Eric Clapton's Rainbow Concert (1973)

(U.K. Various Artists 1973)

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Rock stars doing disappearing acts wasn't entirely new by the early Seventies. Bob Dylan conveniently used a motorcycle accident as a ruse to fade away for three years in the late Sixties. The Beatles escaped the pressures of post-Sgt Pepper fame by retreating to a hideaway in the foothills of the Himalayas with their spiritual guru the Maharishi. But Eric Clapton's self-imposed exile from pop fame - which, at its height, had seen "Clapton is God" graffiti spray-painted all over London - had led him straight into a career- and life-threatening drug habit. "I had to go into the darkness," he explained later.

Friend and fellow guitarist The Who's Pete Townshend, who'd been deeply affected by the recent deaths of Brian Jones and Jimi Hendrix, had seen the warning signs. So, too, had Lord Harlech, aristocrat father of Clapton's girlfriend Alice Ormsby-Gore. Together the pair hatched a plan to get Clapton working again.

L-R: Ronnie Wood, Eric Clapton, Pete Townsend

After little more than a week of rehearsals at Ronnie Wood's Hampton Court home, Eric Clapton emerged with an all-star band featuring Jim Capaldi, Steve Winwood, Ric Grech and Rebop alongside Townshend and Wood. George Harrison and Ringo Starr, Paul and Linda McCartney, Elton John, Joe Cocker and Jimmy Page were just a few of the famous faces in the audience, together with a couple of thousand fans, all eager for a rare glimpse of the guitar guru.

Because of the precarious nature of Clapton's condition, the makeshift band was privately dubbed The Palpitations, due to a suspicion that the guitarist might bottle the performance. It was a close thing: Clapton arrived just one minute before he was due on stage.
Bearded and a little heavier than when he was last seen in public, he opened with 'Layla' and everyone's nerves quickly steadied. It was a historic show, but not, reckoned the guitarist, necessarily a classic one. "Well under par," Clapton admitted later A surfeit of guitarists took the edge off his playing, though less remarked upon at the time was the change in his voice, which had acquired a new soulful edge - but everyone was just simply delighted to have him back. [extract from 'I was There - Gigs That Changed The World' Mark Paytress, 2005. p160]. 

Ronnie Wood shares his recollections of the event....
Pete Townshend came to the Wick one night, because he was worried about Eric Clapton.
After Eric's group, Derek and the Dominos, busted up in 1971, he withdrew with his then girlfriend, Alice Ormsby-Gore (Lord Harlech's daughter who, sadly, died of an overdose), and the two of them stayed stoned on heroin for two years. I mean, they became hermits. The only time I can think of during those two years when Eric came out into the real world was in August 1971, when George Harrison invited him to Madison Square Garden in New York to take part in his Concert For Bangladesh. He showed up, played, and after that he and Alice just shut the door again and stayed smacked out.

All their friends wanted to do something and many of them tried, but Eric and Alice didn't want to know. Pete grew so worried that he decided we just couldn't have this any more, and was determined to do whatever he had to in order to get them straight. His answer was to put together a concert and then to convince Steve Winwood and me that it was time to drag Eric out of his reclusion in Surrey and up to London for rehearsals. Which is exactly what we did. We literally dragged Eric out of his house and moved him into mine. We made him spend ten days at the Wick with us, rehearsing. Along with Eric, Pete, Steve and me were Jimmy Capaldi from Traffic, who played drums and sadly died in January 2005, Jimmy Karstein also on drums, Reebop Kwaku Baah, who was on percussion, and Rick Grech on bass.
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The Rainbow Concert was held on 13 January 1973, at the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, formerly the Astoria, where, back in '57, I first saw Duke Ellington's orchestra with Sam Woodyard on drums and 'Cat' Anderson on trumpet and where I also played my first concert with the Jeff Beck Group. During rehearsals, it was obvious to me that Eric hadn't lost anything over those two years in seclusion. He'd always been my premier guitar inspiration, and when we took the stage at the Rainbow that night everyone else knew it too. The place was packed and went wild when we opened the show with one of rock's definitive love songs, 'Layla'.
 George Harrison was in the audience that night with his wife, Pattie Boyd. She was an absolute beauty who had had a bit part in the movie A Hard Day's Night, and had met George on the set. He fell for her, married her and wrote the song 'Something' for her. But Eric was in love with Pattie, too, and he'd written 'Layla' for her. From the audience's reaction, everybody must have known that.
. We did the Hendrix hit 'Little Wing' and lots of Eric's big songs like 'Let It Rain', 'Badge', 'After Midnight' and 'Bell Bottom Blues'. By the time we reached the end of the set with 'Key to the Highway' and 'Crossroads', no one had any doubts - Eric was back.
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That show was a turning point in his career because, as he later said, 'Pete Townshend gave me faith in myself.' It was also a turning point in mine. Eric and Pete had me doing the Duane Allman slides in numbers like 'Layla' and I had to learn all these complicated Clapton songs which I'd never played before. That they wanted me to be their Duane Allman was a big feather in my cap. The fact that they elected me to play the part of Duane suited me fine, as he was my bottleneck hero ever since I heard him play on Aretha's The Weight'. All the more so because it was the first time I'd played with the really big boys, boys I respected. I felt like Elmore James! [Extract from Ronnie Woods Autobiography 'Ronnie', McMillian Publishers, 2007. Chapter 8, Rainbow, p104-106]
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Eric Clapton And The Palpitations - Rainbow Concert

