Greg Quill / Country Radio Sydney 1970-73

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Orlando Agostino [gtr] 1971
Mal Algar [bs] 1971-72
Chris Anderson [harm] 1970-71
John Bird [pno] 1971-72
Chris Blanchflower [harm] 1971-73
Tony Bolton [dr] 1972-73
Kim Bryant [dr] 1971
Rod Coe [bs] 1971
John Du Bois [bs] 1972-73
Ace Follington [dr] 1971
Dave Hannagan [dr, vcls] 1970-71
Russ Johnson [gtr] 1973
Greg Quill [vcls, gtr] 1971-73
Kerryn Tolhurst [gtr, mand] 1972-3
John Walsh (bs) 1971

Prior to forming the band, Quill was already well-known on the Sydney music scene - he wrote for Go-Set magazine, worked as a solo performer, and ran The Shack, a folk venue at Narrabeen, on Sydney's Northern Beaches in the late 1960s. Greg's first major recording was a solo album, Fleetwood Plain, for EMI in 1970. For the recording he was backed by John Walsh (bass), Chris Anderson (harmonica) and members of the band Pirana. From those sessions Greg put together the original Country Radio lineup (June 1970) with Walsh, Anderson, Agostino and Hannagan.

 

At first an acoustic/folk act, during 1970-71 Country Radio's musical style evolved into electric country-rock, the style gaining great popularity (especially amongst musicians) under the influence of albums like The Band's Music From Big Pink, Dylan's Nashville Skyline and The Byrds' Sweethart Of The Rodeo. By May 1971 the group's lineup had changed to Quill, Blanchflower, Bird, Algar and Follington (ex-Chain). They signed to Festival's Infinity label in October 1971; at this point Follington was replaced by Kim Bryant, who was replaced a few months later by Tony Bolton (ex-Affair, Freshwater). Their debut single Listen To The Children came out in Nov. 1971, although it did not chart.

 

Bolton and Quill became steadfast musical partners, and Greg is unequivocal in his summation of Tony's talent and his importance to the band:

 

He and I remained together for six years. He was indispensible to me, my loyal friend and an exceptional drummer -- economical, dynamic, always looking for the deepest groove in the song, and the hardest hitter in the business.

In January 1972 Algar left and John Du Bois (ex-Circle of Love, New Dream) and Kerryn Tolhurst (ex-Adderly Smith Blues Band, Sundown) joined the group. The addition of Tolhurst was of great importance; he and Quill formed a very successful songwriting partnership, and Greg describes their collaboration as " ... the most rewarding and productive in my musical life". With the classic lineup - Quill, Tolhurst, Bird, Du Bois, Bolton and Blanchflower - in place, Country Radio recorded their second and most successful single in Melbourne in April '72 - the beautiful Gyspy Queen. The song was co-written by Quill and Kerryn Tolhurst, who provided the song's plangent mandolin part (and, I'd wager, drew on it as an inspiration for The Dingoes' debut single Way Out West). Released in August, the single spent 13 weeks in the national charts and peaked at No. 12. With its wistful mood and its elegant, lyrical images of the road, Gypsy Queen is reminiscent of Spectrum's I'll Be Gone, and has similarly become one of the genuine classics of the era. The success of the single led to a contract with MUCH Productions for live work and recording in Canada, and in Sept. 1972 they made a 3-month tour - the beginning of Quill's long association with that country.

Their beautiful follow-up single Wintersong made the Top 40 in December; Greg describes the song as being "... about a man straining at the edge of a loving relationship and wondering about what's beyond the horizon". The same month that they released the excellent Country Radio Live. Apparently unable to make the time for extended studio sessions, they recorded their debut LP in one evening, in front of an enthusiastic invited audience at Melbourne's TCS Studios on 4 October 1972. It's a great document of the group at their peak, featuring a fine selection of originals, plus two songs by John Stewart. Evidently a favourite of Quill's, Stewart is not as well-known these days as some of his songs, with which he has had considerable success. Originally a member of The Kingston Trio, he is a respected singer/songwriter, had massive success with Daydream Believer, the worldwide 1967 hit he wrote for for The Monkees, and had an international hit under his own name in the late 70s with Gold, produced by Lindsay Buckingham and backed by members of Fleetwood Mac. Country Radio Live it really showcases the group's strength as a performing unit. On their return from Canada, Country Radio appeared at the 1973 Sunbury Festival, and the live track Silver Spurs was included in Mushroom's 3LP recording of the event, which was released in April 1973.

