Skyhooks
Encyclopedia
Skyhooks were an Australian rock
band formed in Melbourne
in March 1973 by mainstays Greg Macainsh on bass guitar
and backing vocals, and Imants "Freddie" Strauks on drums
. They were soon joined by Bob "Bongo" Starkie on guitar
and backing vocals, and Red Symons
on guitar, vocals and keyboards
; Graeme "Shirley" Strachan became lead vocalist in March 1974. Described as a glam rock
band, because of flamboyant costumes and make-up, Skyhooks addressed teenage issues including buying drugs ("Carlton (Lygon Street Limbo)"), suburban sex ("Balwyn Calling"), the gay scene ("Toorak Cowboy") and loss of girlfriends ("Somewhere in Sydney") by namechecking
Australian locales. According to music historian
, Ian McFarlane "[Skyhooks] made an enormous impact on Australian social life".
Skyhooks had #1 albums on the Australian Kent Music Report
with their 1974 debut, Living in the 70's (for 16 weeks), and its 1975 follow-up, Ego Is Not a Dirty Word
(11 weeks). Their #1 singles were "Horror Movie
" (January 1975), "Ego Is Not a Dirty Word" (April 1975) and "Jukebox in Siberia" (November 1990).
Symons left Skyhooks in 1977 and became a radio and television personality. Strachan had solo releases since 1976 and finally left the band in 1978 and was also a radio and television presenter. With altered line-ups, Skyhooks continued until they disbanded on 8 June 1980; they briefly reformed in 1983, 1984, 1990 and 1994. In 1992, Skyhooks were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association
(ARIA) Hall of Fame
. Lead singer, Strachan died on 29 August 2001, aged 49, in a helicopter crash while solo piloting. Their original lead singer, Steve Hill, died in October 2005, aged 52, of liver cancer.
In 2011, the Skyhook's song Living in the 70s was added to the National Film and Sound Archive
of Australia's Sounds of Australia
registry.
in the Melbourne
suburb of Ringwood
and formed Spare Parts in 1966 with Macainsh on bass guitar
and Strauks on lead vocals. Spare Parts was followed by Sound Pump in 1968, Macainsh formed Reuben Tice in Eltham
, with Tony Williams on vocals. By 1970 Macainsh was back with Strauks, now on drums
, first in Claptrap and by 1971 in Frame which had Graeme "Shirley" Strachan as lead vocalist. Frame also included Pat O'Brien on guitar and Cynthio Ooms on guitar. Strachan had befriended Strauks earlier—he sang with Strauks on the way to parties—and was asked to join Claptrap which was renamed as Frame. Strachan stayed in Frame for about 18 months but left for a career in carpentry
and a hobby of surfing
in Phillip Island.
Skyhooks formed in March 1973 in Melbourne with Steve Hill on vocals (ex-Lillee), Peter Ingliss on guitar (The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band
), Macainsh on bass guitar and backing vocals, Peter Starkie on guitar and backing vocals (Lipp & the Double Dekker Brothers) and Strauks on drums and backing vocals. The name, Skyhooks, came from a fictional organisation in the 1956 film Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
. Their first gig was on 16 April 1973 at St Jude's Anglican Church
hall in Carlton
. At a later gig, former Daddy Cool
frontman, Ross Wilson was playing in his group Mighty Kong
with Skyhooks as a support act. Wilson was impressed with the fledgling band and signed Macainsh to a publishing deal. In August, Bob "Bongo" Starkie (Mary Jane Union) on guitar replaced his older brother Peter (later in Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons
) and Red Symons (Scumbag) on guitar, vocals and keyboards
replaced Ingliss. The two new members added a touch of theatre and humour to the band's visual presence. By late 1973, Wilson had convinced Michael Gudinski
to sign the band to his booking agency, Australian Entertainment Exchange, and eventually to Gudinski's label, Mushroom Records
.
Skyhooks gained a cult following around Melbourne including university intelligentsia
and pub rockers
, but a poorly-received show at the January 1974 Sunbury Pop Festival saw the group booed off stage. Two tracks from their live set, "Hey What's the Matter?" and "Love on the Radio" appeared on Mushroom's Highlights of Sunbury '74. After seeing his performance on TV, Hill phoned Macainsh and resigned. To replace Hill, in March, Macainsh recruited occasional singer, surfer and carpenter Strachan from his Frame era. Strachan had been dubbed "Shirley" by fellow surfers due to his curly blond hair ala Shirley Temple
.
For Skyhooks, the replacement of Hill by Strachan was a pivotal moment, as Strachan had remarkable vocal skills, and a magnetic stage and screen presence. Alongside Macainsh's lyrics, another facet of the group was the twin-guitar sound of Starkie and Symons. Adopting elements of glam rock
in their presentation, and lyrics that presented frank depictions of the social life of young Australia in the 1970s, the band shocked conservative middle Australia with their outrageous (for the time) costumes, make-up, lyrics, and on-stage activities. A 1.2 metre (4 ft) high mushroom-shaped phallus
was confiscated by Adelaide police after a performance. Six of the ten tracks on their debut album
, Living in the 70's, were banned by the Federation of Australian Commercial Broadcasters for their sex and drug references, "Toorak Cowboy", "Whatever Happened to the Revolution?", "You Just Like Me Cos I'm Good in Bed", "Hey What's the Matter", "Motorcycle Bitch" and "Smut". Much of the group's success derived from its distinctive repertoire, mostly penned by bass guitarist Macainsh, with an occasional additional song from Symons—who wrote "Smut" and performed its lead vocals. Although Skyhooks were not the first Australian rock band to write songs in a local setting—rather than ditties about love or songs about New York
or other foreign lands—they were the first to become commercially successful doing so. Skyhooks songs addressed teenage issues including buying drugs ("Carlton (Lygon Street Limbo)"), suburban sex ("Balwyn Calling"), the gay scene ("Toorak Cowboy") and loss of girlfriends ("Somewhere in Sydney") by namechecking
Australian locales. Radio personality
, Billy Pinnell described the importance of their lyrics in tackling Australia's cultural cringe
:
The first Skyhooks single, "Living in the 70's", was released in August, ahead of the album, and peaked at #7 on the Australian Kent Music Report
Singles Charts. Living in the 70's initially charted only in Melbourne upon its release on 28 October 1974. It went on to spend 16 weeks at the top of the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Charts from February to June 1975. The album was produced
by Wilson, and became the best selling Australian album, to that time, with 226,000 copies sold in Australia.
