| MILESAGO - Groups & Solo Artists |
| THE
GROOP Melbourne 1964-69 |
| Personnel |
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1964-66
1966-69
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| History |
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The Groop Mark
I The band came together among schoolfriends from Melbourne’s exclusive Wesley College, originally formed as a folk group, The Wesley Trio - singer Peter McKeddie, and cohorts Max Ross and Richard Wright. (This group is listed [erroneously?] in the Who's Who of Australia Rock as the Oxford Trio). English-born guitarist Peter Bruce was later recruited through a ‘musicians wanted’ ad in a musical equipment shop window. The band's publicity later touted Bruce as being an ex-member of The Dave Clark Five, but this was only half-true. In the May 2002 issue of the Dave Clark Five magazine, Peter finally "came clean" to writer Alan Harvey about his link with Dave Clark. Peter knew Dave because in 1957 DC had a skiffle band, "The Dave Clark Quintet", and Bruce was in another skiffle band, "Hill City Skiffle Group" (later "Rocky Lee and his Cats"). Both these bands played gigs together and Bruce did PR for both groups. He said,
The newly formed Groop began to infiltrating the Melbourne upper-class social circuit, cultivating their popularity with gigs at debutante balls and similar events. After signing to CBS in 1965 their first two singles, Ol’ Hound Dog and The Best In Africa, although considered by some as "frivolous novelty records", proved very popular both with radio programmers and the buying public. Both were Top 20 in Melbourne and to an extent served to leaven some of the more earnest, introspective music peddled at the time by their peers. Indeed, like one of those so-called peers, The Cherokees, The Groop preferred to draw much of their early impetus from such diverse musical areas as "jug-band" and Cab Calloway-style jive, as well as zany cabaret elements. Their strong, self-titled debut album (CBS 1965), filled with convincing and witty original compositions, together with gloriously sloppy covers of staples like Them’s Gloria, sold in respectable numbers, particularly in their hometown where they were feted as a top-drawer live attraction, strongly supported by regular airplay on Melbourne radio stations 3UZ and 3AK, and by consistently favourable and prominent coverage from the fledgling Go-Set magazine. (Go-Set, especially staff writer Ian "Molly" Meldrum, championed them throughout their career). A third single, I’m Satisfied / Bad Times, saw their strongest chart placing to date, and the band also recorded a second LP in mid-66. But their fourth single Empty Words / The Gun And Flowerpot Trick stiffed, just as McKeddie and first manager Tony Dickstein decided precipitately to depart for England in August 1966, leaving the band in disarray. Peter Bruce abruptly tendered his resignation, leaving the rhythm section of Max Ross and Richard Wright to re-build the group. They first recruited the multi-talented Don Mudie, and were soon successful in wooing singer Ron Boromeo (who assumed the moniker Ronnie Charles) and keyboardist Brian Cadd (who briefly changed his surname to Caine, at Molly Meldrum's suggestion) from fellow CBS recording outfit, The Jackson Kings, who had been performing around Melbourne, with a residency at Melbourne’s premier blues/rock haunt Garrison (and had released a couple of R&B-flavoured singles), since 1965. The Jackson Kings
attracted The Groop's attention when they supported them at McKeddie's
farewell party. According to Ed Nimmervol, The Groop were only interested
in Cadd, but Brian showed admirable loyalty and insisted that Ronnie be
taken on as well. The Groop relucantly agreed, but the decision would
soon pay off 'in spades', as the saying goes. The Groop Mark
II May 1967 saw the release of the walloping, soul-inflected and reverb-drenched showcase for Ronnie, Woman You’re Breaking Me / Mad Over You, which was written by, and heavily featured drummer Richard Wright, with organist Brian Cadd. This 45 was a huge national hit (#6 in Melbourne; #12 in Sydney), even charting in some key American centres when it was put out by Columbia Records there. The single was followed by an album of the same name shortly after. It was another strong collection of originals and well-chosen covers that were mostly drawn from the band’s current popular performing repertoire. Interestingly enough, it’s among one of the first Aussie rock LPs to be issued in stereo. The big triumph in ’67 for The Groop; like others before and after who won the same title (such as The Twilights and The Masters Apprentices); came in July, when they took out the grand prize in the Hoadleys’ Battle of the Sounds competition. They won ahead of other worthy finalists like The Questions, James Taylor Move and Gus & the Nomads. The prize (provided by the Sitmar line) being passage for the whole group by on a cruise liner to England, with gig and recording opportunities while there. Ian Meldrum enthusiastically reported in Go-Set about the band’s winning turn:
