REPOST: Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons - Live, Loud & Clear (1978)

(Australian 1975-84)
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Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons is the group which started one of Australia's most talented musicians, Joe Camilleri, making music of his own. It didn't happen straight away, but it did happen.
By the time Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons was formed in 1975 Maltese-born Joe had already spent some ten years in the Melbourne music scene, and become one of its mainstays, well-known and admired amongst his peers. From mid-sixties R&B group the King Bees he moved to blues purists the Adderly Smith Blues Band, who sacked him for sounding too much like Mick Jagger and for being too much of a showman, neither of which he could help. Joe was just doing what came naturally, but Adderly Smith took themselves very seriously, priding themselves on educating audiences on where the songs the Rolling Stones were recording originally came from. Joe spent the early seventies in more innovative, even eccentric bands like Lipp and the Double Dekker Brothers, the Sharks and the Pelaco Brothers (the latter with Stephen Cummings of the Sports).
In late 1975, Ross Wilson was still waiting out his Daddy Cool/Mighty Kong recording contract, keeping himself busy by producing Skyhooks. He also decided to produce a version of Chuck Berry's 'Run Rudolph Run', the kind of retro rocker Daddy Cool used to record, as a one-of Christmas single for Mushroom Records.

Since contractually he couldn't perform the vocals himself, Ross asked musician around town Joe Camilleri to sing and play on the record, and front it. In Maltese "Joe" is "Zep". The name put on the single was Jo Jo Zep and his Little Helpers. To promote the single it seemed a good idea to put together a scratch band comprising some of the other people who had worked on the record, more Ross Wilson cohorts. On stage they called themselves Jo Jo Zep and The Falcons. The single wasn't a hit, but the band stayed together. When Ross Wilson formed his own Oz label, he signed the band and produced their records. The first Falcons single 'Beating Around The Bush' was one of the tracks on the Ross Wilson soundtrack for a movie, also called 'Oz'. The band had become an outlet for another of Ross Wilson's songwriting proteges, Wayne Burt, who wrote great songs in that r&b/soul idiom that was the Falcons' stock and trade in the beginning (extract from Howlspace)

After recording the albums 'Don't Waste It' (which contained their hit single "Security") and 'Whip It Out', the mini-albums 'Live, Loud and Clear' (which managed to reach #53 nationally in August 1978, with lead track "The Honeydripper" receiving most of the airplay) and 'So Young' (the title of which was covered by Elvis Costello) for Oz Records, the band and its shifting cast of players - found themselves at Mushroom Records. By this stage Wayne Burt had left - to be replaced by Tony Faehse (who had played in Alvin Stardust's band) - and the composing duties were thrown over to Camilleri and his colleagues. Soon afterwards, the ebullient Wilbur Wilde, who had been an integral member of Ol' 55, also joined the band, although he had already played on previous albums as a sessions player.

But by this stage the sound of the band was changing and by 1982's sophisticated 'Cha' album and its hit single 'Taxi Mary' it was just called Jo Jo Zep, minus the Falcons and plus Jane Clifton, Joe Creighton and others. Even a tour of America (which by all accounts was a disaster) failed to stop the eventual demise of the group. Ironically, Camilleri soon got back to his roots and went on to form the even more successful Black Sorrows. A brief national tour to support the 1984 compilation saw the Camilleri/Wilde/Burstin / Faehse/Power/Young line-up appear for the last time until that famed reunion in 2001 and the brand new album! (Extract from Joe Camilleri's Website)

Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons were added to the list of acts to be inducted into the 2007 ARIA Hall of Fame. [Quote: The announcement of the new inductees follows last month's initial list featuring the Hoodoo Gurus, Marcia Hines and Frank Ifield
"I'm chuffed. I think the Falcons did play a part in the Australian music explosion," Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons frontman Joe Camilleri told news.com.au.
"I'm happy it's been acknowledged. The Falcons were a band out of time. What we played wasn't what was being played. It was an R&B/reggae sound in the time of flares and funk and pop music. Somehow we slotted in." The Hall Of Fame inductions will take place in the Plaza Ballroom at Melbourne’s Regent Theatre on 18 July.]

