28-785: Fireboy is the second solo album by Grant McLennan , a member of the Go-Betweens . It was released in 1993. In the album's liner notes McLennan said the songs were for Gloria Swanson , Kenneth Slessor , Brett Whiteley and Dean Martin . Produced by Dave Dobbyn , it was recorded in Woolloomooloo . The first single was "Surround Me". Trouser Press called the album "a near-perfect convergence of observant, passionate words and jangly, surging tunes." The Calgary Herald wrote that McLennan "sings with conviction [and] poetic insight." AllMusic wrote: "If there are hints of older rock styles here and there, McLennan's singing in particular still has
56-715: A "conceptual art group with a pop orientation". They issued their sole album FOC in October 1998, which was co-produced by Tim Whitten with the group. McLennan died at his Brisbane home on 6 May 2006, aged 48, from a heart attack. He was preparing for a party to celebrate with his fiancée, Emma Pursey; he complained of feeling unwell, and he went upstairs to rest. He was found dead soon after by Pursey, his flatmate and friends. Over 1,000 people attended his funeral, including musicians Dave Dobbyn, Bernard Fanning , Ian Haug , Lindy Morrison , Dave McCormack , Steve Kilbey , Paul Kelly and Ed Kuepper . Following McLennan's death,
84-458: A Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Queensland . Joh Bjelke-Petersen was Premier of Queensland at the time, and McLennan was arrested in a student protest against aspects of that government's conservative policies. In 1977, McLennan met Robert Forster at university. Forster encouraged him to learn bass guitar – McLennan had no musical training – and to form an alternative rock band,
112-514: A Lullaby , with Lindy Morrison as their permanent drummer. Aside from lead vocals and bass guitar McLennan also provides lead guitar for three of its eight tracks – he wrote four tracks and co-wrote one with Forster. McLennan told Gavin Sawford of Rave magazine, in April 1996, that "[it] is to me an inauspicious debut... if I'd heard that and I wasn't in the band, I think my comment would have been 'What
140-617: A backing band comprising Michael Barclay on drums, Pedro Bull on keyboards (both ex-ex- Paul Kelly and the Messengers ), Maurice Frawley on guitar (ex-Paul Kelly and the Dots) and Phil Kakulas on bass guitar (ex- Blackeyed Susans ). In December 1994, McLennan's released Horsebreaker Star . It was recorded in Athens, Georgia with American session musicians and was produced by John Keane ( R.E.M. , Indigo Girls , Vic Chesnutt ). Christgau found it
168-446: A self-titled album in 1991 and the pair resumed the collaboration in 1995 for a second album, Snow Job . Also in 1990, McLennan produced the debut single "On and On" for Sydney-based duo Club Hoy. In June 1991, McLennan released his debut solo album Watershed under the name G.W. McLennan, which was produced by Dave Dobbyn ( DD Smash ) on Mushroom Records ' White Records label. Australian musicologist Ian McFarlane felt it
196-406: A truly exceptional artist who, in the spirit of Lloyd Cole, crafts moments of brilliance to fit his limitations." In November 1992, McLennan released the album Fireboy , produced by Dobbyn again. McFarlane compared it with his previous one and found it was "an even more melancholy set of songs that boasted fuller (though never obtrusive) arrangements". Ned Raggett of AllMusic felt it "finds
224-455: A while to catch up." In 2002, Circus Records released an expanded CD which included a second disc of twelve bonus tracks of songs recorded by The Go-Betweens around the same time as the album together with a music video for the song, " Your Turn, My Turn ". McLennan later said, " Send Me A Lullaby is to me an inauspicious debut. It's a record that I think if I'd heard - well, it's hard for me to say that, but if I'd heard that and I wasn't in
252-761: Is The Go-Betweens ' debut album. It was released in November 1981 in Australia on Missing Link as an eight-track mini-album. It was subsequently released in the UK on Rough Trade Records , an independent music record label (Missing Link's UK distributors) in February 1982, as a 12-track album. The album was recorded at the Richmond Recorders studio in Melbourne in July 1981. The album
