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He is a singer-songwriter, musician and producer born
in Melbourne, Australia, to a musical family. In the early 1960s he was a member of The Kinetics and
after leaving them he joined Tin Tin, which was led by Steve Kipner, who was
the son of their producer, Nat Kipner. With them he moved to London, was managed by Robert Stigwood
and Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees, had the Top 10 hit "Toast and Marmalade
for Tea" and toured the United States. Collaborating with Nat Kipner to
write songs, they wrote for many artists in the European market and saw
major success when Johnny Mathis and Deniece Williams took their song "Too
Much, Too Little, too Late" to the top of the charts in 1978. In 1976, in London, he joined up
with Gary Keady in a production/composition collaboration to produce and
sing on Starlord which was a series of songs described as "The story
of a Jesus like alien travelling through space and time offering a peaceful
hand to troubled worlds like earth".
In 1978 he was a founder member of the trio Sewerside who returned
to Australia when they were promoting their first single "Picture Book". Once back in Sydney the trio formed
That Record Company label but lost a lot of money by putting out a video
for "Picture Book" which would be banned by the rock show Countdown. In 1979 they expanded Sewerside
into an 8-man concept group and gave it the new name of World. With this band the three
original members decided to combine 18 of their songs from the London days
and came up with the Starlord Odyssey rock opera and take it around
the Sydney theatres. In 1981
the compositions that he had done with Gary Keady on Starlord were
added to once more and made into a stage musical, which would pave the way
for the 1989 movie Sons of Steel. He would also compose the music for the 1996 movie Black
Man Down. The singer
Allona recorded his song "Over You", co-written with Gary Keady, and he
also has works feature on the album A File of Life by the Japanese
artist Hikaru Nishida. Now
living back in Australia he continues to write for the TV and film industry
in collaboration with British and American composers. In the field of education he is a
teacher of songwriting at Camp Creative, which is part of the Creative Arts
Course Summer School of Australia.
Sources:
- http://www.poparchives.com.au/feature.php?id=1418
- http://www.sons-of-steel.com/songs_library/starlord.htm
- http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0885170/
- http://www.campcreative.com.au/courses-music.php
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