The 'Live, Loud and Clear' 12" EP was recorded at Martini's in Carlton on 22nd/23rd Dec, 1977.
Standout tracks for me are "Ain't Got No Money" and "Girl Across The Street (just turned 18)". I have fond memories of seeing Jo Jo Zep play these tracks, along with many of their other hits such as "Security" and "So Young", on many ocassions at La Trobe Uni, Bundoora back in 1977. They were a big favourite with the Uni crowds at the time and always produced an exciting stage show. I also got to see them play at other venues such as Bombay Rock and Martini's but alas, cannot claim to be in the crowd on the nights which this recording was made.
This Rip was taken from Vinyl in FLAC format and includes full album artwork and label scans.

NEW IMPROVED RIP
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Track Listing
01 - Honey Dripper
02 - Young Girl
03 - Ain't Got No Money
04 - Girl Across The Street
05 - Riding In The Moonlight
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Band Members
Jo Camilleri (Vocals, Sax)
Jeff Burstin (Guitar)
Tony Faehse (Guitar)
John Power (Bass, Vocals)
Gary Young (Drums)
Wilber Wilde (Sax)
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Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons Link (117Mb) New Link 13/10/2023

Jo Jo Zep And Falcons - Dexterity 'Mini LP' (1981)

(Australian 1975–1983, 2001-present)

In 1979, Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons signed with Mushroom Records after Oz Records had folded. By now, the songwriting was being looked after by Burstin, Camilleri, and Faehse working together as a trio, and Camilleri was the group's lone front man. As well, the group had included another musical direction: reggae.

Meanwhile, Mushroom was eager to connect with the 'new wave' in England and brought over Peter Solley, an English producer and latter-day Procol Harum member, to produce another Mushroom artist, The Sports. One night Solley saw Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons perform, and on the strength of their new song, "Shape I'm In", asked to produce the group. The first single, "Hit and Run", from the album, Screaming Targets, was pop reggae and reached No. 12 on the charts in August 1979. Camilleri said he "never thought 'Hit and Run' would do anything but maybe the lick was infectious enough – though as a song it was a bit stupid – but it got us a deal all over the world. It was a wacky thing and all of a sudden we were away in a different arena".

The band toured the United States, the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe, including performances in The Bottom Line club in New York, and at the Montreux Jazz & Blues Festival. In July 1980, the band had been the opening act at the Oakland Coliseum, in San Francisco, supporting Journey, Black Sabbath and Cheap Trick. Camilleri told a hostile audience, which was throwing objects (including eggs) at the group, "Is it any wonder your parents lost the Vietnam War – you can't even shoot straight!" After the international experience, the band started to lose some of its impetus.

Back home, the singles continued with "Shape I'm In", "Puppet on a String", "I Will Return". In August 1980, the band issued the album Hats Off Step Lively in Australia. In July 1981, Dexterity was released. The band continued touring internationally, but tensions within the group were increasing and in June 1981, Camilleri pulled Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons off the road.

We could have done it if we'd kept punching, but the band actually disintegrated, basically, looking back, because we were too tired. We should have just taken a year off. But what happened was we were right at the end of the period when, in order to flog a record in the States, you were virtually out promoting the one you had out the year before. So it was a totally asynchronous situation. We were having to dig into what we viewed as archives when we went out of the country. So we were having to promote Screaming Targets when we already had Hats Off Step Lively out here. It was at a time of the most intense development of original material in the band's life so the result was extremely disruptive. – Camilleri

In September 1981, a revised version of Hats Off Step Lively was issued in North America, titled simply Step Lively. The album featured a selection of tracks from the Hats Off Step Lively and Dexterity albums, augmented by two newly recorded cover tunes ("Gimme Little Sign" and "But It's Alright") produced by H.W. Casey and Rick Finch of K.C. and the Sunshine Band. However, the group had fractured by this point (Young, Power and Wilde all dropped out) and was not available to promote the North American LP release. Step Lively ultimately flopped commercially despite some good reviews.

In June 1981 Joe Camilleri disbanded the Falcons. Young and Power joined Rock Doctors, and Wilde formed his own band, Big Kombi. Camilleri, Burstin and Faehse then gathered a new rhythm section featuring bassist Simon Gyllies (Mondo Rock), and drummer Freddie Strauks (Skyhooks) and started exploring Latin American rhythms, particularly salsa. However, The 'Falcons' moniker was dropped around the time Faehse dropped out, and beginning in 1982, the act was known simply as Jo Jo Zep. The new Jo Jo Zep line-up soon expanded....

