Welcome to A Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. Hello, how’s your day going? I hope the next 52 minutes are going to make it even better. This week, my special guest is Glenn Shorrock, the English-born Australian singer-songwriter, soloist and founding member of rock bands The Twilights, Axiom and Little River Band.
If you’re tuned in from outside of Australia, you may not have heard of the first two bands I mentioned, but I bet no matter where you live, you do know Little River Band. Little River enjoyed international success the world over and for very good reason. Glenn’s about to share stories from his 60-year-long musical journey, so let him get on with it.
In context with the business that I’ve been in all my life, we were never meant to be here. It wasn’t meant for old people. It was meant for young people.
And here we find ourselves in a reverse situation. I’m thinking like my dad. He termed rock and roll as bash, bash, thump, thump, journalist flaming, jungle music.
Tell us about how you grew up, Glenn Shorrock. I know that you came from the UK to Adelaide and settled in a suburb there called Elizabeth. Once you’d come, your mum took you back again before bringing you out one more time.
Yeah, well, that was just a family thing. She couldn’t deal with the migrant hostel in Adelaide in the 1950s, 1954 when we got to Adelaide. And within a couple of weeks, the Adelaide Hills went up in flames and you could see it burning.
And it was 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Mum cried herself to sleep and cried when she woke up. And finally, Dad said, all right, then take the kids back to England.
I will fulfill the migration contract, which was a two-year contract, and I’ll come back then. And so we did. We went back to England, back the same way through the Suez Canal.
And for me, it was a wonderful experience. You know, I’m still 11 years of age and I’ve already had one six-week journey and now I’m doing another one. Yeah, no school.
No school, yes. And mum just realized that she’d made a mistake. And so we slept back out again, thereby destroying and spending what was left of the Shorrock fortune and had to start from square one again.
We managed to finally get a place in Elizabeth, which at that time was a new suburb meant for newly arrivals. You could call it a detention centre in a way. But it was a great place to grow up.
And of course, at the same time, we got that huge dollop of American culture, which changed all our lives until 1963. Right. Is it true that your very first performance was in a church hall in Elizabeth in 1958? Yeah, I was besotted with Elvis.
I tried to look like Elvis, talk like Elvis, sing like Elvis. I made a cardboard cutout guitar and wore my dad’s sport jacket, which passionately reached my knees. I thought I looked like Eddie Cochran.
And I mimed to All Shook Up. Elvis’ All Shook Up. The record player broke and I just kept singing it.
My girlfriends and my boyfriends said, you know, you sound good. And then I didn’t think too much about it. I just carried on being a fan and a teenager until I left school.
And then I worked in the geological mines department, South Australia. And the two of the big things happened. Kennedy was assassinated and that changed a lot of people’s attitude to life in general.
And I worked alongside Peter Knobloch and he was in a vocal group called The Four Tongue. And they used to sing with a Bill Haley type rock and roll band called The Penny Rockets. I started singing along with him.
And he said, one of our guys is leaving. Why don’t you audition? And I did. And I got the job, the best.
But it didn’t happen because the guy that left said, oh, I want to come back in again. And then left deflated again. But I just said to my friends, why don’t we sing? We started singing folk songs.
Michael rode the boat ashore. Hallelujah. Stuff like that.
That band became The Twilights. You started off calling yourself The Checkmates, didn’t you? Yes, but that lasted about two weeks. It was a vocal group.
I came up with the name The Twilights. I wish I hadn’t, but I did. Why? Why do you say that? It’s such a poofy name.
It didn’t have any balls, you know, it’s just Twilights. What had inspired you to suggest that in the first place? It was a hot night. We were sort of practicing singing, the three of us.
And it was a lovely evening. And I said, it’s the best part of the day, the twilight. Oh, Twilights.
Okay, we’ll do it. That name and that group developed, morphed into the six piece group that people know from Adelaide. And that was the start of my real career, really.
You became incredibly successful as The Twilights. You had eight consecutive hit singles. Did you ever expect that you’d take off like you did? Yeah, I had confidence in myself and confidence in the group itself.
I don’t know what would have happened had The Beatles not come along. I think we may have faded into obscurity, really. The Beatles changed everything much more than Presley did.
