REPOST: SCRA - Southern Contemporary Rock Assembly (1971) & The Ship Album (1972)

(Australian 1971-72)
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The band's full title was Southern Contemporary Rock Assembly (S.C.R.A) and they were formed half-way through 1971. They were an eleven piece outfit with two singers - Cheryl Blake and Peter Martin.
This band was massive with 11 band members at it height and they came from the UK, Oz and NZ. The band also incorporated various styles of rock and pop. They could rock with big band tracks similar to Blood, Sweat And Tears and then take it down a notch to small quiet love songs.
Some of the original band members were from Levi Smith's Clefs which provided a valuable training ground for young players.

New Zealander, Mike “Mickey” Leyton became a member after leaving his band Sounds Unlimited (from Auckland). He married singer Lyn Barnett and they moved to Sydney in the late 1960s. In February 1971 Mickey had became a singer in a pub band called Small Chant (which over the course of 1971 was upgraded to become SCRA - Southern Contemporary Rock Assembly).
The Small Chant members were: Barrie Heidenreich - piano, Mickey Leyton - vocals, Wayne Ford - bass, Peter Martin – classical guitar and composer and Leon Isakson on drums. Peter was breaking his neck to play classical works after studies in Spain. Peter had also written a few songs including one called "Roly Poly", which they played live but never recorded as Small Chant.

By mid 1971 Peter Martin had finally secured a permanent gig at the Coogee Oceanic Hotel in Sydney, but by that time Leon Isakson had joined the Delltones. Peter’s band went into the Oceanic with the old line-up of the Small Chant plus a few changes. Barrie had other commitments and Peter replaced him with his star pupil on guitar, Jim Kelly. Russell Dunlop came in on drums with Ian Bloxom on percussion and Dave Ellis on bass. Greg Foster (trombone and blues harp), Mick Kenny (trumpet) and Don Wright (sax) made up the front-line. Michael Lawler’s girlfriend, Sheryl Blake, made up the 3rd singer with the band along with Mickey Leyton and Ian Saxon. And so SCRA was formed. It was a huge 11-piece band and it all sounded fabulous. Dig Richards was so impressed that he decided to use SCRA on his next RCA album, Harlequin.

They even did a considerable amount of recording considering that they had only been together for a short period, and by early 1972 they had two singles and one album to their credit. The single "Roly Poly" from December 1971, reached #19 in the charts by April, 72. They also wrote and performed a rock version of Snow White and released a sizzling take of the venerable hit "C.C. Rider". This is off their lesser known SCRA album on Metronome as opposed to their more popular Ship Album which came out in the States on Atlantic.
Meanwhile, at the end of February '72 the band left for England where they released an album entitled The Ship Album and a single from it, 'It's A Game'/'Love Is A Lonely Day'. The band eventually broke up in the later part of 1972 with three of the band members going on to eventually form Crossfire (Jim Kelly, Mick Kenny and Ian Bloxsom). For more information on Peter Martin, see his website [extracts from Tom Mix Oz Music and Noel McGrath's Australian Encyclopedia of Rock p272].
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Album Reviews
SCRA was a jazz-rock outfit from Sydney, who were popular on the local club/festival circuit. Their first album combined a big band sound with some progressive leanings and a few pop moments. The album spawned three singles; C.C. Rider, Roly Poly and Sydney Born Man, which along with To Whom It May Concern represented its rockier more upbeat side.
The remaining material was mostly ballads and the rather restrained effort didn't represent the power of their live act. The second was more in a bluesy progressive jazz-rock vein. Shades of Blodwyn Pig. It was mixed at The Hit Factory in New York during a U.S. tour. Their brand of 'big band' jazz-rock went down well in the States. This included the ten-minute, ambitious "Something Like The Feeling". The album inevitably got a U.S. release, though in a single sleeve, not the gatefold version which graced the Australian public. They released one further 45 It's A Game and then split. [extract from Dreams, Fantasies and Nightmares, Borderline Books, 2002]
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My last post for 2013 and in response to a request made by a blog follower for some SCRA material.  
This post consists of FLAC rips of their two albums, taken from Vinyl and CD. Included is full album artwork for both media formats with some live bonus tracks. Thanks must go to Sunshine and RAM at Ausrock for their respective FLAC rips. 

Note:  There is some discrepancy as to whether the track "Love Is A Lonely Day" actually appeared on their Ship Album.  The Atlantic Label (Side 2) does not show this track displayed nor does it appear in the rip, yet the back cover lists the track.  "Love Is A Lonely Day" was released nevertheless, as the B-Side to the 1972 single "It's A Game".  It is also unlikely that the track would have been on the Ship Album as the 3 tracks that are provided have a combined length of 20mins (which was the max time for one side of an LP).