280-605: The Anglican Church Grammar School in Brisbane as a boarder. His mother remarried, and the family then relocated to a cattle station in central Far North Queensland . McLennan's songs, which often evoke the impressions and imagery of the regional background of his childhood, include " Cattle and Cane ", "Unkind and Unwise", "Dusty in Here" (about his father), "Boundary Rider" and " Bye Bye Pride ". In 1976, McLennan began
308-576: The Australasian Performing Right Association called his " Cattle and Cane " (1983) one of its top 30 Australian songs of all time. Grant William McLennan was born on 12 February 1958 in Rockhampton , Queensland. His father was a general practitioner , and McLennan grew up with a younger brother and sister. After the death of their father, when McLennan was four years old, his family moved to Cairns . He spent five years at
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#1732852528161336-651: The Birthday Party . The group released only a single, "After the Fireworks", on Missing Link Records . In late 1983 the Go-Betweens added Robert Vickers on bass guitar – which allowed McLennan to shift to lead guitar. Late in 1986, Amanda Brown joined on oboe, violin, guitar, keyboards and backing vocals. McLennan and Brown were soon in a romantic relationship. Many of McLennan's new lyrics were about this relationship. John Willsteed replaced Vickers on bass guitar in November 1987. After recording six albums
364-676: The Go-Betweens , in Brisbane. For several months they used a succession of interim drummers, with McLennan on bass guitar and Forster on lead guitar and lead vocals. The group released their first single in September 1978, " Lee Remick ", which was written by Forster. During the group's initial period, Forster provided most of the songwriting and lead vocals. In November 1979, the Go-Betweens' McLennan and Forster travelled to England and then to Scotland, where they recorded new material, including their third single, " I Need Two Heads " (June 1980). By
392-489: The Go-Betweens disbanded in December 1989. McLennan and Forster had made tentative plans to form an acoustic duo together. When McLennan told Brown, she ended their relationship. McLennan and Forster each pursued solo careers while Brown and Morrison formed Cleopatra Wong in 1991. McLennan and Forster reformed The Go-Betweens in 2000, and recorded three more studio albums. Their last one, Oceans Apart (October 2005), won
420-620: The Queensland Government established the Grant McLennan Lifetime Achievement Award, presented at the Queensland Music Awards . The Queensland Music Awards (previously known as Q Song Awards) celebrate Queensland, Australia 's brightest emerging artists and established legends. In 2006, the inaugural year, McLennan won a Lifetime Achievement Award. Send Me a Lullaby Send Me a Lullaby
448-555: The band their first ARIA Award: for Best Adult Contemporary Album at the 2005 ceremony. Their live album, That Striped Sunlight Sound (2006), was nominated for Best Music DVD at the 2006 awards. In 1990, on lead vocals, bass guitar, lead guitar and keyboards, McLennan formed the rock band Jack Frost in Sydney with the Church 's front man, Steve Kilbey on lead vocals, bass guitar, lead guitar, keyboards and drums. The group released
476-465: The band, I think my comment would have been 'What the fuck is going on here.' There's great melodies but then there's changes which to this day I can't work out. There's lyrics to this day which I don't understand and when I actually summon up enough courage to get to the microphone, I sound like a choirboy with a mouthful of fruitcake." Forster agreed, saying, "So, no classic first album. But a band has to keep thinking they are writing their own story. This
504-583: The cover of the album. The portraits were later purchased by the Australian National Portrait Gallery . Forster claimed, "She got the three of us with precision, placing us on the album with the touch of a master psychologist." The inner gatefold had pictures of Forster and McLennan's apartments. Reviewed in Australian Rolling Stone at the time of release, it was described as reflecting, "the progression from folky naivety of
532-415: The early songs to a more involved, complex set of emotions, though understatement is still a key feature." The reviewer notes it is an album with, "no, or at least very few, overdubs," and says, "the band have produced a fresh, uncluttered sound that has a live presence to it." The review concludes by saying, "everything's come together just fine." NME described the album as, "a record of tremendous depth,