You also started writing your own stuff too, Yeah, we were the best cover band in the country for a while. But we gradually winged Terry Britten and Terry became our major songwriter. You mentioned you came to Melbourne after winning the Hoadley’s Battle of the Sounds, which was a pop music contest.
And as winners of that contest, you won a trip to London, which took you across the sea again, yeah? Again. Yeah, that was a big fillip to our career moving along, especially getting on the boat in Melbourne. And here I go again.
Now I’m 20. And here I’m off to England to be as famous as everybody else. Of course, it was a rude awakening.
We dashed ourselves on the white cliffs of Dover and returned home with funny haircuts. What happened there? We decided to come back, basically. It was a mistake.
We should have stayed and tried a bit harder. But we were all yearning for our girlfriends and our fan base that we’d worked so hard to get here in Australia. Had we stayed, we had a booking on Top of the Pops, for God’s sake.
And we didn’t show up for that. Wow. Eventually in 1969, you decided to disband.
Why? We weren’t having any more hits, you know. We just felt we were running out of puff. Our band of brothers, such as it was, we were a fellowship.
So Terry went off with a new manager back to England. I should have gone with him. That’s one of my regrets now.
So when that band split up, it didn’t dash your hopes or desires to be part of a band, did it? Because the next one was just around the corner. No, it did rock me. The Twilight splitting up, they were my mates, my family.
I loved them. How did Axiom come about then in 1969? At Ian Meldrum’s place, at Molly’s place. On a Saturday night, he would have a soiree.
Various bands and artists, having finished their spots around Melbourne, would convene at Ian’s place and we’d drink frothy coffee. And he liked to bake fairy cakes and stuff like that. For anybody listening who doesn’t know the name Ian Molly Meldrum, he was the host of a national television show here in Australia called Countdown, that millions of viewers used to gather around.
I mean, I guess it was the UK’s equivalent of Top of the Pops, wasn’t it? Absolutely. Go back to the party at Ian Meldrum’s house that night where Axiom was born. Yeah, Brian was there that night and he comes up to me and says, I’m sorry, Brian Cad, you’re the former band.
And I said, yeah, okay. Have you got any songs? He said, I’ve got Arkansas Grass. I said, I know you have, but have you got any songs? We just basically grabbed who was there and formed a band.
All of us here in our grey tattered coats could go home If you’d just listen, sir, once again To the reasons of one of your men If you’d make all these things come to pass Then I could be on Arkansas grass Home, home, going along To the sound of the military brass Home, home, lovers alone Lay it on Arkansas grass once again Brian and I were heavily into the band. Second to The Beatles, they’re my favourite band. Brian and I just wanted to have a band like that.
But we came out with, well, Arkansas Grass was a pretty country song. And then Brian and Don wrote Little Ray of Sunshine, which is not like the band at all. It was a very commercially sounding record.
And that became number one. And we still do it together now, years later. Where did the name Axiom come from? I thought that up.
I don’t know where it came up, but it just came up in my mind or it was in the paper or in a book. I can’t remember. Axiom.
And it meant obvious truth. And I thought that was pretty cool for a band. Unlike the Twilights.
Unlike the Twilights. It was a bit heavier. Father said she has to have a name Not the same as her mum, but a name just the same A little ray of sunshine has come into the world A little ray of sunshine in the shape of a girl We’ll show her the dress that she’ll wear With the gold flowing hair that nature provided A little ray of sunshine has come into the world A little ray of sunshine in the shape of a girl A little ray of sunshine I want to know if you think she looks good in the pink Her grandma has bought her Our own little daughter She can make you feel good She can make you feel that it’s all worthwhile Only by her smile Only by her smile Have you noticed she’s just like her father I think that I’d rather Axiom, another band, hugely successful.
Now, if I say to you, did you expect that band to go as far as it did? I guess the answer to that’s probably, yeah, I did too. Yeah, we did. I mean, we had Brian Cadd from the group.
He’d had the hits, writing with Don Moody and Don was in the band. It’s a great time for music in this country, wasn’t it? I guess it was a great time for music right around the world, but it was a great time in Australia for music. Sixty-nine, we’re talking about, aren’t we? Yeah, it was.