Stop Press:  Ozzie Music has saved the day with that elusive 1972 single "It's A Game" / "Love Is A Lonely Day" in MP3 format. Why not pop over to his blog and grab yourself a copy from his Post 515
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SCRA /  Tracklisting

01) The Beginning
02) Sighin'
03) Roly Poly
04) She Would Not Fade
05) Bush Sunrise
06) CC Rider
07) Traveller
08) To Whom It may Concern
09) Hear The Falling Dew
10) Sydney Born Man
11) Roly Poly - Live (Bonus Sunbury 1972)
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The Ship Album / Tracklisting
1) Our Ship
2) Live Today
3) Actress
4) 23 Skadoo
5) Freak
Love Is A Lonely Day??
6) Midnight
7) Changes
8) Something Like the Feeling
9) I Wanna Make Love To You - Live (Bonus Sunbury 1972)
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SCRA Band Members:
Mickey Leyton, Sheryl Black, Ian Saxon - vocals:
Peter Martin, Jim Kelly - guitars;
Dave Ellis - bass;
Russell Dunlop - drums;
Ian Bloxsom - percussion
Mick Kenny - trumpet;
Don Wright - saxophone & flute;
Greg Foster - trombone & harmonica

Improved RIPS 
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SCRA - Selftitled (291Mb)
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SCRA - The Ship Album (272Mb)

 

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Various Artists - Sunbury (1972)

(Various Australian Artists 1972)
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Though not the first major music festival in Australia, the Sunbury Music Festival was the first to turn a profit and to run consecutively for several years. For 4 years from 1972, the festival was held on the Australia Day long weekend at a private farm on the outskirts of Sunbury near Melbourne, attracting around 35,000 punters of pop. Likened at the time to Woodstock, today Sunbury can be seen as a forerunner to big festivals like Big Day Out, Falls and Splendor in the Grass. Line-ups included home-grown acts such as Skyhooks, Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, Sherbet, Daddy Cool and Captain Matchbox; with international guests like Queen and Deep Purple headlining in later festivals. However, it was Deep Purple who tolled the death knell for the Sunbury festival in 1975. Operating at a loss, organisers paid out the UK rock stars at the expense of the local acts who went home penniless.

Sunbury 72
 David Hill (a youthful ABC journalist) reported the pioneer festival culture at Sunbury '72 as a mix of hippies, yobbos, organic food stalls and makeshift tents and swags. The first Sunbury concert was held over the Long Weekend period from 29th to 31st January, 1972.
Tickets cost $6 for the 3 days and there was an estimated 35-40,000 in attendance. Gerry Humphreys (of the The Loves Ones) was the MC and the festival sported the largest number of bands of all the Sunbury concerts.  Bands playing at the festival were:

The Bushwackers and Bullockys Bush Band
Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band
Glenn Cardier
Carson
Chain
Company Caine
Friends
Healing Force
The La De Das
Mackenzie Theory
Phil Manning
Max Merritt and the Meteors
Pilgrimage
Pirana
Wendy Saddington
SCRA
Spectrum
Tamam Shud
Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs
Total Fire Band
The Wild Cherries
Greg Quill & Country Radio
Highway
Indelible Murtceps
The La De Das
Mulga Bill's Bicycle Band
Blackfeather
Barry McCaskill & The Levi Smith Clefs

Because the site of Sunbury Music Festival was closer to Diggers Rest than Sunbury itself, many patrons travelling by train to the festival would get off at Diggers Rest station. However, the "Diggers Rest Pop Festival" just didn’t have the same zing to it. While the inaugural concert of 1972 is usually remember as being an all-Australian event, many of the performers actually hailed from New Zealand. But as we do, we’ll turn a blind eye to that and claim them as our own, especially Thorpie.

Sunbury '72 also exemplifies the male domination of the popular music scene at that time, although photographs indicate that the audience seems to have been fairly evenly split in gender terms, almost all the performers were male. Wendy Saddington was the only female headliner on the bill, and only one other band, Mackenzie Theory, featured a female member (violist Cleis Pearce).
The festival was organised in late 1971, when a company called Odessa Promotions was formed in Melbourne. Its principals were, according to Adrian Rawlins, "industry people" from the Melbourne television scene, including several TV floor managers and directors; it is likely that several had worked on Melbourne pop TV like Uptight. The principal of the company was John Fowler.
By this stage, five other major festivals had already been mounted, and the oft-repeated claim that Sunbury was Australia's first rock festival is quite untrue. Unfortunately, none of these earlier festivals was financially successful. Undeterred, Odessa Promotions organised and promoted a major rock festival with an all-Australasian line-up, although it's important to note that we don't know for sure whether this was a deliberate decision (or one merely dictated by financing) or whether or not Odessa considered bringing in overseas acts (or not).
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The evidence suggests that Sunbury's success was a mixture of good luck and good timing, rather than careful planning and good organisation. Like Woodstock, Sunbury almost didn't take place, when they began looking for a site, the organisers discovered that few landowners were willing to allow their property to be used for a three-day rock festival that would attract tens of thousands. Fortunately, the festival was saved by a local landowner who offered Odessa the use of part of his property at Glencoe, just outside the township of Sunbury, about 35 km north-west of the city. The farmer, Mr George Duncan, was reportedly motivated to make the offer because he "believed in young people".