Skyhooks returned to the Sunbury Pop Festival in January 1975. They were declared the best performers by Rolling Stone Australia
and The Age
reviewers, and Gudinski now took over their management. The second single, "Horror Movie", reached #1 for two weeks in March. The band's success was credited by Gudinski with saving his struggling Mushroom Records and enabled it to develop into the most successful Australian label of its time.
The success of the album was also due to support by a new pop music television show Countdown on national public broadcaster ABC Television
, rather than promotion by commercial radio. "Horror Movie" was the first song played on the first colour transmission of Countdown in early 1975. Despite the radio ban, the ABC
's newly established 24-hour rock music station Double Jay
chose the album's fifth track, the provocatively titled "You Just Like Me Cos I'm Good in Bed", as its first ever broadcast on 19 January.
with their ANZAC Day
(25 April) performance. They were supported by comedy singer Bob Hudson
, heavy rockers AC/DC
and New Zealand band Split Enz
. Strachan then took two weeks off and considered leaving the band, however he returned—newly married—and they continued recording the follow-up album, Ego Is Not a Dirty Word
. Initially, they were locked out of the recording studio until their manager, Gudinski, sent down the money still owed for recording the first album. Ego Is Not a Dirty Word spent 11 weeks at the top of the Australian album chart from 21 July 1975, and sold 210,000 copies. It was produced by Wilson again, with the single, "Ego is Not a Dirty Word" issued in March ahead of the album, peaking at #1. Next single, "All My Friends Are Getting Married" reached #5 in July, and was followed by "Million Dollar Riff" at #2 in October. Macainsh's then girlfriend, Jenny Brown, described the band in her 1975 book, Skyhooks : Million Dollar Riff. A live version of Chuck Berry
's "Let It Rock
" from a December performance was released as a single in March 1976 and reached #13.
With Australian commercial success achieved, Skyhooks turned to the US market. Gudinski announced a $1.5 million dollar deal with Mercury Records
/Phonogram Records
, which released a modified international version of Ego Is Not a Dirty Word with "Horror Movie" and "You Just Like Me Cos I'm Good in Bed" from their first Australian album replacing two tracks. A US tour followed in March–April 1976, but critics described them as imitators of Kiss
due to the similarity of Symons' make-up & stage act to that of Gene Simmons
, and despite limited success in Boston
, Massachusetts
and Jacksonville, Florida
they failed to make in-roads into the general US market.
—called Living in the 70's for US release with "Living in the 70's" replacing "The Girl Says She's Bored"—which appeared in August and peaked at #3 on the Australian album charts. In July, upon return to Australia they launched The Brats Are Back Tour with a single, "This is My City", which reached the Top 20. "Blue Jeans" followed in August and peaked at #13 on the singles chart. By October, Strachan provided his debut solo single, "Every Little Bit Hurts
" (a cover
of Brenda Holloway
's 1964 hit), which reached #3. In February 1977, Symons left the band and was replaced on guitar by Bob Spencer
(Finch later called Contraband). With Symons' departure the band dropped the glam rock look and used a more straight forward hard rock
approach.
During 1977 Skyhooks toured nationally three times, while their first single with Spencer, "Party to End All Parties", peaked into the top 30 in May. Strachan released his second solo single, a cover of Smokey Robinson
's "Tracks of My Tears", which reached the top 20 in July. Meanwhile, Mushroom released a singles anthology
, The Skyhooks Tapes, which entered the top 50 in September. The band's mass popularity had declined although they still kept their live performances exciting and irreverent.
In January 1978 they toured New Zealand and performed at the Nambassa
festival. In February their next single, "Women in Uniform
", was issued and peaked at #8, while its album Guilty Until Proven Insane
followed in March and reached #6. The album was produced by Americans Eddie Leonetti and Jack Douglas
. The second single from the album, "Megalomania" issued in May, did not peak into the top 40. Strachan told band members he intended to leave—but it was not officially announced for six months—he continued regular shows until his final gig with Skyhooks on 29 July. Strachan released further solo singles, "Mr Summer" in October and "Nothing but the Best" in January 1979, but neither charted in the top 50. Strachan's replacement in Skyhooks, on lead vocals, was Tony Williams (ex-Reuben Tice with Macainsh).
Williams first single for Skyhooks, "Over the Border", reached the top 40 in April, and their fifth studio album, Hot for the Orient
, appeared in May 1980, but failed to peak into the top 50. From 1975 to 1977, Skyhooks were—alongside Sherbet
—the most commercially successful group in Australia, but over the next few years, Skyhooks rapidly faded from the public eye with the departure of key members, and in 1980 the band announced its break-up in controversial circumstances. Ian "Molly" Meldrum
, usually a supporter of Skyhooks, savaged Hot for the Orient on his "Humdrum" segment of Countdown—viewers demanded that the band appear on a following show to defend it. Poor reception of the album both by the public and reviewers led the band to take out a page-sized ad in the local music press declaring "Why Don't You All Get Fu**ed" (title of one of their songs) and they played their last performance on 8 June in Kalgoorlie
.
, Mental as Anything
, The Party Boys, The Sunnyboys
, and Midnight Oil
—who acknowledged, "Hooks were the only Australian band they would let top the bill above them".
A one-off reunion concert took place in October 1984, and in 1990 the band finally recorded new material, including "Jukebox in Siberia", released in September, which peaked at the top of the ARIA Singles Charts
for two weeks. In November, The Latest and Greatest: 16 Greatest Hits, a compilation album, was released, which peaked at #4 on the ARIA Albums Charts. The tracks were taken from Skyhooks' first four studio albums along with two recent singles, "Jukebox In Siberia" and the uncharted "Tall Timber".
In 1992, Skyhooks were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association
(ARIA) Hall of Fame
, while their manager, Gudunski, and record label, Mushroom Records, received a 'Special Achievement Award'. Producer of their first three albums, Wilson, had been inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1989 as an individual and again as a member of Daddy Cool in 2006.