There was a lot of work available. Discos and clubs were really popular then. Rock and roll in Australia had a real basis and a real big following of people.
It wasn’t just teenage girls. It was taken seriously. Not that teenage girls are not taken seriously.
I took them very seriously. Yeah. So if Axiom was flying so high, how come that band disbanded in 71? Because Don Moody got sick a lot.
Don left. Brian decided to go back to Australia. I was going through a divorce.
I also had a guru and I was very mystical. So my attention was going that way. I wanted to be Om Shanti, Om Shanti.
You and George Harrison. Yeah, he was obviously an influence. Again, there they go again.
So you stayed in the UK? Yeah, they all went back home or various places, leaving me high and dry again. I was writing songs in earnest. I wrote the seeds of Help Is On Its Way and Statue of Liberty and a few songs that made it into the LRB repertoire.
Glenn remained in the UK writing and pursuing his solo career. He joined the multinational progressive rock band Esperanto and he started performing backup vocals for Cliff Richard.
This is a Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. Glenn Shorrock was determined to make his mark.
Never one to give up on a dream, he persisted in the UK until he received an offer that he simply couldn’t refuse. Australia was calling him back. I tried to be a solo artist but that was difficult.
I had to go and live outside of London in Surrey. I lived there by myself with my guitar and a black cat called Rastus. I was a hippie.
I was right into it. Russell Morris was across the valley in another place and he and I used to hang out and smoke dope and have a good time and I had a little scooter and it was a songwriting time. Was that also the time you started doing backup vocals for Cliff Richard? Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I did get some gigs as a session singer. There was an Aussie mafia, we used to call it, that revolved around Peter Gormley who was an Australian manager of Cliff Richard and the Shadows. And I skirted around the outskirts of that trying to say, you know, I’m still here, I’ve got some songs and they helped.
Terry, meanwhile, was ahead of me. He’d formed a band called Quartet and they were doing acoustic music. They were doing very beautiful Crosby, Stills and Mesh-like songs and I secretly wanted to be part of it but I didn’t push myself again.
Let’s move on to Mississippi because they were an Aussie rock band that was working in the UK at the time and you came to their attention. You knew the guys already and they’ve reached out for you, didn’t they? Yeah, I didn’t know they were there. I’d been sent their early stuff that they had released in England.
Yes, they still are here. It’s so near. We’ll come back again.
To this time and the means of the world. I knew Beeb from The Zoot but that’s all and I knew they were managed by Glen Wheatley and they were falling apart as well and Beeb and Graham and Derek, the drummer, wanted to form another band and Glen Wheatley suggested putting me in front of it. If I can just back you up one second.
So we’re talking about Graham Goble who wrote most of the songs for Little River Band to come, Derek Pellicci who was on drums for Little River Band and Glen Wheatley who’d been the former bass guitarist for an Australian band called The Master’s Apprentices. Correct, yeah. Not because we’re far apart It’s because I love you And because you’re near my heart It’s because I miss you Oh, how long it seems to be It’s because I miss you Thoughts of you come back to me Do what you wanna do, be what you wanna be, yeah Do what you wanna do, be what you wanna be, yeah There was a bit of continuity going on there, so I went back to Australia in October and we put the band together late 74, early 75 and quickly got a contract because we had some experience in the whole game.
But I didn’t like Mississippi as a name, so I decided, having seen a road sign, we were down in Victoria on our way to a gig and we passed a sign saying Little River Exit, 2 miles. And I thought, we’re all in the car, I said what about Little River, sounds like a song doesn’t it? Little River Band? Nah, they didn’t like it. Anyway, I won.
I won the title again. I happen to know where Little River Exit is and for anybody who doesn’t, it’s not the nicest part of Melbourne or Victoria is it? No, it’s right near Lara and places like that. We could have been called the Geelong Band.
Yeah, you probably wouldn’t have had as much traction. Little River Band worked for you though, as you said. Yeah, but there’s a little river everywhere in the world, you know, in various countries, especially in America, there’s plenty of those.
And Wheatley was aiming us at America, unbeknownst to us, who was still working on being a working band and getting a repertoire together and getting out on the road and doing our stuff. And it’s a long way there to be. Hey everybody, don’t you feel that there’s something that you know in the moment it is gone? Hear people say that they know and they care for everyone.
