Rob Guest (17 July 1950 – 2 October 2008) was a British-born performer who had enjoyed a long career on the stage and screen. He was the world's longest serving Phantom Of The Opera having played the title role for seven years in both Oz and NZ. Rob left England and lived in Canada for a while where he sang in a pop band called Apparition. By 1968 he had moved to NZ where he sang in a band called The Shore Thing. In 1969 they changed their name to Apparition. They recorded a couple of non-hit NZ singles and by 1970 Rob was in a band called In-Betweens.
His solo career began in 1972 when he signed with Polydor. The first single was "House Of Cards" and was followed by "All The Time In The World". In 1973 he had "Mr Blue" and then shared one side of a single with the Footsteps. His side was "Oh What A Day". A one off single on the Family label came in 1974 called "I Can't Make You Love Me".
Rob started doing stage work and his recordings slowed for a while with only occasional releases happening, like "Sing" in 1977. He joined Festival in 1978 releasing a single
"Hangin' On", written by Mike Harvey, and then an album in 1979 called "Dedication". The title track "Dedication" was released as a single.Also in 1979 a single on the Key label came out, "There'll Never Be Another For Me". During the eighties Rob only released three solo singles. On Festival in 1980, "Can't Play With You" and then RCA in 1984 "Show Me How To Be Like You" and 1987 "Celebration (Rugby World Cup Song)".
Rob’s stage musical career flourished in Australia where he had leading roles in Phantom, Les Miserables, Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. He died in 2008 while starring as the Wizard of Oz in the Melbourne stage production of Wicked.
His biggest selling single “Hangin' On” was from 1978. Rob sang this song when he was representing New Zealand in the South Pacific Song Contest.
The version for download is the single 7" mix:
http://rapidshare.com/files/285793739/Rob_Guest_-_Hanging_On.mp3
Tom,
ReplyDeleteInteresting to note the Catalogue number on the single being K 89 - especially as Festival didn't start recycling the Catalogue numbers until 1986-87. I wonder if it was only released in some states hence the different number to the rest of the K series which was in the 6000 sequence by 1978.
In addition to using the same sequence in New Zealand as in Australia, Festival also used a separate K series in New Zealand for New Zealand-only releases, such as those from the Propeller Label. The only way to know whether a release is from the NZ-only sequence is to check the release year.
DeleteThe label illustrated is a New Zealand issue, identifiable by type fonts different from those used on Australian Festival-group singles. The catalogue number is the same as that of the Australian issue, but according to my research K-89 is definitely from 1986 _ so perhaps this is a re-issue.
Delete