Tommy Emmanuel - Up From Down Under (1987)

(Australian 1962 - Present)
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Two-time Grammy nominee Tommy Emmanuel is one of Australia’s most respected musicians. The legendary guitarist has a professional career that spans five decades and continues to intersect with some of the finest musicians throughout the world. A household name in his native Australia, Tommy has garnered hundreds of thousands of loyal fans worldwide.

He is undoubtedly Australia's finest ever all-around guitarist. It is also fair to say he is also one of that country's best drummers... and bass players! Tommy began playing guitar at age 5 and touring Australia from age 6 with the Emmanuel Family Band. He has since played throughout Australia with the likes of Stevie Wonder and Bob Marley, recorded with Air Supply, played in Nashville with Chet Atkins, and recorded and toured Australia & Europe with leading Australian group Dragon/Hunter. This gives testimony to Emmanuel's amazing ability and variety of guitar styles, which are further exhibited on his other Artful Balance Records, namely "Artfully Beatles" and on his own debut solo album.

An accomplished finger style player, Emmanuel frequently threads three different parts simultaneously into his material, operating as a one-man band who handles the melody, the supporting chords and the bass all at once.

Tommy’s unique style – he calls it simply “finger style” – is akin to playing guitar the way a pianist plays piano, using all ten fingers. Rather than using a whole band for melody, rhythm, bass, and drum parts, Tommy plays all that – and more – on one guitar. Guitar legend Chet Atkins was one of the first to inspire Emmanuel to try this “fingerpicker” style as a child. Decades later, Atkins himself became one of Emmanuel’s biggest fans.

There’s a science to assembling the parts, and Emmanuel’s technical gift has earned him multiple awards from Guitar Player magazine and made him a Member of the Order of Australia, an honor bestowed by the Queen in his homeland. But the average fan could listen without even considering the precision behind the work, focusing instead on the artful tension and release of Emmanuel’s melodies.
Playing instrumental music that works in any language and travelling nimbly with a small tour group of three – Emmanuel, a sound engineer and a merchandiser – he was able to build a global audience that encompasses not only Australia, but the U.S., the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia.

Tommy Emmanuel is an honorary Kentucky Colonel, a CGP (Certified Guitar Player – a title given by Chet Atkins to only 5 guitarists in the world), an Order of Australia Medalist (AM) and the holder of both an honorary Master’s Degree (MA) and more recently an honorary Doctor of Arts (DR) from Charles Sturt University in Australia in recognition of his commitment to rural Australia and his contribution to music education.

'Up From Down Under' was recorded in 1987 and was produced by Tommy Emmanuel and Rod Tamlyn. It contains many audience favorites including arrangements of the Beatles Lady Madonna, Michelle, and his concert show-stopper, "Inititiation" – dedicated to the Aboriginal peoples of Australia.

While listening to this album, I am reminded of some other brilliant guitarists like Jan Akkerman (Focus and Brainbox), Al Di Meola and John McLaughlin and place Tommy up with the best.  Best tracks on this album are the Up From Down Under, Raindance, Daybreak and Initiation but the remainder are certainly no fillers, each having its place on this rare release from Tommy.

This post consists of both FLACs ripped from my 'mint' copy, recently acquired at a garage sale where all stock was in pristine condition and the owner was more anal about his record collection than me ! As is the norm, I'm also including full album artwork and label scans along with an autographed CD cover (see below).
This album is not to be missed and is a truly pleasant surprise.
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Track Listing 
01. Up From Down Under
02. Raindance
03. Daybreak
04. Lady Madonna
05. Soul Search
06. Michelle
07. Initiation
08. Turning Point
09. Times Change
10. Night Sky


Tommy Emmanuel (Guitar, bass, electric guitars, hand percussion, drums);
Sam McNally (Keyboards);
Graham Jessey (Soprano saxophone)



Tommy Emmanuel FLACs (213Mb)
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John Farnham Band - Live At Billboard Nightclub (1981) Ex. Soundboard

(Australian 1967 - Present)
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When John Farnham visited his old Master's Apprentices mate 'Glenn Wheatley' in Las Vegas in Late 1980, while LRB was touring, he was decided  that this was the direction he had been seeking. The two old friends talked and John told Glenn he would like him to take over his management. Nothing was decided there, but when Glenn arrived back in Australia, he too had been thinking about the singer. They met again and Glenn told John 'I'd love to manage you, but it's up to you.' He was aware of John's loyalty and he thought John would stay with Danny Finley. 'It was a hard thing for him to tell Danny, "I'm going to try Wheatley". It was a gutsy move. But he came back and said to me, "I want to do it, I want to get contemporary again".

Glenn Wheatley recalls: Before  the  'Uncovered'  album,  the problem was just to keep John earning. 'He wasn't making much then and while we were getting material material together for the album, he was still doing all these silly little jobs and I remember booking him into some place at Surfers - "no probs, we'll supply the house band  - great little band, here are two airfares plus the fee". In fact, it was the absolute pits. It would be the worst show we could have possibly done. The sound was awful and the light man hopeless. I was trying to coordinate the lighting guy and the sound man and John was trying to conduct the orchestra.

The house was less than half full - he had to stop the band and count them in again, they were all over the place - one was playing "Sadie" and   another   was   playing "Raindrops". When he came off, I just looked at him and said, "John, I promise I'll never let you do that again. There has to be a better way". We got the tuxedo and threw it the rubbish bin in the kitchen with all the food slops and said, "That's it. We don't care how tough it gets from here on in, you can't do that again. It's criminal - you can't get up there and do that to yourself. We'll just have to tighten the belt and get stuck into the album".'