The final release of new Skyhooks material came in June 1999 when a twin-CD, Skyhooks: The Collection, was issued. Disc one contained a greatest hits package, very similar to "The Latest and Greatest", with additional tracks. Disc two is referred to by fans as "The Lost Album", with previously unreleased songs from their 1990 and 1994 recording sessions.
, Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons
, folk band The Bushwackers and the Ol' Skydaddys. Macainsh played with John Farnham
on his Whispering Jack Tour and with Dave Warner's from the Suburbs
, in 1988 he put together and managed a very successful AC/DC
tribute band called Back in Black who went on to support Skyhooks on their comeback tour. He was a board member of Australasian Performing Right Association
(APRA) (1997–2000) and Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA) (2001–2006), and is an intellectual property lawyer.
Strachan was killed in an air crash on 29 August 2001, when the helicopter
he was learning to fly solo crashed into Mount Archer
near Kilcoy, northwest of Brisbane
. A memorial concert was held on 11 September 2001 at the Palais Theatre, tributes were paid and some remaining members—Strauks, Macainsh, Starkie, Symons and Spencer—performed with guest vocalists Daryl Braithwaite
and Wilson. It is the only time Symons and his replacement, Spencer performed together on stage. Braithwaite performed "All My Friends Are Getting Married" with the band whilst Wilson sang the rare Skyhooks track "Warm Wind in the City".
The 30th anniversary of the release of the Living In The 70's album was commemorated in 2004, with different incarnations of the band performing. Absent were Strachan, Hill and Ingliss. Vocals were by Wilson, Williams and Bob Starkie. The original line up of Skyhooks including Hill reformed in 2005 at the Annandale Hotel in Sydney
for a one-off gig
, a benefit for Hill, who had been diagnosed with liver cancer
. The line-up of Ingliss, Peter Starkie, Strauks and Macainsh joined him onstage—Hill died six weeks later. In November 2009, the "Skyhooks Tour Archive", displayed on the band's website, listed 925 live shows.
Macainsh, Starkie and Strauks appeared as Skyhooks at the 2009 Helpmann Awards in Sydney. They performed "Women in Uniform" with Australian rock icon Jimmy Barnes
providing vocals. Red Symons was also slated to perform with the band, but was replaced by Diesel after withdrawing a few days before the show.
On 7 April 2010, 3AW
reported that Skyhooks were to appear on the first episode of the new series of Hey Hey It's Saturday
with Leo Sayer
on vocals. Sayer later appeared on air and denied the claims.
Additional members:
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band formed in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
in March 1973 by mainstays Greg Macainsh on bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and backing vocals, and Imants "Freddie" Strauks on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
. They were soon joined by Bob "Bongo" Starkie on guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
and backing vocals, and Red Symons
Red Symons
Redmond Symons is an Australian musician, writer, actor and radio host, probably best known as lead guitarist with Skyhooks and as the snide judge of "Red Faces", a segment of the long-running Hey Hey It's Saturday variety television show...
on guitar, vocals and keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
; Graeme "Shirley" Strachan became lead vocalist in March 1974. Described as a glam rock
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
band, because of flamboyant costumes and make-up, Skyhooks addressed teenage issues including buying drugs ("Carlton (Lygon Street Limbo)"), suburban sex ("Balwyn Calling"), the gay scene ("Toorak Cowboy") and loss of girlfriends ("Somewhere in Sydney") by namechecking
Name-dropping
Name-dropping is the practice of mentioning important people or institutions within a conversation, story, song, online identity, or other communication. The term often connotes an attempt to impress others; it is usually regarded negatively, and under certain circumstances may constitute a breach...
Australian locales. According to music historian
Music history
Music history, sometimes called historical musicology, is the highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies the composition, performance, reception, and criticism of music over time...
, Ian McFarlane "[Skyhooks] made an enormous impact on Australian social life".
Skyhooks had #1 albums on the Australian Kent Music Report
Kent Music Report
The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998...
with their 1974 debut, Living in the 70's (for 16 weeks), and its 1975 follow-up, Ego Is Not a Dirty Word
Ego Is Not a Dirty Word
Ego Is Not a Dirty Word was the second album released by Australian band Skyhooks in mid-1975. The album was the follow-up to their highly successful album, Living in the Seventies. As with the former album, it was also produced by Ross Wilson....
(11 weeks). Their #1 singles were "Horror Movie
Horror Movie (Skyhooks song)
"Horror Movie" was the second single from the Skyhooks album Living in the Seventies and was their first number-one single in Australia, staying there for two weeks in March 1975....
" (January 1975), "Ego Is Not a Dirty Word" (April 1975) and "Jukebox in Siberia" (November 1990).
Symons left Skyhooks in 1977 and became a radio and television personality. Strachan had solo releases since 1976 and finally left the band in 1978 and was also a radio and television presenter. With altered line-ups, Skyhooks continued until they disbanded on 8 June 1980; they briefly reformed in 1983, 1984, 1990 and 1994. In 1992, Skyhooks were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...
(ARIA) Hall of Fame
ARIA Hall of Fame
Since 1988 the Australian Recording Industry Association has inducted artists into its ARIA Hall of Fame. While most have been recognised at the annual ARIA Music Awards, in 2005 ARIA sought to create a separate standalone "ARIA Icons: Hall of Fame" event as only one or two acts could be inducted...
. Lead singer, Strachan died on 29 August 2001, aged 49, in a helicopter crash while solo piloting. Their original lead singer, Steve Hill, died in October 2005, aged 52, of liver cancer.
In 2011, the Skyhook's song Living in the 70s was added to the National Film and Sound Archive
National Film and Sound Archive
The National Film and Sound Archive is Australia’s audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national collection of audiovisual materials and related items...
of Australia's Sounds of Australia
Sounds of Australia
The National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia is a public registry of recordings that celebrates the unique and diverse recorded sound culture and history of Australia.The Registry was launched in February 2007 with a foundation list of ten...
registry.