Singer Ronnie Charles himself expressed enthusiasm for the British jaunt, markedly because, unlike the previous year’s Hoadleys winners The Twilights, The Groop actually secured a healthy and sustained round of gigs while they were there. Ron remembers:
The Groop also made a small but effective touring foray into Europe, where in Germany they scored a top ten hit with Night Life, a single that failed to penetrate elsewhere. During The Groop’s 11 month stay in 'Blighty', they made some inroads in writing and recording. CBS UK issued both Woman You’re Breaking Me / Mad Over You, and a second single, Lovin' Tree / Night Life; this had some success in Germany, and they toured there successfully in July that year. Perhaps the most intriguing of these sessions was the one that yielded the notorious, raunchy Maid Of Iron, a collaboration with Harry Vanda and George Young that was cut at The Easybeats’ London recording HQ, Central Sound in Denmark Street. The song was never released, most likely because of its allegedly questionable lyrical content, but, by all accounts it begs to be heard! Another track, Mandrake Wine also remains unissued. The only officially-released English recordings formed the early-‘68 single Seems More Important To Me, a multifaceted rocker with Sgt Pepper-style guitar flourishes. The flipside, also a Ross/Cadd original, was a whimsical, bass-driven roundelay called Annabelle Lee. Sadly, this absolutely superb acid-pop double a-side record failed miserably upon its release in Australia. However, the Ross/Cadd songwriting alliance had some success in placing tunes with other artistes, notably When I Was Six Years Old, a sizeable hit for English R&B singer Paul Jones and later covered in Australia by Ronnie Burns, and the national Aussie Top 10 entry, Elevator Driver for our own Masters Apprentices. Just before its return to Australia in October 1968, Max Ross left due to illness, and he was not replaced; Don Mudie switched to bass and the band continued as a four-piece. Don Mudie proved to be a perfect songwriting foil to Brian and their highly-polished, strident, organ-propelled Such A Lovely Way / We Can Talk was released in 1968 to great acclaim, making the national Top 20. Nevertheless, the band had become destabilised and restless in the wake of founding member Ross’ departure. Another significant factor was that Cadd was by now heavily under the spell of The Band's seminal Music From Big Pink (evident in the choice of Richard Manuel's We Can Talk as the b-side of Such A Lovely Way) and he was keen to move his music in that direction. After their tenth single, a fine soul-inflected groover called You Gotta Live Love / Sally's Mine, was roundly ignored, The Groop abruptly broke up mid-year. In spite of the recent chart failure, The Groop were still extremely popular, and there was shock on the Australian pop scene when the split was announced in Go-Set in May. This, and the formation of Cadd and Mudie's new band, was extensively covered by Go-Set over succeeding weeks, and there was evidently some rancour about the fact that (as they later admitted) Cadd and Mudie had been considering the move for some time, but had not warned Wright and Charles about it. There was one final
triumph for The Groop, though few knew it at the time. It took the form
of a national number one blockbuster hit, too! In much the same way as
studio concoction The Pastoral Symphony was essentially an augmented Twilights
(their 1968 hit Love Machine featured Ronnie Charles on backup vocals),
a similar project was underway in late ’68 with Ian Meldrum at the
production helm, and engineer John Sayers at the controls. Zoot guitarist
Roger Hicks, Ronnie and singer Maureen Elkner on backing vox, and arranger
John Farrar joined with the Groop rhythm section (Cadd, Mudie and Wright)
to provide the glorious, psychedelic, kitchen-sink backing for Russell
Morris on the groundbreaking studio epic The Real Thing which was
released in March 1969, and dominated the top chart spot for weeks on
end in the middle months of that year. The Groop also formed the essential
backbone for Morris’ hit sequel, Part Three Into Paper Walls.
