Bill & Boyd - Selftitled (1975) AXIS

(New Zealand 1959 - 1989)

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Bill & Boyd were a pop duo consisting of Bill Cate and Boyd Robertson from the Hutt Valley near Wellington. They were school mates at Wellington's Naenae College.

They started recording together in 1960, and relied heavily on doing covers of overseas artists' songs before the original versions made it to New Zealand. Their favourites were the Everley Brothers and they did well locally with versions of "Cathy's Clown" and "Crying in the Rain".

Their first year was spent on the Peak label, where they recorded five singles during 1960 and 1961. The most successful was their cover of "Corrina Corrina". They switched to the Philips label late in 1961. In 1963, the duo moved to Auckland and joined the Peter Posa tour with Max Merritt and the Meteors, Dinah Lee and Lou and Simon.

In 1964, Bill and Boyd moved to Australia on the strength of their first Australian hit "Chulu Chululu". It was a bright, sing-along song recorded live at the Rotorua Sound Shell in New Zealand. The talented pair were quick to gain popularity, appearing regularly on TV, particularly on Bandstand, and working clubs around Australia. They left for America early in 1968, touring with the Supremes and Herb Alpert.

On their return to Australia, they established themselves as a top club act. In 1970, they joined Ron Tudor's newly formed Fable label. Their first release, in July 1970, was a version of "It's A Small World" which, although a steady seller, didn't quite make the top 40. They had several releases of singles and albums over the next four years. It wasn't until 1975 that they had their most success, after recording a song called "Santa Never Made It Into Darwin". The song documented the events of Cyclone Tracy that devastated the city of Darwin on Christmas eve 1974. The song made it to number 1 on the Australian national charts. Their 1975 album release was simply titled "Bill and Boyd". It was released in two formats, the first from Fable and the second from Axis (featured here). The Axis version contains two extra songs, one of which has not been available anywhere else, the Moody Blues cover "Question".

Another single called "Put Another Log On The Fire" followed, and Bill and Boyd were a household name in Australia.  Sub-titled “The Male Chauvinist National Anthem”, and described as “cheerfully offensive” by Allmusic.com, the song was written by US comic songwriter Shel Silverstein for the country artist Tompall Glaser. Besides stoking up the fire, the song’s narrator tells his girlfriend to cook him some bacon, patch his jeans, wash his socks, change a car tyre, fetch his pipe and slippers, and boil up a pot of tea. “Then put another log on the fire babe/ And come and tell me why you’re leaving me.” (The middle section goes into overdrive: “Now don’t I let you wash the car on Sunday?/ And don’t I warn you when you’re getting fat?” he sings, before suggesting “you’re too feminine to fight”).  Imagine trying to get this on the charts now !

Almost inevitably, the novelty song was a huge hit in Australia and New Zealand. It made #6 across the Tasman, and #5 in New Zealand after a 20-week journey through the charts. If it was an answer song to Helen Reddy’s ‘I Am Woman’, then it’s no wonder she responded with ‘Ain’t No Way to Treat a Lady’. In New Zealand, the song seemed unavoidable in 1975-76, not just through radio play, but also television advertising placed by Stewart McPherson, the promoter whose record label Stetson released it in New Zealand. 

After that they took a break from recording and concentrated on touring. In 1978, they went back to America and under the direction of Glen Campbell recorded an album called "Companions", which was released in February 1979. 

They continued to tour the club circuit in Australia until the late eighties, attracting quite a large following of loyal fans wherever they went. J & B Records have released an album of their all time greatest hits called "Dreamin' " and in 2003 we finally get a CD compilation from EMI of all their greatest hits. [extract from sergent.com.au]

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This post consists of FLACs ripped from my vinyl which I found still shrink wrapped in a pile of records at the market last week. Nothing like a piece of VIRGIN vinyl to get ya juices flowing I say.  Opening it was almost as good as popping the top off that first stubby in a slab of Fosters !   Full album artwork and label scans are included along with select photos. 

Being the AXIS release, this album contains two additional tracks not included on the original Fable release, namely their Moody's cover "Question" and their hit single "Put Another Log On The Fire ".

Overall a great album featuring all of their major hits.

