DOWNLOAD NO.374 - WARREN CARR

Warren Carr has other posts on this blog. Please use the search facility at top left to locate them.

Wazza was born in Newcastle NSW (according to one of my sources) and spent most of his life at the piano. Warren played with John Konrad's Kaydets (1960) and in Johnny O'Keefe's backing band. Warren made many recordings for the Leedon label from 1961 to 1964, they are mostly in what has been described as "honky tonk" style. He went from backing and session work, to early appearances on Bandstand and Six O'Clock Rock, then to a long running gig on ABC TV Playschool as "Mr Music". His sons Darren and Mark have careers in country music nowadays. Warren's wife was also a performer.

Albums include:

"Li'l' Ole Me & My Piano"
"Party Time Piano"
"50 Years of Evergreens"
"36 Hollywood Hits"
"Warren Carr Plays Twin Honky Tonk Pianos"
"40 All Time Honky Tonk Hits"

E.P.s include:

"Li'l' Ole Mr Sunshine" 1961
"Warren Carr Plays Johnny O'Keefe" 1961
"Warren Carr Plays Rondo" 1962
"Toy Piano" 1963
"12 All Time Favourites" 1965

Singles include:

"You Are My Sunshine" / "Middle 8" 1961
"Li'l Old Me" / "Intro" 1961
"Rondo" / "Chopsticks" 1962
"Harry Lime Theme" / "My Colouring Book" 1963
"The Mexican Bug" / "Tokyo" circa 1965
"Life Is What You Make Of It" / "Ramblin'" 1972

Some of his singles have previously appeared on CD but are long deleted.

For download is the album "Party Time Piano With Warren Carr". Both of Warren's 1961 hits "You Are My Sunshine" and "Li'l' Ole Me" appear on this album but are in mono although the album is supposedly "stereo".

Side 1:

Corinne, Corina
In The Good Old Summer Time
Middle 8
Hot Toddy
That Happy Feeling
Li'L' Ole Me

Side 2:

Tipperary
The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise
South
She's My baby
Right Now
You Are Mys Sunshine

Both sides of this album are in a zip file which has the regular password found elsewhere on this blog:

http://rapidshare.com/files/379808290/wazza.zip

DOWNLOAD NO.373 - LES WELCH

Les Welch was a band leader in the WW2 period and racked up many number ones back in the days before top 40 charts came into existence. His repertoire included novelty, pop and jazz hits all played with his infectious swing style.

His early singles include: "And They Call It Dixieland", "Saturday Night Fish Fry", "Mule Train", "Pacific Boogie-Woogie", "I Didn't Know The Gun Was Loaded", "Get Up Offa That Floor Hannah", "That Lucky Old Sun", "Hucklebuck", "Caravan" "Lover's Gold", "On The Sunny Side Of The Street", "Music, Music, Music", "If I Knew You Were Coming", "Candy And Cake", "Grose Grobe Mama", "Rosetta", "Mona Lisa's Daughter" which was the flip of "I Don't Care If The Sun Don't Shine", "Les' Yancey Beat", "Count Every Star", "Hand Out Song" "Chug A Lug", "Here You Are", "The Thing", "Hold On"...This list is is just some of the more than 100 singles he released!

He was still working in the 1960s and often backed other artists. One of his 1960s hits was "A Man Called Peter" with singer Daryl Stewart. In fact, there were many artists that had top 40 hits using Mr Welch's arrangements or his band in an uncredited role.

The vinyl album here for download has never been transferred to CD. It contains a few stereo remakes that were coupled with mono original hits from the 1940s and 50s.

Tracks:

I've Got A Luverly Bunch of Coconuts (stereo remake).
Birth Of The Blues.
Elevator Boogie Blues.
In The Book.
Pacific Boogie-Woogie (mono hit mix)
Cigarettes, Whiskey And Wild, Wild Women.
Bucket's Got A Hole In It.
And They Called It Dixieland (original hit mix).
Round The Clock Momma.
Outskirts Of Town.
Saturday Night Fish Fry (stereo remake).
Blues For Yancey.
Basin Street Blues.
You're Driving Me Crazy.
I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate.