.This post consists of MP3's (320kps) ripped from vinyl and includes both artwork for LP and CD, plus label scans.  I have also chosen to include as a bonus track, "Layla" which was their opening track at the Rainbow Concert (and comes from the expanded CD release of this famous concert). I was always mystified why the original vinyl release didn't include this 'classic' track (and perhaps drop one of the lesser popular tracks like "Pearly Queen" or "Roll It Over"). Although I've listed it as track 7 it would probably be better positioned as track 1 when you listen to this concert, so you get the benefit of the opening dialogue.

My only criticism of this concert is the somewhat average quality of the recording that was produced by the record producers for both the Vinyl and CD releases, so don't shoot the messenger !
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Track Listing

01 - Badge
02 - Roll It Over
03 - Presence Of The Lord
04 - Pearly Queen
05 - After Midnight
06 - Little Wing
07 - Layla (Bonus Track)
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The Palpitations were:
Eric Clapton - Guitar, Vocals
Pete Townsend - Guitar, Vocals
Ronnie Woods - Guitar, Vocals
Rick Grech - Bass
Steve Winwood - Keyboards, Vocals
Jim Capaldi - Drums, Vocals
Jimmy Karstein - Drums'
Rebop' Kwaku Baah - Percussion
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Rainbow Concert Link (108Mb) New Link 21/04/2026

The Church - Persia (1984) 12" EP

(Australian 1980-Present)
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Hypnotic Australian guitar rock band The Church enjoyed a successful '80s career as a cult band specializing in atmospheric early alternative music. They formed in 1980, originating in Canberra & Sydney, Australia. The Church are pioneers of neo-psychedelic-new-wave-gothic-rock; dark alternative pop characterised by driving percussion and bass, jangly melodic guitars in the high-register with romantic melancholic lyrics usually sung in a low dreamy manner. The Church achieved early chart success in Australia with songs such as 'The Unguarded Moment' and 'Almost With You' that were also released internationally. The band also gained recognition for its' distinctive jangled harmony guitar style which was originally instigated by Peter and sometimes mistakenly attributed solely to 12 string electric guitar. Through five albums and a handful of EPs released during the decade, the group managed to carve a career during its initial years that would have been more than enough to cement a permanent place among rock royalty. Over the years, though, The Church has continued to record and perform with regularity and quality results.

Founding members are Steve Kilbey on lead vocals and bass guitar, and Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper on guitars. Drummer Nick Ward played only on their first album; through the 1980s the band's stable drummer for eight years (1982-1990) was Richard Ploog, who left the band after Gold Afternoon Fix. Jay Dee Daugherty (ex-Patti Smith Band) played drums for the band 1990-1994, after which Tim Powles became the longest-serving drummer; having played with the band, since 1996 he has now been a member for 18 years. Three of the members recorded material as The Reformation in 1997.

The Church's debut album, Of Skins and Heart (1981), delivered their first radio hit "The Unguarded Moment". They were signed to major labels in Australia, Europe and the United States. However, the US label was dissatisfied with their second album and dropped the band without releasing it. This put a dent in their international success, but they returned to the charts in 1988, with the album Starfish and the US Top 40 hit "Under the Milky Way". Subsequent commercial success proved elusive, however, and the band weathered several line-up changes in the early 1990s.
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Review1
'Persia' is an EP by The Church, released in August 1984. The follow-up to February 1984's Remote Luxury, Persia continues in a similar stylistic vein. Brighter in feel than its earlier companion EP, it is usually regarded as the stronger of the two. While Remote Luxury heavily bore Steve Kilbey's stamp, Persia features one track penned by guitarist Willson-Piper, "Volumes," as well as a band composition, "Shadow Cabinet," long a favorite among fans.

