Skyhooks

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Skyhooks were an Australian rock band of the 1970s, sometimes classified as a glam rock band, although this is mainly the result of the band's flamboyant costumes and make-up.

Skyhooks live at Nambassa 1978

1 Line-up and history
2 Discography
3 Books
4 External links

[edit] Line-up and history

The 'classic' line-up of the band was:

Graeme "Shirley" Strachan (vocalist) (died in 2001)
Red Symons (guitarist, vocalist)
Bob "Bongo" Starkie (guitarist, vocalist)
Greg Macainsh (bassist, vocalist)
Imants "Freddie" Strauks (drummer, vocalist), aka "Freddie Kaboodleschnitzer"

Other musicians included:

Original lead singer — Steve Hill (died in 2005)
Original guitarist — Peter Inglis
Original guitarist — Peter Starkie
Replacement singer (Post Strachan)— Tony Williams
Replacement guitarist (Post Symons) — Bob Spencer

Skyhooks' debut Album Living in the Seventies

Skyhooks was formed from the ashes of two Greg Macainsh groups, Reubin Tice and Frame, the first a local group that hardly ever ventured out of its alternate lifestyle Eltham area, the second a group that looked for gigs in inner suburban Melbourne.

Skyhooks formed ca. 1973. They gained a cult following around Melbourne but a poorly-received performance at the 1974 Sunbury Festival saw the group booed off the stage. Soon afterwards, the original lead singer Steve Hill resigned. To replace him, the group recruited occasional singer, surfer and carpenter Graeme Strachan. The replacement of Hill by Strachan was a pivotal moment for the band, as Strachan had remarkable vocal skills, magnetic stage and screen presence. Alongside Macainsh's acerbic lyrics, another vital facet of the group's sound was the twin-guitar attack of Red Symons and Bob "Bongo" Starkie (younger brother of original guitarist Peter Starkie).

Adopting elements of glam rock in their presentation and with lyrics that presented frank depictions of the social life of young Australia in the 1970s, the band shocked conservative middle Australia with their outrageous (for the time) costumes, lyrics, and on-stage activities, with the result that seven of the ten tracks on their debut album were banned by Australian commercial radio. Much of the group's success derived from its distinctive repertoire, most of which was penned by bassist Greg Macainsh.

Although Skyhooks was not the first Australian rock band to write songs in Australia, about Australians, for Australians (rather than ditties about love or songs about New York or other foreign lands), they were the first band to do so and be commercially successful, and the songs were set apart from much of the pop fare of the time thanks to Macainsh's mordant humour.^{[citation needed]}

After initially only charting in Melbourne upon its release in September 1974, their first album, Living in the Seventies, went on to spent 16 weeks at the top of the Australian national charts from February to June 1975. It became the best selling Australian album ever up to that time with 240,000 copies sold in Australia. A single lifted from the album Living in the Seventies, "Horror Movie", made number one in the Australian singles chart for 2 weeks in March 1975. The follow-up album Ego is not a Dirty Word, came a close second at 180,000 copies, and 11 weeks at the top of the Australian album chart from July 1975. The band's success was also widely credited with saving the struggling Mushroom record label and enabling it to develop into the most successful independent Australian label of its time.

Skyhooks' second album, Ego is not a Dirty Word

Both these LPs were produced by Ross Wilson, former lead singer of Daddy Cool, which had been the most successful Australian rock group of the early 1970s. Wilson championed the group, signing them to a publishing contract and convincing Mushroom Records boss Michael Gudinski to give them a recording contract.

The success of Living in the Seventies was mainly due to the enormous support the band were given by the TV pop show Countdown, rather than support from radio — in fact, most of the tracks on the LP had been banned by commercial radio because of their sex and drug references. Despite the ban, and as a deliberate act of provocation to commercial radio, the ABC's newly established 24-hour rock music station Double Jay chose the album's fifth track, the provocatively titled "You Just Like Me Cos I'm Good In Bed" as the first track played on air on its first day of broadcasting on January 19, 1975.

Inevitably their attention was turned to America. Thrown out there without a lot of support American critics took one look at Red Symons’ make-up and extended tongue and dismissed the band as a copy of the just-arrived Kiss, worlds away from the truth. But they came back to Australia with a third Ross Wilson produced album, Straight in a Gay Gay World, the title, songs and cover (of a black sheep) clearly some kind of commentary on their American experience.

