MEERA ATKINSON

 

Meera Atkinson is a Sydney-based poet and writer. She writes across all forms and genres, and her work has appeared in many publications. In 1987 she recorded an album 'This Is The Planet' on the Citadel label. The session lineup was a who's who including Steve Harris (bass/keyboards), Nick Fisher (drums), Penny Ikinger (guitar), Charlie Owen (guitar/sitar), Louis Tillett (piano/harmonica) and Dianne Spence on sax. Produced by Rob Younger it was her only release.

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JUDEE FORD

 

Judee Ford was born in QLD and attended Cleveland High School. Judee was in a band called Tramway before joining Railroad Gin when Carol Lloyd departed in 1975. The group then undertook a tour of eastern capital cities and Adelaide. Judee was the lead vocalist on the band's second album, 'Journey's End', which appeared in October 1976, which musicologist Ian McFarlane felt, "followed the formula set by the debut, but with a lighter, more polished Adult Oriented Rock (AOR) sound (somewhere between Chicago, Styx and Fleetwood Mac." When the group disbanded, she took a job with radio station 4IP hosting the Saturday night show and one of the midnight to dawn sessions as well as working as the station receptionist. This was followed by presenting the morning radio show on Star FM 106.9. 

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DONITA DEY

Born in Victoria, Donita Dey (real name Helen Turner) attended school at Warrnambool and Mortlake. Teaching herself to play guitar and having some lessons to learn bass. At 17 years of age Dey performed her first gig singing solo, live, to air on Radio 3YB for their Hospital Appeal Day. Soon after the band The Western Ramblers was formed with Ray Batten and Hilton Boyle with Dey singing vocals and playing bass. They released an EP 'Introducing The Western Ramblers' in 1969 on the local Tower Hill label. Another EP 'Many Happy Hangovers' followed by their album 'The Western Ramblers With Their All Original Country Music' The Westerners were very successful in Victoria with their own weekly half hour radio program on 3CS out of Colac as well they made appearances on the Reg Lindsay Country & Western Hour TV Show.

At the age of 20 Donita left the group to go touring with country star Buddy Williams for six months, after that a move to Sydney to try the club scene. Having changed her name to Donita Dey, she performed around the Club Circuit in New South Wales where her style of entertainment in playing both modern and county music and hits from all-time greats of that time, proved a great delight to her audiences. Donita then went on to tour throughout Australia to perform alongside such greats as Frank Ifield, Jay Justin, Col Joye, Digger Revell, Buster Noble, Lucky Star, Johnny Chester, Jade Hurley, Chad Morgan, Slim Dusty, Jimmy Little, Reg Lindsay, Judy Stone, Dinah Lee and Little Pattie and also with other well-known Australian artists. Many of Donita's tours included small towns with the venues being mostly in halls.  Touring the Aboriginal Missions was such a learning experience, as Donita says "it was an experience I wouldn't have missed, how different and what wonderful audiences".

Donita says that Tamworth was a part of her life for just a few years. She appeared on their Must Be Country TV Show which was as Donita says "Lots of fun". Donita only ever entered one of her singles at the Tamworth Awards and was placed in the finals of Best Female Vocalist. The song was "Warm Sheets, Can't Cover Up Your Cold, Cold Heart" which didn't win, but what an honour to reach the finals. Donita's many trips to America prevented her entering more of her singles in the years to follow, for which she is very regretful.

In the US she had a hit in California with her Tamworth nominated single "Warm Sheets, Can't Cover Up Your Cold, Cold Heart". Donita's trips to the US back then were not the done thing and she lost some popularity at home for doing so. Donita worked in the US on T.V. and with Hank Williams Jnr and with David Allan Coe riding in David's touring bus. When Donita did her spot on the show David would stay on stage and play along on guitar. Donita recorded on Pike Records in the U.S. Another part of Donita's life that she enjoyed very much was working as an extra in movies and as a regular extra on the last five years of A Country Practice. Although now retired, she has had many years of incredible pleasure and worked with so many of the name artists that have been a joy to know. 