While Persia isn't as consistently excellent as its precursor, it does continue the sonic diversity found on Remote Luxury; in particular, "Constant in Opal" and "Violet Town" are among the more sonically adventurous "pop" songs The Church committed to tape in their early years, as it meshes the jangly Post-Punk of their initial recordings with the dark psychedelia they would mine throughout the mid-to-late eighties. While not as consistently memorable as full-length albums such as The Blurred Crusade, Seance, and Heyday, this EP offers a glimpse of The Church in a transitional phase, pushing their sound into new regions with admittedly mixed results, but on the songs they get it right, to quote Kilbey once again, "The Church stop messing about and hit home."
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Review2
Most of the songs on the EP Persia were written by Kilbey, but the atmospheric sound was lighter and less bleak than on their previous LP Seance. Persia contained the distinctive guitar sound of the band complete with keyboards of guest musicians such as Davey Ray Moor and Craig Hooper. Songs like "Violet Town" and "No explanation" had evoked a relaxed summer atmosphere. Made as a kind of parody of American country, improvised and unexpected arrangements of music synthesizer dominated, still largely considered a failure by fans and band.
Because of the interest aroused in the United States, The Church left the manager Michael Chugg in Sydney and signed with the owner of Malibu's Management, John Lee, who promoted it with a tour of the country during October and November 1984, which raised more a thousand people in cities like New York and Los Angeles, but hardly had other half-hundred.  In financial terms, the band lost thousands of dollars a week.

In conclusion, the band felt as if they had reached the ceiling in 1984. Unable to repeat the success of their first two albums, they perceived that their creativity was extinguished. Kilbey later commented: "I think we published some records that were not as good as they should have been, after The Blurred Crusade ... The band was sailing in a sea of apathy, I did not write songs as good and did not play too well, causing the enthusiasm around the world to fall. " [extract from The Fringe Magazine]
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This post consists of an MP3 rip (320kps) taken from a 'virgin' vinyl copy (still shrink wrapped after 30 years) and includes full album artwork and label scans.  I did own their other EP 'Remote Luxury' some years ago but sold it at a trade fair for a nice pricely sum, but still regret parting with it.  Hope ya enjoy this 12" E.P.
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Track Listing

01 - Constant In Opal
02 - Volumes
03 - No Explanation
04 - Violet Town
05 - Shadow Cabinet
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The Church were:
Steve Kilbey (Vocals, Bass)
Peter Koppes (Guitar)
Marty Wilson-Piper (Guitar)
Richard Ploog (Drums)
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The Church Link (51Mb) New Link 21/04/2026

Saltbush - Selftitled (1978) + Bonus Tracks

(Australian 1975-1979)
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Melbourne country group 'The Promised Band' recorded a single "Got To Get Back To Tamworth".
This band then morphed into Saltbush with Bernie O'Brien, Paul Pyle and Ross Nicholson in 1975, touring Australia and supporting Ray Stevens who was also touring at that time. Saltbush eventually gained recognition in 1977 by winning the Best New Talent Award at the Tamworth Country Music Awards, and also played at the Tulsa Festival in Oklahoma, US in the same year. They also received an award in 1979 for their single "Stranger / Fiddler Man" taken from their Selftitled album.
Their music style was a mixture of Country, Folk and Bluegrass. They were also great ballad singers and successfully toured for a year with the Slim Dusty Show in 1977.

 Saltbush released two quite successful albums: At Twin Rivers (1976) and Saltbush (1978), before disbanding as a group in 1979 and seeking solo careers.
Some of the members were Bernie O'Brien (one time member of The Rondells), Paul Pyle and Ross Nicholson and Mark Moffatt who both played on and produced their albums. There are a couple of Saltbush tracks on the 'Live at the Station' album released in 1976, an album which I plan to post in the near future, so stay tuned.
Record producer Mark Moffatt has been sharpening his studio skills for over 30 years. He grew up playing music in Bundaberg and then Brisbane in a string of bands including Iron Web, Spike and Stop Press. He later travelled to the UK where he worked on Denmark Street meeting some of the most famous musicians and producers of the day including Jimmy Page, Terry Britten and Eric Stewart of 10CC.