Opinions vary greatly about Sunbury's significance. Most commentators claim that it was a turning point in Australian rock, a symbolic coming-of-age for youth culture, and the birthplace of the pub-rock scene. These theses have been prosecuted by rock historian Ian McFarlane and the writers of  'Long Way To The Top', among others. As a result, the assertion that Sunbury was a defining moment in Australian music history has been accepted virtually without question, and without reference to any other evidence, and much of the information about it remains unconfirmed and anecdotal. As far as we know, no-one as yet has undertaken the tasks of recording a comprehensive oral history that includes performers, organisers and patrons.
However, the website used in the above account of Sunbury 72, probably boasts the most extensive accounts and photos of the four Sunbury concerts, and is worthwhile visiting.
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Sunbury 72 (extract from The Real Thing)
According to Billy Thorpe, 'Australia was always about two years behind the States. They had Woodstock in 1969 and we had Sunbury in 1972.' Billy continues: 'I went to Sunbury for five days with my wife and we got a tent backstage and lived there while they built the site. It was a real community. And the vibe was just extraordinary.'
The first day of the Sunbury pop festival, 28 January 1972, marked the beginning of the modern era for Australian rock & roll. Held over three days on a 300-acre site just outside Melbourne, Sunbury was the biggest single rock event to be staged in Australia. The bill was largely home-grown and, as Thorpe points out, all the architects of the Successes  of the '70s  were  at that  festival— Michael  Browning, Michael  Chugg, Michael Gudinski, Sam Righi and Roger Davies. The acts were even more crucial. Max Merritt and The Meteors flew back to Australia from the UK for the gig, which also featured every major Australian artist with the exception of Daddy Cool. As with Woodstock (the film of which had recently been shown across Australia and which had done more to propagate the myth of the rock festival  than the event itself), Sunbury was  a celebration of youth culture.

Max Merritt And The Meteors

The Acacia River was the inevitable site for skinny-dippers, coverage of which was the most interesting phenomenon for the mass media. Two young men were arrested for public indecency after having sex with a sixteen-year-old girl, two babies were born, and the kids behaved well.
Nudity notwithstanding, the show really belonged to Thorpie. The Aztecs were then at their absolute prime and they blew the heads off most of the music fans with a two-hour set of relentless boogie. By the time they rocked into 'Most People I Know Think That I'm Crazy' it was clear that Thorpie was king and that the country had a new national anthem.

By early 1975 Billy Thorpe and The Aztes had become the loudest and heaviest band in the country. Their appearance at Sunbury '72 cemented their popularity with the yob crowd and resulted in the Live at Sunbury album. Also in 1972 the band released the single 'Most People I Know Think That I'm Crazy' which became Billy Thorpe's first Top 10 hit in seven years. The album More Arse Than Class followed in 1974 which found favour with the 'Suck More Piss' crowd. [extract from 'The Real Thing (1957-Now)', Toby Creswell & Martin Fabinyi, Random House 1999, p58-59]
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This post consists of MP3 (320kps) and FLACs ripped from my treasured double vinyl set, which I acquired some years ago at a garage sale (and let it be known that the early bird does catch the worm).  I couldn't believe my luck when I found this gem tucked away in amongst some throw away titles and happily paid the $2 price tag.  When I discovered its immaculate condition, I knew it was the find of the century.
So here it is folks, in all its glory. No pops or crackles to be heard and full album artwork for both LP and CD are included (thanks to Micko for the CD Artwork).  I have also chosen to include the full rendition of Mamma (by Billy Thorpe And The Aztecs) released on their own Live At Subury album, which is 2 minutes longer than this release.  In addition, the bonus Sunbury 72 recording " I Wanna Make Love To You" by SCRA is also included to help fill out this resulting 2 CD set.
I would also like to acknowledge the use of photos sourced from the National Australian Library and others taken by Soc Hedditch.

Update: I've just added a tribute track by Max Merritt entitled "Sunbury" which was released on his 2020 album 'I Can Dream', a song he wrote about the 1972 Sunbury Concert.  RIP Max - we miss you mate.
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Track Listing
01 - Morning Good Morning (The La De Das)
02 - Roundabout (The La De Das)
03 - Gonna See My Baby Tonight (The La De Das)
04 - Soul Sacrifice (Pirana)
05 - Some Good Advice (Spectrum)
06 - I'll Be Gone (Spectrum)
07 - We Are Indelible (The Indelible Murtceps)
08 - Be My Honey (The Indelible Murtceps)
09 - But That's Alright (The Indelible Murtceps)
10 - Try A Little Tenderness (Max Merritt And The Meteors)
11 - Fanny Mae (Max Merritt And The Meteors)
12 - You Touch Me (Max Merritt And The Meteors)
13 - Roly Poly (SCRA)
14 - Mamma (Billy Thorpe And The Aztecs)
Bonus Tracks
14 - Mamma (Billy Thorpe And The Aztecs - Full Version) *
15 - I Wanna Make Love To You (SCRA - Bonus Track) +
* Taken from The Aztecs Live At Sunbury
+ Sourced from YouTube
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Sunbury 72 Link (MP3) New Links 21/10/2015
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Sunbury 72 Part 1 (FLAC) New Link 12/11/2016
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Sunbury 72 Part 2 (FLAC)

Max Merritt - Sunbury (FLAC)  New Link 05/05/2021

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