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Monday, 24 April 2017

Black Sorrows - 1988 - Hold On To Me FLAC



 The Chosen Ones/The Crack Up/Chained to the Wheel/In the Hands of the Enemy/Raise That Lantern/Hold on to Me/Glorybound/Fire Down Below/Sleep Through the Hurricane/The Story Never Changes/One Driver/Waiting for the Rain/Mercenary Heart/Kiss the Motherlode/Before the Shooting Stars/Safe in the Arms of Love



The Black Sorrows are an Australian blues rock band formed in 1983 by mainstay vocalist Joe Camilleri (ex-Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons), who also plays saxophone and guitar. Camilleri has used various line-ups to record 17 albums, with five reaching the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Charts: Hold on to Me (September 1988), Harley and Rose (August 1990), Better Times (September 1992), The Chosen Ones - Greatest Hits (November 1993) and Lucky Charm (November 1994). Their top 40 singles are "Chained to the Wheel" (February 1989), "Harley + Rose" (August 1990) and "Snake Skin Shoes" (July 1994).


Hold On to Me is the fifth studio album by Australian rock band The Black Sorrows. It's the group's first album to feature the vocals of Vika and Linda Bull.


Rudyard Kennedy from AllMusic gave the album a positive review saying; "Joe Camilleri and company may borrow many of the same ingredients that James Morrison uses to make his music -- blues, soul, and R&B, as well as flashes of gospel, country, folk, and even Brill building pop -- but the trick is in mixing those well-worn ingredients together and coming up with something new. That's where Black Sorrows show that they're fit to be mentioned in the same breath with artists like Van Morrison and the Rolling Stones. Every song on Hold On to Me sounds like it could be a classic (and classy) radio staple, without sounding like a copy of anything else. Not only is Hold On to Me's literate songwriting (by Camilleri and lyricist Nick Smith) superb, but the playing is also uniformly excellent (and, at times, positively inspired), and vocalists Camilleri and Vika and Linda Bull are soulful and gritty throughout. Hold On to Me deserves to be remembered as more than just an Australian classic -- this is a record that deserves to be heard and hailed by music fans the world over." 


Black Sorrows are

    Linda Bull – backing vocals
    Vika Bull – backing vocals
    Mick Girasole – bass
    Peter Luscombe – drums, percussion
    Wayne Burt – guitar
    Jeff Burstin – guitar, slide guitar, mandolin
    Joe Camilleri (aka Joey Vincent) – saxophone, vocals, slide guitar

Sunday, 23 April 2017

Allison Durbin - 1986 - The Very Best Of Australia's Queen Of Country Music FLAC


Oh Boy/Born A Woman/If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me/Blue Moon Of Kentucky/I Love A Rainy Night/    Blanket On The Ground/Rockabilly Rebel/Tennessee Waltz/Help Me Make It Through The Night/Dream Lover/Here You Come Again/Lying Eyes/Your Cheatin' Heart/All Alone Am I/Funny Face/Satin Sheets/Are You Lonesome Tonight/Take These Chains From My Heart/    Blue On Blue/Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue








A nice album enjoyed ripping it I think Hammard were a little presumptuous labeling the album "Australia's Queen Of Country Music" after all she is a Kiwi I know we often claim Kiwis as our own but we usually stop short of putting it on an album cover I wonder what Allison thought about it.


 Allison Durbin was born in Auckland in 1950, where she grew up and attended Westlake Girls High. Having started singing at the age of 5, she spent six years with Uncle Tom's Friendly Road Children's Choir, along with her six brothers and sisters. Whilst at high school, Allison began to haunt the local youth clubs, where she got to know the bands quite well. She was always hassling the bands at Dave Dunningham's Surfside to get them to let her get up on stage and sing a song or two, to show off her vocal talent. In 1963, she entered and won a talent quest at the Surfside Ballroom, prompting Dunningham to contact Eldred Stebbing from Zodiac Records.

Stebbing was impressed and before she had turned 14, Allison Durbin had recorded her debut single, "Count On Me"/"Lover's Lane", for Zodiac. It didn't sell very well, so another was tried, "Rules Of Happiness"/"Two Shadows" with the same result. It was her third single that got her going. She did a cover of "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat" with "Little Brother" on the reverse and this version out-sold the original by Herman's Hermits, giving Allison her first hit. She did one more single in 1965 for Zodiac called "Mix It Up"/"Little Girl Go Home".

