Remember when The Who vowed never again to tour Australia

It was in January 1968 that The Who toured Australia and New Zealand with The Small Faces and former Manfred Mann vocalist Paul Jones. It was organised to support the release of the album The Who Sell Out, which had been released in late-1967. Having travelled more than 30 hours from London, via Cairo, Bombay, Karachi and Singapore, to Australia The Who band members and crew were seriously jet lagged when they touched down. When they emerged from the plane and were confronted by the waiting press it was the start of what would be a tour plagued with problems.

Billed as ‘The greatest of the big shows since the Beatles and The Rolling Stones’, The Who, The Small Faces and Jones were to perform in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide over  a period of 10 days before heading to New Zealand. It should have been a hit but the media (who considered the ‘Orrible Oo’ to be a dangerous and corrupting influence) hostility, conflicts with the promoters over sound quality and several other incidents involving band members and overzealous ‘fans’ turned the Big Show into a disaster.

It was reported that then Australian prime minister John Gorton sent Pete Townshend a telegram advising him and the band not to return to Australia, with Townshend reportedly responding to the correspondence swearing he never would (a promise he kept until 2009).

Before all the hullabaloo with The Who, guitarist Jimi Hendrix was trashing a hotel room in Stockholm. Hendrix was involved in a drunken fist fight with bassist Noel Redding. Known for his energetic performances as well as for his innovations in music, Hendrix and Redding were experiencing personality differences that were fuelled by the influence of drugs, alcohol and fatigue. Hendrix was arrested by the Stockholm police on January 4 and jailed, and in the year that followed Redding left the band.

On January 13, Johnny Cash recorded two live shows at Folsom Prison in California, with June Carter and Carl Perkins. Cash had served in the US Air Force in the ’50s and during this time he’d become interested in the Folsom State Prison. After watching Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison, Cash was inspired to write ‘Folsom Prison Blues’, which became popular among inmates. With changes occurring at Columbia Records, Johnny Cash seized the opportunity of pitching the idea to record live at a prison.

Two performances were held (the second ‘just in case’ the first performance was rubbish). Opening with ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ and singing songs such as ‘The Wall’, ‘Green, Green Grass of Home’ and ‘Send a Picture of Mother’, Cash was spurred on by the inmates who were encouraged to ‘respond’. The album At Folsom Prison was prepared in less than six months and made its way to number two on the charts, despite Columbia’s poor investment in the album. The album’s success would revitalise Cash’s career.

Though Irish singer Val Doonican released Val Doonican Rocks, But Gently in November 1967, it wasn’t until December of that year that things started taking off. It was the only number one in the UK albums chart for the singer and Doonican has the honour of displacing The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which had been in the top spot for a number of weeks.

In the US, John Fred toppled the Beatles from their position at number one with a parody of the song ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’. Fred and His Playboy Band performed ‘Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)’ and it became a gold record. It also reached number one in Germany and Switzerland, and sat at number three in Canada, the UK and Ireland.

January 1968 is also memorable for the self-titled, debut album release for Steppenwolf. Their single ‘Born to Be Wild’ hung around at number two on the United States charts and made it to number 30 in the United Kingdom. The album, which featured ‘Born to Be Wild’ and ‘The Pusher’ — songs used in the film Easy Rider in 1969 — was successful for the group.

With Normie Rowe in training with the army, Johnny Farnham became Australia’s most popular male singer. At age 18, he released ‘Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)’ and it went on to become the biggest seller in 1967 and ’68. He followed up with ‘Underneath The Arches’, ‘Friday Kind Of Monday’, ‘Jamie’ and ‘Rose Coloured Glasses’.

Having been involved in a motorcycle accident in 1966, Bob Dylan’s ‘John Wesley Harding’ was released in the final days of 1967. The Byrds’ released ‘Sweetheart of the Rodeo’ and the debut album by the band called the Band reflected a new direction in music. Dylan and the Band joined Pete Seeger, Judy Collins, Arlo Guthrie, Odetta, Ritchie Havens, and Ramblin’ Jack Elliot to commemorate the late Woody Guthrie at a Carnegie Hall benefit concert. Crosby, Stills and Nash, left their respective bands behind and got together to explore harmony, as did emerging singers like Joni Mitchell and James Taylor; while Dave Gilmour joined Pink Floyd to “to explore new instruments and further experimental dimensions”.

The top 10 in Australia January 1968

1. ‘Hello Goodbye / I Am The Walrus’, The Beatles
2. ‘Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)’, Johnny Farnham
3. ‘Daydream Believer’, The Monkees
4. ‘The Rain, The Park And Other Things’, The Cowsills
5. ‘The Last Waltz’, Englebert Humperdinck
6. ‘You’ve Not Changed’, Sandie Shaw
7. ‘Snoopy’s Christmas’, The Royal Guardsmen
8. ‘The Way They Play / Cathy Come Home’, The Twilights
9. ‘World’, The Bee Gees
10. ‘The Two Of Us’, Jackie Trent & Tony Hatch

Number 1s in Australia in January 1968

6, 13: ‘Hello Goodbye / I Am The Walrus’, The Beatles
20, 27: ‘Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)’, Johnny Farnham

Number 1s in the UK in January 1968

6, 13, 20: ‘Hello Goodbye / I Am The Walrus’, The Beatles
27: ‘Ballad Of Bonnie And Clyde’, Georgie Fame

Number 1s in the US in January 1968

6, 13: ‘Hello Goodbye / I Am The Walrus’, The Beatles
20, 27: ‘Judy In Disguise (With Glasses)’, John Fred & The Playboy Band

Do you remember these music happenings from 1968? What was your favourite song from that year?

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