"I had a big hit with 'Taxi Mary' but that was without this band, and 'Walk On By', but it was too late really. I couldn't see myself playing in an 11 piece salsa band. It was only a minute in my life. I enjoyed the band and enjoyed the tour but I realised I didn't have my friends behind me anymore. I had to start again. Then I reunited with half the band at the start of what became The Black Sorrows". – Camilleri

Joe Camilleri

Joe Camilleri was a front man who knew no equal. He could blow your head clean off at a distance of 40 years. First time I recall Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons was at the La Trobe Uni Hall, when Joe was all over the stage; head in the drum kit, doing the splits, blowing solos like his life depended on it. Joe was a driven guy. He quit school early, worked dumb jobs that he wasn’t going back to. So when he was playing music there was no fall back position. Everything mattered. That meant the band could do a 20 minute version of King of Fools with Camilleri improvising this hysterical rom com in the middle section or a sublime 20 minute sax improvising “The Cthulhu” or if things could go badly then he might throw his guitar on the floor and storm out the back door with the band vamping on not knowing whether he was coming back. 

Often as not they played without a set list. Joe bought the jazz gimmick that a good show was determined by being in the moment. Nothing was ever really good enough for him either. He mastered one instrument and took up another. He was restless; he had an artistic twitch. I think he felt he had more to prove than most of his peers. I think he soaked up so much from his idols that he felt he had to find a different voice and he immersed himself in jazz and ska, in pop and R&B. Camilleri has been so deep into so many things that he is totally original. 

Above is the promotional video made to promote Dexterity, featuring excerpts of some of the Mini LP's tracks.  Only Joe Camilleri appears in the clips. Dexterity was the sixth studio album by Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons. It was released in July 1981 and peaked at number 92 on the Australian Kent Music Report.

If you liked the clip then check out this Dexterity 10″ Mini LP for some of the most inventive R&B pop of the time or indeed his past 20 years. You won't regret it.

Ripped to FLAC from my priceless / pristine 10" vinyl, this post also includes full album artwork and label scans.

Tracklist

01 Sweet  (3:45)

02 Tighten Up  (3:23)

03 Flexible  (1:55)

04 Fallen Heroes  (3:45)

05 Nosey Parker  (3:17)

06 Johnny Kain  (2:54)

07 Fool Enough  (3:35)

08 Rub Up Push Up  (3:00)

09 Please Please Please  (1:12)

Band members:

Joe Camilleri - Vocals, Guitar, Sax

Jeff Burstin - Guitar, Vocals

John Power - Bass, Vocals

Gary Young - Drums, Vocals

Tony Faehse - Guitar, Vocals

Dexterity Link (154 Mb) New Link 19/11/2024

W.O.C.K On Vinyl: Joe Camilleri - 92.3 EON-FM Will Achieve (1980)

  Before things get too serious here at Rock On Vinyl, I thought it might be fun to post a song or album at the end of each month, that could be categorized as being either Weird, Obscure, Crazy or just plain Korny.

It can be said that Joe Camilleri is one of the most talented musical artists to call Australia home.
It's 48 years since Camilleri originally joined the Falcons, consisting of Wayne Burt and Jeff Burstin (both ex-Rock Granite) on guitars, John Power (from the Foreday Riders and Company Caine) on bass and former Daddy Cool drummer Gary Young - to record a version of 'Run Rudolph Run' as a Christmas single produced by Ross Wilson.

Even by that stage Camilleri was a local veteran, having played with mid-60's R&B band the King Bees, then the Adderly Smith Blues Band (which allegedly sacked him for sounding too much like Mick Jagger), Lipp and the Double Dekker Brothers, The Sharks and The Pelaco Brothers (with Stephen Cummings).

After recording the albums 'Don't Waste It' and 'Whip It Out', the mini-albums 'Loud and Clear' and 'So Young' (the title of which was covered by Elvis Costello) for Oz Records, the band - and its shifting cast of players - found themselves at Mushroom Records. By this stage Wayne Burt, one of the nations' great songwriters even then, had left - to be replaced by Tony Faehse (who had played in Alvin Stardust's band) - and the composing duties were thrown over to Camilleri and his colleagues. Soon afterwards, the ebullient Wilbur Wilde, who had been an integral member of Ol' 55, also joined the band.

