Members
John "Jacko" Kevans (accordion) Bob McInnes (banjo, mandolin, fiddle, tin whistle) Jim Fingleton (concertina, lagerphones, spoons), Tony Lavin (bush bass), Bill Morgan (guitars)
Agnes Banks was formed in 1970/71 and was active till 1979, its name being taken from the suburb, just south of Richmond NSW. The group was a popular rock & roll ‘covers’ band with the ability to keep audiences up on the dance floor and as such, regularly appeared at all of Sydney’s (and surrounds) major music venues, Chequers, Stagedoor, Satchmo's etc. as well as on the 'then' highly vibrant High School and suburban dance circuit. They also wrote, recorded and played a lot of their own material as part of their act, but only released one single on the Marvel label (not related to the Comics), now Makeshift Music.
Members
Allan Watt (vocals), Allan Brown (guitar), Robert Brown (bass), Peter Dudley (drums)
John O'Donnell was born in Sydney and studied at the New South Wales State Conservatorium of Music in Sydney and the University of Durham. Since performing the complete organ works of Bach in 1974 he has enjoyed an international reputation as an organist and harpsichordist, and with the performance of the complete harpsichord works of Bach in 1985 followed by the first Australian performance of the newly discovered Neumeister Chorales he became the first person ever to perform Bach's total keyboard output (twenty-nine recitals in all). In 1985 he was appointed Music Director of the Tudor Choristers of Melbourne, and in 1990 founded Ensemble Gombert, a choir of sixteen voices devoted primarily to the music of the High Renaissance.
Whilst a senior lecturer in musicology at the University of Melbourne, he published a number of articles on performance practice and has recently prepared an edition of the complete keyboard works of Johann Caspar Kerll and has completed a monograph on High Renaissance musica ficta. His performances abroad have included several recitals in Europe and ten tours of North America. He has also served on the jury of national and international competitions in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Germany. During 2009 he conducted a highly acclaimed season of Handel’s opera Xerxes with Victorian Opera, for which he was nominated for a Green Room Award, and in 2014 he directed four performances of the oldest extant opera, Peri’s Euridice, newly edited from the original print, at the Woodend Winter Arts Festival.
ALBUMS
'J.S. Bach Organ Works: The Leipzig Chorales' 2002 Melba 'Händel - Organ Works' 2005 ABC 'From The House Of Master Böhm' 2013 Melba, 'Handel’s Recorder' [with Ruth Wilkinson, Miriam Morris] 2015 Divine Art 'The Emperor's Fiddler' [ with David Irving, Hannah Lane, Tommie Andersson, Laura Vaughan] 2018 Obsidian
Matthew Doyle is a professional musician (Didgeridoo player, singer, and composer) dancer, choreographer and teacher. He is descendant of the Muruwari Aboriginal nation from northwest NSW and is also of Irish heritage. Matthew joined the National Aboriginal Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA) in 1985, where he completed an Associate Diploma in dance. He then freelanced as a dancer and didgeridoo player, teaching and performing in schools, universities and various arts and cultural festivals. Matthew danced with the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre (ADIT) Company from 1991 to 1993, touring nationally and internationally and was the Artist in Residence for the Department of School Education in Sydney. Matthew formed his own company Wuruniri Music & Dance which is made up of a group of professional musicians and dancers presenting traditional and contemporary performances. Matthew has composed original music for TV and Video documentaries. Artists he has and continues to work with include Bangarra Dance Theatre, Michael Atherton, Coloured Stone, Tony Lewis, Riley Lee, Synergy, Taikoz, Colin Offord and Dale Barlow. He has recorded four albums of his own and appears on many others.
Some highlights of Matthew’s performing career include: The Closing Ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, playing a piece by Australian composer Ross Edwards ‘dawn mantras’ on top of the sails of the Sydney Opera House for the worldwide millennium broadcast - ABC TV, choreographing part of the indigenous section of the Opening and Closing ceremonies of the 2000 Olympics, playing with Riley Lee (Shakuhachi) and Kim Duk Soo Samul Nori in Seoul Korea for the Opening Ceremony Rugby World Cup Sydney 2003, playing in Athens, Greece with international group of musicians and singers for the Olympic Games cultural Olympiad and playing at the 2006 World Expo in Nagoya, Japan. Matthew and the Wuruniri group have performed for many of the elite functions in Sydney and nationally, such as the National Sorry Day, the APEC conference in 2007, the Pope’s visit and were involved in the World Youth Day Celebrations in 2009. Matthew can also be heard on the soundtrack of the Baz Luhrmann movie ‘Australia’.
ALBUMS 'Wild Honey Dreaming' [with Riley Lee] 1993 New World Productions 'Lightning Man' 1994 New World Productions 'Lyrebird' 1996 Black Sun 'Lightning Man' [Riley Lee, Michael Atherton] 2002 New World Productions
