Disc One
The
Twilights - Needle in a Haystack/Bad Boy/If She Finds Out/9.50/Young
Girl/What's Wrong With the Way I Live?/Cathy Come Home/My Gneration
(live)/Axiom - Ford's Bridge/Fool's Gold/Arkansas Grass/A Little Ray of
Sunshine/My Baby's Gone/Glenn Shorrock - Rock 'n' Roll Lullaby/Let's Get
the Band Together/Statue of Liberty/ Little River Band - Seine
City/When Will I Be Loved?
Disc Two
Little
River Band - Cool Change/Home On a Monday/Shut Down, Turn Off/Help Is
on Its Way/Man on Your Mind/Long Jumping Jeweller/Goin' Back (with Renée
Geyer)/We're Coming To Get You (with The Bushwackers)/Glenn Shorrock -
Paperback Writer/Dream Lover/Restless/Don't Girls Get Lonely?/Big
Smoke/Will You Stand With Me?/The Duchess Is Returning/Rock 'n' Roll
Soldier
Glenn Barrie
Shorrock (born 30 June 1944) is an English-born Australian
singer-songwriter. He was a founding member of pop groups The Twilights,
Axiom, Little River Band, and post LRB spin-off trio Birtles Shorrock
Goble, as well as being a solo performer.
The Twilights
had eight consecutive national hit singles including "Needle in a
Haystack" and "What's Wrong with the Way I Live". Axiom's top 10 hits
were "Arkansas Grass", "Little Ray of Sunshine" and "My Baby's Gone".
Little River Band had national and international chart success,
including the Shorrock-penned "Emma", "Help Is on Its Way" and "Cool
Change".
Shorrock was inducted into the Australian
Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame as a solo artist in
1991 and as a member of Little River Band in 2004. In May 2001 the
Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), as part of its 75th
Anniversary celebrations, named "Cool Change" as one of the APRA Top 30
Australian songs of all time.
Glenn
Barrie Shorrock was born on 30 June 1944 in Chatham, Kent, England. His
family migrated to Adelaide, South Australia on the Orcades in August
1954 when he was ten. His father, Harry Shorrock was a Yorkshire-born
fitter and turner at the Weapons Research Establishment in Salisbury.
The 1954–55 summer had days of 42 °C (108 °F) and Black Sunday bushfires
ravaged the Adelaide Hills in January 1955. His London-born mother
Joyce Shorrock was not impressed with Australia, and she took Shorrock
and his younger sister back to UK on the Strathmore, only to return to
Australia on the "Fairsea" for a second attempt in 1956. The family
settled in Elizabeth 20 km (12 mi) north of Adelaide.
Shorrock's
first public performance took place in 1958 in a Lutheran church
hall—he was miming to Elvis Presley's "All Shook Up" on a gramophone and
strumming on a cardboard guitar when the player stopped—he was forced
to continue singing by himself and realised he had a good voice.
Glenn ,Frank Barnard,Peter Brideoak,Terry Britten,Clem "Paddy" McCartney and John Bywaters
In 1962, Shorrock formed his first band, The Checkmates, with Clem
McCartney, Mike Sykes and Billy Volraat. They were a doo wop harmony
group covering The Platters and The Crew Cuts material. Sometimes
teaming up with instrumental groups The Vector Men or The Hurricanes,
The Checkmates performed in Adelaide cafes and folk clubs. As a result
of The Beatles' popularity, members of The Checkmates and The Hurricanes
merged to form The Twilights in 1964.
In
1964 Shorrock, with McCartney as co-lead vocalist, formed The Twilights
by merging with The Hurricanes' Frank Barnard on drums, Peter Brideoake
on guitar, Terry Britten on guitar and John Bywaters on bass guitar.