Returning to Australia in the mid 70s he began working at the Bruce Window Studios in Brisbane where they had a state of the art 16-track studio in the West End. The first band Mark Moffatt produced after the famous Saints single were Melbourne country outfit Saltbush. He later joined the band playing mandolin and lap steel on this LP and touring the U.S.
In a pocast with Mark (thanks to Jordie and David Kilby) he states that the band had a relatively strong following around Melbourne with over 200 people regularly attending their gigs - mostly to hear them argue on stage. They were a pretty rough and ready band but were also very good musicians and Slim Dusty was a big fan. They definately liked their drink! [extract from soundcloud.com]
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Slim Dusty recalls in his book 'Another Day, Another Town'.......
I spent 1977 touring, because I had two albums still in the can by the end of 1976, "Give Me the Road", a truck album, was released in October 1976, but "Just Slim" and "On the Move" were to fill my recording commitment for 1977. So I appeared in all the mainland capitals, toured Queensland, Victoria! New South Wales and went down to Tasmania to complete the year.
At the Tamworth Awards in January, a Melbourne band called 'Saltbush' won Best New Talent, and I was very impressed with their raw, driving sound. I liked the songs their guitarist, Bernie Q'Brien, wrote for them as welL They stirred up the establishment at Tamworth a bit, and when they turned up again at the 1978 Awards there was so much clucking over their doings that I was not game to say that I'd booked them to do the Queensland tour with me. They got themselves 'high' on goodness knows what, locked themselves into the dressing rooms backstage at the town hall during the Awards presentation and refused to come out, until Phil Emmanuel screamed matching obscenities through the door and threatened to call the cops.

When it finally became known that I was taking them on tour, the industry was confounded. I knew quite well they might be a handful, but I always laid it on the line when employing anyone. I had two rules. I don't put anyone under a contract—an unhappy member of the team will never give his or her best and will upset everyone else—so if they want to go, then go, 'just give me time to get a .replacement'. The second rule was that everyone has to be sober for a performance, and there's no drinking backstage either, I like my beer as well as anyone, but if you let one start drinking around the show, you will always get the other who'll take it too far and wreck things. Needless to say, the boys had to be on their best behaviour this time! [extract from p219]
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This post consists of  MP3's (320kps) ripped from my vinyl copy (which was acquired in mint condition only recently) along with full album artwork. Although I'm not a big fan of Country / Bluegrass music, Saltbush style is more like the Dingoes or Redgum which tends to be more commercial and mainstream.
I have also included some bonus tracks, two tracks from their first album 'At Twin Rivers', the A & B side of a single released just before they broke up in 1979, and the two live tracks from the 'Live At The Station' LP which I plan to post in the near future.
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Track Listing

01 Bring It With You   3:15
02 Guess I Could Never   4:10
03 Bad Dose of the Blues   2:24
04 Backsliders Wine   3:40
05 Fiddler Man   2:16
06 Brother Billy   1:15
07 Rainy Day Woman   2:45
08 D Tune   0:40
09 Rosanna   2:05
10 Take Your Time   2:37
11 Ned Kelly   3:45
12 Honest Sam   3:36
13 Stranger   3:04
Bonus Tracks
14 Brown Bottle Blues (From At Twin Rivers)  2:59
15 Razorback Mountain Blockade (A-Side Single)  2:42
16 Born For The Night Life (B-Side Single)  2:57

17 Stay All Night (Live At The Station)  2:24
18 Up Against The Wall Redneck Mother (Live At The Station)  3:30
19 Man of Steel (From At Twin Rivers)  2:52

The Band Members:
Bernie O'Brien - Lead Guitar/Dobro, Fiddle and vocals
Ross Nicholson - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals
Paul Pyle - Bass, Vocals
Harry Frith - drums, Vocals
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Saltbush Link (119Mb) 

New Link 15/11/2024

W.O.C.K On Vinyl - The Royal Guardsmen: Snoopy's Christmas (1967)

Before things get too serious here at Rock On Vinyl, I thought it might be fun to post a song / album at the end of each month, that could be categorized as being either Weird, Obscure, Crazy or just plain Korny.
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A follow up to their earlier "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron", "Snoopy's Christmas" is about the loveable Peanut's character 'Snoopy'  going out to fight the Red Baron on Christmas Eve. The Baron has Snoopy at his mercy after a long dogfight but, instead of shooting him down he forces Snoopy to land and offers Snoopy a holiday toast. Afterward, Snoopy and the Red Baron fly their separate ways, "each knowing they'd meet on some other day".
Although fictitious, the song recalls a historical event. During World War I, in 1914, "The Christmas Truce" was initiated not by German and British commanders, but by the soldiers themselves. The length of the cease-fire varied by location, and was reported to have been as brief as Christmas Day or as long as the week between Christmas and New Year's Day. Trench-bound combatants exchanged small gifts across the lines, with Germans giving beer to the British, who sent tobacco and tinned meat back in return. No Man's Land was cleared of dead bodies, trenches were repaired and drained, and troops from both sides shared pictures of their families and, in some places, used No Man's Land for friendly games of football.