In 1966 Allison then teamed up with the Mike Perjanik Band in the studio and released two singles on the Impact label. The first was "Sailor Boy"/"My Last Date", followed by "Borrow My Love"/"Don't Let It Happen". Before long she was featuring as the band's vocalist in their live work. Now only 16, she set off on a nationwide dance spot tour with special guest Tommy Adderley. After this, she did it again as part of the 'Impact Label Show", before appearing in a series of engagements in the South Island.



In October 1966, she and the Mike Perjanik Band moved across the Tasman for a residency at Sydney's Coogee Bay Hotel, before moving into the prestigious Latin Quarter in May 1967. After nine months, she left the band to pursue a solo career. She worked clubs and hotels, and returned briefly to New Zealand to tour with Gene Pitney. She was booked for a large amount of TV work, appearing on Bandstand, the Go Show, It's All Happening and others, all of which helped to put a professional gloss on her performances and win her new fans.

By the time Allison returned to New Zealand in late 1967, she was a professional. She'd learnt her craft and her television appearances displayed none of nervousness other 17 year olds betrayed. Now managed by Doug Elliot, she was signed up to a new contract with HMV in 1968.

Durbin's first HMV release was a cover of Morgana King's "I Have Loved Me A Man", backed with "Sand". Produced by Howard Gable, the song sold in excess of 30,000 copies in New Zealand, easily the best-selling local release of the year, spending two weeks at number one and collecting the 1968 Loxene Golden Disc Award. With little promotion, it also cracked the Australian charts, running abreast with the Morgana King version. Her first album "I Have Loved Me A Man" was also released at this time.



         
                                                                                                 
From the album another single was released called "Don't Come Any Closer"/"One More Tear". It reached number 3 on the national charts in December 1968. In April 1969 a new single, a cover of Joe South's "Games People Play" backed with "You've Lost That Loving Feeling/Soul and Inspiration" also made the charts, peaking at number 4. In 1969, Allison was awarded the "New Zealand Entertainer Of The Year Award", even though she had basically been living in Australia for nearly two years.

In 1969, Allison married Howard Gable and they settled in Melbourne. Initially she divided her time between the two countries, enjoying substantial success in both. But as the seventies progressed, she concentrated on the more lucrative Australian market. A second album "Soft and Soulful" was also released in 1969.

Allison's popularity was also huge in Australia, with her picking up the "Queen Of Pop" award for Best Female Artist, three years running in 1969, 1970 and 1971. During those years, singles continued to be released concurrently in New Zealand and Australia. They included "Sha La La La Lee"/"Cry Like A Baby", "He's Bad Bad Bad"/"Am I The Same Girl", "Don't Make Me Give In"/"World Of Music" in NZ and "Words Of Silence" in Aust, "Hallelujah"/"Tonight I'll Say A Prayer", "Holy Man"/"Letter To Bill", "Golden Days"/"Make The Feeling Go Away" and "Words Of Love"/"I Have A Son". Next came her best selling Australian single. It was a cover of Ocean's "Put Your Hand In The Hand" backed with "Didn't We". It reached number 24 on the National charts in May 1971. 




In 1971 Allison recorded an album with John Farnham, who had been voted "King Of Pop" during the same years Allison received her awards. It was called "Together" and from it two singles were released. The best was "Baby, Without You" and it reached number 27.

Her next solo album came in 1972, "Amerikan Music" and the title track was the last single to make the charts for her, reaching number 33.

Allison then tapered off her singing work to concentrate on her family and by the time she did return in 1976, her days as a pop singer had passed. She moved into country music with great success. Joining the Hammond label, she produced six albums, one each year from 1976 to 1981. They were 1976, "Born A Woman", 1977 "Are You Lonesome Tonight", 1978 "Three Times A Lady", this one achieving triple-platinum status with sales of over 150,000 copies, 1979 "Bright Eyes", 1980 "Shining Star" and 1981 "My Kind Of Country". Missing a year she released "Country Love Songs" in 1983.