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THE HICKEY SISTERS

Country and Western duo The Hickey sisters (Margaret and Kaye) grew up on a dairy farm, 28km from Shepparton, Victoria. Kaye was just 11, the youngest of three girls, when their mother died, meaning the girls had to become housekeepers while still at school. In 1956 when Kaye was about 15, she and Margaret began singing. After they had done a few concerts and dances around the Shepparton area, they entered a talent quest run by the local radio station, 3SR. Neville Pellitt was so impressed with the sisters, he began a CM program and a series of live shows, Harmony Trail, built around them. During this time, they were both Post Office telephonists.

The sisters travelled to Sydney and appeared on some Reg Lindsay shows with artists like Judy Stone and Athol McCoy. Their first recording was an EP 'Western Hits Vol 2' on the Viking label in 1958. In 1961 The Hickey Sisters recorded a self-titled EP under the auspices of Harmony Trail on W&G. The songs were: ''When My Blue Moon Turns To Gold Again'', ''It’s You, Only You That I Love'', ''Christmas Roses'' and the Col James-penned ''Angel Star'', one of their most popular hits. ''Angel Star'' was also released as a single. Another EP 'The Hickey Sisters Again' appeared in 1964. In 1965 the sisters cut their first album, 'Treasury of Country Music', in Shepparton for NZ label Viking, under the direction of Neville Pellitt.

When the sisters married and began their families, they phased out their music. Kaye and her husband had a dairy farm at Rochester, and Margaret lived in Wangaratta with her husband and family. In the late 70s Kaye did quite a bit of professional work with Basil Ray, an ex-member of Harmony Trail, but Basil died, curtailing her comeback. Kaye passed on her singing genes to her two eldest girls. In 1988 they were inducted into the Hands of Fame, Tamworth.

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DELORES FOXTONFINN

 

Vocalist and guitarist Delores Foxtonfinn was a member of Me Me Me a Newcastle band who described their music as "surfin' golgothabilly pop". in the 90s. The band released a couple of albums and EPs on the Phantom label. Before Me Me Me Delores wrote and sang with bands Run Rabbit Run, Dust and Chantry Barn. She also performed in 'A Coupla Hundred Hertz' and 'Golden Section'. She now lives in the Hunter Valley occasionally performing and painting.

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ANNE INFANTE

As a singer/songwriter, Anne has been performing traditional, contemporary and original music for many years. Based in Brisbane, she was born in Sydney and raised in Papua New Guinea. In the early seventies she ran her own folk club, The Barley Mow, in the late Cecil Hotel in George Street, Brisbane. Anne has performed at national folk festivals in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, New Zealand and Woodford. She has sung on national radio and television, enjoying a regular guest spot on the three series of ABC TV's top-rating 1970s show Around Folk.

Anne has recorded three albums of her new age songs - 'Think Of It This Way', 'The Four Dragons' and 'Flight' - as well as an album of positive singing affirmations for adults 'Sing Your Way To Health', 'Wealth & Happiness', and two albums of self-esteem and other positive affirmations for children - 'Special As I Can Be' (with accompanying songbook) and 'Love Is A Circle' (CD only). She has also released 'Season' and 'Women Do', two albums of her original folk songs. Anne has had five popular crime novels published by Collins Crime Club. Ulverscroft released three of these in large print and two were serialised in Australian Woman’s Day in 1991 and 1993.

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GENEVIEVE McGUCKIN

Genevieve McGuckin was born in Brisbane. She has been a long-time collaborator (both musically and romantically speaking, at various points) of rock musician, Rowland S. Howard. During 1980, in London, the pair co-wrote two tracks, "Capers" and "Ho-Ho", for his band, the Birthday Party's debut LP 'Prayers on Fire' (April 1981). In 1982 McGuckin provided piano and organ on Howard and Lydia Lunch's cover version of Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra's "Some Velvet Morning" (1967), which later appeared on Lunch's album, 'Honeymoon in Red' (1987). She also wrote the track, "Three Kings", for the album.

In 1984 both McGuckin, on keyboards, piano and organ, and Howard on guitar were founding members of the post-punk group, These Immortal Souls. Other founders were Rowland's brother, Harry on bass guitar and Epic Soundtracks (AKA Kevin Godfrey) on drums. They issued two albums, 'Get Lost (Don't Lie)' in October 1987 and 'I'm Never Gonna Die Again' in October 1992, before relocating to Melbourne in 1994. While in the group she also wrote music and lyrics on both their albums and a single.