The song even has the initiator correct as it was generally the German soldiers who called over to the British and initiated the truce and, in the song, it is the Red Baron—a German WWI hero—who extends the hand of Christmas friendship to Snoopy.
"Snoopy's Christmas" reached the #1 position in the Australian pop charts in 1967, and continues to be played as a holiday favorite on most 'oldie' radio stations [extract from wikipedia]
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I can clearly remember playing this single on the families large HSV record player at the tender age of 8 and listening in awe to the sounds of the dogfight between the Bloody Red Baron and our hero Snoopy in their biplanes. What wonderful memories came flooding back when I played this single for the first time in god knows how many years the other day. So I thought it was time that this Korny childhood tune resurfaced for this month's WOCK on Vinyl posting and I hope that it puts a smile on your face, and perhaps for some of you, bring back your own fond memories of growing up back in the 60's.

Because my single has seen better days (being played to death on a very worn stylus), I am providing a CD rip of "Snoopy's Christmas" taken from the The Royal Guardsmen's Anthology.
I have however ripped the B-Side of the single "It Kinda Looks Like Christmas" as this track does not appear to have been released on any of their albums. Perhaps this makes the post Obscure as well.
Both tracks have been ripped in MP3 format at 320kps and I've included label scans of the single.
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Snoopy's Christmas  (13Mb)  New Link 07/08/2024
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Bob Hudson - The Newcastle Song (1974) + Bonus Tracks

(Australian 1975-1980)
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Bob Hudson's twelve month stint as a teacher in the Riverina during 1968 was a far cry from the national recording success he was experiencing seven years later. It was after this brief teaching period that his interest in music became more serious.
At first it was difficult as Bob's folk singing contained too much humour for the purists, but he did manage to get some campus and club work.
Then, when Paul Hogan began to emerge as a successful comedian, Bob was hired as one of his writers. Ironically, although Bob was paid out under his contract, his services were never actually utilised. From there Bob appeared in the stage production of The Rocky Horror Show. Around the same time he made a demo tape of some of his material. He took the tape to a prominent record company, but they turned him down.
In fact, it wasn't until he began the Sit Yourself Down series for the ABC that musical director, Chris Neale, took a fancy to his songs and arranged for him to record the Newcastle Song Recorded Live album for the M7 label. The title track was edited down from its original ten minute duration and released as a single. The result was a national number one hit in March 1975.
Bob's songwriting ability also produced a sequel to the 'Newcastle Song' called 'Rak Off Normie' (recorded by Maureen Elkner) and Margret Roadknight's hit, 'Girls In Our Town'.
Meanwhile, as a follow-up to `The Newcastle Song’, Hudson issued the album "After Me Cat Left Home" and the single `Waltzing Matilda Rock’/`Heartsmasher’. Hudson issued his third album, Party Pieces, in 1980.
Despite his recording success, Bob maintained his job as producer at the ABC's radio station 2JJ in Sydney, and eventually became a disc jockey in 1978. He also did a stint as a music reporter for the Sydney National Times.

Norm and his F.J Holden

The Newcastle Song
The Newcastle Song was a 1975 hit for musician and comedian Bob Hudson. It poked fun at the working-class youth culture of the City of Newcastle in NSW. The song was recorded in front of a live audience in 1974. The basic story-line concerns a young man called Normie who goes out with his mates looking to pick up women in Newcastle's main street, Hunter Street, in their "hot - F.J. Holden".
They encounter a young lady and her Hells Angel date outside the "Parthenon Milk Bar". Apparently, the Parthenon Milk Bar survived in Hunter Street into the 1990s as a local business.

Bob Hudson captured Newcastle's car culture best in the chorus of his 1975 The Newcastle Song:

Anyway there was this mob of blokes driving down Hunter Street,
in the front seat of the hot FJ,
with chrome plated grease nipples,
and twin overhead foxtails,
and the coolest of them all,
who got to sit near the window,
was young Norm.