Skyhooks went on to release two more studio albums, 'Guilty Until Proven Insane' in 1978 and 'Hot for the Orient' in 1980. The former containing well known hits 'Women in Uniform', 'BBB Boogie' and 'Why Dontcha All Get *ucked' and reached #6 on Australian album charts.

From 1975 to 1977 Skyhooks were (alongside Sherbet) the most commercially successful group in Australia, but over the next few years, Skyhooks rapidly faded from the public eye with the departure of key members, and in 1980 the band announced its break-up in controversial circumstances. The demands for the band to reform were successful in 1983, with a record sum of money being paid for each of the original members to play a series of concerts. Further reformations took place in 1984, and in 1990 the band finally recorded new material, Jukebox in Siberia, which shot to the top of the charts.

Also in 1990, 'The Latest and Greatest: 16 Greatest Hits' compilation was released. The tracks were taken from Skyhooks' first four studio albums along with two recent hits, 'Jukebox in Siberia' and 'Tall Timber'.

"Shirley" Strachan and Red Symons both went on to successful careers in Australian commercial television. Symons now works on ABC radio and writes humorous columns for the press. After the demise of Skyhooks, Starkie still plays locally, Strauks became the drummer in the later line-up of noted Melbourne rock band The Sports, and other acts such as The Bushwackers and the Old Skydaddys. Macainsh played with John Farnham, and in recent years has been a board member of both APRA and PPCA, and is currently completing a Law Degree. Strachan was killed in an air crash on August 29, 2001, when the helicopter he was learning to fly crashed into Mount Archer near Kilcoy, northwest of Brisbane.

A memorial concert was held to pay tribute to Strachan at the Palais Theatre shortly thereafter. (On September 11 2001) Tributes were paid and the remaining members of the most popular Hooks line ups (Strauks, Macainsh, Starkie, Symons and Spencer) performed with guest vocalists Daryl Braithwaite and Ross Wilson. (It is the only time Red Symons and his replacement, Bob Spencer have performed together on stage.) Braithwaite performed All My Friends Are Getting Married with the band whilst Wilson sang the rare Skyhooks track Warm Wind In The City.

A night to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the release of the Living in the 70s album was held in 2004. It was a historic night with several different incarnations of the band performing. The only absences were Strachan, Hill and original guitarist Peter Inglis.

The Skyhooks and Hill then reformed in 2005 at the Annandale Hotel in Sydney for a one-off gig. Hill had been diagnosed with cancer and the original Skyhooks, Inglis, Starkie, Strauks and Macainsh joined with Hill to show their support.

The name "Skyhooks" comes from an imaginary device created in the book Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator used to hold the elevator up in mid-air. See skyhook.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Australian singles

(7" vinyl / CD single):

"Living In The 70s" / "You're Like A Broken Gin Bottle Baby" (1974)
"Horror Movie" / "Carlton (Lygon Street Limbo)" (1974)
"Ego Is Not A Dirty Word" / "Every Chase A Steeple" (1975)
"All My Friends Are Getting Married" / "Saturday Night" (1975)
"Million Dollar Riff" / "Forging Ahead" (1975)
"Let It Rock (live)" / "Revolution (live)" / "Saturday Night" (live) (1975)
"This Is My City" / "Somewhere In Sydney" (1976)
"Blue Jeans" / "Mumbo Jumbo" (1976)
"Party To End All Parties" / "Hot Rod James" (1977)
"Women In Uniform" / "Don't Take Your Lurex To The Laundromat" / "Do The Hook" (1978)
"Meglomania" / "BBBBBBBBBBBBBBoogie" (1978)
"Over The Border" / "Wrong Number But The Right Girl" (1979)
"This Town is Boring" / "Is This Too Much (Or What?)" (1980)
"Keep The Junk In America" / "Rolls Royce in the Swimming Pool". (1980)
"Hooked On Hooks" / "Smut" (1982)
"Jukebox In Siberia" / "Jukebox In Siberia (karaoke mix)" (1990)
"Tall Timber" / "Tall Timber (instrumental)" (1990)
"Happy Hippy Hut" / "Good in Bed ( remix)" / "The Ballad Of Oz"* / "$64000 Question"*(*Daddy Cool) (1994)
"Women In Uniform" / "Tiger Snake Kiss" / "Women In Uniform" (U.S. dance mix) (1998)