The label move also teamed Camilleri up with producer Peter Solley who oversaw the hit singles 'Hit & Run', 'Shape I'm In' and 'All I Wanna Do' and the albums 'Screaming Targets' (1979), 'Hats Off Step Lively' (1981) and the 'Dexterity' mini-album (1981). The band toured overseas and even got to play at the Montreux Jazz and Blues festival.

Joe Camilleri and his Falcons

It was around this time that Australia's first commercial FM station (92.3 EON-FM) began broadcasting and to assist their launch across Victorian airways, they asked Joe Camilleri to write and sing a promotional radio jingle, which he entitled 'Will Achieve'. The single was produced by Camilleri along with long time friend Jimbo Barton (Engineer)

To hear some other 93.3 EON-FM Radio Jingles, jump across to soundcloud.com

92.3 EON-FM
43 Bank Street South Melbourne

92.3 EON-FM
Australia’s first commercial FM station began broadcasting on 92.3FM Melbourne on July 11 1980, first as EON-FM and later as Triple M on 105.1FM. A consortium that included entrepreneur Bill Armstrong, band manager Glenn Wheatley and stockbroker Bill Conn successfully bid on one of two Melbourne FM licenses in 1979. Armstrong headed the consortium, having seen the commercial opportunities of FM radio in the US and the UK and despite their application, had no blueprint from which to launch from. They did, however, beat Fox FM to the airwaves by just two weeks.

Clyde Simpson was the station’s first general manager, Lee Simon the first program director and Billy Pinnell the Melbourne station’s first music programmer. Other radio broadcasters that commenced their careers at EON-FM included Gavin Wood, John Peters and John Hood. Lee Simon who is affectionately known as the ‘godfather’ of rock radio and gave 47 years of service to the Aussie radio industry, having started out as a high-rating jock first on 3XY.

At first, EON played songs that “would not be played elsewhere”, having no playlist and avoiding Top 40 songs. “We thought we were going to be the beginning of a new era,” Armstrong admits. “It took us a while to realise we were wrong.” Simon went against the flow of the album rock formats favoured by Australia’s FM stations and radically changed EON-FM format by playing Top 40 hits and staging outdoor concerts. EON finally topped Melbourne’s ratings in 1985 and sold to Hoyts one year later for $37.5 million. The deal was reportedly negotiated by Wheatley. The station was rebranded 3MMM (Triple M) on November 27 in 1988 and moved to 105.1FM.

It launched the careers of programming greats including Ian Grace, Brad March, Jeff Allis, Grant Tothill and the network’s current head of content Mike Fitzpatrick. And so many more. “We’re all honoured to be the custodians of this radio station, and the history of EON as Australia’s first commercial FM,” Fitzpatrick told Radio Today. “It’s not lost on us how much we owe the founders, people like Lee, Gracie and Karl. Thanks to them, we’re able to continue to create great radio today.”

Over four decades the station’s many programmers are credited for breaking some of radio’s best lineups: The D Generation, The Cage and The Shebang among the alumni [extract from radiotoday.com.au]

This month's WOCK on vinyl post features another release by Joe Camilleri, this time a very rare radio promo jingle for the first FM radio station to hit the Australian Airwaves back in 1980. 92.3 EON-FM was my favourite radio station at the time and it was also renowned for organising and simulcasting rock concerts in Melbourne. 

Joe Camilleri Today

I came across this single at my local flee market some years ago  and it was the 92.3 EON-FM label that first caught my eye. It was only later that I noted thatJoe Camilleri was the artist and quite possibly his Falcons doing the backing. I don't think it would be the Black Sorrows as they didn't form until 1981. 

This is a great recording with a catchy 'reggae' riff and lyrics, which I'm sure would have pleased the radio station and listeners.  It certainly ticks the Obscure box with very few appearing on eBay for sale. I suspect it would have been a limited pressing, so I'm happy to own this copy.  The B-Side is just the backing band with no vocals, and was probably used for segment intro's and alike.

