The Dingoes

Infobox musical artist |
Name = The Dingoes


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Background = group_or_band
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Origin = Melbourne, Australia
Genre = Country rock
Years_active = 1973 – 1979
Label = Mushroom Records, A&M Records
Associated_acts = Country Radio
Cold Chisel
Jimmy Barnes
Blackfeather
Mississippi
Axiom
Stockley, See and Mason
Spectrum
Ariel
URL =
Current_members =
Past_members = Kerryn Tolhurst
Broderick Smith
Ray Arnott
Chris Stockley
John Strangio
John Lee
John DuBois
Mal Logan
Andrew Jeffers-Hardin

The Dingoes were an Australian rock band active from 1973 to 1979. From 1976 to 1979 the band was based in the USA.

History

The founder and principal songwriter of The Dingoes was songwriter/guitarist Kerryn Tolhurst. He had been a member Melbourne's Adderly Smith Blues Band in the late '60s, where he first met singer and harmonica player Broderick Smith. This was followed by stints in two seminal Australian country-rock bands: Sundown (1970) with Keith Glass and Country Radio (1972-73).

In Country Radio Tolhurst formed a successful writing partnership with leader Greg Quill, and they co-wrote the hit singles "Gypsy Queen" and "Wintersong", both of which were strong influences on the Dingoes' future direction.

After leaving Country Radio in early 1973, just after their appearance at the second Sunbury Rock Festival, Tolhurst briefly joined the band Mississippi (which would eventually evolve in Little River Band).

Tolhurst formed The Dingoes in Melbourne in April 1973. The original lineup included Chris Stockley (ex-CamPact, Axiom), John Strangio (bass), John Lee (ex-Blackfeather (drums)) and Broderick Smith (vocals, harmonica). Smith had previously been the lead singer in noted blues/boogie combo Carson.

Strangio left in July and was replaced by John Du Bois, who had worked with Tolhurst in Country Radio. They were one of the early signings to the fledgling Mushroom Records label. Their debut single "Way Out West" was written by Tolhurst (although the first two albums credit it to the group as a whole). Released in October 1973, it became the band's signature tune and one of the classic Australian singles of the '70s. It was successfully covered by James Reyne and James Blundell in 1991.

Just a week before the single was released Stockley received a serious gunshot wound during an incident at a party in Melbourne that resulted in a two-month stay in hospital. For many years the incident was written up as 'accidental shooting' but according to Ian McFarlane's "Encyclopedia of Australian Rock & Pop", Stockley was shot by the notorious Melbourne drug dealer Dennis Allen, who had been trying to gatecrash the party. While he recuperated, Stockley was replaced by keyboard player Mal Logan (ex Healing Force, Carson), who stayed with the group until the end of 1974. An eight-hour benefit concert was held on 4th November 1973 at Leggett's Ballroom, Greville Street, Prahran.

"Way Out West" charted in January 1974 and reached No.26 in Melbourne. The Dingoes appeared at the 1974 Sunbury Festival over the Australia Day long weekend, and their performance featured on Mushroom's "Highlights of Sunbury '74", released later that year. The same month, they recorded their superb self-titled debut LP, produced by John French. Mal Logan played on the album, contributing keyboards on several tracks, including "Goin' Down" and "Sydney Ladies".

John Lee left in May 1974 to join Ariel and he was replaced by Ray Arnott, (ex-Spectrum, Mighty Kong). The group's debut LP "The Dingoes" was released in June 1974, along with a second single "Boy On The Run" / "Last Place I Wanna Be", which did well in Melbourne but did not break nationally. The LP reached No 18 in July 1974 and was the Federation of Australian Broadcasters' "Album Of The Year" for 1974. A third single, "Smooth Sailing" / "Dingoes Lament", was released in October. During the year The Dingoes toured nationally with various artists including Bad Company, Leo Sayer, Bo Diddley and Freddy Fender, and they won 'Best Australian Group Album' at the Australian Music Awards and 'Best Group Vocal Album' at the ARIA awards.

Early in 1975, the group got a major break thanks to expatriate Australian roadie Billy McCartney, who saw them while on a visit home from the USA, where he had established himself as a tour manager for Elvis Presley and Rod Stewart. Returning to the USA, McCartney recommended the band to Peter Rudge, who was then tour manager for both the Rolling Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd, and after lengthy negotiations Rudge agreed to manage The Dingoes in the U.S.A.

The following months proved frustrating for the band -- expecting the summons from Rudge at any time, they were unwilling to commit to long-term tours or to recording, and thus lost valuable ground in Australia when they should have been consolidating on the success of the LP and singles. An American tour was finally arranged for mid-1976, but by the time they arrived Rudge's attention was focused on Lynyrd Skynyrd. Just prior to leaving, Ray Arnott quit the group by "mutual agreement" and John Lee returned to the fold, meeting up with the band in Canada.

