40-554: Blackfeather are an Australian rock group that formed in April 1970. The band has had numerous line-ups, mostly fronted by founding lead singer, Neale Johns. An early heavy rock version recorded their debut album, At the Mountains of Madness (April 1971), which peaked at number seven on the Go-Set Top ;20 Albums chart. It provided the single, "Seasons of Change" (May 1971), which
80-509: A duo album, Reflections of a Pioneer . Johns and Robinson wrote or co-wrote the band's original material. Blackfeather became a popular hard rock group in Sydney and Melbourne and signed with Festival Records ' newly founded progressive subsidiary, Infinity Records . They recorded their debut album, At the Mountains of Madness (April 1971) with co-production by Robinson and Richard Batchens (The Cleves). The album peaked at number seven on
120-472: A huge voice, Neale was very taciturn. He was into the blues and had excellent range." Their name was derived from a book given to Robinson by a friend (Wayne Thomas of Flake ) that contained about 500 possible band names including "Whitefeather" and "Heavyfeather" that inspired their decision. Corbett and McCormack left soon after, replaced by Robert Fortesque on bass guitar and Alexander Kash on drums. Corbett subsequently reunited with singer Dave Miller to record
160-666: A new song called " Boppin' the Blues " (July 1972). It became a number-one hit in Australia in October for four weeks. In September of that year a four-piece line-up of Johns, Ward, Wylde and Greg Sheehan on drums were recorded live at Melbourne Town Hall and the Q Club for the second Blackfeather album, Boppin' the Blues . It was produced by Howard Gable and released in December 1972. McFarlane noticed they "relied on dominant boogie-woogie piano as
200-480: A new version of Blackfeather in 1975, with Taylor, Doug McDonald on drums, Billy Rylands on bass guitar and Ray Vanderby (ex- Band of Light ) on keyboards; this line-up only lasted a short time. Early the next year Johns formed a more pop-oriented version, with Vanderby, Lee Brosman on bass guitar, Warwick Fraser on drums and his younger brother, Stuart Fraser on guitar (aged 14). Johns quit in November 1976 and travelled to
240-944: A progressive political newsletter, from 1999 through 2013, after which he returned to Australia. In 2012, Brett published Lola Bensky , her sixth novel, a semi-autobiographical work of fiction based on her experiences as a writer for Go-Set . The book was long-listed for the Miles Franklin Literary Award , and won the 2014 Prix Medicis étranger in France. From March 1966, Go-Set published radio station 3UZ 's Top 40 singles for Melbourne and 2SM 's King 40 for Sydney. A national Top 40 chart appeared on 5 October 1966 alongside top 15s from 2SM, 3UZ, 4BC in Brisbane , 5AD in Adelaide and 6KY in Perth . In February 1967, Ed Nimmervoll compiled
280-656: A promotional arrangement with BOAC airlines, Brett and Beard were flown to London and the USA. They spent four months in the United Kingdom from January 1967 touring with Australian singer Normie Rowe, and The Troggs, The Who , The Small Faces , The Easybeats and others. In America they covered the New York City scene and attended the Monterey Pop Festival from 16 to 19 June 1967. The first full colour centre spread
320-571: A substitute for guitar." Wylde quit at the end of 1972; he was replaced by two guitarists, Lindsay Wells (ex-Healing Force) and Tim Piper, which returned Blackfeather to the harder, guitar-based style of the Robinson-era group. They performed at the second Sunbury Pop Festival in January 1973. The set was released in the following year as another live album, Live! (Sunbury) . A track, "I'm Gonna Love You", appeared on Mushroom Records ' inaugural release,
360-522: A trio for a short time before disbanding. Robinson worked with a studio group, Duck, in 1972 and then issued a solo album, Pity for the Victim (1974). He retired from performing in the 1980s and became a teacher and composer. In early 1972 Blackfeather with Johns, Ward and Wylde were joined by Billy Taylor (ex Flake) on lead guitar. With Gil Matthews (of Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs ) guesting on drums they recorded
400-511: Is a New Zealand-born Australian record producer who is best known for his work as an A&R manager and house producer for EMI's Columbia pop label in Australia in the late 1960s and early 1970. He was also for some years married to New Zealand born pop/country singer and former Australian 'Queen of Pop' Allison Durbin . Gable began his career with EMI's HMV label in New Zealand before relocating to Australia ca. 1968. He worked with Durbin from
440-449: Is also an author of books on the same subject. By January 1974, Go-Set was sold to Sungravure Ltd (part of the Fairfax company), with Jenny Irvine as editor. Reprints from UK and US papers replaced staff writing during 1973 and 1974. Sungravure was taken over by IPC Magazines , after which Go-Set' s circulation declined with the final issue being on 24 August 1974. Meldrum remained to