Hope this brings back memories for those of you who lived in Melbourne back in the 80's

Ripped to FLAC with label scans. Thanks to the EON-FM Facebook for the photos 

92.3 EON-FM Will Achieve (33Mb)

Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons - Mainstreet Cabaret (1980) Bootleg

(Australian 1975–1984, 2001-present)
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The hardest working man in Oz rock was Joe Camilleri, front man for Jo Jo Zep and The Falcons. Camilleri started with blues band King Bees while a teenager, moved to The Pelaco Bros and was a key figure in the Melbourne music scene in the '70's. He had tastes that ranged from Charles Parker through soul and reggae. His enthusiasm on stage was as boundless as his influences. Originally signed to Ross Wilson's label OZ in 1975, and then to Mushroom, The Falcons delivered inspired live performances and great records.
[Glenn A. Baker Archive]

Traveling back from touring in England, Jo Jo Zep called in at New Zealand on the 4th August, to play a one off concert at the Mainstreet Cabaret, while on their way back to Australia, finally arriving home on the 6th August. They then undertook a 7 week tour of Australia and then headed off to the States for another tour to promote their 'Hats Off Lively' album [ details from Countdown Interview with Jo Jo Zep, 3rd August London]. This post is a bootleg recording of this concert.
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Biography
The Pelaco Brothers were the seminal Melbourne band. On their demise in 1975, they spawned Melbourne's response to the punk revolution — the frantic Joe Camilleri and the romantic Stephen Cummings (from the Sports). They helped make Melbourne the capital of Australian rock in the late '70s.
As a live act, Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons were unbeatable. Joe Camilleri, is the son of Maltese immigrants. Camilleri could barely read when he quit school as a teenage bass guitarist to play the blues in The King Bees. Camilleri quickly moved to the horn section with his saxophone which put him in great demand with a number of Carlton rock bands in the early 1970s. When The Pelaco Brothers split he formed an R&B group called 'Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons'. The songwriting was from guitarist Wayne Burt while Daddy Cool alumnus Gary Young sat behind the kit.

Camilleri was like a man possessed by ambition. He was always somewhat modest, possibly to the point of insecurity, about his own abilities so he drove himself right to the limit of any opportunity. His knowledge of music was exhaustive from Charlie Parker's be-bop through the entire Rolling Stones catalogue, soul, jazz or anything with a melody. He expected the same standards of his bandmates.
On stage Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons were unbeatable, largely through the efforts of the group's singer. He jumped. He pounded. He stuck his head in the bass drum. He sweated and slaved for an audience. They never worked with a set list and could just as easily venture off into a fifteen-minute monologue about the nature of love during King of Fools or quite like a twenty-minute jazz improvisation. On a good night The Falcons could stretch the set to three hours of frantic R&B, but on a bad night Camilleri could just as easily throw a tantrum and march off the stage and into the Bondi night.
Having mastered the sax he moved on to guitar, keyboards and production. From playing R&B he went to disco, jazz, zydeco, pop.

In that sense Camilleri was a quintessential Victorian. Melbourne's music culture has always been more sophisticated than elsewhere in Australia. There is a place for almost any taste and an enjoyment of music's heritage that exists in Melbourne like nowhere else.
Mostly this phenomenon is due to the efforts of David Pepperell and Keith Glass who opened and operated import stores to cater to a wide variety of tastes. Throughout the '70s, Melbourne was an eclectic town where musicians dabbled in film and theatre and supported each other's bands. Anything was available from Ross Hannaford's mystic reggae band Billy-T, art-rock from The Bleeding Hearts to the feminist agit-pop of Stiletto, whose lyrics were penned by novelist Helen Garner. In the spirit of co-operation, Joe Camilleri and Martin Armiger helped out an old Adelaide friend, Paul Kelly, with his first album, Talk.
Original Pelaco Brothers Peter Lillie and Johnny Topper kept up the kitsch side of the Pelacos' style with a series of outfits that celebrated the kitsch side of modern Australia, generally to the tune of a country guitar. The style was dubbed 'ockerbilly' and some fine records (particularly from The Autodrifters) were made.
The other pillar of the Melbourne establishment was Keith Glass' partner in the Missing Link record store, Ross Wilson.

After the success of Daddy Cool and Skyhooks, Wilson was the king of Melbourne. His group Mighty Kong failed and he took a back seat from performance. EMI offered him his own record label, in partnership with Glenn Wheatley with the imaginative name of Oz Records. He signed the Falcons and produced their first album.