She also played organ on, and wrote the music for, the song "Silver Chain" on Howard's solo album 'Teenage Snuff Film'. She lived in London and Berlin from 1980 to 1994 and now lives in Melbourne, working in film graphics, web design, and animation. She was the graphic designer on the 2000 film Chopper. She has also played on an LP by The Devastations.

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VONNY JAY

 

Vonny Jay (born Yvonne George) was born in South Australia and was known as that's states version of Brenda Lee. When she left school, she took a clerical job and settled down in it for five years. Vonny didn't think she had a good voice until a friend heard her singing and suggested she have an audition. Vonny took her friends advice and to her amazement she was accepted to sing at a weekly dance. She did this for several months and she auditioned at ADS-7 amateur show Stairway To The Stars. The audition was a success. She then went onto sing at every major dance circuit and appeared on all three Adelaide TV stations most notably Channel Seven's Seventeeners. Vonny at times fronted The Penny Rockets. She also appeared on Johnny O'Keefe's Sing Sing Sing and Bandstand.

BERNADETTE HOLLOWAY

 

In the 80's Bernadette Holloway was in original bands Loose Change, Alice and the Alligators and Frenetics, fronting, singing, writing and performing. Loose Change's ''Hit Me With Another Double'' was performed on Countdown in 1980.  She has written several musicals including The Essence of Passion which was staged in 2014.

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LOUISE LINCOLN

Louise Lincoln is a singer from Tasmania. In the late 60s she joined local band 1812 who won the Hoadleys Battle of the Sounds in Hobart in 1969. Louise went to Melbourne and joined Brian Cadd’s Bootleg Family in 1973, recording several singles of which some of them charted, and a film soundtrack Alvin Rides Again. Her career is unknown after this point until Cadd re-assembled the Bootleg Family Band in 2015 and recorded the studio album, 'Bulletproof' (November 2016). A brief tour supported its release.

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ANNE CONWAY

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Anne Conway (born Melbourne in 1952) is a Wergaia woman who started her musical career when she was still in her teens. She had a long-running showcase at the Tamworth Country Music Festival, was inducted into the city's Hands of Fame in 1997 and won a number of awards. She performed all throughout eastern Australia. Anne recorded many albums on different labels. After surgery in June 2013, she was left with a speech impediment, and it ended her singing career. Conway was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for her contributions to the Bendigo community.

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CORAL KELLY

Coral Drouyn emigrated to Australia in the 1960s, and worked as a singer, whilst writing material for theatre restaurants. Her stage name was Coral Kelly and she was the resident female singer on The Bryan Davies Show which aired from 1962 to 1963 on ABC. Retiring from singing and acting, Drouyn began writing for television, working as a scriptwriter for Grundy Productions series such as The Restless Years, Prisoner and Neighbours. During her time on Prisoner, Drouyn worked her way up from freelance writer to in-house story editor, creating characters and stories before leaving the series prior to its 600th episode.

Drouyn subsequently was involved in the creation of serial Pacific Drive before performing story editor duties on Blue Heelers and Home and Away.Her book 'Big Screen, Small Screen', detailing the craft skills involved in screen-writing, was published in 1994. Drouyn now works as a theatre critic.

JUDY BANKS

Born in Melbourne in 1935 Judy Banks was educated at Melbourne Church of England Grammar School where she was a member of the School Dramatic Society. Whilst holidaying in North America and England she took a course as a model and finally became a model and an accounting machine operator. During her London stay she saw a musical called Salad Days and immediately bought the Galaxy record of the original cast little thinking that she would one day play the lead role in it. On return to Melbourne, she got the role and came to prominence playing the juvenile lead. In 1958 she recorded some songs from Salad Days for an EP released on the Planet label.

She quickly moved on to television with appearances in In Melbourne Tonight, Saturday Party, Personally Yours, Be My Guest, Musical Cashbox and hosting her own ABC series Four For The Show for four years. On the madcap ATV-0 daily morning show Fredd Bear’s Breakfast-a-Go-Go she teamed with Ted Dunn, from 1969 – 1971, featuring Michael McCarthy and Colin McEwan. Hosting studio segments, cartoons and competitions, the show built a fanbase of children who were all encouraged to take out show membership and win prizes. Wardrobe master Dunn has made the costume so large; he was the only person who could fit in it. 