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#1732913707109480-400: The Go-Set Top 20 Albums chart. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane , felt it "remains a highly regarded progressive rock album, highlighted by Robinson's fluid, inventive guitar technique and a swag of adventurous songs." At the Mountains of Madness included the track, "Seasons of Change", co-written by Johns and Robinson. During recording, in late 1970, Robinson asked members of
520-414: The pen-name of "Mummy Cool" (1971–1972). Maree Menzel wrote quirky pages covering fashion and accessories, and often modelled for the illustrations as well, photographed by Ray Strong. Ian "Molly" Meldrum wrote a weekly column for Go-Set from August 1966 until its demise in 1974. His writing style represented his own stream of consciousness and came across in the same "bumbling" manner which
560-402: The Blues in an expanded CD version. As of June 2015 Johns recruited two former Blackfeather members, Harry Brus on bass guitar and Stuart Fraser on guitar, along with Gary Steel on keyboards and Paul Wheeler on drums (ex- Icehouse ). In that year Blackfeather toured Australia for the first time since 1983. The Go-Set Pop Poll was coordinated by teen-oriented pop music newspaper, Go-Set and
600-650: The Dingoes drummer John Strangio briefly replaced Treloar, but this version folded by the end of the year. In 1983 Johns formed another Blackfeather line-up with Andy Cowle on piano, Russell Hinton on guitar, Cleve Judge on bass guitar and Joe Vizzone on drums – but this also was short-lived. Since 2003 Johns has occasionally performed using the Blackfeather name alongside Brendan Mason on guitar and Kerry McKenna on bass guitar (both ex- Madder Lake ). This line up remained together until 2015. In 2010 Aztec Music re-released Boppin'
640-464: The United Kingdom, while the remaining members picked up John Swan on lead vocals and Wayne Smith on guitar: they renamed the group as Feather. In mid-1977 Swan's younger brother, Jimmy Barnes , announced that he was quitting Cold Chisel to join Feather, but his farewell performance for Cold Chisel went so well that he decided to remain. Johns, returned to Australia in 1977 and, after a brief stint with
680-447: The band Fingerprint, in June of the following year he formed a new version of Blackfeather. It reunited him with the 1972 line-up of Ward, Wylde and Young. By October all except Johns had left, and were replaced by Ray Oliver on guitar (ex- Friends ), Huk Treloar on drums (ex- Pantha , Bleeding Hearts, Living Legends), Rick Rankin on guitar and Jeff Rosenberg on bass guitar (ex-Hot Air Band). Ex-
720-665: The company) and founded The Digger in September 1972. Frazer also launched the Australian edition of Rolling Stone magazine first as a supplement in the fourth issue of Revolution , then as a fully-fledged magazine in early 1972. Frazer left Rolling Stone Australia in 1974 but continued with The Digger until December 1975, after which he moved to United States. Go-Set reached its peak in circulation, with 72,000 copies per week, in June to December 1970. After Frazer left as editor in 1972 to concentrate on The Digger , Piotre Olszewski
760-478: The discos and dance halls. These were its original target audience - the thousands of teenagers, especially girls, caught up in the excitement of the swinging sixties , following their favourite local Rock group around the suburban dancehalls of Melbourne. Go-Set started its annual pop poll in October 1966 with readers voting for Normie Rowe as 'Best Male Vocal', Lynne Randell as 'Best Girl Vocal' and The Easybeats as 'Best Group'. The following year, Normie Rowe
800-449: The group Fraternity , John Bissett and Bon Scott , to contribute to the album. Neale and Robinson gave Fraternity "Seasons of Change" to record as a single, with Scott on lead vocals. That group relocated to Adelaide and released it in March 1971, which peaked at number one on the local charts. Robinson had a verbal agreement with Infinity's David Sinclair that their label would not release
840-498: The holidays including the idea to create a teen-oriented pop music newspaper. Local rock group The Mood's manager , Peter Raphael, joined Frazer and Schauble and together they founded Go-Set Publications. Raphael brought in photographer Colin Beard and advertising manager Terry Cleary. Waverley Press, which owned Waverley Offset Printers, had printed Lot's Wife , and agreed to print Go-Set on credit. Schauble, Frazer and Panther produced