Early years
Greg Macainsh and Imants "Freddie" Strauks both attended Norwood High SchoolNorwood Secondary College
Norwood Secondary College is a secondary college in the Eastern suburbs, situated in North Ringwood, Victoria, Australia and right next to Mullum Primary School...
in the Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
suburb of Ringwood
Ringwood, Victoria
Ringwood is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, east of Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Maroondah. At the 2006 Census, Ringwood had a population of 15,185....
and formed Spare Parts in 1966 with Macainsh on bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
and Strauks on lead vocals. Spare Parts was followed by Sound Pump in 1968, Macainsh formed Reuben Tice in Eltham
Eltham, Victoria
Eltham is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 20 km north-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Nillumbik. At the 2006 Census, Eltham had a population of 17,581....
, with Tony Williams on vocals. By 1970 Macainsh was back with Strauks, now on drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, first in Claptrap and by 1971 in Frame which had Graeme "Shirley" Strachan as lead vocalist. Frame also included Pat O'Brien on guitar and Cynthio Ooms on guitar. Strachan had befriended Strauks earlier—he sang with Strauks on the way to parties—and was asked to join Claptrap which was renamed as Frame. Strachan stayed in Frame for about 18 months but left for a career in carpentry
Carpenter
A carpenter is a skilled craftsperson who works with timber to construct, install and maintain buildings, furniture, and other objects. The work, known as carpentry, may involve manual labor and work outdoors....
and a hobby of surfing
Surfing
Surfing' is a surface water sport in which the surfer rides a surfboard on the crest and face of a wave which is carrying the surfer towards the shore...
in Phillip Island.
Skyhooks formed in March 1973 in Melbourne with Steve Hill on vocals (ex-Lillee), Peter Ingliss on guitar (The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band
The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band
The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band was an Australian band, active throughout the 1970s. It was based in Melbourne and centred around singer and multi-instrumentalist Mic Conway and his brother Jim Conway, who is widely regarded as one of Australia's finest exponents of the blues harmonica.Inspired...
), Macainsh on bass guitar and backing vocals, Peter Starkie on guitar and backing vocals (Lipp & the Double Dekker Brothers) and Strauks on drums and backing vocals. The name, Skyhooks, came from a fictional organisation in the 1956 film Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers
Earth vs. the Flying Saucers is an American black and white science fiction film, directed by Fred F. Sears and released by Columbia Pictures. The film is also known as Invasion of the Flying Saucers. It was ostensibly suggested by the non-fiction work Flying Saucers from Outer Space by Donald...
. Their first gig was on 16 April 1973 at St Jude's Anglican Church
St Jude's Anglican Church
St Jude's Anglican Church is a church in the Melbourne suburb of Carlton and is one of the first complete polychromatic brick churches built in Australia. It was opened in 1866 as a temporary wooden building, but was rebuilt as a Gothic-polychrome building between 1866 and 1874...
hall in Carlton
Carlton, Victoria
Carlton is an inner city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km north from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Melbourne...
. At a later gig, former Daddy Cool
Daddy Cool (band)
Daddy Cool is an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1970 with the original line-up of Wayne Duncan , Ross Hannaford , Ross Wilson and Gary Young . Their debut single "Eagle Rock" was released in May 1971 and stayed at number 1 on the Australian singles chart for ten weeks...
frontman, Ross Wilson was playing in his group Mighty Kong
Mighty Kong (band)
Mighty Kong were an Australian 'supergroup' successor to Daddy Cool, which broke up in August 1972. It was also the fifth in the line of groups that featured singer-songwriter Ross Wilson and guitarist Ross Hannaford, which began with Pink Finks in 1965...
with Skyhooks as a support act. Wilson was impressed with the fledgling band and signed Macainsh to a publishing deal. In August, Bob "Bongo" Starkie (Mary Jane Union) on guitar replaced his older brother Peter (later in Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons
Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons
Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons were an Australian blues and rock music band which featured singer, songwriter and saxophonist, Joe Camilleri . The band was active in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and had several Australian chart hits, including "Hit and Run", "Shape I'm In" and "All I Wanna Do"...
) and Red Symons (Scumbag) on guitar, vocals and keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
replaced Ingliss. The two new members added a touch of theatre and humour to the band's visual presence. By late 1973, Wilson had convinced Michael Gudinski
Michael Gudinski
Michael Solomon Gudinski, AM is an Australian entrepreneur and businessman currently based in Melbourne who is a leading figure in the Australian music industry...
to sign the band to his booking agency, Australian Entertainment Exchange, and eventually to Gudinski's label, Mushroom Records
Mushroom Records
Mushroom Records is an Australian recoJrd company formed by Michael Gudinski and Ray Evans in Melbourne in 1972. After its sale in 1998, it merged into Festival Mushroom Records. From 2005 to 2009, it is one of the record labels operated by Warner Bros...
.
Skyhooks gained a cult following around Melbourne including university intelligentsia
Intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
and pub rockers
Pub rock (Australia)
Pub rock is a style of Australian rock and roll popular throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and still influencing contemporary Australian music today....
, but a poorly-received show at the January 1974 Sunbury Pop Festival saw the group booed off stage. Two tracks from their live set, "Hey What's the Matter?" and "Love on the Radio" appeared on Mushroom's Highlights of Sunbury '74. After seeing his performance on TV, Hill phoned Macainsh and resigned. To replace Hill, in March, Macainsh recruited occasional singer, surfer and carpenter Strachan from his Frame era. Strachan had been dubbed "Shirley" by fellow surfers due to his curly blond hair ala Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple Black , born Shirley Jane Temple, is an American film and television actress, singer, dancer, autobiographer, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ghana and Czechoslovakia...
.