The connection with Morris actually went back several years - The Groop
gave Russell's first band Somebody's Image their break onto the Melbourne
scene by giving them support spots at local gigs. After The Groop
... In early 1970 Ronnie formed Captain Australia and the Honky Tonk with ex-Somebody’s Image member Brian Hollaway and ex-Grooper Richard Wright. Wright quit in August, and joined a shortlived trio called Love Story, with Buddy England, and singer/guitarist Ian "Turps" Turpie (now a popular club performer and well-known in Australia as the MC for ABC-TV's Club Buggery). They released one single, Neanderthal Man/But Not For Me, on the Air label in September. Wright next joined Wizard (1971) followed by a spell (1971) in seminal country-rock band Sundown, whose lineups included Mark Barnes (Party Machine, Cam-Pact), Keith Glass (18th Century Quartet, Cam-Pact) and Kerryn Tolhurst (Adderly Smith Blues Band, Country Radio, Mississippi, Dingoes). Captain Australia disbanded in early 1971, by which time Ronnie had again decamped to England. In 1973, from his UK base, he released two quality albums, Atlas (a hard rock outing featuring members of Wishbone Ash and Renaissance), followed by Prestidigitation, an ambitious project produced by American impressario Lou Reisner and backed by the London Symphony Orchestra and English Chamber Choir. A single lifted from the latter album, an orchestral version of Eric Clapton’s Layla, charted in some European countries. Ronnie continued to record and perform through the late seventies/early eighties, did heaps of session work, and his distinctive voice could also be heard on a number of advertising jingles. Other members of The Groop fared well after the break-up too. In late 1969, Don Mudie and Brian Cadd teamed with former Twilight Glenn Shorrock to create one of Australia’s first "super-groups", Axiom, leading to considerable success both locally and overseas with a bunch of strong recordings that displayed (particularly Cadd’s) growing interest in the musical style of The Band, that had first become evident with The Groop’s powerful b-side cover of Richard Manuel’s We Can Talk. After the demise of Axiom (two excellent albums and a clutch of strongly-charting singles behind them, including a staple of Cadd shows to this day, the classic A Little Ray Of Sunshine), Cadd went on to forge a lasting solo recording and concert career. Helming the Bootleg label, he enjoyed a string of country-soul flavoured hits (Show Me The Way, Ginger Man among them) with the Bootleg Family Band backing him, and wrote charting songs for Russell Morris (prominently assisting with Morris’ 1971 career rejuventation), Robin Jolley (hands up who remembers Marshall’s Portable Music Machine!), and John(ny) Farnham (Don’t You Know It’s Magic), among many others. Brian also provided the hit soundtrack songs for the movie Alvin Purple and the theme for the TV series Class Of ‘74, before relocating to Los Angeles in 1974. There, as one of the delightfully-dubbed "gum-leaf mafia", Cadd continued to write, placing songs with a diverse array of artistes such as Glen Campbell, Dobie Gray, Cilla Black, Yvonne Elliman, Gene Pitney, The Pointer Sisters, Bonnie Tyler and even Vegas crooner Wayne Newton. He released around half a dozen albums, continues to prosper as a songwriter-for-hire, and has also been a member of the recent lineups of the reformed Flying Burrito Brothers. "Caddy" is still based in the USA., but returns to Australia each summer to tour. He teamed up in 1993 with old mucker Shorrock in the Blazing Salads venture as well as performing live with his own band. The Groop reformed for a national tour which spanned late 1988 – early 1989. The outing was a welcome treat for fans as it was an amalgam of both Mk I and Mk II members, including the twin vocal assault of original singer Peter McKeddie together with his successor, Ronnie Charles. The well-received reunion tour coincided with the release of Glenn A Baker’s and Pete Shillito’s magnificent CD compilation for CBS, The Best & The Rest (see discography). Thrilling nostalgic audiences with a non-stop barrage of hits from the stages of regional clubs on most of eastern Australia, the reconvened Groop proved conclusively what an immense contribution they had made to Australian rock music. - Paul Culnane
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| Discography |
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Singles 12/65 Ol’ Hound Dog / Cry Baby Cry [CBS BA 221234] 2/66 The Best In Africa / Gloria [CBS BA 221257] 6/66 I’m Satisfied / Bad Times [CBS BA 221291] ?/66 Empty Words / The Gun & Flowerpot Trick [CBS BA 221319] ?/66 Sorry / Who Do You Love? [CBS BA 221356 ] ?/67 Woman You’re Breaking Me / Mad Over You [CBS BA 221406 ] ?/67 Seems More Important To Me / Annabelle Lee [CBS BA 221457 ] ?/67 Lovin'Tree / Night Life [CBS BA 221485 ] ?/68 Such A Lovely Way / We Can Talk [CBS BA 221583 ] ?/68 You Gotta Live Love / Sally's Mine [CBS BA 221640]
Albums 1965 The Groop
[CBS cat # unknown] 1966 I'm Satisfied
[CBS cat # unknown] 1967 Woman You’re
Breakin’ Me [CBS cat # unknown] 1968 Great Hits From The Groop [Music For Pleasure, cat # unknown] 1989 The Best
& The Rest 1965-1969 [CBS 463480-2] CD Tracks 1-2: The Jackson
Kings. 3-6: The Groop Mk I. 7-20: The Groop Mk II.
The Groop - session recordings for other artists Pastoral
Symphony Russell
Morris
Ronnie
Charles solo
Brian
Cadd solo
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| References/Links |
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Glenn A. Baker Paul Culnane Alan Harvey Ian McFarlane Chris Spencer &
Zbig Nowara
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© Copyright MILESAGO 2002