And I feel like I’ve been here for the knowing all. We had big visions for Little River Band right from the get go. Yeah, pretty much, I think, yes.
Well, he’d had some experience in LA, co-managing the New Seekers, and he knew what we were doing and he thought it was an American sounding band. So let’s go there. As Brian said, you know, Axiom should have stayed on that course as well, but we didn’t.
It was the time, wasn’t it, when Australian bands couldn’t sound Australian, when everybody had to emulate either a UK band or an American sound. I think it came a little bit later where Australian bands started to write and sing about our own country and sound Indigenous. Oh yeah, I think we definitely sounded not Australian.
We were an American sounding band. And you had to be that to be successful there. Yeah, but Dingoes, Skyhawks, various other bands in Australia at that time did sound Australian.
Their songs were constructed around social life in Australia itself. But they didn’t have as big a success in the US as you guys did. No, but they deserved it.
Dingoes certainly tried hard at it. We used to see a lot of them in San Francisco and we actually did a couple of gigs together with them. I headed out west for a brand new life Just to get away Living and working on the land The work is hard but the pay is good And I take me a rest if I only could Cause it’s hot out here Living and working on the land They give you a house made of fibrous cement You don’t need no money cause you don’t have no rent And it’s not so cheap Living and working on the land Little River Band went on to become one of the most successful bands ever to come out of Australia.
You were the first to achieve major commercial success in the US. I mean, you really wrote the rule book and set the way for a whole lot of bands to follow. Yeah, we were touted as being the college band, you know, the college music scene.
And we were tailored for that. A lot of people thought we were British or whatever, but they didn’t think we were Australian. There was one program director who was enamored with early Australian music.
He plugged ACDC and Little River Band both at the same time. We finally had a couple of more college type hits. I’ll Always Call Your Name was one of them.
And then I wrote Help Is On Its Way and that became our breakthrough AM market hit. So much hurry Is it real if things slow down? What’s it like inside the bubble? It’s motion trading in Hang on Help is on its way I’ll be there as fast as I can Hang on A tiny voice can say Somewhere deep inside the inner man Illusion, surrounded by illusion Sort it out You’ll make out Seem to make a good Australia and Australian voices hadn’t become flavor of the day yet in the U.S. You were still paving the way for that. And your songwriting had obviously improved over the years.
You were gaining in confidence with what you were writing, yeah? Yes, I was also surrounding myself with writers in the same motivation who wrote really good songs. Graham Gove has written some beautiful songs. He is a songwriter.
I’m a performer. I’m a seller of songs. And I surround myself with guys who can write better songs than I can.
Always Terry Britton, Dave Birtles, Graham Gove. And I struggle along with my sort of three chord, folky, easy accessible songs. Like Emma and Curiosity Killed It.
I don’t know, I didn’t like that. I don’t know. Premonition, I didn’t write that, but that’s indicative of how good Graham Gove is.
That’s a classic song. Glenn, what was it like for you getting the reception you were getting all around America at the time? That would have just blown your mind, wouldn’t it? It did. We didn’t realize how good we were compared with other American bands we were on stage with.
We worked in early stages supporting the Average White Band. They’re English, of course. Doobie Brothers.
And they were good bands, but we were just as good as them. And we sounded as good as what the Americans were hearing on the radio. In fact, people would come up and say, how come you sound so much like your records? I said, well, whose records would you like to sound like? No, we had a lot of credibility as being a good live band.
And that gradually smoldered away. It didn’t catch fire, but it certainly got us there. Yeah, it sure did.
Was it tough being on the road as much as you were through the States? No, it was great. I loved it. Every minute of it, huh? Just about every minute.
I filled every minute with what I could. Yeah, I really lived the part. I said, finally, I’m here.
I’m in America. I’ve got songs in the charts. I’ve got girls.
I’ve got drugs. I’ve got everything. I just devoured it.
I wasn’t nuts. I wasn’t crazy. But I certainly enjoyed myself.
And I enjoyed the touring scene with the buses and the road crews. It was good. We traversed America backwards and forwards for seven years until things started to change.