Living in the 70's
Glam rock
Glam rock is a style of rock and pop music that developed in the UK in the early 1970s, which was performed by singers and musicians who wore outrageous clothes, makeup and hairstyles, particularly platform-soled boots and glitter...
in their presentation, and lyrics that presented frank depictions of the social life of young Australia in the 1970s, the band shocked conservative middle Australia with their outrageous (for the time) costumes, make-up, lyrics, and on-stage activities. A 1.2 metre (4 ft) high mushroom-shaped phallus
Phallus
A phallus is an erect penis, a penis-shaped object such as a dildo, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. Any object that symbolically resembles a penis may also be referred to as a phallus; however, such objects are more often referred to as being phallic...
was confiscated by Adelaide police after a performance. Six of the ten tracks on their debut album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
, Living in the 70's, were banned by the Federation of Australian Commercial Broadcasters for their sex and drug references, "Toorak Cowboy", "Whatever Happened to the Revolution?", "You Just Like Me Cos I'm Good in Bed", "Hey What's the Matter", "Motorcycle Bitch" and "Smut". Much of the group's success derived from its distinctive repertoire, mostly penned by bass guitarist Macainsh, with an occasional additional song from Symons—who wrote "Smut" and performed its lead vocals. Although Skyhooks were not the first Australian rock band to write songs in a local setting—rather than ditties about love or songs about New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
or other foreign lands—they were the first to become commercially successful doing so. Skyhooks songs addressed teenage issues including buying drugs ("Carlton (Lygon Street Limbo)"), suburban sex ("Balwyn Calling"), the gay scene ("Toorak Cowboy") and loss of girlfriends ("Somewhere in Sydney") by namechecking
Name-dropping
Name-dropping is the practice of mentioning important people or institutions within a conversation, story, song, online identity, or other communication. The term often connotes an attempt to impress others; it is usually regarded negatively, and under certain circumstances may constitute a breach...
Australian locales. Radio personality
Radio personality
A radio personality is a person with an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality can be someone who introduces and discusses various genres of music, hosts a talk radio show that may take calls from listeners, or someone whose primary responsibility is to give news, weather,...
, Billy Pinnell described the importance of their lyrics in tackling Australia's cultural cringe
Cultural cringe
Cultural cringe, in cultural studies and social anthropology, is an internalized inferiority complex which causes people in a country to dismiss their own culture as inferior to the cultures of other countries...
:
The first Skyhooks single, "Living in the 70's", was released in August, ahead of the album, and peaked at #7 on the Australian Kent Music Report
Kent Music Report
The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998...
Singles Charts. Living in the 70's initially charted only in Melbourne upon its release on 28 October 1974. It went on to spend 16 weeks at the top of the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Charts from February to June 1975. The album was produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
by Wilson, and became the best selling Australian album, to that time, with 226,000 copies sold in Australia.
Skyhooks returned to the Sunbury Pop Festival in January 1975. They were declared the best performers by Rolling Stone Australia
Rolling Stone Australia
Rolling Stone Australia is an Australian-based magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture that is published monthly, it is the Australian edition of the United States' Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone was initially released in Melbourne in May 1970 as a supplement in Revolution, an...
and The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
reviewers, and Gudinski now took over their management. The second single, "Horror Movie", reached #1 for two weeks in March. The band's success was credited by Gudinski with saving his struggling Mushroom Records and enabled it to develop into the most successful Australian label of its time.
The success of the album was also due to support by a new pop music television show Countdown on national public broadcaster ABC Television
ABC Television
ABC Television is a service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation launched in 1956. As a public broadcasting broadcaster, the ABC provides four non-commercial channels within Australia, and a partially advertising-funded satellite channel overseas....
, rather than promotion by commercial radio. "Horror Movie" was the first song played on the first colour transmission of Countdown in early 1975. Despite the radio ban, the ABC
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
's newly established 24-hour rock music station Double Jay
Triple J
triple j is a nationally networked Australian radio station intended to appeal to listeners between the ages of 18 and 30. The government-funded station is a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation...
chose the album's fifth track, the provocatively titled "You Just Like Me Cos I'm Good in Bed", as its first ever broadcast on 19 January.
Ego Is Not a Dirty Word
Skyhooks' 1975 national tour promoting Living in the 70's finished at Melbourne's Festival HallFestival Hall, Melbourne
Festival Hall is a concert and sporting venue, located at 300 Dudley Street, West Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is one of Melbourne's larger concert venues and has hosted a variety of local and international acts over many years....
with their ANZAC Day
ANZAC Day
Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It now more broadly commemorates all...
(25 April) performance. They were supported by comedy singer Bob Hudson
Bob Hudson (Australian singer)
Robert "Bob" Hudson is an Australian singer and radio presenter, his satirical narrative, "The Newcastle Song" topped the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart for four weeks in 1975. The single version was an edit of the ten-minute live recording from the related album, Newcastle Song...
, heavy rockers AC/DC
AC/DC
AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...
and New Zealand band Split Enz
Split Enz
Split Enz were a New Zealand band of the 1970s and early 1980s featuring Phil Judd and brothers Tim Finn and Neil Finn. They achieved chart success in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada during the early 1980s ‒ most notably with the single "I Got You", and built a cult following elsewhere...
. Strachan then took two weeks off and considered leaving the band, however he returned—newly married—and they continued recording the follow-up album, Ego Is Not a Dirty Word
Ego Is Not a Dirty Word
Ego Is Not a Dirty Word was the second album released by Australian band Skyhooks in mid-1975. The album was the follow-up to their highly successful album, Living in the Seventies. As with the former album, it was also produced by Ross Wilson....
. Initially, they were locked out of the recording studio until their manager, Gudinski, sent down the money still owed for recording the first album. Ego Is Not a Dirty Word spent 11 weeks at the top of the Australian album chart from 21 July 1975, and sold 210,000 copies. It was produced by Wilson again, with the single, "Ego is Not a Dirty Word" issued in March ahead of the album, peaking at #1. Next single, "All My Friends Are Getting Married" reached #5 in July, and was followed by "Million Dollar Riff" at #2 in October. Macainsh's then girlfriend, Jenny Brown, described the band in her 1975 book, Skyhooks : Million Dollar Riff. A live version of Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
's "Let It Rock
Let It Rock (Chuck Berry song)
"Let It Rock" is a song by Chuck Berry from his 1960 album Rockin' at the Hops. The same year, it was released as the B-side of the single "Too Pooped to Pop " and reached #64 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and #6 in the UK. The song is about working on a train track as a train is...
" from a December performance was released as a single in March 1976 and reached #13.
With Australian commercial success achieved, Skyhooks turned to the US market. Gudinski announced a $1.5 million dollar deal with Mercury Records
Mercury Records
Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...
/Phonogram Records
Phonogram Records
Phonogram Records was started in 1962 as a joint venture between Philips Records and Deutsche Grammophon. In 1972, Phonogram was merged with Polydor Records into PolyGram....