Their debut single, "I'll Be Where You Are", co-written by Shorrock and
Britten, was released in June 1965. The band had eight consecutive hit
singles including covers of The Velvelettes' "Needle in a Haystack" and
The Hollies' "What's Wrong with the Way I Live" (recorded at Abbey Road
Studios in London). With two lead singers, two guitarists and five
vocalists, the Twilights performed note-perfect covers of pop-rock songs
and were famed for their live prowess. They relocated to Melbourne late
in 1965 and were popular with teenage audiences and respected by fellow
musicians. In July 1966, they won Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds with
the prize including a trip to London. In 1967, shortly after returning
from London, the group regularly performed the entire Sgt Pepper's album
live in sequence, weeks before it was released in Australia. Shorrock
married Sue, while he was a member of The Twilights. The Twilights
disbanded in January 1969 and Shorrock became band manager for Brisbane
pop group, The Avengers.
In
May 1969 in Melbourne, Shorrock formed an early Australian
'supergroup', Axiom, with Brian Cadd on keyboards and vocals, Don Mudie
on bass (both ex-The Groop), Doug Lavery (The Valentines) on drums and
Chris Stockley (Cam-Pact) on guitar. They recorded two highly acclaimed
albums, Fool's Gold and If Only...; and had three top 10 singles,
"Arkansas Grass", "Little Ray of Sunshine" and "My Baby's Gone" on the
Go-Set national charts. Axiom travelled to UK but disbanded there in
March 1971.
Shorrock remained in the UK to pursue his
solo career, he signed with MAM Records and released the self-penned
"Let's Get the Band Together" single in October 1971. This was followed
by a cover of "Rock'n'Roll Lullaby" (written by Barry Mann and Cynthia
Weil) in March 1972. As Andre L'Escargot and His Society Syncopaters, he
released "Purple Umbrella" with his backing band being Quartet members
Britten, Kevin Peek, Trevor Spencer and Alan Tarney. He joined the
multinational progressive rock band Esperanto, which released their
debut album Esperanto Rock Orchestra in 1973 with the Shorrock written
track "Statue of Liberty". He left Esperanto before their third album
was released in 1974 and performed backing vocals for Cliff Richard.
Glenn and Janice Slater during the Esperanto days.
Mississippi
was an Australian rock band which was working in UK with Beeb Birtles
on vocals and guitar, Graham Goble (later Graeham Goble) on guitar and
vocals and Derek Pellicci on drums. They contacted Glenn Wheatley
(former bass guitarist for The Masters Apprentices) to become their
manager. Birtles, previously in Adelaide band Zoot, called Shorrock to
take part in the line up. Shorrock returned to Australia in October 1974
and joined Mississippi in January 1975 in Melbourne. They were soon
renamed as Little River Band with the original line up of Birtles,
Goble, Pellicci, Shorrock and lead guitarist Ric Formosa and bassist
Roger McLachlan. The group went on to become one of the most successful
bands ever to come out of Australia, and the first to achieve major
commercial success in the United States. For Little River Band, Shorrock
wrote the hits "Emma", "Help Is on Its Way" (Australian No. 1) and
"Cool Change".
LITTLE RIVER BAND, Original Line-up (1975)
L-R Glenn Shorrock, Beeb Birtles, Derek Pellicci, Ric Formosa, Roger McLachlan, Graeham Goble
While
still a member of Little River Band, Shorrock released a solo single, a
cover of Bobby Darin's 1959 hit "Dream Lover" in April 1979 on EMI,
which peaked at No. 8 on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart. In
February 1982, Shorrock left Little River Band and was replaced by
former 1960s pop singer, John Farnham who was managed by Wheatley.
Shorrock returned to Little River Band in 1988 but, despite several
quality albums, they did not regain the earlier stellar recognition. He
left again in 1991 leaving the naming rights with guitarist Stephen
Housden. In May 2001 the Australasian Performing Right Association
(APRA), as part of its 75th Anniversary celebrations, named "Cool
Change", as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time.
Later solo career
In
1982 Shorrock released a solo album Villain of the Peace and a single,
"Rock and Roll Soldier" on Capitol Records recorded in Los Angeles with
John Boylan (Charlie Daniels, Little River Band) producing. "Rock and
Roll Soldier" reached the Australian top 40 in November but he did not
achieve the international success attained with Little River Band. Late
in 1982 he toured Australia and then teamed with Renée Geyer to release a
duet, "Goin' Back" on Mushroom Records in February 1983. One of his
backing singers was Wendy Matthews who had been a session singer in Los
Angeles. "We're Coming to Get You", which peaked at No. 6 in October,
was recorded with folk group, The Bushwackers it was the theme for the
film, We're Coming to Get You. He released "Don't Girls Get Lonely?" in
November. In 1984, he recorded "Restless" for the documentary World
Safari II: The Final Adventure.
