Australian Music Stars of the 60's (3/4)

Until the late 1970s, many Australian performers found it hard to become established and to maintain their profile, because of the difficulty in getting airplay on radio. Until 1975, Australian pop radio was dominated by a clique of commercial broadcasters who virtually had the field to themselves and their influence over government was such that, incredibly, no new radio licences had been issued in any Australian capital city since the prevailing industry structure had been consolidated in the early 1930s. All commercial pop radio was broadcast on the AM band, in mono, and the commercial sector strenuously resisted calls to grant new licences, introduce community broadcasting and open up the FM band (then only used for TV broadcasts in Australia) even though FM rock radio was already well-established in the United States.

Many of the more progressively-oriented artists found themselves locked out of Australian commercial radio, which concentrated on high-rotation 3-minute pop single programming. This was a result of the widespread adoption of the American-inspired "More Music" format, which had been pioneered in Los Angeles with great success by the Drake-Chenault programming consultancy.

There was a great deal of innovative and exciting music produced; although few Australians got to hear more than a fraction of it at the time, this music is undergoing a major resurgence both locally and internationally, since Australia is one of the last untapped resources of 20th-century popular music.

Landmark acts of this period include Spectrum and its successor Ariel, Daddy Cool, Blackfeather, The Flying Circus, Tully (band), Tamam Shud, Russell Morris, Jeff St John & Copperwine, Chain, Billy Thorpe & The (new) Aztecs, Headband, Company Caine, Kahvas Jute, Country Radio, Max Merritt & The Meteors, The La De Das, Madder Lake, former Easybeats lead singer Stevie Wright, Wendy Saddington, The 69'ers, The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band and country-rock pioneers The Dingoes.

Guitarist-songwriter-producer Lobby Loyde (ex Wild Cherries, Purple Hearts) was another key figure in this period, most notably with his '70s band Coloured Balls, who gained a considerable following, despite media allegations that their music promoted skinhead violence. Lloyde had also played an important part in the re-emergence of Billy Thorpe and the 'new' hard-rock incarnation of the Aztecs, and his solo and band recordings in this period had a significant impact in Australia and internationally; Henry Rollins and Nirvana's Kurt Cobain are among those who have reportedly cited Lobby as an influence.

(extract from Wikipedia 2011)