, which released a modified international version of Ego Is Not a Dirty Word with "Horror Movie" and "You Just Like Me Cos I'm Good in Bed" from their first Australian album replacing two tracks. A US tour followed in March–April 1976, but critics described them as imitators of Kiss
KISS (band)
Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well-known for its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...
due to the similarity of Symons' make-up & stage act to that of Gene Simmons
Gene Simmons
Gene Simmons is an Israeli-American entrepreneur, singer-songwriter, actor, and rock bassist. Known as "The Demon", he is the bassist/vocalist of Kiss, a hard rock band he co-founded in the early 1970s.-Early life:...
, and despite limited success in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
and Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
they failed to make in-roads into the general US market.
Later years to break-up
After completing their 1976 US tour, the band remained in San Francisco and recorded their third album with Wilson producing, Straight in a Gay Gay WorldStraight in a Gay Gay World
Straight In a Gay Gay World was the third studio album released by Australian '70s rock band, Skyhooks. The album was released on 23 August 1976. With the exception of "Million Dollar Riff", it was recorded at The Record Plant in Sausalito, California after the band's first tour of the United...
—called Living in the 70's for US release with "Living in the 70's" replacing "The Girl Says She's Bored"—which appeared in August and peaked at #3 on the Australian album charts. In July, upon return to Australia they launched The Brats Are Back Tour with a single, "This is My City", which reached the Top 20. "Blue Jeans" followed in August and peaked at #13 on the singles chart. By October, Strachan provided his debut solo single, "Every Little Bit Hurts
Every Little Bit Hurts
"Every Little Bit Hurts" was originally a 1964 hit single for Motown soul singer Brenda Holloway, written by Ed Cobb.Though she was against recording the song again , she reluctantly recorded the song and the label released it in the summer of the year...
" (a cover
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of Brenda Holloway
Brenda Holloway
Brenda Holloway is an American singer and songwriter, a recording artist for the Motown label during the 1960s...
's 1964 hit), which reached #3. In February 1977, Symons left the band and was replaced on guitar by Bob Spencer
Bob Spencer
Bob Spencer was a guitarist in two significant Australian rock bands in the 1970s and 1980s, Skyhooks and The Angels.Spencer grew up in Sydney's south-eastern suburbs and attended Our Lady of Annunciation Primary School, Pagewood, Maroubra, from 1963 to 1965 and Marist Brothers, Daceyville from...
(Finch later called Contraband). With Symons' departure the band dropped the glam rock look and used a more straight forward hard rock
Hard rock
Hard rock is a loosely defined genre of rock music which has its earliest roots in mid-1960s garage rock, blues rock and psychedelic rock...
approach.
During 1977 Skyhooks toured nationally three times, while their first single with Spencer, "Party to End All Parties", peaked into the top 30 in May. Strachan released his second solo single, a cover of Smokey Robinson
Smokey Robinson
William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. is an American R&B singer-songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson is one of the primary figures associated with Motown, second only to the company's founder, Berry Gordy...
's "Tracks of My Tears", which reached the top 20 in July. Meanwhile, Mushroom released a singles anthology
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
, The Skyhooks Tapes, which entered the top 50 in September. The band's mass popularity had declined although they still kept their live performances exciting and irreverent.
In January 1978 they toured New Zealand and performed at the Nambassa
Nambassa
Nambassa was a series of hippie-conceived festivals held between 1976 and 1981 on large farms around Waihi and Waikino in New Zealand. They were music, arts and alternatives festivals that focused on peace, love, and an environmentally friendly lifestyle...
festival. In February their next single, "Women in Uniform
Women in Uniform
"Women in Uniform" is a 1978 song originally recorded by the Australian band Skyhooks; it was written by the band's bass player, Greg Macainsh. It appeared on their fourth album, Guilty Until Proven Insane, and was a top 10 single in Australia.[]...
", was issued and peaked at #8, while its album Guilty Until Proven Insane
Guilty Until Proven Insane
Guilty Until Proven Insane is the fourth studio album released by Skyhooks on March 13, 1978. It was the first album that featured Bob Spencer, who replaced guitarist Red Symons in early 1977...
followed in March and reached #6. The album was produced by Americans Eddie Leonetti and Jack Douglas
Jack Douglas (record producer)
Jack Douglas is an American record producer. He was born in New York City. Starting out as folk musician and performer, he worked on Robert Kennedy's senatorial campaign as a song-writer. Douglas then moved to England and joined a succession of bands before returning to New York to attend the...
. The second single from the album, "Megalomania" issued in May, did not peak into the top 40. Strachan told band members he intended to leave—but it was not officially announced for six months—he continued regular shows until his final gig with Skyhooks on 29 July. Strachan released further solo singles, "Mr Summer" in October and "Nothing but the Best" in January 1979, but neither charted in the top 50. Strachan's replacement in Skyhooks, on lead vocals, was Tony Williams (ex-Reuben Tice with Macainsh).
Williams first single for Skyhooks, "Over the Border", reached the top 40 in April, and their fifth studio album, Hot for the Orient
Hot for the Orient
Hot for the Orient is a 1980 studio album from Australian glam rock band Skyhooks. This was the only album the band recorded without newly departed vocalist Graeme "Shirley" Strachan, instead with replacement vocalist Tony Williams as lead singer....
, appeared in May 1980, but failed to peak into the top 50. From 1975 to 1977, Skyhooks were—alongside Sherbet
Sherbet (band)
Sherbet was one of the most prominent and successful Australian rock bands of the 1970s. Their biggest singles were "Summer Love" and "Howzat" , both reaching number one in Australia. "Howzat" was also a top 5 hit in the UK. Though the band's success in the U.S...
—the most commercially successful group in Australia, but over the next few years, Skyhooks rapidly faded from the public eye with the departure of key members, and in 1980 the band announced its break-up in controversial circumstances. Ian "Molly" Meldrum
Ian Meldrum
Ian Alexander "Molly" Meldrum AM is an Australian popular music critic, journalist, record producer , and musical entrepreneur...
