9.4.10

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
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11 comments:

  1. RAMApril 16, 2010 at 8:01 AM

    Thanks so much for putting these tracks together. It's such a shame that Laurel was so under recorded

    Cheers,
    RAM

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  2. Big ErnMay 12, 2010 at 2:52 AM

    What a great poster!!!!!

    I want it so bad!!!

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  3. sallie6May 29, 2010 at 3:48 AM

    Hi Tom
    I'm sallie6 from Youtube where you must have got your Laurel Lee music from?
    I was wondering if you have any more songs of hers to share with me because they're all I have been able to locate.
    I've had a request from her son Mark to send anything else available because he said he's got nothing except the memory of his mum and some old photos (which he said he'll send me copies of soon). I was thinking of doing a tribute to her on Youtube once I get a spare minute.

    Thanks xxx

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  4. AnonymousAugust 24, 2010 at 1:50 AM

    I had the honour back in early 1964 of having Laurel as our guest artist singing at a 60/40 dance at Glenelg Town Hall in Adelaide. Because it was my band, "The Gasmen", who would be her backing band on the night, I had the privilage of picking her up for Saturday afternoon rehersal from the Brighton Hotel where she was staying. Lovely lady with a lovely voice too. A huge loss when she passed away so early in her life.

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  5. AnonymousSeptember 8, 2010 at 7:02 AM

    has anyone any information about Kevin Todd his life etc?

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  6. AnonymousJanuary 1, 2011 at 3:52 PM

    How do I obtain the password for the Laurel Lea zipped file?
    Thanks...

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  7. Lyn NuttallJanuary 2, 2011 at 5:35 PM

    That poster is a treasure! In fact, your whole blog is a treasure trove. Glad I found it!

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  8. lornacarmelMarch 19, 2011 at 10:47 PM

    Hi Tom
    How do I obtain the password for the Laurel Lea zipped file please? Thanks for your help (and for posting this material by a great and today sadly a largely forgotten Aussie artist)

    ReplyDelete
  9. PerterMay 10, 2011 at 11:51 PM

    I am sure Laurel was at one time married to Kevin Todd.. can somebody confirm this

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  10. AnonymousDecember 15, 2012 at 7:03 PM

    Sadly DL no longer available.

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  11. rockinlukeDecember 15, 2013 at 11:17 PM

    yes Laurel and Kevin were married and they had a son. Kevin Todd is still around but does not song

    ReplyDelete

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