James Reyne - Hammerhead

Hammerhead/Coin In A Plate

Born in Lagos, Nigeria to an Australian mother and an English father, James' family migrated to Australia in the early 60's, settling in Victoria's Mornington Peninsula area. Leaving law school to study drama at the Victorian College of the Arts, James' musical career initially took hold in the early 80's when he and some friends formed the band Australian Crawl.

James Reyne self-titled album was released in 1987 and was the Australian singer's first solo venture since the break-up of Australian Crawl in 1986. Hammerhead went to #8 on the charts the B-side "Coin In A Plate" was originally included on the album but when "Motor's Too Fast" became a hit it was included on the repackaged album and "Coin In A Plate" was removed.

You can watch Hammerhead here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcWh0xUfjZo

Warren Carr - (You Are My) Sunshine

(You Are My) Sunshine/Middle 8

Warren Carr was a pianist who played with John Konrad's Kaydets (1960) and in Johnny O'Keefe's backing band. Warren made many recordings for Leedon in his own name from 1961 to 1964, they are mostly in what has been described as "honky tonk party piano style" rather than anything resembling rock music.(You Are My) Sunshine/Middle 8 was released in 1961 and later that year he had an instrumental hit with "Li'l Old Me" both on the Leedon Label. He later went on to play Piano on the ABC'S childrens show Playschool.

JA-AR - Please Help Me I'm Falling

Please Help Me I'm Falling/Girl Girl Girl

John Rowles was born on 26th March 1947 in Whakatane and raised in Kawerau in the Bay Of Plenty, New Zealand. His parents were Eddie and Phyllis Rowles. Eddie played on the wing and three-quarter for the Maori All Black's in 1938, and was also a talented singer. John had five sisters, Georgina, Carol, Gabrielle, Cheryl and Tania, and two brothers, Edward and Wally. Edward unfortunately died when John was two, and out of respect for him, John adopted his name as his middle name throughout his career. Wally had a small singing career himself, originally going under the name Frankie Price, before changing to Frankie Rowles.
John's musical background is quite extensive with his first performance being at the age of 10, when he entered a local talent quest and sang "All Shook Up", taking out first prize. Whilst still at school he organised a group called the Shadows, named after the original group, and John played lead guitar. His father managed the group and they played at local dances at weekends. He was encouraged by his father and he even bought him his first electric guitar.
In 1962, when he was 15, John left school and got a job in a forestry camp. However, music was of prime importance in John's life and when he was sixteen he moved to Auckland where he acquired a job as a guitar player in a club. When the vocalist there became ill, John took over the vocal duties as well. While in Auckland he had a short spell with Sonny Day and the Sundowners, and it was while with them that he met Eddie Low.
John and Eddie moved to Australia in 1963 after signing a nine month contract to sing at the Riverside Inn in Melbourne. After that contract expired, John moved to Sydney and joined a group called the Dingdongers. John stayed with them for about a year and during his time with them, the group changed their name to the Sundowners.
By 1966, still in Australia, John had decided to go solo and secured the services of New Zealand promoter Graham Dent as his manager. Graham had previously been responsible for the successful career of Johnny Devlin and had also managed Max Merritt and the Meteors for a while. Graham gave John a new image, changed his hair style, new mod clothes and impressed upon him the importance of putting effort and action into his music and performances. Dent organised to have John appear on Australian television's "New Faces Of 1966". At this stage Dent had him performing under the name "The Secret", and he was so popular that there were huge numbers of offers for work. Dent kept him away from the promoters and press until after he had made an appearance on "Bandstand". He then launched John to the Australian music world as JA-AR and promoters were scrambling to sign him up.
John's first single as a soloist was released in 1966 on both the Sunshine and Komotion labels in Australia as JA-AR and was called "The End (Of The Rainbow)"/"You Still Love Him". This was followed early in 1967 with "Please Help Me I'm Falling"/"Girl Girl Girl" just on the Sunshine label. Owing to his television exposure, both singles did quite well. http://www.sergent.com.au/johnrowles.html

Silverchair - The Door

The Door/Surfin' Bird/Roses (Live)/Minor Threat (Live)/Madman (Live)

The "Door" was the 4th single of Freak Show and could only make it to #25 chart wise and only had a stay 6 weeks . All four singles were repackaged in a box set called The Freak Box it was released in November 1997 and contains a bonus CD containing interviews with the band members about the singles and their respective albums album.

Silverchair - Freak

Freak/New Race/Punk Song #2

Taken from the Freakshow album and released in January 1997 "Freak" raced to #1 and stayed in the charts for a total of 18 weeks. The boys do a cover of Radio Birdman's "New Race" and the non album "Punk Song #2"

Silverchair - Cemetry

Cemetery/Slab (Nicklaunoise Mix)/Cemetery (Acoustic)

This is the third single of the Freak Show album "Cemetery" made it to #5 on the charts and had a stay of 14 weeks it also came with an Interactive Cd Rom.

Silverchair - Abuse Me

Abuse Me/Undecided/Freak (Remix For us Rejects)




Silverchair are one of the most acclaimed and successful bands in Australian music history.
The group's members were all born in 1979 in the Newcastle surf suburb of Merewether. Singer/guitarist Daniel Johns and drummer Ben Gillies started making music together at primary school and schoolmate Chris Joannou later joined on bass. They got their big break in mid-1994 when they won a national demo competition conducted by SBS TV show "Nomad" and Triple J.
The band changed its name from Innocent Criminals to Silverchair and in August 1994 they released their winning demo - a track called "Tomorrow". The song eventually spent six weeks at #1 on the Australian singles charts and 20 weeks in the top 10. In 1995 it became the most played song of the year on U.S. modern rock radio.
Silverchair's debut album "frogstomp", recorded in just nine days in early 1995, was a raw sounding slab of alternative rock. A #1 hit in Australia and New Zealand the disc went on to become the first Australian album since INXS to hit the U.S. top 10, selling more than 2.5 million copies throughout the world. As "frogstomp" and "Tomorrow" propelled silverchair to music superstardom through 1996 the group juggled memorable performances on the roof of Radio City Music Hall and tours with Red Hot Chili Peppers alongside full time schooling commitments back home in Newcastle.
The trio also found time that year to record their sophomore album "Freak Show" which was released in February, 1997. A more adventurous piece of work than "frogstomp" this disc yielded three top ten singles in Australia - "Freak", "Abuse Me" and "Cemetery". Global sales eventually exceeded 1.5 million copies in spite of the fact that the band had to juggle world tours while trying to finish their final year of high school.http://www.chairpage.com/biography/

"Abuse Me" was the second single of the Freak Show album and climbed to #9 on the charts and had a stay of 12 weeks 2 non album tracks "Freak (Remix for us rejects)" and a rousing rendition of the Master's Apprentices "Undecided".