, usually a supporter of Skyhooks, savaged Hot for the Orient on his "Humdrum" segment of Countdown—viewers demanded that the band appear on a following show to defend it. Poor reception of the album both by the public and reviewers led the band to take out a page-sized ad in the local music press declaring "Why Don't You All Get Fu**ed" (title of one of their songs) and they played their last performance on 8 June in Kalgoorlie
Kalgoorlie, Western Australia
Kalgoorlie, known as Kalgoorlie-Boulder, is a town in the Goldfields-Esperance region of Western Australia, and is located east-northeast of state capital Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway...
.
Reformations and later releases
In December 1982, Mushroom released a medley of Skyhooks songs as "Hooked on Hooks" which peaked at #21. Demands for the "classic" line-up of the band—Macainsh, Bob Starkie, Strachan, Strauks and Symons—to reform were successful and on 23 April 1983, they started the Living in the 80's Tour. Support acts for the first concert included The ChurchThe Church (band)
The Church is an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1980. Initially associated with new wave and the neo-psychedelic sound of the mid 1980s, their music later became more reminiscent of progressive rock, featuring long instrumental jams and complex guitar interplay...
, Mental as Anything
Mental As Anything
Mental As Anything are an Australian New Wave–rock music band formed at an art school in Sydney in 1976. Their most popular line-up was Martin Plaza on vocals and guitar; Reg Mombassa on lead guitar and vocals; his brother Peter "Yoga Dog" O'Doherty on bass guitar and vocals; Wayne "Bird"...
, The Party Boys, The Sunnyboys
The Sunnyboys
Sunnyboys was an Australian post-punk, power pop band formed in Sydney in 1980. Fronted by singer-songwriter, guitarist Jeremy Oxley, the band "breathed some freshness and vitality into the divergent Sydney scene"...
, and Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil
Midnight Oil , were an Australian rock band from Sydney originally performing as Farm from 1972 with drummer Rob Hirst, bass guitarist Andrew James and keyboard player/lead guitarist Jim Moginie...
—who acknowledged, "Hooks were the only Australian band they would let top the bill above them".
A one-off reunion concert took place in October 1984, and in 1990 the band finally recorded new material, including "Jukebox in Siberia", released in September, which peaked at the top of the ARIA Singles Charts
ARIA Charts
The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...
for two weeks. In November, The Latest and Greatest: 16 Greatest Hits, a compilation album, was released, which peaked at #4 on the ARIA Albums Charts. The tracks were taken from Skyhooks' first four studio albums along with two recent singles, "Jukebox In Siberia" and the uncharted "Tall Timber".
In 1992, Skyhooks were inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association
Australian Recording Industry Association
The Australian Recording Industry Association is a trade group representing the Australian recording industry which was established in 1983 by six major record companies, EMI, Festival, CBS, RCA, WEA and Universal replacing the Association of Australian Record Manufacturers which was formed in 1956...
(ARIA) Hall of Fame
ARIA Hall of Fame
Since 1988 the Australian Recording Industry Association has inducted artists into its ARIA Hall of Fame. While most have been recognised at the annual ARIA Music Awards, in 2005 ARIA sought to create a separate standalone "ARIA Icons: Hall of Fame" event as only one or two acts could be inducted...
, while their manager, Gudunski, and record label, Mushroom Records, received a 'Special Achievement Award'. Producer of their first three albums, Wilson, had been inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1989 as an individual and again as a member of Daddy Cool in 2006.
The final release of new Skyhooks material came in June 1999 when a twin-CD, Skyhooks: The Collection, was issued. Disc one contained a greatest hits package, very similar to "The Latest and Greatest", with additional tracks. Disc two is referred to by fans as "The Lost Album", with previously unreleased songs from their 1990 and 1994 recording sessions.
After Skyhooks
Strachan and Symons each went on to successful careers in Australian media including radio and television. Symons works on ABC radio and writes humorous newspaper columns. Starkie played locally with different bands including Ol' Skydaddys, and Ram Band Strauks was drummer for Melbourne rock band The SportsThe Sports
The Sports were a popular Australian rock group that performed and recorded between 1976 and 1981.Based in Melbourne, Victoria, the group released a number of successful singles and albums. Their sound fitted well with both 1970s British pub rock bands and British New Wave...
, Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons
Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons
Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons were an Australian blues and rock music band which featured singer, songwriter and saxophonist, Joe Camilleri . The band was active in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and had several Australian chart hits, including "Hit and Run", "Shape I'm In" and "All I Wanna Do"...
, folk band The Bushwackers and the Ol' Skydaddys. Macainsh played with John Farnham
John Farnham
John Peter Farnham, AO, formerly billed as Johnny Farnham , is an English-born Australian pop singer. He was a teen pop idol from 1964 to 1979, and has since forged a career as an adult contemporary singer. His career has mostly been as a solo artist although he briefly replaced Glenn Shorrock as...
on his Whispering Jack Tour and with Dave Warner's from the Suburbs
Dave Warner
David Robert "Dave" Warner is an Australian rock musician, author and screenwriter.-Biography:Dave Warner was born in Bicton, Western Australia in 1953. He attended Aquinas College and then the University of Western Australia where he graduated with a B.A. , majoring in psychology...
, in 1988 he put together and managed a very successful AC/DC
AC/DC
AC/DC are an Australian rock band, formed in 1973 by brothers Malcolm and Angus Young. Commonly classified as hard rock, they are considered pioneers of heavy metal, though they themselves have always classified their music as simply "rock and roll"...
tribute band called Back in Black who went on to support Skyhooks on their comeback tour. He was a board member of Australasian Performing Right Association
Australasian Performing Right Association
The Australasian Performing Right Association is a copyright collective representing New Zealand and Australian composers, lyricists and music publishers. The association's head offices located in Sydney Australia, and it has branch offices in Auckland, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth...
(APRA) (1997–2000) and Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA) (2001–2006), and is an intellectual property lawyer.