The Dingoes signed a two-album deal with A&M records in the USA, on the recommendation McCartney and Rudge. In preparation, they undertook three months of rehearsals in Canada, then headed for the U.S., where they set up base in Mill Valley, in Northern California, at the start of 1977. They recorded tracks for a new A&M album in San Francisco during January and February, produced by Elliot Mazer, whose credits included Janis Joplin and Neil Young, and there were session contributions from celebrated keyboard players Nicky Hopkins and Garth Hudson.

The new album, "Five Times The Sun", was the group's first overseas release, and included re-recorded versions of tracks from their first album, including "Way Out West" and "Smooth Sailing", which enjoyed chart success when released (as a double A-side) in Australia. It also featured liner notes by author Emmett Grogan. Soon after, the band members were granted their prized green cards, allowing them to base themselves in America, and in their two-year stay they toured forty states by road.

Stockley left the band in early 1978 and joined Greg Quill's new band Southern Cross, and when that band broke up in Australia at the end of the year he formed Stockley, See & Mason. He was replaced in The Dingoes by American session guitarist Andrew Jeffers-Hardin. By this time the group had moved east and settled near Woodstock, in upstate New York.

In mid-1978, they released a third album, "Orphans Of The Storm", recorded at New York's famed The Hit Factory, and they continued to work around the US until late 1978, but their efforts to crack the US market were ultimately to prove fruitless.

The most serious blow came when several members of Lynyrd Skynyrd were killed in a plane crash, a tragedy which destroyed the morale of the management team and effectively brought The Dingoes' US career to an end. "Orphans Of The Storm" was released in February 1979, along with a final single, "Into The Night", but by this time the band had split for good.

Smith came back to Australia and fronted his own bands including Broderick Smith's Big Combo; he has continued to perform and record, and has branched out into stage and TV acting with appearances in the Australian TV series "Janus", "Law of the Land", "The Man from Snowy River", "Blue Heelers" and "State Coroner". For a number of years Smith has been working in a successful acoustic duo with musical partner Mick Ahearne.

Tolhurst, Du Bois and Lee all stayed on in the US. Bois eventually became a teacher and now lives and works near Washington DC. He is a noted amateur expert on dinosaurs and contributed to the BBC TV series "Walking with Dinosaurs"; he has also written an unpublished memoir of his time in The Dingoes, entitled "The Dingoes' Lament".

John Lee joined the cult band '70s band Root Boy Slim and His Sex Change Band; he then settled in Washington DC for some time, where he worked with local group Johnny Bombay & The Hurricanes before moving to Nashville, Tennessee, where he lived and worked until his return to Australia in the late 1990s. John Lee died in July 1999.

Kerryn Tolhurst lived and worked in New York for many years, and he continued his career as a respected songwriter, performer and producer, both in Australia and in the USA. A reworked version of his song "All Fired Up" became a major hit for Pat Benatar in 1988, making the Top 20 in the USA and reaching #2 in Australia, where it was one of the most successful singles of the year.

In 1995, Tolhurst collaborated with Paul Kelly on his "Deeper Water" album, co-writing the single "Give In To My Love", and writing the album track "Difficult Woman", which was later covered by Renée Geyer. He was a guest performer in the "Spirit Returns" music program, which featured the reformed Goanna, Ross Hannaford and Liam O'Maonlai of Hothouse Flowers at the Melbourne Festival in 1998.

In 1999, Kerryn returned to live in Australia, and recently produced the debut album for country singer Cyndi Boste. Also that year, he was reunited with Greg Quill and the two subsequently recorded the album, "So Rudely Interrupted".

Trivia

In March 1973, singer Broderick Smith played the role of "The Father" in the Australian arena production of the rock opera "Tommy", which was staged in Sydney and Melbourne.

Albums

* "The Dingoes" (1974)
* "Five Times the Sun" (1977)
* "Orphans of the Storm" (1979)
* "Way Out West - The Best Of The Dingoes" (1992)
* "Live At The Station" (1976)

"Live at the Station" contained recordings of various bands playing in the Lounge at the Station Hotel, Prahran over two nights in March 1976. Released on LP record Lamington Records LAM-332, it also included "Wild Beaver Band", "Myriad" and "Saltbush". Although a multitrack recorder was used (in the back of a truck parked outside the Lounge door in Greville Street Prahran) the quality of tracks released like "Marijuana Hell" did not approach the live sound of the bands. Aztec Music label had originally listed it as a forthcoming CD release of "The Dingoes at the Station Hotel in 1976". This listing has been removed from the web site in 2008.

References / External links

* [http://www.milesago.com/Artists/dingoes.htm The Dingoes in "Milesgo"]
* [http://www.quilltolhurst.com/ quill-tolhurst.com]