I can clearly remember hearing this song for the first time while driving my dad's H.R Holden Ute at the tender age 17 (L plates of course) down the back streets of Geelong and cranking up the volume on my newly purchased 'Clarion' Tape/Radio, much to the horror of the ol' man. Needless to say I was picturing myself as Norm, with arm hanging out the window and checking out the local chics on the sidewalk. Ah, those were the days !
Of course, I raced out down to my 'local record shop' the following day and got myself a copy of the single, and started playing it at home. My mother absolutely loved it and I can still remember her giggling at the part where Norm's gets picked on by the Big Burly Bikie.
So, here is the album from which this song originated, although the single release was a substantially shortened version of the album version, which is almost 10mins long.
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This post consists of MP3's (320kps) ripped from a CD release of the album (no longer available) and includes artwork for both Vinyl and CD releases.  Note that the order of the tracks on the CD release is different to that of the original LP, but the music is the same and still features the original 10min version of "The Newcastle Song", which was incidentally recorded in front of a live audience.  As a bonus, I have also included a rip of my trusty single which features the 'edited version' along with the non-album B-Side track "Ventriloquist Love". 
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Tracklist (LP)

01 - J.L. Budgie  5:44
02 - Livin' It Up On The Dole   3:03
03 - R Certificate Song  2:21
04 - Clarissa    1:33
05 - Motor Car Song   4:41
06 - Christened My Dog     3:26
07 - Librarian Lady   2:30
08 - Teenage Cremation  2:53
09 - Who's Your Friend? 2:54
10 - I Never Was Born Like Mel     0:48
11 - The Girls In Our Town  3:16
12 - The Newcastle Song (extended version) 9:54

13 - No More Songs  5:05
14 - The Newcastle Song (Bonus A-Side Single Edit)  2:58
15 - Ventriloquist Love (Bonus B-Side Single)  4:33
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Credits
Double Bass, Bass Guitar – Dave Ellis
Drums, Percussion – Doug Gallagher
Piano, Electric Piano,
Synthesizer, Mellotron, Mandolin,
Electric Guitar – Chris Neal
Tenor Saxophone, Baritone Saxophone, Flute, Tin Whistle – Geoff Oakes
Vocals, Guitar [12-string], Acoustic Guitar, Ukulele, Tambourine – Bob Hudson
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Bob Hudson Link (133Mb)
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Bryan Adams - Unauthorised Live Vol.1 (1993) Ex Bootleg

(Canadian 1976–present)
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Bryan Adams is one of Canada’s most famous singers. He has also been very successful as a songwriter for other singers. His music is a mixture between rock and pop. His songs have been at the top of the charts for more than twenty years.

Bryan Adams was born in 1959 in Kingston, Ontario. His parents came to Canada in the 1950’s from England. Bryan’s father worked as a Canadian Diplomat and the family lived in many countries including Israel, Portugal, Austria, England and Canada. Bryan considers Vancouver, British Columbia as his hometown.

Adams was preoccupied with his music throughout his teenage years, and was not distracted easily. “In high school, I was too far into my music to even pay attention to girls.” Adams told Steve Pond in Rolling Stone. “I’d run after the occasional girl, but music and rock n’ roll bands were far more interesting to me.”

Bryan quit school at the age of 16 to play in a band called Shock. He worked for a year as a dishwasher in a local restaurant. He did not enjoy it, but he saved up $1,000 to buy an electric guitar that he still has.

He moved on from band to band throughout his teens. In the summer of 1976, he went to see a pop band called Sweeney Todd in Surrey, British Columbia, just outside of Vancouver. At the end of the show, he found the band’s manager and proclaimed himself four times better than the group’s singer. The band decided to let him audition, and hired him to take over the front man’s spot. The following year, he left Sweeney Todd to pursue songwriting. “I’ve been in awe of singer-songwriters from the days of first hearing Paul Simon,” Adams told Larry LeBlanc in Canadian Composer. “I knew then that if I was serious about a career in music, I had to be a writer.”

In 1980, Bryan recorded his first solo song but he was not very happy about it. The record company sped up his voice and changed the background to a disco beat. It sold 250,000 copies and it was played in discos all over the world. He also had his first solo album in 1980 called Bryan Adams, but it did not sell very well. He had to sing in radio commercials to pay his bills. Bryan started playing in small clubs and arenas to promote his second album You Want it, You Got It. The media finally began to notice him.

