In part one, here, we looked at the Seekers, Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs, the Loved Ones and more. We hope you dig Part Two of our feature on great Aussie bands of the '60s who weren't the Easybeats. Let us know who you like!
THE BEE GEES
We claim Sir Barry and his brothers as our own because they spent their formative years in Brisbane and Sydney, and indeed their local success provided the launching pad for their international success, which was surely greater than their wildest dreams. But their early recordings are often dismissed internationally if they're heard at all. It didn't help that their first UK LP - their third if you count the two Australian LP's that preceded it - was called Bee Gees 1st. Here "at home" though, we know the greatness of tracks like "I Am The World", "In The Morning" and "I Want Home", and of course "Spicks & Specks" is truly iconic.
THE TWILIGHTS (pictured above)
With the Masters' and these guys (and then the Zoot late in the decade), Adelaide certainly punched above its weight in producing great and successful rock bands in the '60s. Perhaps it was all the English immigrants living there. The original Twilights featured two Englishers and an Irishman. One of the English was, of course, Glenn Shorrock. The Twilights developed from a highly skilled beat combo with killer harmonies to leading pop-psych lights who had a stint at Abbey Road and made some world-class records. They failed to click in the UK but were big enough at home to warrant a pilot episode of their own TV Show, and songwriter Terry Britten went on to international success with material for the likes of Cliff Richard and ONJ in the '70s and '80s, at the same time Shorrock was fronting worldbeaters LRB. The Twilights left us with some classic records.
MIKE FURBER & THE BOWERY BOYS
Though he never really rivalled the Easybeats for popularity and he wasn't really a songwriter, Mike Furber was a charismatic Sydney singer who made some great singles and achieved some much-deserved success around '66-67, and his sole album has been a coveted collector's item since the late '70s. Mike sadly passed away in 1973 at the age of 24 (suicide was ruled, but rumours of murder persist to this day), but he left us with some great records, including this killer one, written by great English songwriter Graham Gouldman and first recorded by his band the Mockingbirds.
M.P.D. LIMITED
Another odd outfit from Melbourne, MPD had nary an R&B tune in their repertoire; they mixed beat-y and bouncy Who-like originals like "I Am What I Am" with unusual covers including tough arrangements of the Shangri-las' girl group classic "(Remember) Walking in the Sand" and, in what proved to be their biggest hit, Johnny Burnette's "Little Boy Sad". Being Melbourne boys they of course had a country tune too - a decent version of "The Wild Side of Life". These days best known as the band that featured Mike Brady (of "Up There Cazaly" and numerous ad jingles fame), MPD didn't quite scale the popularity of Go!! labelmates Bobby & Laurie but were big local heroes with a strong catalogue of recordings.
RAY BROWN & THE WHISPERS
At much the same time that Nomie Rowe & The Playboys appeared in Melbourne, Ray Brown & The Whispers hit the scene in Sydney. Forming out surf instrumentalists the Nocturnes they followed a fairly typical path and had a bunch of great hits, including tough beat numbers like "Fool Fool Fool" and "Pride". The Bee Gees helped out on backing vocals on their 1966 miss "Too Late To Come Home", and they even dabbled - Melbourne style - in a bit of country pop with "Tennessee Waltz Song". Prolific, they released 4 LP's in '65-66. Ray ended up becoming something of a country-rock pioneer with Ray Brown & Moonstone at the end of the decade.
THE GROOP
Best known for featuring Brian Cadd and receiving the patronage of a young Ian Meldrum, The Groop nailed the sound of 1967 with thick and tight keyboard driven instrumental power and strong soul-pop songwriting. In singer Ronnie Charles they had one of the great voices of the era, and in Cadd and guitarist Don Mudie - who together would form Axiom with Glenn Shorrock after both The Groop and the Twilights returned from failed attempts to break the UK - they had great writers. "Woman You're Breaking Me" and "Such A Lovely Way" are two classic records of the era. The Groop's last recording together was as the backing band on Russell Morris' Meldrum-produced classic "The Real Thing".
THE MISSING LINKS
A seriously wild R&B group with links to Sydney's counterculture (they played a benefit for Oz magazines Richard Neville, Martin Sharp and Richard Walsh early on), the Missing Links were actually two groups whose only continuity was New Zealander Andy Anderson, who joined the original group on drums just before it split and ended up singing in the second incarnation. The original line-up had featured Ronnie Peel, who ended up playing for the La-De-Das and becoming know as Rockwell T James in the '70s. On the back of classic tracks like "Wild About You" (which the Saints covered no their 1977 debut album (I'm) Stranded and "You're Driving Me Insane" and one amazing album, the Missing Links are better known worldwide these days than most of their Australian contemporaries, but at time they failed to hit. Andy Anderson would later change his name and become a successful Australian actor, with numerous appearances in the likes of Prisoner, The Flying Doctors and A Country Practice and long running roles in both The Sullivans and Phoenix.
- Dave Laing