Tolhurst left the band just after Sunbury, briefly joining Mississippi before putting together his new band The Dingoes; his departure was followed by Bird and Blanchflower a few weeks later. Quill put together a new lineup including Russ Johnson (who effectively swapped places with Tolhurst, having himself just left Mississippi). Guitarists Les Stacpool (a veteran of many of Melbourne's top bands of the 60s) and Russ Hinton (ex-Moonstone) alternated on lead guitar for live dates.

In May 1973 the lineup of Quill, Johnson, Bolton and Du Bois recorded their fourth single Bound For South Australia / I Need Women; which did not chart. Du Bois left in August, when the single was issued, rejoining Tolhurst in the newly formed Dingoes and Quill dissolved Country Road in December 1973.

Greg Quill recorded a fine solo LP, The Outlaw's Reply (produced by John Sayers) in 1974, which featured many Country Radio alumni, including Tolhurst, Du Bois, Bolton, Hinton and Blanchflower, plus Peter Walker (elec. piano), Chris Neal (synth) and Barry Leef (vocals). Two singles were taken from it in 1975: She Do It To Me / Terry's Time (Apr. '75) and Blackmail / The Outlaw's Reply (Sept). Terry's Tune was a re-recording of the track from the Country Radio Live LP. The album also included Almost Freedom, which had already been covered by former Company Caine singer Gulliver Smith on his 1973 solo LP The Band's Alright But The Singer Is ...

Greg was one of the first Australian rock musicians to be awarded an Arts Council grant, which enabled him to travel overseas. He moved part-time to Canada in mid-1975, and put together a new band, Southern Cross, in 1977; it included the long-serving Tony Bolton and noted musos Chris Stockley (Cam-Pact, Dingoes), Sam See (Sherbet, Flying Circus, Fraternity) and Bruce Worrall (also ex-Sherbet); both Stockley and See joined in Canada, their respective groups both having made their way to North America in the preceding years. Southern Cross recorded a single, Been So Long / I Wonder Why, for Elektra, released in Oct. 1978, but they split at the end of 1978, during a tour of Australia. Sadly, the split was also effectively the end of the performing careers of both Quill and Bolton. Tony gave up playing after Southern Cross and eventually went into business; Greg too later gave up playing professionally for many years and settled permanently back in Canada. It was, as he recounts, a disheartening experience at the time:

Our adventures had burned both of us out ... admitting to ourselves that our musical dream had foundered and sunk after so many years was hard on both of us.

He returned to journalism; since then he has written books about Michael Jackson (1988) and The Rolling Stones (1989), and in 1993 was reported to be working on a novel. For many years he has been a prominent TV and print journalist reporting on the arts scene in Toronto, where he is the Arts correspondent for the Toronto Star newspaper.

Postscript -1999

Happily, that was not the end of the story for Greg Quill's music. He returned to Australia to visit his family in September 1999, and although he had long set aside thoughts of his earlier life in music, he experienced what he describes as an "epiphany" on returning. He came home to find that his old hit Gypsy Queen had been just been re-recorded by country singer Adam Harvey. Heading to Melbourne, he had a emotional four-day reunion with former bandmates like Kerryn Tolhurst and Chris Stockley, and attended a concert by up-and-coming young country-rock artist, Cyndi Boste, whose new album has been produced by Tolhurst. That night she performed Greg's second hit Wintersong which, she told him, has been a staple of her sets ever since she began performing at 15. Greg has written eloquently about the experience and I commend his article to you,. You can connect to it from the Links section at the bottom of this page. Greg is now playing and writing again, and we sincerely hope that new songs will be forthcoming sometime soon.
 