If there’s one thing in my life that’s missing It’s the time that I spend alone Sailing on the cool and bright clear water There’s lots of those friendly people They’re showing me ways to go But I never want to lose their inspiration Time for a cool change I know that it’s time for a cool change And now that my life is so prearranged I know that it’s time for a cool change Well, I was born in the sign of water And it’s there that I feel my best The albatross and the whales, they are my brothers It’s kind of a special feeling When you’re out on the sea alone Staring at the full moon like a lover Little River Band went on to become one of the most successful bands ever to come out of Australia and the first to achieve major commercial success in the United States. But the incredible harmonies that the group sung were no match for the disharmony that began to engulf its members. Following a world tour, frontman Glenn Shorrock abruptly left LRB in 1982 supposedly to focus on his solo career.
This is a Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye. It’s a beautiful day. When Glenn Shorrock left Little River Band, the public was told it had been his decision because he wanted to go it alone.
His 79 cover of Bobby Darin’s hit Dream Lover was cited as being the first of what was to be many solo releases. Glenn says this couldn’t have been further from the truth. Well, I didn’t leave.
I was asked to leave. Why? Because I was a naughty boy and didn’t have enough conviction of Graham Goble’s quest for world superiority. He still thinks we were the Beatles.
He and I didn’t hit it off. He was still interested in making the band his band, playing his music, and me was his cohort. I was the third songwriter in the group and I was pretty much on my own.
I didn’t have a lot of clout. Reminiscing and those sort of Graham Goble songs, they were really good, but they don’t rock. They don’t have the roots feeling that I wanted.
I would have taken the band down the country road a lot more than Graham wanted it. He wanted it to be more Beatles or electric light orchestra. They said, we don’t want to work with you anymore.
Graham had already seduced John Farnham to join. So I attended a meeting and I was told, I’m no longer wanted. We’re going to use John Farnham.
So I, in my diplomatic fashion, told him to get it and I’ll do it myself and I didn’t. How to tell you girl I want to build my world around you That is true I want to make you understand I’m talking about a lifetime plan And we were hand in hand Ben Miller’s band was better Free from all It ended all too soon Were you very hurt? Yeah. Oh yeah.
There’s no loyalty to that band. It’s a swings and roundabout Revolving door Still is, you know, still working As Little River Band There’s no one I know Oh yeah, Wayne Nelson’s the lead singer now They don’t have a lead singer Wayne’s their singer Wayne was a good friend of mine But a lot of water’s been under the Little River Bridge So it’s the ghost still stalks me The songs are still good People want to hear those songs And they want to hear me singing those songs Not John Farnham And the Americans didn’t want John Farnham They wanted good old Glenn Shorrock Knock about whatever it was So John left disillusioned as well And then they decided after a bit of a hiatus To get me back in And I rejoined with conditions Well that didn’t work either By then the momentum had lost So I decided to go my own way I was doing all sorts of other things During that time away from LRB I produced and wrote a show called One For The Money Which was a review type send up satirical show About pop music And there was three episodes of that One for the money Two for the show Three to get ready I didn’t do Go Cat Go Because we ran out of puff there And I was doing a lot of solo work Just with my own band Straight after leaving LRB I garnered together a whole bunch of songs And John Boylan who had produced all the hits for LRB Became my producer So we did an album called The Land Of The Peace We accused of getting kinda lazy Letting down gets a little harder To stay enthusiastic Blame it on the passage of time Round and round the world we go Getting high and feeling low Doing our best just to please What can you expect At the end of the journey Glory or a social disease It’s getting even harder To find who’s to blame Where can you run now Where can you go Can you put a finger on it Can you find a name The villain of the peace is the ego I was really happy with it But it didn’t work No one played it So that died a death Well you know Life’s hard isn’t it Sometimes it’s good And sometimes it’s bad Goes in swings and roundabouts doesn’t it That’s for sure Swings and failures whatever yeah Glenn Shorrie What about the naming rights to LRB I’ve heard a few different stories About how you guys lost those naming rights And I guess you’d probably be a little Peeved off with the fact that you had done But how did that happen Was that a mistake Basically yeah They took their eye off the ball Graham Goble and Glenn Wheatley Signed the name We2 which was the company