In 1986, Hammond released a best of album called "The Very Best Of Australia's Queen Of Country". Two years later a "best of" album of her pop songs came out on the Axis label, called "Amerikan Music".

1992 saw a return to the recording studio for Allison, after a number of years of dealing with personal issues. The album was called Reckless Girl and the songs are quite different to her recent country songs and earlier pop hits. Sadly it seems that this is the last studio album for Allison, as her personal life has caught up with her once again.

None of the Hammond Country albums were ever released in New Zealand, so in 1996 EMI put together a selection of songs from these albums and released a CD called "Country Classics" in New Zealand.

In 2001 EMI released a CD called "The Very Best Of Allison Durbin" which contains most of her early New Zealand singles.

Saturday, 15 April 2017

John Paul Young - 2006 - In Too Deep FLAC


In Too Deep/I'm Living On Dreams/Isn't It Sunshine/Not Me/When You Love Me/Spanish Guitar/I've Been Waiting/When I Remember You/Having A Few/How Can I Live (Wthout Love)/Oh My Love



 J.P. Young was one of the most popular and successful Australian male solo singers of the late Seventies. His powerful soulful voice was the right instrument the new songs of former Easybeats songwriting team George Young and Harry Vanda.
' Young had had a few single by 1974 when Vanda and Young took over his career producing his records. His big breakthrough came in March 1975 when Albert records released John’s recording of Vanda & Young’s "Yesterday’s Hero". In November the same his debut album "Hero" was relased - produced by Vanda and Young and featuring entirely material written by them.



More hits like "Lost in Your Love" and "Love is in the Air" followed and 4 more albums were released before the end of the decade. By 1979 his succesful chart career began to wind down. The singles were beginning to sound too much the same; the arrangements and melodies were created too much over the same formula.
By the end of 1980 his backing band "All Stars" which had featured names like Warren Morgan , Johnny Dick , Doug Parkinson, Ian Winter , Ronnie Peel , Ray Arnott , Vince Meloney, Kevin Borich , Phil Manning, Tony Mitchell and Ray Goodwin split up.
Young gathered new All Star musicians throughout the 1980´s´and released a couple of more albums and a string of singles,









"In Too Deep", which sees John reunite with his 70's hitmaker Harry Vanda as producer and principle songwriter. Several of the titles have been written by Vanda / Young including the first single "Isn't It Sunshine". In Too Deep is the ninth studio album by Australian singer John Paul Young and first studio album in 10-years.

Working in the company of the Vanda and Young team, John Paul Young became one of the biggest Australian stars of the 70’s and his career has progressed through the 80’s, 90’s and into the 21 Century over 4 million sales worldwide.

Tuesday, 4 April 2017

Jo Jo Zep - 1983 - Losing Game (12'' Single) FLAC


Losing Game/Celebration



The Jo Jo Zep single, "Losing Game", was issued in 1983, and was produced by Split Enz member Eddie Rayner and Camilleri. "Losing Game" was released in the United States but was the last single by this version of the group, which by this point was essentially a solo project of Camilleri that the pub crowds and Australian public were not ready for. They played for 120,000 peeps at a Huge Rock Concert at Sydney Horden Pavilion with INXS, the new rising Goanna Band, Australian Crawl, Jimmy Barnes and Swanee and this hi-powered, precision Latin Rock Line-up really impressed The Rock Press, the crowd and the other bands, who stood beside the stage open jawed!

Choirboys - 1986 - Fireworks (12'' Single) FLAC


Fireworks/We Can Dance (Live)/When You're Young (Live)




 The Choirboys is an Australian hard rock and Australian pub rock band from Sydney formed as Choirboys in 1978 with mainstays Mark Gable on lead vocals, Ian Hulme on bass guitar, Brad Carr on lead guitar and Lindsay Tebbutt on drums. Name was changed to The Choirboys with preparation for the sophomore album Big Bad Noise in 1988. The band whose set-up saw many changes went on to release 8 studio albums from 1983 to 2007. Their 1987 single "Run to Paradise" remains their biggest commercial success. Choirboys signed with Mushroom Records and released "Fireworks" #60 on the charts in May 1986, they also opened for Deep Purple on their tour of Australia.