Jim Keays Biography

Born in Scotland, Jim came to Australia with his parents as a boy of four and settled in Adelaide, South Australia. When the Beatles eventually toured Australia in the 60's, Jim was 18. Although he had a passion for the 50's rock and roll, the Beatles (Seeing John Lennon in Adelaide), along with such other luminaries as the Rolling Stones, convinced Jim that his future lay in with a career in music and he set about joining a band. By 1965, he had become a member of an instrumental band, "The Mustangs". They were an instrumental (Shadows type) group who decided they needed a vocalist to keep up with the new wave, post-Beatles. For a time, they would do an instrumental set, then Jim would get up and sing in the last set. When it became apparent that this was the way of the future, Jim convinced the other members of the band that things had to change and before long he had them playing 'blues' and growing their hair. They changed the name, Mick started writing songs and they changed their image from the old rocker look. By mid-1965, the Masters Apprentices (Note: from the start the band decided on 'no apostrophe' on Masters despite it being there on most of their covers, even 'Panama Red' which Jim painted!) were born - a raw, energetic rhythm & blues band that captured the city within months. With Jim out front as vocalist (Jim sometimes plays a blues harmonica and occasionally guitar, which he found too restrictive and left to the undoubted experts in the band) fans were soon packing every gig and spilling out into the street causing traffic jams. The band began trying their hand at writing songs from almost the start and by the end of 1965 had a batch of finished compositions ready to record. Having heard of the bands fast-growing fan base, a demo of four songs was recorded on request for Astor Records in Melbourne. After hearing the demo and the raw energy of their performance, Astor decided to release the recordings as they were. The first single "Undecided/Wars or Hands of Time" (now available on the 1996 Double CD) was an exciting young and fresh piece of power pop, unlike anything ever heard emanating from this country before, and instantly became a smash hit (The other two tracks appeared on the first album, Johnny B Goode & Hot Gully Wind)This was followed by a long string of hits right throughout the 60's and into the early 70's. (See Discography) The Masters Apprentices were an original band in every sense - sounding Australian rather than English or American and have gone down in Australian music as 'Legends'. (ARIA award 1998) The band was voted 'Most Popular Band' three years in row; caused riots and drew crowds that outdid even the Beatles; created styles in music and fashion alike that many groups copied; and ended up in England recording two classic albums at the legendary Abbey Road studios. Their records sold hundreds of thousands of copies around the world and the band is still held in high regard in countries such as Germany, France and England where bootleg CD versions still command big dollars on the collectors market. (A copy of the first album sold in 1998 at auction for $300.) When the band finally came to the end in the early 70's Jim began his solo career virtually immediately. Over the preceding halcyon years as frontman for this Australian icon of music, Jim had steadily honed his skills as a songwriter of international acceptance and had now decided to put them to the test with an ambitious project - an album entitled The Boy From the Stars. It was a concept album in he same sense as The Who's "Tommy" and was accepted well by both critics and the public, thereby establishing Jim as a credible artist in his own right. A movie script has been completed based on the original story of this album. (Jim is still sitting on it! Only one other person has ever read it. He is a friend who works in the film industry and he swears it is genius. You would be amazed at the amount of stuff Jim has done that is yet to see the light of day. The CD release may act as a catalyst. The script needs a professional dialogue writer to finish it off.) Jim has had an on-going varied career in the Australian Music Industry - at times crossing over to production, management, journalism and even in TV on a show called 'Move' in Adelaide 1972 & 1973 and radio as a celebrity DJ - but always writing and recording songs. 1993 saw Jim complete his long-overdue next level of musical thoughts and statements. Released in 1994 Pressure Makes Diamonds saw Jim return to the spotlight as a major contributor to Australia's musical heritage with an album of ten new tracks. Jim has another album written and is ready for recording. His writing partners include Nick Smith who co-wrote many of the Black Sorrows hits. Jim had hoped to start recording before the end of the year (1998) but there is now no chance of that due to commitments with the Masters video and his book.