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Track Listing

01 Slap Your Draughty Blue Jeans

02 The Prisoners Song

03 Santa Never Made It Into Darwin

04 Question

05 Country Wine

06 Chul Chululu

07 Meanwhile Back In Abeline

08 Put Another Log On The Fire

09 Someone To Love

10 I'll Be Your Baby Tonight

11 Union Silver

12 It's A Small World

13 Aussie

14 Cloudy Summer Afternoon

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Bill and Boyd FLAC Link (229Mb) New Link 16/11/2024

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Bill & Boyd - Companions (1978)

(New Zealand 1959 - 1989)
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The duo 'Bill Cate & Boyd Robertson' (alias Bill & Boyd) teamed up while they were both still at college in Wellington, New Zealand. They started off playing at concerts for fellow students. Then they graduated to clubs and managed to score a recording deal with a local label. A succession of hits followed on the New Zealand charts and they toured the country several times.
Then, early in 1964, they left their following behind to further their careers in Australia. They wasted no time in releasing their first Australian hit in June of that year entitled "Chulu Chululu". It was a bright, sing-along song recorded live at the Rotorua Sound Shell in New Zealand.
The talented Kiwis were quick to gain popularity, appearing regularly on TV (particularly on Bandstand) and working clubs around Australia. After repeating their initial chart success and refining their act even further, they left for America early in 1968. In the US they toured with the Supremes and Herb Alpert. The highlight of the tour was a mammoth performance at Central Park in New York.
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On their return to Australia, they established themselves as a top club act. In 1970, they joined Ron Tudor's newly formed Fable label. Their first release, in July 70, was a version of "It's A Small World" which, although a steady seller, didn't quite make the top forty. They had several releases over the next four years including the patriotic "Aussie" single in July 1974. However, their big chart re-entry came in January 1975 with "Santa Never Made It To Darwin". The song, of course, referred to the Cyclone Tracy disaster which devastated Darwin on the Christmas Eve just prior. It was recorded with the intention of raising funds for the appeal from royalties. Bill and Boyd's aim was more than satisfactorily achieved when the record made number one nationally.
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In mid 1975, the duo released an album entitled Bill & Boyd (which Fable hope to revamp and re-release early in 1978) and hit the charts at the end of the year with "Put Another Log On The Fire", and Bill and Boyd were a household name in Australia.  After that they took a break from recording and concentrated on touring.
 After over 15 years playing together, Bill & Boyd were at the peak of their career, performing on a Dinah Shore TV special filmed at the Sydney Opera House, and touring with Glen Campbell. This connection led to Campbell producing an album for the duo in Los Angeles, using his own backing band. When Companions was released in Feb 1979 they were dividing their time between England and the US, but they still regarded themselves as New Zealanders. On the TV show Dinah they agreed to perform only if a National Film Unit clip on New Zealand was screened while they were singing. “That clip was so long,” Cate told Gordon Campbell, “that we must have gone through about 50 repeats of ‘Pokarekare Ana’.”
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Bill and Boyd continued to perform together until 1989, more than 30 years after they first traded harmonies. In Australasia, perhaps only the Bee Gees could claim a longer career – but they were related. As John Dix wrote a year earlier, “Schoolmates at Wellington’s Naenae College, Bill Cate and Boyd Robertson must really like each other.” 
J & B Records have released an album of their all time greatest hits called 'Dreamin'  and in 2003 we finally got a CD compilation from EMI of all their greatest hits. A long time coming indeed.
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This post consists of MP3 (320kps) ripped from a recently acquired vinyl record, found tucked away in a Antique Bazaar in Moonee Ponds. Yep, another gem just collecting dust and picked up for the cost of a gold coin. And on further investigation  at home, I discovered to my surprise that the inner sleeve had been autographed by the duo themselves. Although this album does not feature any of their more popular hits, the album consists of  10 strong tracks produced by  the legendary Glenn Campbell.  Worth a listen, even if you're not a country fan.
Also included is full album artwork and one of their most popular singles "Santa Never Made It  To Darwin" as a bonus track.
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Track Listing 
01 - Companions
02 - Universal Law
03 - Where There's A Love There's A Way
04 - I See Love
05 - Colleen
06 - This Is Getting Funny (But There Ain't Nobody Laughing)
07 - Let's All Sing A Song About It
08 - Roll On Bother
09 - Fool Ya
10 - At Times I Wonder Why That The Lord Has Chosen Me
11 - Santa Never Made It To Darwin (Bonus Track)
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The Band:

Vocals: Bill Cate & Bill Robertson
Drums: Steve Turner
Bass: Bill McCubbin
Keyboards: T.J Kuenster
Acoustic Guitars: Carl Jackson & Craig Fall
Electric Guitar: carl Jackson
Banjo & Fiddle: Carl Jackson
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Bill & Boyd Link (76Mb)
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