560-529: The fuck is going on here.' There's great melodies but then there's changes which to this day I can't work out. There's lyrics to this day which I don't understand and when I actually summon up enough courage to get to the microphone, I sound like a choirboy with a mouthful of fruitcake." In 1982, they relocated to London and recorded new material, also during that year McLennan was part of a side project, Tuff Monks , with Forster and Morrison joined by label mates, Nick Cave , Mick Harvey and Rowland S. Howard of
588-473: The musician in excellent form, with a baker's dozen worth of songs that won't challenge preconceptions, but do make for a great listen all around" with "sweetly sparkling, sometimes barbed, numbers". Robert Christgau, an American journalist, preferred the tracks "The Dark Side of Town", "Riddle in the Rain" and "Whose Side Are You On?", which were "living tunes in studio-rock amber". During 1993 he toured Australia with
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#1732852528161616-627: The sharp, modern edge that helped make the Go-Betweens great, all while not losing his trademark warmth." All tracks written by Grant McLennan, except where noted. Grant McLennan Grant William McLennan (12 February 1958 – 6 May 2006) was an Australian alternative rock singer-songwriter-guitarist. He co-founded the Go-Betweens (1977–89, 2000–06) with Robert Forster in Brisbane in 1977 and issued four solo albums: Watershed (1991), Fireboy (1992), Horsebreaker Star (1994) and In Your Bright Ray (1997). He collaborated with other artists on side projects. In May 2001,
644-417: The time it appeared, they had returned to Australia. As McLennan's own distinctive compositional style developed, the two shared lead vocal duties almost equally. For Go-Betweens releases from about 1980 forward, some songs were credited to "Forster/McLennan", although the two generally wrote separately, each singing their own compositions. In November 1981, the Go-Betweens issued their debut album, Send Me
672-421: The way". In September 1997, McLennan released In Your Bright Ray , with Wayne Connolly producing. AllMusic's Jack Rabid found it "returns him to his more well-trodden ground... [and] is as warm and soft as a cake out of the oven, a just-washed blanket, and an Eskimo coat". In November 1997, he formed Far Out Corporation with Ian Haug , Ross McLennan and Adele Pickvance. McFarlane described them as
700-505: Was McLennan's "most consistently catchy solo album" providing "30 snapshots of a resigned romantic" while "unrolling tune after sweet, simple-seeming tune". McFarlane praised "its wide-screen outlook, the album shifted from country rock to bright acoustic pop with a great deal of optimism and passion". Raggett opined that it was "more of a country/Southern rock bent...his ear for focused, sharp lyrical portraits of life and love, paired with his ever-striking crisp singing style, continues to lead
728-497: Was an "ambitious and highly personalised collection of songs charted McLennan's emotions in the wake of The Go-Betweens' break-up... [it] revealed McLennan to be, in turns, the introspective singer/songwriter or the carefree and gregarious performer." AllMusic 's Norm Elrod noticed that McLennan "isn't the most talented singer; his voice is a bit plain, and his range somewhat limited. He isn't the most gifted guitarist; his playing sometimes amounts to basic acoustic strums. He is, however,
756-405: Was engineered and produced by Tony Cohen ( The Birthday Party ), together with The Go-Betweens. Forster said that Cohen, although having a signature sound, lacked a producer's instinct and the band had to "choose their own songs and arrange them themselves," resulting in many older songs being jettisoned from the album. Cohen later said, "A band as different as the Go-Betweens threw me, and it took
784-424: Was our way." Morrison said her drumming on the album had been affected by the experimentation with her previous band Xero . "The trouble was, it had become part of me to do silly things, which is why my drumming is idiosyncratic with the Go-Betweens in many ways. On Send Me A Lullaby there are lots of strange drumbeats, things that a normal drummer wouldn't play," she said. Melbourne artist Jenny Watson painted
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