MIKE BRADY

 

Mike Brady was born in England in 1948 and migrated to Australia in the 1950s with his family aboard the Strathnaver. His first job was at the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation factory in Port Melbourne, Victoria, as an apprentice sheet metal worker.Brady abandoned his apprenticeship and formed a garage band unpromisingly named the Hearsemen for a year or so. When The Phantoms lead guitarist Dave Lincoln broke his arm Brady filled in as a temporary member. In the band was bassist Pete Watson and the two decided to join forces and form a new band. Recruiting drummer Danny Finley from The Saxons they used their first initials to provide the name MPD Ltd. It didn't take them long to hit the recording studio. The trio were signed to Go!! Records by July 1965 to release their debut single, "Little Boy Sad". It was a cover version of Johnny Burnette's 1961 hit. MPD Ltd's rendition reached #1 in Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth, #5 in Sydney and top 10 in Adelaide. They appeared on TV pop programmes, The Go!! Show and Saturday Date, as well as touring Australia. In 1966 they relocated to the UK but made little headway and decided to return home. For additional info on MPD Ltd CLICK HERE.

By 1967 it was all over and Mike got an offer to join Johnny Young's old backing band Kompany. Danny Finlay also joined up and they recorded two singles on the Clarion label. ''The Family Way'' is a personal favourite of mine and I reckon its a forgotten gem. When Kompany disbanded Mike spent the majority of his time building his career as producer and writer of jingles for Television and Radio. One such jingle brought Mike back into the public spotlight. He was asked to record a promotional song for Channel Seven’s Football program. Under the moniker Two Man Band, ''Up There Cazaly'' went on to be the biggest selling local single of its time, with sales in excess of 250,000 and has become the unofficial Anthem of all Australian Rules Football Fans. For additional info on Two Man Band CLICK HERE

Over the years, he has been responsible for some of Australia’s most catchy advertising jingles. His jingles include; classics such as ''Lucky, Your with AAMI'' and ''Hard Yakka'' and many current music tracks on TV. Mike has written jingles for most of Australia’s famous brands. During the 70’s Mike formed his own Record Label and Record Production Company, Full Moon Records, and publishing company, Remix Publishing. Two hugely successful singles released by Full Moon were Mark Jackson’s ''I’m An Individual'' and Joe Dolce’s ''Shuddap You Face''. ''Shuddap You Face'' broke the record previously held by Mike’s ''Up There Cazaly'' as the biggest selling single in Australian History and has been translated into many different languages. Mike and his company have produced albums for artists such as Tina Arena, Colleen Hewett, Mark Gillespie and Mike Rudd and Bill Putt. Many of Mike’s songs have been recorded by leading artists including Tina Arena, and John Farnham.

2006 saw Mike in the home of country music, Nashville Tennessee. He had a swag of songs he’d written over the years that he had always wanted to record. 'Country To Country' was released later that year. In June 2013 Brady was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for services to the community and to music as a composer and performer. On Monday 3rd July 2017 Mike was honored to be named Victorian of the Year in a ceremony in Melbourne.

SINGLES
''Finger Poppin' (#76) / Big White Bird'' 1970 Fable 
''Sympathy (#42) / Look At Me'' 1970 Fable 
''Oh Lord, Why Lord (#50) / I Have Changed [with Ticket] 1971 Fable 
''Hello Mum / I Wonder Why'' 1972 Fable 
''Dreamer / How Does It Feel'' 1980 Full Moon 
''The Cube [with The Cubettes] / The Headless Horsemen'' [with Peter Sullivan And The Cubettes] 1981 Full Moon 
''Up There For Sydney / There's A Little Bit Of Cazaly In Us All'' 1982 Full Moon 
''You're Here To Win (#49) / Advance Australia Fair'' 1982 Full Moon 
''We'll Be There / One Day In September'' 1988 Fable
"Up There Cazaly '99" (#78) [with Haley White]  1999 Shock
"Up There Cazaly" (re-release) 2014
"Come My Children" [live - featuring Russell Morris] 2017
"This Place" 2018
"When I Was Young" 2019

EPs
'Up There Mike Brady' 1982 Full Moon Records

ALBUMS
'Invisible Man' 1979 Full Moon 
'Mike Brady Presents: The Songs of Football's Greatest' (#44) 1981 Full Moon
'Country to Country' 2007 Bradyworks 
'Bloodlines (The Australian Irish Story)' 2014 Full Moon