In 1981, Bryan recorded his third album called "Cuts Like A Knife", which did very well. He began to tour the world with the very popular band Journey. Bryan’s album Reckless in 1984 had six ‘top 20’ singles. "Run To You" was the first single from this album and it peaked at #6 on the Billboard charts. Another song "Heaven" became the most popular song in the United States and was also in a movie. Bryan Adams was now considered a superstar.

The song "Summer of ’69" is one of Bryan’s biggest hits and is about his memories of summer when he was younger. The opening lyrics to the song refer to when Bryan was 10 years old and bought his first guitar.

               I got my first real six-string
               Bought it at the five-and-dime
               Played it till my fingers bled
               It was the summer of ‘69

He and some boys from school formed a band and played in his parent’s basement. Bryan learned how to play a guitar and piano without ever taking lessons.

In 1987, his album Into the Fire sold one million copies and only had one top 10 song. Bryan spent over a year and a half doing concerts around the world. All of his concerts sold out.

Throughout his career, Bryan has spent a lot of his time helping charitable causes. In 1985, Bryan performed in the Live Aid concert where he sang a duet with Tina Turner called “It’s only love”. Bryan began touring with other famous singers to raise awareness and money for Amnesty International. He also sang with other famous Canadians in the song Tears are Not Enough to raise money to help people starving in Africa. He performed in a concert during apartheid in South Africa to support the release of political prisoner Nelson Mandela. He has also performed for many other causes such as Cancer and endangered animals.

In 1988, Bryan appeared as an actor in a move with Clint Eastwood called “Pink Cadillac”. Bryan has written many songs that have been in movies. Bryan’s hit song "Everything I Do, I Do It For You" from the movie Robin Hood:  Prince of Thieves starring Kevin Costner was released in 1991.  The song went to number 1 in its first week in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada. The album called Waking up the Neighbours (Sept. 1991) was so popular that it was the number one album for 16 weeks in the United Kingdom. The album sold 5.5 million copies worldwide and was the number one album in ten different countries.

Bryan spent 1992 to 1994 touring the world doing concerts. He released a greatest hits package in 1993, which sold over 13 million copies. Bryan wrote and sang All for Love with fellow musicians Sting and Rod Stewart for the movie Three Musketeers. In 1995, his song Have you ever really loved a woman from the movie Don Juan de Marco was the number one song in the United States for four weeks. In 2002, Bryan Adams wrote all of the songs for the very successful animated movie Spirit.  Bryan’s songs are played throughout the movie.

In the fall of 2005 Bryan Adams celebrated his 25th anniversary as a recording artist with his first two-CD collection Anthology, the biggest retrospective of his multi-platinum career. The 36 selection Anthology spans Adams’ entire career from 1980 through to present day, offering the very best of one of the most popular rock singer-songwriters to ever don jeans and a t-shirt.

To this day, Bryan continues to sell out concerts and make new music. Bryan Adams has become one of the most popular singers and songwriters in the world.
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This post consists of MP3's (320kps) ripped from my JOKER CD and includes full album artwork along with select photos as shown above. The sound quality of this Bootleg is nothing short of an A+ rating, and at one stage I thought JOKER may have sourced this from a studio release until it was apparent by the audience participation at the start of "Heaven" that it was in fact a great Soundboard recording.
The cover indicates that the concert was recorded in Los Angeles, California sometime in 1993, but because there is scant little information about Bryan Adams tour schedule during the 90's, I really can't confirm this.
Either way, this Bootleg is not to be missed and contains just about every big hit he has produced during the 80's and 90's.
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Track Listing
01 - It's Only Love
02 - Cuts Like A Knife
03 - (Everything I Do) I Do It For You
04 - Straight From The Heart
05 - Heaven
06 - Heat Of The Night
07 - Run To You
08 - Somebody
09 - Into The Fire
10 - Summer Of '69
11 - Remember
12 - One Good Reason
13 - Lonely Nights 
14 - Tonight

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Bryan Adams Link (147Mb) New link 17/12/2023

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Paul O'Gorman - Poet & The Painter (1978)

(Australian 1975-86)
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Paul O’Gorman was an unknown quantity when he entered the 1976 Australian Popular Song Festival. He had only seriously begun writing songs a few years earlier while studying Law at University and had notched up a few talent quest victories along with a handful of appearances on TV in Victoria.

