Melbourne 1964- present

backed by
 

Bill Billings [lead guitar] 1964 - Sept. '66
Phil Blackmore [keyboards, guitar] 1964 - Mar '67
John Cartwright [rhythm guitar] 1964 - Sept. '66
Trevor Griffin [keyboards] Mar-Oct '67
Neil McArthur [bass] 1964 - Sept. '66
Brian Peacock [bass] Sept '66-Oct '67
Mick Rogers [guitar] Jun?-Oct '67
Rod Stone [guitar] Sept '66-Jun? '67
Graham Trottman [drums] 1964-Oct '67

Normie Rowe was the first and biggest solo star of Australian pop in the 60s. A strong singer and a natural performer, his bright, edgy tenor voice was showcased in well-chosen material, most of which was overseen by Festival's legendary house producer Pat Aulton. Backed by assured performances from his band The Playboys, he cut a string of classic beat singles on the Sunshine label that kept him at the top of charts and made him the most popular solo performer of the "beat" era. Indeed, Normie's version of Que Sera Sera is still credited as being one of the Top Ten most successful Australian singles of all time. Between 1965 and 1967 his only serious rivals in the teen-idol stakes were Stevie Wright, Billy Thorpe and Ray Brown, and Normie's presence was guaranteed to generate mass hysteria of Beatle-esque proportions wherever he appeared. Unfortunately, his call-up for compulsory military service in late 1967 dramatically curtailed his career, and he was never able to recapture the massive success he enjoyed at his peak, although he remains a popular entertainer to this day.

Normie (b. 1 Feb, 1947) was drawn to music early; he began singing with the local church choir in Melbourne while at primary school. Hooked on rock & roll even before his teens, Normie took up guitar, and formed his first amateur band, The Valiants, while he was at high school. They performed once a month at Alphington Methodist Hall. He concentrated on singing, and made his first stage appearance as a lead vocalist in a music school concert, aged 14. By luck, the show was compered by top Melbourne DJ Stan "The Man" Rofe. Stan was impressed by Normie's talent and arranged for him to work with local dance promoter Kevin McClellan. He began performing regularly at Melbourne dances and discos, backed by instrumental groups like The Thunderdbirds, The Impostors and finally The Playboys, who became his permanent band until 1967.

After leaving high school in 1963, Normie had joined the PMG, the government telecommunications department later split into Telstra and Australia Post. Normie worked as a trainee technician, but in late 1964 his long hair became an issue with his employers, and in the face of a "cut it or quit" ultimatum, he left the PMG to become a professional entertainer. Working on the Melbourne dance circuit, he was soon a popular draw and it wasn't long before he was picked to become a regular on Melbourne pop TV shows like Teen Scene and The Go!! Show. According to historian Ed Nimmervol, EMI apparently had the chance to sign him, but turned him down claiming that he couldnt sing! Brisbane-based independent label Sunshine had no such qualms and signed him to a recording and management deal with the Ivan Dayman organisation.

Normie's first single, released in April 1965, was a brooding 'beat' arrangement of Gershwin's It Ain't Necessarily So (from Porgy & Bess) a number suggested by Stan Rofe. Normie & the Playboys' version had been inspired by a cover of the song they had heard as an album track by The Merseybeats. It was a Top Ten hit in both Sydney (#8) and Melbourne, (#1), and the furore that followed when Sydney station 2SM (then owned by the Catholic Church) banned it because of its supposedly 'sacrilegious' lyrics only assisted in promoting it even further.

Normie's first LP was released in July, and his second single, released the next month, was a cover of Ben E. King's I Who Have Nothing) -- another Top 10 hit in both capitals, apparently discovered while trawling through Rofe's considerable record collection. His third single (I Confess / Everything's Alright) strangely failed to chart, but according to rock historian Ian McFarlane, it's possible that it was never released.