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#1732913707109880-717: The last issue and became an integral part of Australian Broadcasting Corporation TV pop music series Countdown , which began broadcasting nationally in November 1974. He initially worked behind the scenes as a "Talent Co-ordinator" but, from 1975, he became an on-screen host and developed a news and gossip segment titled Humdrum . Countdown re-united Meldrum with Grant Rule from his Kommotion days. After Countdown ended in 1987, Meldrum continued his music commentary for various TV shows, including Hey Hey Its Saturday . Frazer has edited and managed political magazines in America and, with Jim Hightower , published The Hightower Lowdown ,
920-503: The late 1960s to the mid-1970s and produced most of her successful recordings of the early 1970s. He is best known for his work with John Farnham , producing five studio albums with the Australian singer as well as the Charlie Girl soundtrack of which Farnham was the lead. Other notable productions for EMI Australia in this period include the hit singles "5:10 Man" and "Turn Up Your Radio" by The Masters Apprentices ; and " I'll Be Gone ",
960-621: The line-up was Neale, Robinson, Harry Brus (ex-Dave Miller Set, Jeff St John's Copperwine ) on bass guitar and Steve Webb on drums. Johns and Robinson parted ways and each fronted their own version of Blackfeather. Their former manager, Peter Conyngham of Nova Agency, had registered the Blackfeather name and thus owned its rights. He favoured the Johns-led variety with Jim Penson on drums, Warren Ward on bass guitar, Paul Wylde on piano and Alex "Zac" Zytnick (ex Tamam Shud ) on lead guitar. The Robinson-led group included Brus and Webb; they struggled on as
1000-641: The name Leslie Pixie. Ian "Molly" Meldrum wrote his first story for Go-Set in July 1966, and joined as a news, gossip and feature writer in August. Frazer urged Meldrum to join week day, TV show Kommotion on Channel 0 as a mimer so that Go-Set could get more inside stories. A key element in the early success of the newspaper was the centre page spread called "The Scene-The Seen", a weekly pictorial survey photographed by Beard in Melbourne and Grant Mudford in Sydney around
1040-415: The national chart, with commentary and statistics. The newspaper began publishing Australia's first national weekly album chart on 23 May 1970. In May 1974, the first Kent Music Report was published by David Kent , which became Australia's official national charts. The Kent Music Report appeared just before the last Go-Set charts were published on 24 August 1974. Howard Gable Howard Gable
1080-730: The newspaper from their home in the Melbourne suburb of Malvern . The first edition of Go-Set , dated 2 February 1966, was published with Schauble cited as editor because Frazer, a medical student, asked to be listed in the low-key role of designer and Panther, who had not registered for the military draft , was described as a feature writer. The first issue showcased Tom Jones (see right) and Herman's Hermits interviewed by Panther and photographed by Colin Beard at Palais Theatre , St Kilda . Initial sales were low, about 3000 to 5000 but Issue 3, which covered The Rolling Stones tour in Melbourne and Sydney, doubled their sales. Initially Go-Set
1120-458: The original Australian edition of Rolling Stone magazine in late 1972. In 1964, Monash University student newspaper Chaos' co-editors, John Blakeley, Damien Broderick and Tony Schauble, renamed the paper Lot's Wife . Phillip Frazer was a staffer and later became co-editor with future parliamentarian Peter Steedman . Late in 1965, Schauble, Frazer, Broderick, and another student writer, Doug Panther, discussed ideas to make money during
1160-564: The original Blackfeather version to compete with it. As soon as Fraternity's version began charting in Adelaide, Festival rush-released the Blackfeather variety as a single. It reached number 15 on the Go-Set National Top ;40, charted for 16 weeks and was listed at number 40 on Go-Set ' s top singles for 1971. Despite their success internal frictions escalated and there were further line-up changes. By August 1971
1200-500: The triple-album, Sunbury 1973 – The Great Australian Rock Festival (April 1973). The third Blackfeather single, "Slippin; & Sliddin'", a cover of Little Richard 's track, was issued in February 1973; by which time Sheehan had quit and the group split in April. Johns briefly performed solo before joining former band mates Penson and Ward in Flake, which disbanded in late 1974. Johns formed
1240-1001: Was a Beard photograph of Jimi Hendrix taken at The Monterey Pop Festival. In Los Angeles they did personality stories and photographic fashion spreads with Sonny and Cher , The Mamas & the Papas and covered a recording session with The Byrds . In Brett's absence, Meldrum became the principal local feature writer while Vera Kaas-Jager covered the local photography for Beard. Over its nine-year history there were many significant additional contributors including David Elfick , Alex Pezzoni, Vince Lovegrove , Ed Nimmervoll , Stan Rofe , Stephen MacLean , Wendy Saddington , Michele O'Driscoll (aka Mitch), Cleo Calvo (now singer, Clelia Adams), Eril Bilson, Philip Morris (photographer), Ian McCausland (graphics), Jon Hawkes (editor), Geoff Pendlebury (graphics), Geoff Watson (management) and his off-sider Margaret Rose Dunphy on bookkeeping and classifieds, Helen Hooper, Jean Bedford , and Pat Wilson who wrote under
