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The Dingoes
The
Dingoes are often given credit for that point in Australian music history
where Australian rock shook off its cultural cringe and placed all the
influences which had shaped the music to date into an Australian setting.
The group's music was clearly steeped in the American traditions of blues
and country but the sound of Broderick Smith's voice and the songs
themselves left no mistake where the music eminated from. Even the band's
name said it. In the end however it was the quality of the songs and the musicianship
which set the Dingoes apart, and leave them one of the truly legendary
groups of Australian music.
The
beginnings lie back in the mid-sixties with the Adderley Smith Blues Band,
a purist blues group who prided themselves in informing audiences about
where the Rolling Stones' music was actually coming from. A number of
singers and musicians appeared its ranks over the band's three year
existence, most notably founding guitarist Kerryn Tolhurst and eventual
singer and harmonica player Broderick Smith.
Significantly,
both were called up for National Service during the controversial days of
Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War. It was the letter every sixties
musician dreaded. It meant two years out of their lives, and for many, the
end of their music careers. When Kerryn and Broderick emerged from their
period in 'detention' they briefly teamed up in Sundown, a casual blues
group, just while they assessed their musical options. Kerryn ended up
accepting a summons to join Greg Quill's Country Radio, while Broderick
found a home at the microphone in front of blues rock band Carson.
Two
years on, in April 1973, Kerryn and
Broderick were both at loose ends again, and decided to form a new group
with guitarist Chris Stockley, formerly of Axiom. The Dingoes were one of
the first signings to Michael Gudinski's new Mushroom Records. An album was
crafted in the TCN studios at the rear of Channel 9's complex in Melbourne.
The
self-titled album was immediately recognized as the masterpiece it was, but
a series of incidents from now on would keep the Dingoes from ever
achieving their full potential. A week before the first single 'Way Out
West' was released ('Way Out West on YouTube)
Chris Stockley was shot in the stomach outside a party, a 'simple' case of
being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The band was forced to honour
its commitments with a temporary replacement for the next year. In the
meantime the Dingoes had come to the attention of the Rolling Stones' tour
manager Peter Rudge, who expressed an eagerness to look after the group
internationally as soon as his Rolling Stones' commitments were over. The
Dingoes waited months for Stockley's recovery and more months of Peter
Rudge to declare his intentions. In the meantime it was impossible for the
group to plan its future. Drummer John Lee tied of waiting and was replaced
by Ray Arnott, formerly with Spectrum.
Finally,
two years after the debut album was released the Dingoes departed for US,
by mutual agreement bringing John Lee back. Settling in the Mill Valley
near San Francisco they set about recording a second album at last,
including new versions of the original album's classics, 'Way Out West',
'Boy On The Run' and 'Smooth Sailing'. Another year passed in the meantime,
and as the band prepared for the support tour which was hoped to provide
their breakthrough, a plane crash killed the tour and three of Lynyrd
Skynyrd's members. There wasn't an American breakthrough.
Chris
Stockley left the band a few months later to return to Australia and play
with Greg Quill. American session players filled the void for the 'Orphans
Of The Storm' sessions in New York. By the time that album was released in
Australia in February 1979 the band had
broken up, without ever making a dent internationally.
Broderick
Smith returned to Australia, to start a career fronting bands of his own.
Kerryn Tolhurst stayed in America, but kept his contact with Australia,
eventually producing Black Sorrows' 'Lucky Charms' album in 1994, and
becoming an honorary member of the Goanna band for their 1998 comeback.
In
August 2009 The Dingoes were inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame, bringing
the band members together for the
first time in 31 years. Rehearsals for the night’s performance convinced
the band that there might be some unfinished business, and four months
after the ARIA reunion, over Christmas and New Year 2009 the band assembled in Kerryn’s Tuscon Arizona
studio to record ten of the songs that had been submitted and survived a
vote. The result was ‘Tracks’.
An extended
Dingoes embarked on a national tour in August 2010.
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