His next single, Que Sera Sera, radically updated the old Doris Day chestnut, giving it the full 'merseybeat' treatment (a la the Beatles' Twist & Shout). It's also one of Normie's strongest vocal performances. Que Sera Sera / Shakin'All Over was a double-sided #1 hit in both Sydney and Melbourne in September, charting for 28 weeks and selling in unprecedented numbers (80,000 copies according to Ian McFarlane; 100,000 says Noel McGrath). Normie scored another first in October by having all three of his hit singles in the Melbourne Top 40 at the same time.

One of the trademarks of Que Sera Sera is the whistle that sounds at the start of the verse, but according to Warren Barnett, archives manager at Festival records, its presence was largely accidental:

The dream run continued through the first half of 1966. Normie's next three singles -- Tell Him I'm Not Home (Nov. '65), The Breaking Point (Feb. '66) and Pride & Joy (June '66) -- went Top 5, Top 10 and Top 20 respectively, in both Sydney and Melbourne (bearing in mind that there was no national chart at that time). Mid-year he joined the Easybeats, Bobby & Laurie and M.P.D. Ltd on "The Big Four" national tour that played to huge crowds around the country.

Normie was by this time the most popular solo performer in Australia, so in August 1966 he left to try his luck in the UK. In preparation he revamped the Playboys lineup, dropping Cartwright, Billings and McArthur and replacing them with Brian Peacock (bass) and Rod Stone (guitar) from expat New Zealand band The Librettos. Arriving in London alone, Normie took on Ritchie York as his London agent, and began to record with producers Trevor Kennedy and John Carter, using the cream of London's session musos, including Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, famed drummer Clem Cattini and vocal group The Breakaways. The sessions produced four new singles - Ooh La La, Mary Mary, Turn On The Love Light and I Can't Do Without Your Love. Ooh La La and It's Not Easy were both top 5 in Sydney and Melbourne, and Ooh La La even made it into the lower end of the British Top 40.

Normie stayed in England for 10 months and toured with the likes of Julie Driscoll, Brian Auger & The Trinity, The Spencer Davis Group, Kiki Dee, Gene Pitney and The Troggs. Many held high hopes for him, and in the early months of 1967 the pages of Go-Set were filled with breathless predictions of Normie's imminent UK stardom, but it never materialised.

The Playboys arrived in London in December; Normie flew home for Christmas, which coincided with the release of It's Not Easy / Mary Mary, and he returned to England in January. In March 1967 the group embarked on a tour of the UK supporting The Troggs, Gene Pitney and Sounds Incorporated. The same month Phil Blackmore left the group for family reasons and returned to Australia; he was replaced by English musician Trevor Griffin. Rod Stone left in mid-'67 (returning to Australia, after which he joined The Groove) and he was replaced by former Adam Faith sideman Mick Rogers. At the end of 1966 Normie was voted Australia's best male singer in the first Go-Set Pop Poll.

Meanwhile, The Playboys had secured a one-off single deal with Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate label, releasing the single Sad / Black Sheep RIP in August. Written by Brian Peacock, Sad is now considered a 'freakbeat' classic and has been widely anthologised, appearing on the British collection Chocolate Soup For Diabetics Vol III, Raven's Kicks and Rhino's recently releasedNuggets II].

In June, Normie and The Playboys travelled to North America, supporting Roy Orbison on a US tour, and along with The Seekers he represented Australia when they performed at Expo '67 in Montreal, returning to Australia in July, where he appeared as a special guest at the Hoadleys Battle Of The Sounds.

Normie wows 'em in his best Carnaby St clobber at the Battle Of
The Sounds in July 1967

[Photo: Laurie Richards Collection, Performing Arts Museum,
Victorian Arts Centre]

Normie had more chart success in late 1967 with Going Home / I Don't Care and But I Know / Sunshine Secret, and another single, Turn Down Day charted in Melbourne. But in September it all came crashing down when he received his call-up notice for national service and in October he and The Playboys parted ways. Over the next few months the group changed direction and personnel, re-emerging in December as one of Australia's first progressive rock bands, Procession.

