Nostalgia

A musical diary: February 1966

Feb 04, 2015

All roads were leading to Melbourne where the Australian music scene had exploded, there were two national TV shows geared to the young music scene. The Go Show and KOMMOTION had the teenagers in front of their TVs five nights a week. The bands were arriving in Melbourne from all over Australia: The Twilights and The Masters Apprentices from Adelaide; The Purple Hearts from Brisbane. Now look here! Something just had to be done and finally something has been.

“GO-SET is going, going for you and everything you want. Going all out to capture the imagination of the movers”. This was the editorial for the very first GO-SET magazine issued on the 2^nd of February 1966. The magazine was started by Monash University students Phillip Frazer and Tony Schauble. For only 15 cents the magazine, which claimed to be the only music paper for the teens and 20-year-olds, got all the news and gossip from around Australia and the world.

The first issue had a cover story about Tom Jones; the article titled “The wailing Welshman talks to Go-Set”. There was an article about Pat Carroll who was entertaining the troops in Vietnam and a surfing report by Tony Olsson, Victoria’s leading surf expert. The main feature regarding local talent was about The Groop, a Melbourne band which was touring with Tom Jones and Hermans Hermits. Prue Acton had her own article featuring the fashion trend for the young and the first top 40 charts in Australia sponsored by Melbourne’s 3UZ radio station.

They had The Seekers at #1 with “The Carnival is Over”, at #2 was The Beatles, “Daytripper/We Can Work It Out” and #3 “Tell Him I’m Not Home” by Normie Rowe. Swinging DJ Kenny Sparkes also had an article called “From Ken With Love” which promised titillating morsels of miscellaneous gossip.

Pat Carroll was a Melbournian, born in 1946. She was a talented child who had lots of TV appearances in children programmes. As a teenager she appeared in Brian Henderson’s Bandstand and Go-Set and in 1964 covered The Crystals’ “He’s a Rebel” which was a very minor hit in Australia. She then teamed up with her friend Olivia Newton John and won a talent contest in Melbourne which led to a trip to England. They had some success as Pat & Olivia on TV and clubs but when their visas expired, Pat decided to return to Australia. Olivia stayed on and launched her own international career. In Australia Pat returned to the recording studio with only minor successes.

In Birmingham, The Move was formed. The group, headed by Roy Wood, were very successful in the UK over the next few years with hits such as “Night of Fear” “Fire Brigade” and “Blackberry Way”. In 1967 their hit “Flowers in the Rain” earned the distinction of being the first ever record played on the UK’s national pop-only radio station, Radio 1. Roy Wood then went on to form The Electric Light Orchestra and then Wizzard. Following considerable record and TV success in the USA which was unmatched in the UK, Chad Stuart and Jeremy Clyde decided to make the radical step of applying for US citizenship.

Young rising star in the UK, David Jones changed his name to David Bowie so he would not get mixed up with Davy Jones of The Monkees.

Born this month on the 6^th was Rick Astley, British singer in the 1980s. Sadly on the 9^th music legend Sophie Tucker passed away at the age of 81.

“Daytripper”/“We Can Work it Out” by The Beatles was #1 for the whole month in Oz.

In the USA, on the 5^th and 12^th , the #1 was “My Love” by Petula Clark. On the 9^th it was “Lightning Strikes by Lou Christie and on the 26^th, “These Boots Were Made For Walking” by Nancy Sinatra.

In the UK, on the 5^th and 12^th, “Michelle” by The Overlanders was number one, and like the US, “These Boots Were Made For Walking” by Nancy Sinatra was number one on the 19^th and 26^th.

The top ten in the UK in February 1966