The Little River Band (LRB) is a rock band originally formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1975.
The band chose its name after passing a road sign leading to the Victorian township of Little River, near Geelong, on the way to a performance. The band enjoyed sustained commercial success, not only in Australia but also in the United States. They have sold more than 25 million records, achieved 13 U.S. Top 40 hits and received many music awards in Australia.
The band’s original members were Glenn Shorrock (born in England, 1944), Graeham Goble (born in Australia, 1947), Beeb Birtles (born in The Netherlands, 1948), Ric Formosa (born in Italy, 1953), Roger McLachlan (born in New Zealand, 1954) and Derek Pellicci (born in England, 1953). The music and lyrics for most of the group’s songs were mainly written by Goble and Shorrock, with contributions from Birtles, David Briggs (who replaced Formosa) and Pellicci.
In May 2001 the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), as part of its 75th anniversary celebrations, named “Cool Change”, written by Shorrock, as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time. The classic line-up of Birtles, Goble, Pellicci, Shorrock, Briggs and bass guitarist George McArdle (who replaced McLachlan) were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame at the 18th Annual ARIA Music Awards of 2004.
The Little River Band has undergone numerous personnel changes since its formation in 1975, with over 30 members performing with the band. None of the musicians now performing as the Little River Band are original members. – Wikipedia
The Fray is an American rock band from Denver, Colorado. Formed in 2002 by schoolmates Isaac Slade and Joe King, they achieved success with the release of their debut album, How to Save a Life in 2005, which was certified double platinum by the RIAA and platinum in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK. The Fray achieved national success with their first single, “Over My Head (Cable Car)”, which became a top ten hit in the United States. The release of their second single, “How to Save a Life”, brought the band worldwide fame. The song charted in the top three of the Billboard Hot 100 and was a top 5 single in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
The group’s self-titled, second album, released in 2009, debuted at number-one on the Billboard charts and was certified gold in the United States, Australia and Canada. It was also nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Album in 2010. While both the albums were commercially successful, critical reception was mixed. The Fray was ranked No. 84 on Billboard ’s “Artists of the Decade” list. Their third album Scars & Stories, released in 2012, achieved moderate commercial success; debuting and peaking at number four on the Billboard 200. The album again received mixed reviews from critics. The band’s fourth and latest album, Helios, was released in February 2014.
Men at Work were an Australian rock band which formed in 1979. Their founding mainstay was Colin Hay on lead vocals; he formed the group with Jerry Speiser on drums; and Ron Strykert on lead guitar; they were joined by Greg Ham on flute and keyboards; and then John Rees on bass guitar. This line up achieved national and international success in the early 1980s. In January 1983 they were the first Australian artists to have a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single in the United States Billboard charts – Business as Usual (released on 9 November 1981) and “Down Under” (1981) respectively. With the same works they achieved the same distinction of a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single on the Australian, New Zealand and United Kingdom charts. Their second album, Cargo (2 May 1983) was also No. 1 in Australia, No. 2 in New Zealand, No. 3 in the US, and No. 8 in the UK. Their third album, Two Hearts (3 April 1985), reached the top 20 in Australia and top 50 in the US.
At the Grammy Awards of 1983 they won the Best New Artist category; while at the ARIA Music Awards of 1994 they were inducted into the related Hall of Fame. Men at Work have sold over 30 million albums worldwide. According to Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, “[i]rrespective of the band’s fairytale rise to prominence, [their] phenomenal success inextricably created worldwide interest in Australia and Australian music … [they] simply opened the floodgates with little more than a clutch of great songs … [and were] Australia’s most famous group” until the late 1980s. The group disbanded in 1986 and reformed in 1996 to disband again by 2002.
In May 2001 “Down Under” was listed at No. 4 on the APRA Top 30 Australian songs and Business as Usual appeared in the book, 100 Best Australian Albums (October 2010). In February 2010 Larrikin Music Publishing won a case against Hay and Strykert, their record label (Sony BMG Music Entertainment) and music publishing company (EMI Songs Australia) arising from the uncredited appropriation of “Kookaburra” for the flute line in “Down Under”. On 19 April 2012 Greg Ham’s body was found at his home “in what police said were unsuspicious circumstances”.
Colin James Hay (born 29 June 1953) is a Scottish Australian musician and actor who made his mark during the 1980s as lead vocalist of the Australian band Men at Work, and later as a solo artist. Regarding his solo career, Hay stated, in 2011: “I feel like it’s been building for the last fifteen or so years that I’ve been touring. It’s slow and steady. It’s been word-of-mouth. People see the show, like it, and tell their friends. It feels very organic.”
Hay’s music has been frequently used by actor and director Zach Braff in his work, subsequently leading to a career rebirth in the mid-2000s. Commenting on his younger fanbase, Hay noted, “Most of them have an idea about Men at Work, but that’s the subplot. They picked up on me since Scrubs, they’re young enough they never heard of Men at Work. But I’ve found if people discover you they discover everything about you.” – Wikipedia
Savage Garden was an Australian pop duo consisting of Darren Hayes as vocalist and Daniel Jones as instrumentalist. Formed in Logan City, Queensland in 1994, the duo achieved international success in the late 1990s and early 2000s with the number-one hit singles “I Want You”, “To the Moon and Back”, “Truly Madly Deeply”, “The Animal Song” and “I Knew I Loved You”. Their two studio albums, Savage Garden and Affirmation reached number-one in Australia and peaked in the top ten in both the United Kingdom and United States.