A Royal Command performance, televised before the nation in 1980, helped stop the rot. After singing 'Help' even the hard-nosed critics were sitting up and saying what many had forgotten, "This boy can sing". Quality, thought Glenn, was the way to go -quality through putting a proper band behind John. Glenn wanted to break the showbiz image that hung like an albatross round his singer's neck. The Farnham band was formed, but the first couple of outings were

'terrible', recalls Glenn. John still had a gaping credibility problem and many people in the audiences would not take the change of pace and style seriously. But the right key was being played by the third outing and John and the band started to break through; to this day holding the record at Melbourne's Billboard nightclub.'We had them standing in the aisles. He was getting more confident, too. The album went gold and he was on his way back.' [extract from Whispering Jack - The John Farnham Story, by Clark Forbes, Hutchinson Aust, 1989, p104-107]
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This post is a rare soundboard recording (MP3/320kps) taken from one of the many gigs that the John Farnham Band played at the Billboard Nightclub, in Melbourne. Although I frequented this nightclub back in the early 80's I was not lucky enough to be in the audience for any Farnham shows, probably because he still had the stigma attached of being a Cabaret Singer rather than a rock performer - and on reflection, how wrong was I. Recorded at the time when he was working on his 'Uncovered Album', this performance is testament to his ability to re-invent himself and eventually become the performer we all came to love and know as Whispering Jack.  Thanks to the original uploader, Micko (at Midoztouch) for the rip and Artwork.
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Track Listing
01 - Band Intro / Instrumental
02 - Hold The Line
03 - Matilda
04 - She's Everywhere
05 - Infatuation
06 - Ride LIke The Wind
07 - Perfect Imperfection
08 - Cold Wind
09 - Dressed To Kill
10 - Never Did Get Through
11 - Blame It On The Weather
12 - Too Much Too Soon
13 - Help!
14 - Sweet Love
15 - Hollywood Nights
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The John Farnham Band:
John Farnham (Vocals)
Tommy Emmanuel (Guitar)
Sam McNally (Keyboards)
Barry Sullivan (Bass)
David Jones (Drums)
Nikki Nicholls, Mary Bradfield (Backing Vocals)
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John Farnham Band Link (140Mb)
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Goldrush - Live At Last (1983)

(Australian 1980 - 1985)
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Back in 1980 when Tommy Emmanuel was taking a break from the guitar, he and his brother Phil put together a band called Goldrush with Tommy on drums and vocals, and Phil on Electric Lead and vocals. There is only one recording of the band recorded live direct to to disk with no overdubbing. This is it. Other band members include David Mare or vocals, acoustic and electric guitar, Chris Haigh on bass guitar and vocals, Mark Collins on banjo, mandolin, electric guitar and vocals. This Sydney based country/bluegrass/rock band played predominantly Neil Young stuff at the time along with some America and Lynard Skynard material. 
In 1983 “Goldrush-Live at Last” was released on an unsuspecting public. It was different from everything else that was out there at the time. It was predominantly Country rock/Bluegrass in it’s feel, but the band featured some of Australia’s most outstanding musical talent. Phil Emmanuel: Electric guitars Tommy Emmanuel: Drums Mark Collins: Banjo, Mandolin and guitars Dave Mare: Lead vocals/Acoustic and Electric guitars Chris Haigh: Bass guitar.

Phil Emmanuel

An original track penned by Dave Mare and Dennis James titled, “Keep in touch”, received some limited airplay being released as the band's only single (backed by T.F.F) and now fetches big money on eBay (last one I saw went for $47). But it was live where Goldrush really made it’s mark, with the audience being totally spellbound by the guitar wizardry of Phil Emmanuel, the finger gymnastics of Mark collins, and the novelty of Tommy Emmanuel, now a world class guitarist, playing drums.” [extract from Australian Music History]
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Tommy Emmanuel gained further prominence in the late 1970s as the lead guitarist in The Southern Star Band, the backing group for vocalist Doug Parkinson. During the early 1980s, he joined the reformed lineup of leading 1970s rock group Dragon, touring widely with them, including a 1987 tour with Tina Turner. He left the group to embark on a solo career. Throughout his career he has played with many notable artists including Chet Atkins, Eric Clapton, Sir George Martin, Air Supply, John Denver, Les Paul, Edgar Cruz and Doc Watson.

Tommy Emmanuel

In 1994, Australian music veteran John Farnham invited him to play guitar next to Stuart Fraser from Noiseworks for the Concert For Rwanda. Emmanuel became a member of Farnham's band.
Emmanuel and his brother Phil performed live in Sydney at the closing ceremony of the Summer Olympics in 2000. The event was televised worldwide with an estimated 2.85 billion viewers. When performing together the pair will sometimes share and play just one guitar with each having one hand free.
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This post is for a mate of mine, Steve, who requested the album recently at a 60th Birthday party. It is a Vinyl Rip in glorious FLAC format - my copy is almost virgin and exhibits very little surface noise. You'd almost swear the thing was ripped from CD. As usual, full album artwork is included along with label scans.
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Tracklist
01. White Russia
02. Sweet Elise
03. Cactus
04. TFF
05. Desert Wind
06. Keep In Touch
07. Duelling Banjos
08. Sweet Home Alabama
09. Dixie Breakdown
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Band Members:
Doug Bligh – Drums
Mark Collins – Banjo, Mandolin, Guitar and Vocals
Guy Dickerson – Guitar and Vocals
Tommy Emmanuel – Drums and Guitar
Phil Emmanuel – Guitar
Chris Haigh – Bass and Vocals
David Mare – Vocals, Guitar, Harmonica
Tony Slavich – Keyboards
John Spence – Drums
Bruce Worrell – Bass
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Goldrush FLAC Link (291Mb) New Link 22/12/2023
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