In 1970 she recorded and album 'A Paw Full Of Songs' and a single ''Freddie / Live For Tomorrow'' on the Tempo label. She also acted in roles on Homicide, The Flying Doctors, City Homicide, Dalkeith and Dreams for Life. Banks later ran TV World, the Australian Museum of Modern Media, on the Mornington Peninsula with husband, producer Bob Phillips. Judy Banks died in 2022 aged 86.

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CANDY DEVINE

Candy Devine, MBE (born ca. 1939) is the stage name of Faye Ann McLeod a broadcaster, singer, and actress. Devine was educated at St Augustine's School, East Innisfail, a boarding school from 1948 – she provided "incidental music and accompaniments" at their 1952 break-up ceremony. For secondary education she attended Brisbane's Lourdes Hill College from the early 1950s. She furthered her interest in music while at college. Later she studied piano and cello at Queensland Conservatorium before taking to the stage in Sydney.

Devine's appearances on Australian television included music show Be Our Guest, the series Skippy the Bush Kangaroo (1968) and fronting the ABC's, In Key. Devine travelled to Ireland in 1969 on what was intended to be a short visit. She was hired for a cabaret slot at the Talk of the Town club in Belfast. She married her promoter and booking agent, Donald McLeod, in Dublin in 1970. They lived in the Republic for five years and moved to Belfast in Northern Ireland in 1975. She recorded an album 'Candy Devine Sings with The Jim Doherty Sound' in 1970.

Devine began a long career with Downtown Radio in March 1976. They had four children, including Brisbane-based celebrity chef, Alastair McLeod. Candy Devine was awarded an MBE on The Queen's 2014 honours list. Her award was for "Services to Broadcasting and to the Community in Northern Ireland".She moved back to Australia in 2013 following the death of her husband, Donald McLeod, the previous year. As of September 2016 she lives in Brisbane, sharing a five-acre property with her son, Alastair and his family.

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MICHELLE JACKSON

Michelle Jackson was born at Noosa Heads, Queensland in 1956. She was interested in folk music at the age of 12 when she taught herself guitar before moving on later to fiddle and mandolin. She met Mike Jackson at the 1979 Kapunda Celtic Music Festival and married soon after. They toured Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the U.S. almost non-stop for seven years and in between tours they created three songbooks, co-wrote an instruction book for string figure novices and recorded ten albums - two collections of Australian folk music for adults and eight for children. The bulk of their thousands of performances together were Arts in Education performances designed to introduce children to a wide range of unusual instruments and encourage them to play music.

Mike and Michelle's children's albums were a huge success with their second, 'Playmates' going platinum and the rest of their first four kids' discs going gold in Australia. They had two North American releases, 'Bunyips, Bunnies and Brumbies' and 'Playmates', which were released in Canada on Sharon, Lois and Bram's Elephant Records label, distributed by A&M Records. They were featured artists on the ABC TV program Playmates and regular contributors to many other 1980s Australian children's shows. In 1986, the pair went their separate ways. Mike Jackson has continued touring, writing and recording both in Australia and internationally. I have no information on Michelle after this time. Please help.

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JOY DUNSTAN

 

Joy Dunstan (born 20 July 1951) is a retired Australian film and television actress. In 1976 the then 25-year-old former schoolteacher and part-time cabaret dancer had been working in a musical comedy act at Melbourne's Flying Trapeze Cafe when she was discovered by director Chris Löfvén. Löfvén's 1976 film 'Oz - A Rock'N'Roll Road Movie 'was a modern-day remake of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, with Graham Matters, Bruce Spence, Gary Waddell, and Robin Ramsay. In offering the part to Dunstan, he said to her "Come with me and I'll make you a star". Dunstan replied, "I don't believe it but yes". She had no prior experience in film or photographic modeling prior to the film. ''Warm Tender Love' from the soundtrack was her only recording. For the single the band comprised Gary Young, John Power, Jeff Burstin, Wayne Burt and Peter Jones, with Ross Wilson on backing vocals. In Australia it was LP-only but the US release, re-named '20th Century Oz', issued this song as a single on Celestial Records.

According to a Film Buffs Podcast interview on 21 November 2006, Dunstan currently lives in the United Kingdom. During that interview songwriter and musician Gary Young discussed his memories of working with Dunstan on the film. Young also claimed that following the film, his band the Rockin' Emus released their sole album with one of the songs he had written, ''Beautiful Joy'', having been about the actress.