The group won a record number of ten ARIA Music Awards in 1997 for their debut album and its related singles. They disbanded in 2001 and Hayes continued as a solo artist.
Darren Stanley Hayes (born 8 May 1972) is an Australian singer-songwriter. Hayes was the frontman and singer of the pop duo Savage Garden, whose 1997 album Savage Garden peaked at No. 1 in Australia, No. 2 in United Kingdom and No. 3 in United States. It spawned the singles “I Want You”, “To the Moon and Back”, and Australian and US No. 1 “Truly Madly Deeply”. The duo followed the success of their debut album with Affirmation (1999), which provided additional hits such as US No. 1 “I Knew I Loved You”, and Australian No. 3 “The Animal Song”. Savage Garden sold more than 23 million albums worldwide before parting ways in 2001.
Hayes released his first solo album Spin in 2002. The album sold two million copies worldwide, debuted at No. 2 in the UK and No. 3 in Australia. It delivered the hit single “Insatiable”. Hayes’s second solo album The Tension and the Spark marked a change of direction for the singer-songwriter, showing experimentation with electronica and darker lyrics. NME wrote about its first single, “Pop!ular” saying it was “A twistered masterclass in career reintervention…This guy is a genius.” While The Observer said “This album is no folly and succeeds, often to the point of all out triumph, on its own terms.” Hayes parted way with his record label Columbia Records in 2006 and started his own independent record label Powdered Sugar, from which he would release his third solo album This Delicate Thing We’ve Made (2007).
In mid-2010, Hayes announced the completion of recording his fourth solo album, Secret Codes and Battleships, features 3 songs co-written and produced by Brian West and was mixed by Robert Orton, who is best known for working with Lady Gaga. On 17 April 2011, Hayes signed with Mercury Records’ Australian division and in August 2011 with EMI Records in the UK. The album was released in Australia on 21 October 2011, 24 October in the UK and 25 October in the US, with singles “Talk Talk Talk”, “Bloodstained Heart” and “Black Out the Sun” released before the album. – Wikipedia
Keith Lionel Urban (born 26 October 1967) is a New Zealand-born and Australian-raised country music musician, songwriter, guitarist, and television music competition judge. When he was 2 years old, his parents moved the family to Australia, where his career eventually began. In 1991, he released a self-titled debut album, and charted four singles in Australia before moving to the United States in 1992. Eventually, he found work as a session guitarist before starting a band known as The Ranch, which recorded one studio album on Capitol Records and charted two singles on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
Still signed to Capitol, he made his solo American debut in 1999 with the album Keith Urban. Certified platinum in the U.S., it produced his first Number One on Hot Country Songs with “But for the Grace of God“. “Somebody Like You”, the first single from his second Capitol album, Golden Road (2002), was named by Billboard as the biggest country hit of the 2000–2010 decade. The album’s fourth single, “You’ll Think of Me”, earned him his first Grammy. 2004’s Be Here, his third American album, produced three more number 1 singles, and became his highest-selling album, earning 4× Platinum certification. Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing was released in 2006, containing “Once in a Lifetime”, as well as his second Grammy song, “Stupid Boy“. A greatest hits package entitled Greatest Hits: 18 Kids followed in late 2007. Defying Gravity and Get Closer were released on 31 March 2009 and 16 November 2010, respectively.
Keith Urban has released a total of nine studio albums (one of which was released only in the United Kingdom), as well as one album with The Ranch. He has charted 29 singles on the U.S. country charts, of which 15 have reached Number One. He plays acoustic and electric guitar, as well as banjo, bass guitar, mandolin, piano, sitar, bouzouki, and drums. He is also known for his roles as a coach on the Australian version of the singing competition The Voice, and as a judge on American Idol. Since 2006, he has been married to actress Nicole Kidman. (Source: Wikipedia)
Helen Reddy (born 25 October 1941) is an Australian American singer, actress, and activist. She is often referred to as the “Queen of 70s Pop”. In the 1970s, she enjoyed international success, especially in the United States, where she placed fifteen singles in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. Six made the Top 10 and three reached No. 1, including her signature hit “I Am Woman.” She placed 25 songs on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart. Fifteen made the Top 10 and eight reached No. 1, six consecutively. She was the first artist to win the coveted American Music Award for “Favorite Pop/Rock Female” artist. She was the first Australian to win a Grammy Award and to have three No. 1 hits in the same year. In television, she was the first Australian to host her own one-hour weekly primetime variety show on an American network, along with several specials that were seen in over forty countries. Helen retired from live performance in 2002 and now practices as a clinical hypnotherapist and motivational speaker. In 2011, Billboard named her the No. 28 AC artist of all time (No. 9 woman). She lives in Australia.
Her song “I Am Woman” played a large role in popular culture and became an anthem for Second-wave feminism. She came to be known as a “feminist poster girl” or a “feminist icon. (Source: Wikipedia)
The Little River Band (LRB) is a rock band originally formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1975.
