Marty Rhone – Vocals (1965-66)
Roger Andrew – Drums
Jerry Darmick – Bass Guitar
John Green – Guitar
Barry Kelly – Organ
Record Releases:-
Nature Boy / Every Minute Of You (Spin EK 1221) 01-66
Thirteen Women / I Can Tell (Spin EK-1294) 03-66 (w. Soul Agents)
I Want You Back / What More Can I Do (Spin EK-1383) 06-66 (w. Soul Agents)
She Is Mine / Village Tapestry (Spin EK-1571) 12-66
No, No, No, No, No / Tell Me Love (Spin EK-1790) 05-67
Green Mansions / Lonely Too Long (Spin EK 2053) ??-67
She’s Coming Home / Hurry Poor Working Man (Spin EK-2278) 04-68
Ruby With The Red Hair / Appeal (Spin EK-3158) 07-69
So You Want To Be A Pop Singer / As The Sun Goes Down (Spin EK 3637) ??-70
John Green – Rhythm Guitar (1964-1966)
Marty Van Wynk – Lead Guitar (1966)
Barry Kelly – Organ
Gerry Dean – Bass Guitar
Roger Felice – Drums
Record Release:-
I Just Want To Make Love To You / I’m Still Mad At You (Downunder UK-1512) 10-66
The Soul Agents were the backing band to Marty Rhone from late ’65 to ’66. When they (the combo) split from Rhone in 1966 they recorded this original composition on the shortlived labelled Downunder moniker at Ossie Byrne’s studio in Hurtsville.
Barry Connors – vocals
Barry Brady – guitar
Gary Moberley – keyboards
Ken Kramer – bass
Quentin Chadwick – drums
Record Releases:-
Since You Broke My Heart/Since I Don’t Have You (Parlophone A-8201) ??-66
You Shoulda Held On/Get Back (Parlophone A-8241) ??-66
This obscure band hailed from Bankstown in Sydney and whom would’ve remained virtually unknown if wasn’t for the future exploits of their young and naive manager Paul Keating. This man not long after the break up of the band became one of the youngest federal parliamentarians at the age of 25 in 1969. He (Keating) would become a long serving federal Treasurer in the Bob Hawke government of the ’80s & 90s. Who finally disposed Hawke from the top spot and led the country between 1991 and 1996.
John Bell – Vocals
Bob Brookes – Bass Guitar
Don Fowler – Vocals
Joe Camilleri – Guitar
Maurie Camilleri – Guitar
Steve Naudi – Keyboard
Alan Roberts – Drums
Laurie Crooks – Vocals
Noel Neates
Terry Richards
Geoff Smith
John Szarlay
Bill Verbaan
Record Releases:-
Every Night/I’m Feelin’ Sad (Reg Grundy RGK-1119) 10-65
Hit The Road, Jack/Time Machine (Parlophone A8195) 04-66
From The Start/It’s Time You Realised (Parlophone A8209) 08-66
This article appeared on page 27 of the The Livin’ End #6, July 1986. Article was written & published by Dean Mittelhauser.
Band Members:-
Nick Barlow – Guitar (1965)
Harry Brus – Bass Guitar
Chris Carroll – Guitar
Dally Carroll – Drums
Johnny Caves – Vocals (1966)
Les Tuite – Vocals (1965)
Record Release:-
Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby/You’d Better Mind (Leedon LK-1203) 01-66
Allegedly the Amazons idolised BillyThorpe & The Aztecs. So I s’pose it ain’t surprising that name is similiar, “You’s Better Mind” is written by Tony Barber, or that their vocalists sounds remarkably like a cross between Thorpie & Barber.
Ain't That Lovin' You Baby
Of course , “Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby” is on “So You Want To Be A Rock’n'Roll Star Vol:1″, and it’s pretty good, albeit typical cover. Being the Tony Barber fan that I am, “You’d Better Mind” is of particular interest to me. Personally, I think it’s more reminiscent of an early Easybeats rather than Billy Thorpe, but that’s probably just splitting hairs. Though it’s no great shakes the Amazons sheer exuberance seems to pull it outta the mire and Barber’s usual dumb lyrics are typically stoopid, but cute, as ever.
their lead singer, Johnny Caves, later emerged in the mid 70′s as William Shakespeare.
Something’s Got A Hold On Me/Raining In My Heart (Linda Lee HK-834) 12-64
A Dean Mittelhauser written article appearing on page 19 of The Livin’ End Magazine #1.
At the moment Jackie Weaver has probably got one of the the best known female faces on Australian tv. Even as far back as the early sixties she was appearing on stage, in plays & childrens pantomimes while still at school.
Surprisingly for one who is known primarily for acting ability, Jacki pulls it off well with this 45. It ain’t half bad! She hasn’t got a great voice, but it isn’t as bad as I thought it would be, and the strong production helps, more than a little. When this was released in 1964, she was only 16. Despite this she manages to convey a pert yet sexy, sultry delivery. The choice of B side lets her down a bit. The slower style of ‘Raining In My Heart‘ shows up her lack of vocal strength and it does begin to grate on the ears before it’s finished.
Jackie appeared on the ABC’s Be Our Guest in 1966-67.
Andrew Blundell – Organ (?1966-67?)
Phil ‘Shiva’ Jones – Vocals (?1966-1968?)