Their debut album 'Don't Waste It' is distinguished by the witty songwriting from Burt and the thoroughly polished performance from the band. Camilleri, however, hated the producer's studio perfectionism. He felt the record was stilted—and so did the public. The Falcons' real magic only ever came out on stage. Camilleri himself was a soulful dynamo, to match Johnny O'Keefe even, whose drive to succeed powered the group. A lack of chart success only drove him harder. Falcons' shows could be volatile, but the band meetings afterward could be far more so.
Camilleri's instincts paid off though as the group became one of the highest drawing acts of the decade on the basis of minimal airplay. [extract from The Real Thing, 1957-Now, by Toby Creswell & Martin Fabinyi, 1999. p114-116]

Despite the role call of bands Camilleri has led over the past few decades, and the rotating line-ups of each, he insists he not that restless musically.

“Not really. I think sometimes it’s pretty hard to play under the same badge, sometimes you wanna do something a little bit different. I cast a pretty wide net. I guess my interest in jazz music and free jazz, and pop music and all these things – maybe I’m a bit left of centre to a lot of people these days but I always thought it was part and parcel of what you do. Sometimes you’re playing with people who… for instance in Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons, I didn’t realise how good they were until recently. I always liked playing in that band, but they didn’t wanna go anywhere, they just wanted to play R&B music, and the only reason they had a few hits was ‘cos I wrote a few songs that were a bit different, with the reggae stuff and so on.

“But they didn’t really want to go there, I just dragged them there, and you can only drag people for so long before you say ‘look, I’m happy for the hits and all that, but I have to cut myself loose ‘cos it’s not really what I signed up for, you know.’
[Extract from Interview with Shane Pinnegar from the 100% Rock Magazine, 2013]
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This post consists of MP3's (320kps) taken from a taped radio broadcast of this one off concert at the Mainstreet Cabaret in New Zealand, on the 4th August 1980. Album artwork is provided, thanks to the artistic talents of WoodNet at Midoztouch2 (cheers Woody).  This is a great concert capturing the band firing on all barrels and features a full anthology of all their early hits and excellent sound quality. This is one bootleg not to be missed.

Track Listing

01 - Hit & Run
02 - Only The Lonely Hearted
03 - Puppet On A String
04 - Security
05 - Close To The Bone
06 - So Young
07 - Not A Woman, Not A Child
08 - Billy Baxter
09 - Rudy
10 - Shape I’m In
11 - All I Wanna Do
12 - Hand Me Down
13 - Don’t Keep It Up
14 - Don’t Go
15 - Don’t Wanna Come Down
16 - Open Hearted
17 - The Honeydripper

Jo Jo Zep were:
Joe Camilleri: Vocals, Sax, Guitar
Jeff Burstin: Guitar, Vocals
Tony Faehse: Guitar, Vocals
John Power: Bass, Vocals
Wilbur Wilde: Sax, Vocals
Gary Young: Drums, Vocals

Jo Jo Zep Link (159Mb)  New Link 23/12/2023

Jo Jo Zep - Cha (1982) + Bonus Single

(Australian 1975–1984, 2001-present)
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Joe Camilleri, saxophonist, producer, songwriter, vocalist, bandleader and conceptualise has a distinct aversion to fame and the restrictions of a high public profile. He prefers to make music when and how he likes it, for whomever might be listening at the time. Sometimes that approach sells large numbers of records and sometimes it slips right by the public unnoticed, either way, the mature outpourings of Joe's 'musical sponge' approach are never less than engaging and often inspiring.
Every time Camilleri enters a recording studio he pays witting or unwitting tribute to his heroes. The most obvious, and enduring, are Van Morrison and Mink De Ville but the other tinges are unmistakable — Chuck Berry, Clifton Chenier, Ray Charles, Bobby Womack, Jacob Miller, Otis Redding, Don Covay and John Lee Hooker. "You have to deal with your influences", muses Joe, "but if you learn your craft listening to the best people in the world, you can't go too far wrong. At the moment I'm trying very hard, vocally, to just sound like myself  but in the end I'm a music fan and that can be quite a passionate thing."
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Camilleri was born in Malta during 1948, the third of ten children. In 1964 he was singing with a band called The Brollies, then joined up with ex-Captain Matchbox member Dave Flett in the King Bees. After they split, Camilleri retired from rock'n'roll for a few years, resurfacing as leader of the Adderley Smith Blues Band in 1970. Two years later he was with Lipp & The Double Decker Brothers and, even later, toured WA mining towns with Flett and Skyhooks founder Peter Starkie — as Roger Rocket & The Millionaires. Back in Melbourne, Camilleri played with The Sharks and then The Pelaco Brothers, who recorded a memorable EP. This led to a brief association with Mushroom Records for the Christmas 1975 single "Run Run Rudolph" (as Jo Jo Zep), produced by Ross Wilson. Camilleri was then asked to open for Skyhooks at a Myer Music Bowl concert in Melbourne and recruited Gary Young, John Powers, Wayne Burt and Jeff Burstin. Thus was born Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons, who debuted on vinyl with "Beatin' Around The Bush", which was featured in the film Oz.