The files are in a zip with the usual password: http://tommixmusic.blogspot.com/

Please enjoy!

http://rapidshare.com/files/377238029/welch.zip

DOWNLOAD NO.372 - JASON DARNELL

Jason Darnell aka Duggie Dean, was born Douglas Owen White 29th May 1935 in Hampstead London He was raised in the village of Parkend in the Forest Of Dean Gloucestershire. He had numerous low paid and menial jobs before joining the Royal Air Force after WW2. He formed a couple of troop entertainment groups before departing after 3 years service. Doug (Jason) and his then comedy and musical partner set up shop on Barry Island where he learned the ropes of theatre entertainment and slowly began performing across South Wales. He had numerous name changes as his status improved in cabaret, performing up and down the seaside circuit in England.

After touring the UK circuit Doug was asked to top the bill on the P & O Empress Cruiser, with the Eric Winstone orchestra, and it was on one of his cruises to Canada that he changed his stage name to Jason Darnell.

Cruises to Australia were Jason’s favourite – he met his future manager and producer Ian McCallum on one of these trips, and he was invited to appear on the TV show New Faces, which he won first place representing Sydney. Later on another visit to Australia he represented Melbourne, and once again won first place.

He was then engaged to perform throughout the Federal Hotel Circuit which was a major chain in Australia at the time. He gained a lot of fans and good friends on this tour, and Jason was then signed by Festival Records and released his first record for them. The song was the ballad “Love Is All” in 1973 - his recording was requested and played regularly on all the popular radio shows. The “B” side of the record was “Sail Along Silv'ry Moon” it went into some Oz charts, and was particularly popular with listening audiences in Tasmania. So popular was Jason in Tasmania, and he was so taken with the people and scenery, he left Melbourne and moved to his new home in Hobart.

After a few enjoyable years in Hobart, which included hosting his own weekly TV and Radio shows, he returned to Sydney where he appeared on all the big Saturday night Television shows. Next, Jason went onto star in various touring musical theatre groups and played the role of “Prince Charming” for more than 3 years with a travelling company that swept across Australia and New Zealand. Doug is still going strong as of 2009 and still doing cabaret.

For download are both sides of his 1973 single. My personal favourites is "Sail Along Silv'ry Moon". Enjoy!

http://rapidshare.com/files/377172681/jason_darnell_-_love_is_all__vinyl_tom_mix_.mp3

http://rapidshare.com/files/377178152/jason_darnell_-_sail_along_silvery_moon__vinyl_tom_mix_.mp3

DOWNLOAD N0.371 - MOONSHINE JUG AND STRING BAND (The Angels)

Before Doc Neeson and the Angels were charting with their high-powered Oz rock the band had much more humble beginnings. They started in Adelaide as The Moonshine Jug and String Band which played "washboard rock".

In November 1970, brothers Rick and John Brewster formed The Moonshine Jug and String Band. In 1971 the band was joined by Doc Neeson, an arts student and former Army sergeant and already a prominent figure on the Adelaide music scene. The band performed at university campuses and in 1973 released their debut E.P. "Keep You on the Move", which made the top 5 in Adelaide. This was followed in 1974 by the single "That's All Right With Me". Both these releases were on John Woodruff's Sphere label. Woodruff went on to become the band's manager for most of its career.

In 1974 they changed their name to The Keystone Angels, switched to electric instruments and began playing 1950s rock and roll on the pub circuit. On 3 August 1974, just before Go-Set magazine, a number of small ads started appearing weekly announcing "The KEYSTONE ANGELS are coming", possibly the first mention of the band in an Australian national rock music publication.

In 1975 the band supported AC/DC during a tour, and later performed as the backing band for Chuck Berry. They dropped "Keystone" from their name and became simply "The Angels". At this point the band was a four-piece with Neeson on bass guitar, Charlie King (Peter Christopolous) on drums, Rick Brewster on lead guitars and John Brewster on lead vocals and rhythm guitar.