Ian Sullivan – Vocals (?1966-1968?)
Dave Rowland – Drums (?1966-1968?)
Chris Brown – Lead guitar (?1966-1968?)
Vaughan Bros – Organ (?1967-1968?)
Billy Hodgkisson – Bass (?1966-1968?)
Record Releases:-
Three Hundred Pounds Of Joy/If I Had A Ticket (Festival FK-1721) 03-67
Pick A Bale Of Cotton/Sylvie (Festival FK-1913) 07-08-67
If I Had A Ticket EP -1.If I Had A Ticket/Three Hundred Pounds Of Joy -2.Comin’ Home Baby/Sit Down Servant (Festival FX-11317) 10-67
Lovin’ You Is Better Baby / Brave New World (Of Fairy Tales) 11-67
This article appeared on page 29 of the Tom Thum’ #1, December 1992. Review was written by Downliner Doug.
If I Had A Ticket was a minor R’n'B hit in Sydney for this combo from up that way – the band even had a film clip aired on TV. Driven along by a strong bassline, this is a catchy song with lyrics giving a pre-war blues image: “If I had a ticket I would take a ride – oh so early in the morning” Yeah!!
If I Had A Ticket
I really like the flip which is a Willy Dixon song given a cool treatment by The Unknown Blues. I’m an avid supporter of Melbourne’s current kings of ravin’ r’n'b, The Breadmakers (hey! some people support footy teams), and listening to this song, there is definitely a similarity in the overall sound, particularly the Phil Jones vocals. Upon hearing this record, Breadmaker vocalists Dick Whelan joked that it was his old man’s band. The Unknown Blues had another 45 on Festival as well, but this one’s for the r’n'b fans.
The band had a residency at the Beethoven Club in Sydney in 1967. The Unknown Blues were also offered and took the job as a support act to The Yardbirds who toured Australia in January 1967 for the Sydney shows.
I just recently asked Dave Rowlands about the origins of “If I had a Ticket”. Dave was kind enough to give this explaination.
‘If I Had A Ticket’ was a traditional spiritual standard which was picked up by a few bands around that time. We started playing it and it became very popular with our fans. The organ player was Andrew Blundell. He was an accomplished keyboard player. The original was quite simple in its arrangement. We took the frame of the backing and gave it a modern touch. The lyrics were updated by all of us, including our manager Peter Conyngham. We threw in a signature half-tone change at the start of the instrumental break which made our version more individual. If you google search the title you will find a story of the song’s origins and there may be an acoustic version you can listen to. Ed Kuepper (Saints) released his version of our arrangement in the 90s. You can listen to it here
I guess the reason behind choosing it for our first single release was its popularity. We got that bit right. Our aim was to make music that was good but not ‘mainstream’. We had heard all the Beatles and Rolling Stones stuff and weren’t really interested. Once we’d listened to the old blues discs we obtained from Sun Records and heard Booker T & the MGs and Mose Allison, we knew which direction we wanted to go. A little later Soul gained a huge following and we incorporated a lot of that genre into our repertoire. We didn’t discard any of our material so the list grew to over 300 titles. We were able to tailor our playlist to our audience. When the fans were dancing and singing along we fed off their enthusiasm.
We were wide eyed 17 year olds when all this first started. Phil was still at school. There wasn’t much that was planned at the beginning. It just grew from a friendship between Chris Brown and myself when we were schoolmates at the tender age of 8. In high school, we saw a Rolling Stones concert in 1964. Chris played piano and I learnt guitar. We started playing at dances when Bill joined us. Later, the trip to Melbourne, seeing the Masters Apprentices gave us the drive to succeed in whichever way fate led us. It was hard physical work. There were long hours rehearsing. I think it was worth it!
I only wish I could’ve included this response in the first issue of Ain’t Got No Feelin’. Anyway it needed sharing so this as good a place as any!
Phil Jones & The Unknown – Pick A Bale Of Cotton, this was produced and made by the boys in the combo.
Bob Gunn – Guitar
Kim Humphreys – Guitar
Barry Butch McClause – Drums (1965)
Peter Snerling – Bass Guitar
Rick Suey – Vocals
Peter Jaggle – Drums (1966)
Michael McCormack – Drums (1966)
This article appeared on page 28 of the Tom Thum’ #1, December 1992. Review was written by Downliner Doug.
Hailing from Sydney, NSW, Rick And The Bad Boys recorded this single on the Downunder label in 1966.
Bad Boy / Listen (Downunder UK-1398) 06-66
A beat single on the highly coveted Downunder label, Bad Boy was originally recorded by Specialty label artist Larry Williams, although on this record, UK rocker Marty Wilde is credited – the ‘Bad Boys‘ must have got the song from Marty’s version. What could be called a ‘beat’ classic that has been wildly covered by The Beatles and The Twilights in the sixties and still rocks the joint when recent acts such as The Shindiggers and The Moment Of Truth belt it out. Rick And The Bad Boys do a neat and frantic version, although the vocalist plays it pretty safe and doesn’t scream during during the raving parts of the song, which are short but sweet.
Bad Boy
The flip Listen is a beat-styled ballad that is one of those that gets you nicely in with repeated listening. The production and mix is great with a good balance of harmonies, lead and bass guitar, and rhythm section.