Guitar Corner Greg Quill talks about his guitars, then and now.  I have several guitars. My favorite is a '66 Guild D-55 NT, solid, loud, crisp, with a bottom end approaching the Jumbo, and a very easy neck and action. I've had it for 20 years. My 12-string is a Takamine acoustic-electric, very tough and serviceable with excellent electronics. My favorite electric is a custom job, likely a solid body kit, which an antiques-dealer friend picked up in an estate sale, with three pickups, full crossover -- all Dean Markley fittings. It's main advantage is a beautiful neck, the same dimensions and feel as the Guild (i.e., not too thin) and a wicked low, buzzless action. I also have a so-so Japanese Strat knock-off with fancy electronics, a Takamine 6-string acoustic-electric (indestructible), and a high-end Suzuki gut-string flamenco/classical guitar, plus assorted lap steels and a dodgy Italian mandolin.   In Country Radio I played mostly Maton mid-range acoustics (6 and 12) with magnetic pick-ups. I lent them to Jimmy Page once for a performance at Sydney Showgrounds and he tried to steal them from me ... [more on this story to come, we hope! - Ed.]. For a while I played a Fender acoustic, an experimental model with a cutaway and a Strat neck which sounded awful on mike and and via pick up.   My all-time favorite electric was a Gretsch Country Gentleman with gold fittings and Bigsby claw, circa 1965. It played itself. I sold it just before I came to Canada, figuring American electrics would be a whole lot cheaper over here than in Oz. I took $350 for it -- the same price I paid, only to discover the CG's were already collectors' items going for $2,000 U.S. and more. Now, of course, I occasionally see my model CG on vintage guitar websites going for $6,000 - $10,000.   Two of my Matons were stolen -- my favorite, a $2,000 Southern Star with beautiful inlay and the best electrics I've ever heard, was only a couple of months old when someone jemmied the trunk of my car outside a studio where I'd recorded with it for the first time. It was a magic instrument, and uninsured. I never saw it again, though I still look at acoustics for the big mother-of-pearl M on the stock in the hope that one day we'll be reunited.  Greg Quill, October 1999 with (wouldn't you know it?) someone else's guitar! Photo: Richard Lautens/Toronto Star

 

- Duncan Kimball, December 1999

Albums

Greg Quill - solo   ?/70 Fleetwood Plain [EMI/Harvest SHVL 602]  [no tracklisting available at this time]    1975 The Outlaw's Reply [Festival/Infinity L35472]  Almost Freedom   Blackmail   Crazy People   The Outlaw's Reply   Seven Years of Silence   She Do it To Me   So Now, Lady   Terry's Tune   Where Elephants Go to Die   All songs by Greg Quill  Country Radio   12/72 Country Radio Live [Festival/Infinity INL 34726]  Terry's Tune [Quill]   Some Lonesome Picker [John Stewart]   Never Going Back to Nashville [John Stewart]  Listen to the Children [Quill]    Silver Spurs [Quill]   Gypsy Queen [Quill-Tolhurst]    Last Time Around [Quill]    Wintersong [Quill-Tolhurst-Du Bois]   Observations from a Second Storey Window [Quill]     ?/74 Gypsy Queen [Festival/Infinity L25113] (compilation)  [no tracklisting available at this time]    ?/92  Wintersong  [Festival/InfinityD 19556] CD (compilation)  [no tracklisting available at this time]

• Ian McFarlane - Encyclopedia of Australian Rock & Pop (1999)
• Noel McGrath - Australian Encyclopedia of Rock (1978)
• Greg Quill - Going Home To Face The Music - article for the Toronto Star, Oct. 16, 1999, plus selected quotes taken from personal correspondence with the editors
• Who's Who of Australian Rock & Roll

  MILESAGO extends sincere thanks to Greg Quill for his interest, input and encouragement.

http://www.thestar.ca/thestar/editorial/life/991016LFE01_LI-QUILL16.html