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NIKKI NICHOLLS

 

Nikki’s career in the music industry has flourished over the many years since performing weekly on Channel 7’s Brian and the Juniors. After leaving secondary school, she joined John St. Peeters and the Shirelles on the cabaret circuit throughout Australia. In 1980, she became the original backing vocalist for the brand new John Farnham Band over a period of four years and recorded backing vocals on the 'Whispering Jack' album. Nikki was a renowned Melbourne session singer back in the days when the album recording and commercial industries were thriving.

She has toured Australia and New Zealand with Australian Crawl, Suzi Quatro, Lulu, Richard Clapton, toured the world with Kylie Minogue and whilst with Farnham supported Stevie Wonder throughout Australia.  After studying Japanese on and off for eight years, Nikki wrote and recorded an album called 'Yumi Ippai' (Full of Dreams). Each song was written in Japanese about different parts of Australia. She has recorded 'Misunderstood' an album of ‘rock classics’ by Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Cream, Deep Purple and the Rolling Stones. Songs such as ''Foxy Lady'', ''Whole Lotta Love'', ''Smoke on the Water'', ''Tin Soldier'' and others.

In the early 2000’s, Nikki starred alongside Wendy Stapleton and Debra Byrne in a 10 year run of the much loved show “Girls, Girls, Girls.” In 2015, she released her new original album called 'Bridesmaid' produced by Nikki and Doug Brady. The album features tracks that are rock, blues, ballads and the title track has a “cute, quirkiness about it.”

The past few years have seen Nikki performing in awesome bands such as Jam the Funk, The Ritual of Rock and The Dreamroom alongside acclaimed musicians; Eric McCusker (Mondo Rock), Danny Simcic (Real Life), Rick Petropoulos (The Ferrets), Paula Reid (Vanessa Amorosi), John Grant (Brian Cadd, Mike Brady, Eurogliders) Lisa Bade, Paul Gildea (Icehouse), Dave Leslie (Baby Animals), Scott Griffiths (Chantoozies) and John ‘Watto’ Watson (Everyone!!.) Nikki has also been performing her show ''You’ve Got a Friend'' the songs and story of Carole King with a touch of James Taylor receiving rave reviews from audiences at The Palms, Crown and Performing Art Centres throughout the country.

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PENNY PARSONS

 

Penny Parsons was a lead vocalist with 60s bands The All Stars and The Vibrants. After going solo she appeared on TV shows like The Ernie Sigley Show and The Don Lane Show

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SHERRY WHEELER

 

Berta (Sherry) arrived in Melbourne with her mother and sister Sonja from the Netherlands. They travelled by boat as did many migrants from that time. Her father had arrived about eight months earlier to secure a job and when they were reunited they moved to Brisbane. They stayed in the Rocklea Migrant Centre for some time along with many others.

Berta began singing on Channel 9 with Billy Thorpe on the show Teen Beat. She performed on this TV show once a fortnight from the age of 16. The producer of the show thought that her name was "too ethnic"and suggested Sherry as a stage name. Along with her TV commitments she was a regular performer at Brisbane venue Teen City appearing alongside Tony Worsley. Wheeler recorded one single on the Sunshine label titled ''Single Girl'' in 1967.

She completed her education at Salisbury High school and applied for a teacher scholarship to become a teacher.  She moved to Channel 0 (now 10) and began compering the new children's show called The Channel 0 Saturday Show with Danny O'Dibble (Darryl Boyd) and The Wicked Witch (Babs Wheelton) both Babs and Darryl were well known stage actors in Brisbane at that time. The show was a three hour live show which had a number of different segments and a different story line each week. The writer of the show was Martin Overson.

Sherry also compered an other children's show on Channel 0 called Kindy. She became the producer of this show and sold it nationally. She then became the producer of The Saturday Show and sold this nationally as well. At this time there were only two women television producers in Australia. 

JUDY KENNY

Daughter of an Anglican Clergyman Judy Kenny was born in Croydon, Victoria. It was whilst living in Geelong that Judy came to the notice of record label W & G after winning a talent quest at High School which entitled her to an audition. In 1969 she recorded her debut album, 'Colonial Australia' a collection of Australian folk songs. After the album was released that's where the trail goes cold. Any info on Judy would be greatly appreciated.