Blackfeather - Misplaced Pages Continue
1280-554: Was advertising manager assisted by Terry Cleary. Doug Panther continued as feature writer for several months before leaving for Western Australia with Commonwealth Police and the Australian Army searching for him as a 'draft dodger'. Panther was replaced by Lily Brett who likes to recall that she got the job because she had a car. Other personnel were Honey Lea, originally a typist, who later became fashion editor when Prue Acton dropped out, and Sue Flett who wrote an advice column under
1320-506: Was co-written by Johns with lead guitarist, John Robinson. In July 1972 a piano-based line-up led by Johns issued an Australian number-one single, " Boppin' the Blues ". Blackfeather formed in April 1970 in Sydney with John Robinson on lead guitar, Mike McCormack on drums, and Neale Johns on lead vocals. John Robinson said "It was basically the Dave Miller set without Dave." Dave Miller Set ). Robinson recalled meeting Johns, "a small guy with
1360-451: Was crowned as the inaugural ' King of Pop ' on TV series The Go!! Show , also on Channel 0. Go-Set had become the indispensable chronicle of the local scene, described by Jim Keays , lead singer of The Masters Apprentices , as the Australian music bible. From 5 October 1966, it featured Australian singles charts and international charts, local state gig listings and record reviews. Go-Set developed an international focus when, in
1400-431: Was editor from May to July before Nimmervoll took over with Meldrum as co-editor. Nimmervoll remained until December 1973 when Sungravure Ltd bought Go-Set and relocated its headquarters to Sydney. In December 1973, Nimmervoll left Go-Set and founded Juke Magazine in 1975. Subsequently, he established Take 40 Australia and, since 2000, he has edited HowlSpace , a website detailing Australian rock music history. He
1440-415: Was established in February 1966 and conducted an annual poll during 1966 to 1972 of its readers to determine the most popular personalities. Original line-up: Mountains line-up: Late 1970– early 1971: Post-1971 line-ups to present day: Neale Johns (vocals), with Go-Set Go-Set was the first Australian pop music newspaper, published weekly from 2 February 1966 to 24 August 1974, and
1480-487: Was founded in Melbourne by Phillip Frazer , Peter Raphael and Tony Schauble. Widely described as a pop music "bible", it became an influential publication, introduced the first national pop record charts and featured many notable contributors including fashion designer Prue Acton , journalist Lily Brett , rock writer / band manager Vince Lovegrove , music commentator Ian "Molly" Meldrum , rock writer / music historian Ed Nimmervoll and radio DJ Stan Rofe . It spawned
1520-847: Was in March 1971. Nimmervoll, an architecture student, started with Go-Set as the compiler of the national Top 40 charts, beginning in February 1967. He then wrote feature stories and record reviews, and in December 1969 began editing Go-Set' s counter-culture supplement, Core , which was influenced by the US magazine Rolling Stone . Founders, Schauble and Beard had left by February 1969 and Frazer became editor and publisher; Jon Hawkes joined as co-editor in April. Frazer launched two monthly counter-culture magazines, Revolution , which lasted from 1 May 1970 – 1 August 1971, and High Times , co-founded with Macy McFarland and Pat Woolley, which published August 1971 – 1 January 1972. Frazer left Go-Set in February 1972 (after Waverley Press took control of
1560-628: Was intended for Melbourne distribution only. A book distributor, Bill Robinson, managed circulation throughout Victoria , and several weeks later the newspaper was introduced to Sydney and within its first year, all the remaining states. From 28 February 1966, the Go-Set office was three rooms at Charnwood Crescent, St Kilda until December 1970 when it relocated to Drummond Street, Carlton . Key staff included Tony Schauble as editor then manager, Phillip Frazer, who had switched to an arts degree at Monash, as co-editor, and Colin Beard as photographer. Peter Raphael
1600-474: Was to later be a hallmark of his public persona. His nickname "Molly" was given to him and first published in Go-Set in 1968 by fellow columnist and radio DJ Stan Rofe . Both Meldrum's and Rofe's columns contained many camp in jokes . Meldrum became editor of a monthly Go-Set offshoot, Gas , which was aimed at younger teen girls and was first published in October 1968 with a feature on The Monkees ; its last issue
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