Joe Camilleri & Jane Clifton (Coundown 1982)

This was followed by the 1977 albums 'Don't Waste It' and 'Whip It Out' produced by Ross Wilson, the live EP 'Loud And Clear' and a 10" mini-album 'So Young'. Around this time Joe nurtured a promising Melbourne band called The Sports, which had also grown out of the legendary Palaco Brothers, and produced their debut album, 'Reckless'. He also encouraged a developing songwriter called Paul Kelly, by cutting a number of his songs.
The hard-blowing, hot-swinging Falcons were a distillation of a decade of diligently noncommercial urban blues bands. They stood their uncompromised ground until Australian rock caught up with them and then proceeded to blow everyone else offstage with contagious boogie of a relevant and intelligent nature. Highly regarded in diverse musical circles, they toured with Graham Parker & The Rumour and were invited to play at the 1980 Montreaux Jazz Festival, in the wake of the acclaimed 'Screaming Targets' album and two strong chart hits, "Hit and Run" and "Shape I'm In".
The band continued on its winning way with the 'Hats Off Step Lively' album and 'Dexterity' mini-LP but by 1982, Joe had dispensed with The Falcons and was in the upper reaches of the charts with "Taxi Mary", as plain Jo Jo Zep. The 'Cha' album moved Joe away from straight R&B into elements of jazz, latin big band, reggae, zydeco, ska and salsa. He hit the road with an ambitious 11-piece brass-heavy band, including vocalist Jane Clifton and in 1983 undertook the Work Imperative tour with Cherine (sister of I'm Talking's Zan) and fellow Van Morrison freak Joe Creighton. [extract from "External Combustion" by Glenn A Baker, 1990. p146-147]
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Album Review
(Coundown Magazine Vol 7 Jan 1983)
In the November issue of the Countdown Magazine we checked out the half of the Falcons that transformed themselves into the Rock Doctors. Now we come to half of the band who stayed by Joe Camilleri's side as he set about forging a new direction. And new is the operative word.
Joe's third album with producer Pete Solley finds him breaking away from his R&B base and exploring reggae, jazz, techno-pop, Joe Jackson-type big ballads. Caribbean rhythms and more. The result is a heady potpourri, a frothy brew of style and substance. The strong vocal contributions of Jane Clifton give this work a dimension that was not possible during the days of the Falcons.
At the same time,we have lost the Falcon's incomparable handling of surging rhythm and blues and white soul. Still, in the interests of progression, the tradeoff has been worthwhile.
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This post consists of MP3 (320kps) ripped from CD (thanks to Motcher76 at Midoztouch) and full album artwork for both LP and CD. I am also including as a bonus track the non-album B-Side to the single Taxi Mary called "This Is Our Time". Cha was a very different style of album to Joe's earlier releases with the Falcons, and I must admit, took me some to appreciate. Although I preferred his earlier 'dance music' with the Falcons, I now understand that change was important to Joe and his final evolution into the Black Sorrows was imminent.  Hope ya enjoy this album and when I get time, I might start posting some of his earlier material as Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons.
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Track Listing:
01 - Walk On By
02 - Taxi Mary
03 - Sherrie
04 - Slave For Love
05 - You're Gonna Get It Boy
06 - Lonely Man
07 - Man Is Just A Boy
08 - Spirit Of The Land
09 - Can't Decide
10 - This is Our Time (Bonus B-Side Single)
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Jo Jo Zep were:
Vocals, Saxophone, Clarinet, Organ, Design – Joe Camilleri
Bass – Simon Gyllies
Drum – Linn LM-1
Guitar, Mandolin – Jeff Burstin
Percussion – Des McKenna
Keyboards – Peter Solley
Additional vocals - Jane Clifton
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Jo Jo Zep Link (98Mb)
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