How and why Normie was selected is a matter of some debate, and there have been assertions, not least from Normie himself, that his name was deliberately picked, possibly in an attempt to influence public opinion, which by that time was veering towards strong opposition to Australia's involvement. Normie was inducted into the army in February 1968, although he continued to perform part-time (now sporting short-back-and-sides, courtesy of the army hairdressers). At least one TV appearance has survived of Normie with the army "do", performing It's Not Easy on UPTIGHT. He also began working with a new backing band, Nature's Own, who also reguarly backed Johnny Farnham and the other members of the Sunshine roster. His only charting record during this period was the lush ballad Penelope, written for him by Brian Peacock.

Every move of Normie's basic training at Puckapunyal was covered by the media. Normie was shipped off to serve in Vietnam in January 1969, and was released from the army in February 1970 after his tour of duty.

Normie had one last minor hit in May 1970 with the song Hello, written by Johnny Young, and he released an album of the same name. (It was revealed many years later that young's song Smiley, a major hit for Ronnie Burns, was actually written about Normie). The Hello album marked the end of his Sunshine, contract. He signed to Festival in 1971, for whom he cut three singles. Que Sera Sera was re-released in January 1971 and on March 6 he married his longtime girlfriend Sue Powlesland. Unfortunately, it was obvious by this time that his national service stint had effectively killed his pop career, and was never able to recover the momentum and teen popularity he had lost because of the call-up. Johnny Farnham had stepped into the breach and was now the new King Of Pop, and the large and growing anti-war sentiment of the period probably also affected his popularity to some degree. Luckily, Normie could fall back on the training from his dance hall days and began to concentrate on the club and hotel circuit, and on TV performances, where he became a popular attraction on variety programs like THE MIKE WALSH SHOW.

Normie's continued to record through the '70s, '80s and 90s; he swtiched to the Astor label in 1975 and had considerable success with the single Elisabeth, which won the Best Song category at that year's Tokyo Song Festival. He branched out into acting, studied at the Ensemble Theatre and took roles on stage and TV, including a part in the TV soapie Sons & Daughters. In 1987 he won the role of Jean Valjean in the Sydney production of the musical adaptation of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables.

Normie remains a popular draw at clubs, corporate functions and on the rock-&-roll revival circuit. He has also kept up regular appearances on TV variety shows. In 1991 he hit the headlines again when he was involved in an on-air punch-up with Sydney talkback windbag Ron Casey. Known for his controversial comments on immgration and other issues, Casey enraged Normie with his remarks during a forum on republicanism on the Midday Show with Ray Martin and punches flew on both sides.

Singles

4/65 It Ain't Necessarily So / Gonna Leave This Town [Sunshine] 

6/65 I (Who Have Nothing) / I Just Don't Understand [Sunshine]  

?/75 Good Morning / (?) [Astor]

?/75 Elizabeth / (?) [Astor]

EPs
 

Albums

?/65 Normie Rowe A Go Go [Sunshine]

?/65 A Wonderful Feeling [Sunshine]

?/66 Hit Happenings [Sunshine]

?/66 So Much Love From ... [Sunshine]

?/67 Normie's Happening Hits [Sunshine]

?/68 Everything's Alright [Universal]
(compilation of first two LPs)

?/69 Normie's Top Tunes [Universal]

?/70 Hello [Sunshine]

?74 Come Hear My Song [Summit]

?/75 That's The Way I Am [Summit]

• Festival Records website
• Howlspace
• Noel McGrath - Australian Encyclopedia of Rock (1978)
• Ian McFarlane - Encyclopedia of Australian Rock & Pop (1999)
• Rock Snaps: Photogrpahs from the Laurie Richards Collection
• Chris Spencer & Zbig Nowara - Who's Who of Australian Rock (3rd edition) 1993