name Of the trading name They signed it off To somebody else We don’t need to go into the whole Situation with it But suffice to say that The original members of Little River Band Couldn’t use the name anymore Even when you came together Several years later Yeah Yeah we wanted to do it again But we weren’t able to The injunctions and all sorts of stuff Legal problems And so we decided to give it a crack As Birtle, Shorrie, Goble And we put together a really hot band But that didn’t catch on The Americans wanted the LRV sound again Look around you Look up here Take time to make time Make time to be there Look around Be a part Feel for the winter But don’t have a cold heart And I love you best You’re not like the rest You’re there when I need you You’re there when I need I’m gonna need you A long time ago I had a lady to love She made me think of things I never thought of Now she’s gone And I’m on my own A love song has gone A love song was there all the time So lady Let me take a look at you now There’s so many things that happened And still are happening I call it the ghost of LRV Stalks me like Macbeth or something Very romantic about it I still sing those songs I still sing Graham Gould’s Reminiscing And a couple of other songs that he’s written But I’m an entertainer I don’t rely just on writing really fantastic songs I’m a good entertainer And that’s what I like to do I like to make people laugh And I like to make people cry And Brian Cad is similar to me And we do well together I put shows together with Doug Parkinson God rest his soul And Wendy Matthews The three of us went out on the road for a while That sort of stuff I’m interested in Working with other people I’m pleased to say that I’m still in demand For the festival type shows that come along With Brian and Ross Wilson And Dale Braithwaite and Russell Morris Of course, all the top echelon Australian performers Of course Can you guess where I’m calling from? The Las Vegas Hilton I know it’s hard to hear It’s just the echo on the line Yes that’s right I’m calling from The Las Vegas Hilton Just want to say that I’m feeling fine I’ll be home on a Monday Somewhere around noon Please don’t be angry I’ll be back with you real soon You released your autobiography now Where Was I? in 2018 And in 2020 you received an Order of Australia For your service as a singer, songwriter and entertainer You’re obviously happy with what you’re doing now And the performances that you are putting together Is there anything still on your bucket list that is unattained? Yeah I want to get back to America And sing to American audiences one more time But the bosses won’t let me The legal thing, they’re putting junctions on me But hell, I’m 18 I don’t have the get up and go to do it all over again I just wanted to sing to the American audiences They like my singing and I like singing to them So yeah I’d like to do that again I’m remarried now I’ve got a really strong lady behind me And we’ve got plans for ourselves We’re going to do a lot more travelling As long as the phone rings every now and again People offer me work then I’ll keep going But I’m not going to get on that ladder anymore I’m not going to get on the roundabout I’ve had the golden ring All that jargon about that sort of stuff I’ve been there, I’ve done it And it was great It sure was, and it still is Glenn Shorrock What an absolute delight to chat with you I thank you so much for spending the time with us here And thank you so much for the music You’ve made a huge impact Not only to Australian music and culture But right around the world And people everywhere I’m sure Would offer their congratulations and thanks That’s very kind of you, thanks a lot Glenn Shorrock was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association Hall of Fame in 1991 In 2004 the original members of LRB Were inducted into the Hall of Fame as a band They toured together until 2007 In 2016 Glenn released his first album in many years Called Rise Again Glenn then picked up an Order of Australia in 2020 And today at 80 years of age I guess it’s to be expected That he now suffers with a few health problems I’m restricted a bit now I don’t move around on stage much I sit and sing We’re keeping it at bay with a lot of medication Gosh, I take so many pills I sound like I’m a wracker All my vitals are in check And working for me You’re freaking awesome for 80 I joke about it, I say I can’t stop singing Dear Prudence Poor old Doug Yeah, we miss him Dear Prudence Greet the brand-new day The sun is up, the sky is blue It’s beautiful and so are you Dear Prudence Won’t you come out to play Dear Prudence Open up your eyes Dear Prudence See the sunny sky Thanks so much for joining me today I hope you’ve enjoyed the story of the Little River Band and Glenn Shorrock’s incredible career I’m looking forward to being back with you again same time next week I’ll see you then, okay? Bye now It’s a beautiful day You’ve been listening to A Breath of Fresh Air with Sandy Kaye It’s a beautiful day Oh, baby, any day that you’re gone away It’s a beautiful day.