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Wednesday 31 December 2014

Bill & Boyd - 1975 - Bill & Boyd


Slap Your Draughty Blue Jeans/The Prisoner Song/Santa Never Made It Into Darwin/Question/Country Wine/Chulu Chululu/Meanwhile Back In Abeline/Put Another Log On The Fire/Someone To Love/I'll Be Your Baby Tonight/Union Silver/It's A Small World/Aussie/ Cloudy Summer Afternoon
 
 
Bill Gate and Boyd Robertson were mates at Naenae College in Wellington when they began singing together, adapting the style of America's Everly Brothers.They recorded a remarkable thirty-two singles between 1960 and 1978, and
continued performing the club circuit in Australia until the late eighties. From the beginning they were always more popular with parents than teenagers,probably just a little too nice for rock and roll.
In 1964 Bill and Boyd moved to Australia on the strength of their first Australian hit "Chulu Chululu". It was a bright, sing-along song recorded live at the Rotorua Sound Shell in New Zealand. The talented pair were quick to gain popularity, appearing regularly on TV, particularly on Bandstand, and working clubs around Australia. They left for America early in 1968, touring with the Supremes and Herb Alpert. On their return to Australia, they established themselves as a top club act. In 1970, they joined Ron Tudor's newly formed Fable label. Their first release, in July 1970, was a version of "It's A Small World" which, although a steady seller, didn't quite make the top 40. They had several releases of singles and albums over the next four years. It wasn't until 1975 that they had their most success, after recording a song called "Santa Never Made It Into Darwin". The song documented the events of Cyclone Tracy that devastated the city of Darwin on Christmas eve 1974. The song made it to number 1 on the Australian national charts. Their 1975 album release was "Bill and Boyd". It was released in two formats, the first from Fable and the second from Axis. The Axis version contains three extra songs, two of which have not been available anywhere else at the time. Another single called "Put Another Log On The Fire" followed, and Bill and Boyd were a household name in Australia. After that they took a break from recording and concentrated on touring

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