Strachan was killed in an air crash on 29 August 2001, when the helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
he was learning to fly solo crashed into Mount Archer
Mount Archer
Mount Archer is a mountain located in Central Queensland, Australia.The mountain is high, and forms part of the Berserker Range. The Mount Archer National Park surrounds the mountain. Mount Archer is located within the boundaries of the city of Rockhampton...
near Kilcoy, northwest of Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
. A memorial concert was held on 11 September 2001 at the Palais Theatre, tributes were paid and some remaining members—Strauks, Macainsh, Starkie, Symons and Spencer—performed with guest vocalists Daryl Braithwaite
Daryl Braithwaite
Daryl Braithwaite is an Australian pop singer. Best known as the lead vocalist of Sherbet, Braithwaite has also sustained a successful solo career, placing 15 singles in the Australian top 40, including the No...
and Wilson. It is the only time Symons and his replacement, Spencer performed together on stage. Braithwaite performed "All My Friends Are Getting Married" with the band whilst Wilson sang the rare Skyhooks track "Warm Wind in the City".
The 30th anniversary of the release of the Living In The 70's album was commemorated in 2004, with different incarnations of the band performing. Absent were Strachan, Hill and Ingliss. Vocals were by Wilson, Williams and Bob Starkie. The original line up of Skyhooks including Hill reformed in 2005 at the Annandale Hotel in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
for a one-off gig
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
, a benefit for Hill, who had been diagnosed with liver cancer
Liver cancer
Liver tumors or hepatic tumors are tumors or growths on or in the liver . Several distinct types of tumors can develop in the liver because the liver is made up of various cell types. These growths can be benign or malignant...
. The line-up of Ingliss, Peter Starkie, Strauks and Macainsh joined him onstage—Hill died six weeks later. In November 2009, the "Skyhooks Tour Archive", displayed on the band's website, listed 925 live shows.
Macainsh, Starkie and Strauks appeared as Skyhooks at the 2009 Helpmann Awards in Sydney. They performed "Women in Uniform" with Australian rock icon Jimmy Barnes
Jimmy Barnes
James Dixon Swan , better known as Jimmy Barnes, is a Scottish-born Australian rock singer-songwriter. His father Jim Swan was a prizefighter and his older brother John Swan is also a rock singer. It was actually John who had encouraged and taught Jim how to sing as he wasn't really interested at...
providing vocals. Red Symons was also slated to perform with the band, but was replaced by Diesel after withdrawing a few days before the show.
On 7 April 2010, 3AW
3AW
3AW is a talkback radio station in Melbourne, Australia on 693 kHz AM. It began transmission on 22 February 1932 as Melbourne's fifth commercial radio station.-History:...
reported that Skyhooks were to appear on the first episode of the new series of Hey Hey It's Saturday
Hey Hey It's Saturday
Hey Hey It's Saturday was a long-running variety television program on Australian television. It initially ran for 27 years , debuting on the Nine Network on 9 October 1971 and broadcasting its last episode on 20 November 1999. Its host throughout its entire run was Daryl Somers, who would later...
with Leo Sayer
Leo Sayer
Leo Sayer is a British singer-songwriter, musician, and entertainer whose singing career has spanned four decades. Sayer became a naturalised Australian citizen in 2009. Sayer was a top singles and album act on both sides of the Atlantic in the 1970s...
on vocals. Sayer later appeared on air and denied the claims.
Members
The 'classic' line-up:- Greg Macainsh – bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, backing vocals (1973–1980, 1983, 1984, 1990, 1994) - Bob Starkie aka "Bongo Starr" – guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, backing vocals (1973–1980, 1983, 1984, 1990, 1994) - Graeme "Shirley" Strachan – lead vocals) (1974–1978, 1983, 1984, 1990, 1994, died in 2001)
- Imants "Freddie" Strauks aka "Freddie Kaboodleschnitzer" – drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, backing vocals, (1973–1980, 1983, 1984, 1990, 1994) - Red SymonsRed SymonsRedmond Symons is an Australian musician, writer, actor and radio host, probably best known as lead guitarist with Skyhooks and as the snide judge of "Red Faces", a segment of the long-running Hey Hey It's Saturday variety television show...
– lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
, lead vocals, backing vocals, keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
(1973–1977, 1983, 1984, 1990, 1994)
Additional members:
- Steve Hill – lead vocals (1973–1974, died in 2005)
- Peter Ingliss – guitar (1973)
- Peter Starkie – guitar (1973)
- Bob SpencerBob SpencerBob Spencer was a guitarist in two significant Australian rock bands in the 1970s and 1980s, Skyhooks and The Angels.Spencer grew up in Sydney's south-eastern suburbs and attended Our Lady of Annunciation Primary School, Pagewood, Maroubra, from 1963 to 1965 and Marist Brothers, Daceyville from...
– guitar (1977–1980) - Tony Williams – lead vocals (1978–1980)
Studio albums
- Living in the 70's 1974
- Ego Is Not a Dirty WordEgo Is Not a Dirty WordEgo Is Not a Dirty Word was the second album released by Australian band Skyhooks in mid-1975. The album was the follow-up to their highly successful album, Living in the Seventies. As with the former album, it was also produced by Ross Wilson....
1975 - Straight in a Gay Gay WorldStraight in a Gay Gay WorldStraight In a Gay Gay World was the third studio album released by Australian '70s rock band, Skyhooks. The album was released on 23 August 1976. With the exception of "Million Dollar Riff", it was recorded at The Record Plant in Sausalito, California after the band's first tour of the United...
1976 - Guilty Until Proven InsaneGuilty Until Proven InsaneGuilty Until Proven Insane is the fourth studio album released by Skyhooks on March 13, 1978. It was the first album that featured Bob Spencer, who replaced guitarist Red Symons in early 1977...
1978 - Hot for the OrientHot for the OrientHot for the Orient is a 1980 studio album from Australian glam rock band Skyhooks. This was the only album the band recorded without newly departed vocalist Graeme "Shirley" Strachan, instead with replacement vocalist Tony Williams as lead singer....
1980
Compilation albums
- The Skyhooks Tapes 1977
- The Best of Skyhooks 1979
- The Skyhooks Box 1982
- The Latest And Greatest 1990
- The Collection 1998
- The Lost Album 1999
Live albums
- Live! Be In It 1978
- Live in the 80's 1983
- The Skyhooks Roadcase 1992
Singles
External links
- Skyhooks at MusicBrainzMusicBrainzMusicBrainz is a project that aims to create an open content music database. Similar to the freedb project, it was founded in response to the restrictions placed on the CDDB...
- Skyhooks discography at BillboardBillboard (magazine)Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...