Former Cherokees guitarist Doug Trevor, who had recently returned from overseas where he’d been musical director for Davey Jones of the Monkees, believed in Paul’s abilities as a performer and the two began writing songs together. When they entered the Festival in '76 they thought they were in with a chance, though they faced stiff competition from some big names, including Steve Groves and Beeb Birtles.
So what hat happened to Paul after making the final that year was a short but great journey into the world of pop stardom. He enjoyed a couple of hit singles, played to international audiences and cut a lone LP, The Poet And The Painter, before leaving it all behind to work behind the scenes in publishing, management and entertainment law [extract from ABC Radio National Rare Collections]
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Paul was the son of respected Melbourne radio veteran Kevin O'Gorman (currently of 3KZ). His interest in singing started at an early age and by 1976 he was appearing regularly around Melbourne bars.
He then performed on the New Faces television series and won the heat. Around this time, one of Paul's home-made demo tapes got into the hands of songwriter Doug Trevor and the two began a working relationship. Paul began appearing on television and presented Doug's composition of 'You're More To Me' at the 1976 Australian Pop Song Festival. They succeeded in winning second place.
In 1977 they re-entered the Festival and this time they won with a song entitled 'Ride, Ride America'. From there they took the number to the International Song Festival in Tokyo and took off two of the major prizes — Best Song and Best Song Performance.
Back home the song was released on the Infinity label and made the charts in December '77.
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Despite the fact that Paul's obvious ability as a singer/song-writer has always been acknowledged, he still found it difficult to exist financially on his musical activities in 1978. Although he was voted Most Popular New Talent in the TV Week King of Pop Awards in October '78, he was forced to take on some part-time work with a law firm.
It was still an important year for Paul. He made regular television appearances including a spot on the Paul Hogan Show and, late in May, he toured as support for Cliff Richard and used a backing band for the first time.

Paul's debut album, The Poet and the Painter, was released on Infinity in May. (The LP was co-composed and produced by his musical director, Doug Trevor.) A single, '(You And Me And) Love In The Morning' was lifted from it and provided Paul with his second hit. A follow-up, 'You're More To Me' (which was the runner-up at the 1976 Australian Popular Song Festival) was released in September.

At the end of 1978, Paul began preparing for a new album, which was expected to be released midway through 1979 - but alas, never eventuated. However, he did manage to release a single "Getaway" in 1979, followed by three more singles, "Play the Music" in 1980, "Hate To say Goodbye" in 1981 and after a dry spell, "In The name Of Peace" in 1986. [extract from Noel McGrath's Australian Encyclopedia of Rock: 1978, 1978-79 Yearbook, Outback Press]
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This post consists of a Vinyl Rip in FLAC format and comes with full album artwork and label scans. I was very lucky to stumble across this album at a flee market, sitting in amongst a pile of 'rubbish' which could have been easily overlooked. Bonus !  The album was in super condition with just a few ring marks on the front cover.  Paul O'Gorman sounds a lot like Peter Allen and John Denver, and his song writing skills are certainly up there with the likes of Doug Ashdown and G.Wayne Thomas. Also interesting to see that Mario Millo (Sebastian Hardie) assisted Paul on this album along with the great John Lyle
Hope you enjoy this one and only debut album by a highly talented Aussie musician who simply slipped away without a trace, which is a real pity.
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Track Listing

01 - You're More To Me
02 - Love Again
03 - Poet And The Painter
04 - Lisa
05 - Are You Travellin' With Me
06 - Leaving Love Behind
07 - (You And Me And) Love In The Morning
08 - Doesn't It Show
09 - Ramblin Old House
10 - Jacqueline
11 - Ride, Ride America
12 - May It All End With You
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Artists:
Vocals - Paul O'Gorman
Acoustic Guitar - Paul O'Gorman, Jonathan Coben

Electric Guitar - Jonathan Coben, Mario Millo
Bass - Chris Stafford, Roger Corbett
Drums & Percussion - Dave Hicks
Keyboards - Raddy Ferreira, Ian Hunt
Trumpet/Flugel Horns - Boof Thomsen, Ray Bensted
Trombones - Bob McIvor, Derek Long, Ron Spillett, Peter Haslam
Cellos - Hans Gyors, Donna Noble
Mandolin - Mario Millo
Flute - Errol Buddle
Harmonica - Greg Foster
String Leader - John Lyle
Backing Vocals - Alison MacCallum, Janice Slater, Sally Rogan, Peter Brandon, Mick Leyton, Joe Andre
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Paul O'Gorman FLAC Link (291Mb)

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