The Angels' first single, "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again", was released in April 1976. From this point there was no stopping the band who have been in and out of the charts since.

This download is the vinyl E.P. which has four songs: "Keep You On The Move", "On The Road Again", "Tell My Friends" and "Mad Mandy" plus as a bonus the track "Keep You On The Move" taken from CD.

Thanks again to Jimmy Barnes for these vinyl oldies.

http://rapidshare.com/files/376736321/moon_jug.zip

DOWNLOAD NO.370 - AUNTY JACK

The TV show Aunty Jack was a creation of Grahame Bond who has always claimed that many of his ideas and skits were similar but ahead of the Monty Python team who were the UK comedy team who sang "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life".

Aunty was ably assisted by Thin Arthur aka Rory O'Donoghue who always acted as the voice of reason and prevented many a person from having their arms ripped off by Aunty.

Garry McDonald also made appearances in the show and played two memorable characters, roving reporter Norman Gunston and Kid Eager. Gunston was there at Parliament House when Gough Whitlam was sacked...one of the most memorable moments of the whole incident!

The TV show was at the forefront of comedy around the mid-1970s and is fondly remembered.

Most of their lunacy is on DVD and there is a double CD of their music called "Aunty Jack Sings Wollongong".

"Teenage Butcher" and "Doin' The Kev" came out in 1975 on the Polydor label. Both tracks are in a zip file - no password - courtesy of regular contributor Jimmy Barnes, who as you can see, has a rare signed copy of the single!

http://rapidshare.com/files/376728068/aunty.zip

DOWNLOAD NO.369 - JOHNNY O'KEEFE

There are few times when I can post a whole album knowing it has never been released on CD and this is one of them.

The Delltones make an appearance on this 1975 album as well as some very fine studio musos.

The track list is on the front cover so please click and enlarge the picture if you can't read them.

The 320kb mp3 files are stored in a zip file with the usual password as indicated on other posts on this blog.

Cheers,

Tom

http://rapidshare.com/files/376172272/o_keefe.zip

DOWNLOAD NO.368 - LAUREL LEA

Laurel Lea, born Lorraine Lianos, was a regular Australia TV singer on shows such as Brian Henderson's "Bandstand" and Johnny O'Keefe's "Six O'clock Rock" in the late 1950s early 1960s, mostly singing cover versions of US hits. She started out with Lee Gordon on his Leedon label in 1958 (same year I was born) with a backing group called The Crescents. Laurel married fellow "Bandstand" singer Kevin Todd, and had a son Mark.

Laurel's parents owned a travelling rock 'n' roll tent show. In the 60s, she travelled with them around Australia doing rock shows in local halls, and in the mid-1970s, she joined back up with Johnny O'Keefe and a few others from the earlier rock years, appearing in clubs together in the "Good Old Days of Rock 'n' Roll" show. Laurel made several records, but had little chart success. Her biggest hit was "Treasure Of Your Love". She also had a band in the 80s called "Chockarock," which toured the pub/club circuit and played old time rock and roll. Laurel died on January 31 sadly two weeks before her son's wedding , 1992 of Leukaemia.

The reason I have placed this set of 7 songs here for download is because there is very little of Laurel's work commercially available. The songs in this zip file come from video, CD and vinyl sources...two tracks are from contributors on Midoztouch and some of the information used here is also from Midoz...three tracks are from my own CD collection...and one is from Youtube. I have processed the original sound files with "click repair" and got them all to similar volume levels etc. They are 320KB mp3 mono files.

The Canetoad CD company in Sydney NSW has more Laurel tracks for sale, if you are a fan!

The poster above has a great list of Oz performers including Billy Thorpe, Aztecs, Digger Revell, Kevin Todd, Barry Stanton, Dave Bridge Trio, Kelly Green and Laurel Lea (click to enlarge). NB. Kelly Green was married to Barry Stanton and they had 2 children before divorcing.

The Laurel Lea zip file has a password: http://tommixmusic.blogspot.com/

http://rapidshare.com/files/373787265/laurel.zip