In
1985, Shorrock released The First Twenty Years, which was a double-LP
album compilation of his career work with tracks by The Twilights,
Axiom, Little River Band and solo work. He was compere of Australian
Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) TV music series, Rock Arena in 1986 and
as a breakfast announcer for radio station Magic 11 in Sydney. His solo
single, "American Flyers" appeared in July. He performed on the tour of
stage show One for the Money in 1986–87. He appeared in other stage
shows including his own showcase productions Go Cat Go (1990–91) and Two
Up (1996).
On 25 March 1991, Shorrock was inducted
into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame,
alongside contemporary rocker Billy Thorpe, bass-baritone Peter Dawson
and jazz musician Don Burrows. In 1993, he re-joined with Axiom band
mate, Brian Cadd, to record Blazing Salads and three singles for Blue
Martin Records, and a subsequent two-year tour. On tour Shorrock played
his hit songs, along with those of Axiom accompanied by Cadd and a
backing band of Rex Goh on guitar (ex-Air Supply), Kirk Lorange on
guitar (Richard Clapton Band) and Mark Kennedy on drums (Spectrum, Ayers
Rock, Marcia Hines Band).
Long Way to the Top was a
2001 ABC TV six-part documentary on the history of Australian rock and
roll from 1956 to the modern era Shorrock provided interviews, "In Awe
of The Beatles", "Being Pop Stars" and "Coming from the UK", on his
early years with The Twilights. Long Way to the Top Tour followed in
August–September 2002 with Shorrock appearing with The Twilights in the
first set performing "What's Wrong with the Way I Live?" and "Needle in a
Haystack"; he returned in the second set with Axiom to perform
"Arkansas Grass" and "Little Ray of Sunshine".
In
2002 Shorrock reunited with other Little River Band founders Beeb
Birtles and Graeham Goble to form Birtles Shorrock Goble. On 17 October
2004, the 1970s members of Little River Band: Birtles, David Briggs,
Goble, George McArdle, Derek Pellicci and Shorrock, were inducted into
the ARIA Hall of Fame. The later members including fellow Australian,
John Farnham, and US-based musicians, were not included in this
induction. Due to a 2002 legal ruling on their right to use the band's
name—a non-performing member holds the trademark—they performed "Help Is
on the Way" as the Classic Lineup of Little River Band. Birtles
Shorrock Goble recorded a successful DVD and CD, Full Circle (2005) and
toured until 2007. In August–September, the trio played a medley of
Little River Band hits at the Countdown Spectacular 2 concert series.
In
2005 Shorrock also undertook his career-spanning The Reminiscing Tour –
Glenn Shorrock & Friends with invited guest singers including Doug
Parkinson and Wendy Matthews. In May–June 2006, he partnered actress
Judy Nunn on the first season of reality TV singing competition, It
Takes Two, they were voted off after week three. His first solo CD for
seven years, Meanwhile, which contains acoustic versions of his career
hits was released in 2007 on the Liberation Blue label. He performed The
Beatles tribute show Let It Be with Parkinson, Sharon O'Neill and Mark
Williams.
In
2008 Shorrock toured with the musical Shout! The Legend of the Wild
One, based on the life of Australian rocker Johnny O'Keefe. In July
2010, Shorrock performed a retrospective of his 45 years in the music
industry. Currently Glenn Shorrock continues to tour Australia
performing for public and private events in Australia and promotes new
local music artists. In early 2013 Glenn and his band were headlining
performers in Macau, New York and London for the media launch of the
Titanic II project. This was at the personal invitation of Australian
entrepreneur Clive Palmer.
In October 2014, Glenn
Shorrock was inducted into the South Australian Music Hall Of Fame
alongside Bon Scott's former band Fraternity, Chris Finnen and David
'Daisy' Day.
