Absent Friends (band)
Encyclopedia
Absent Friends were an ARIA Award winning band from Sydney
, Australia
. The band was relatively short lived, forming in 1989 and disbanding in 1990. It featured a number of notable Australian musicians including Sean Kelly
(Models
, The Dukes
), James Valentine (Models), Garry Gary Beers (INXS
), Geoffrey Stapleton (GANGgajang
) and Wendy Matthews
.
in 1988, Sean Kelly attempted to launch a solo career with the single "Thank You, Goodnight" (March 1988) (which happened to be the name of Models’ last tour), but the single was not a commercial success and in early 1989 Kelly found himself at a loose end. Kelly contacted a number of friends, with a view of putting together an informal band to play a few gigs. The impromptu cooperative was initially dubbed Sean Kelly and His Absent Friends. The initial line-up varied, usually dependant upon the availability of individual members at any given time. Sean Kelly and His Absent Friends kicked off life as a touring act in May 1989, with Kelly (vocals/guitar) joined on occasion by his partner Wendy Matthews
(vocals)(who performed backing vocals for Models and was a guest vocalist on the Rockmelons
debut and ARIA award winning album, Tales of the City), Garry Gary Beers (the bassist for INXS
), Nicole Ainslie (keyboards/vocals), Andrew Duffield (keyboards) ex-Models, James Valentine (saxophone) ex-Models, guitarist Michael King ex-Jimmy Barnes
, and drummer John MacKay ex-Machinations
. Within a couple of months the high profile group were supporting Crowded House at their July 1989 ‘Rock For Land Rights’ concert.
In late 1989 the band entered the recording studio to record a few original tracks that they had been playing live. The first single released by the newly named Absent Friends was "Hallelujah" via the rooArt
label. The playing roster on that track comprised Kelly, Matthews, Beers, Ainslie, Duffield, Valentine, King and MacKay, with guest contributions from keyboardist Roger Mason
(ex-Models) and INXS drummer John Farris
(who contributed percussion to the B-side track "Come Clean"). In early 1990 they recorded their debut album, Here's Looking Up Your Address
, released on rooArt through BMG Music. The album was released in May 1990, and was preceded by Absent Friends’ second single, the quirky soul-funk amalgam "Hullabaloo", which reached number 45 on the Australian charts.
The band's next single "I Don’t Want To Be With Nobody But You" was a significant commercial success. It was a cover of the Eddie Floyd
classic. The cover to the single credited the song to Absent Friends featuring Wendy Matthews, also guesting on the track was vocalist Peter Blakeley
(backing vocals). "I Don’t Want To Be With Nobody But You", peaking at number 4 on the Australian charts during July 1990, and later won the ARIA Award for ‘Best Single’ for 1991. The album Here's Looking Up Your Address (rooArt
) went to number 7 on the Australian album charts and was certified Gold
. The album yielded one more minor hit with "Harmony" reaching number 91 on the Australian singles charts.
In 1990 Absent Friends supported INXS on an eight-week European tour, with ex-Eurogliders
bassist Ron Francois
taking Beers’ place and GANGgajang
keyboardist Geoff Stapleton filling the void on keyboards left by the departure of Andrew Duffield. Ainslie and Valentine also left the band at this time. The band played 10,000 seat stadiums through Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, Holland, Denmark, Scotland, Ireland and England (including five performances at Wembley Arena).
The band continued to tour over the Australian summer of 1990/1991, out of which their final recording surfaced with the live EP
, Networking, which was recorded at the Kardomah Cafe in Kings Cross
Sydney. Soon after Kelly decided that Absent Friends had run its course, and the band members went their separate ways.
Matthews soon after recorded her debut album, Émigré
, whilst Kelly and Stapleton pieced together another band during 1991 called The Dukes
.
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. The band was relatively short lived, forming in 1989 and disbanding in 1990. It featured a number of notable Australian musicians including Sean Kelly
Sean Kelly (Australian musician)
Sean Patrick Kelly Born 9 November 1958, is an Australian singer, guitarist and song writer best known as a founding member of the bands Models, Absent Friends and The Dukes.-Biography:...
(Models
Models (band)
Models were an alternative rock group formed in Melbourne, Australia, in August 1978 and went into hiatus in 1988. They are often incorrectly referred to as The Models. They re-formed in 2000, 2006 and 2008 to perform reunion concerts. "Out of Mind, Out of Sight", their only No. 1 hit,...
, The Dukes
The Dukes (Australian band)
The Dukes were a rock band from Sydney, Australia active in the early 1990s.-Biography:The band were originally called Sean Kelly and The Iron Dukes, but were renamed shortly after to The Dukes...
), James Valentine (Models), Garry Gary Beers (INXS
INXS
INXS are an Australian rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. Mainstays are Garry Gary Beers on bass guitar, Andrew Farriss on guitar/keyboards, Jon Farriss on drums, Tim Farriss on lead guitar and Kirk Pengilly on guitar/sax...
), Geoffrey Stapleton (GANGgajang
GANGgajang
Gang Gajang are an Australian rock band who formed in 1984. The three principal figures in the original lineup were former Riptides frontman Mark "Cal" Callaghan and two former members of popular Australian hard rock band The Angels, bassist Chris Bailey and drummer Graham "Buzz"...
) and Wendy Matthews
Wendy Matthews
Wendy Joan Matthews is an Australian adult alternative pop singer originally from Canada who has been a member of Models and Absent Friends and is a solo artist...
.
Biography
Following the break-up of ModelsModels (band)
Models were an alternative rock group formed in Melbourne, Australia, in August 1978 and went into hiatus in 1988. They are often incorrectly referred to as The Models. They re-formed in 2000, 2006 and 2008 to perform reunion concerts. "Out of Mind, Out of Sight", their only No. 1 hit,...
in 1988, Sean Kelly attempted to launch a solo career with the single "Thank You, Goodnight" (March 1988) (which happened to be the name of Models’ last tour), but the single was not a commercial success and in early 1989 Kelly found himself at a loose end. Kelly contacted a number of friends, with a view of putting together an informal band to play a few gigs. The impromptu cooperative was initially dubbed Sean Kelly and His Absent Friends. The initial line-up varied, usually dependant upon the availability of individual members at any given time. Sean Kelly and His Absent Friends kicked off life as a touring act in May 1989, with Kelly (vocals/guitar) joined on occasion by his partner Wendy Matthews
Wendy Matthews
Wendy Joan Matthews is an Australian adult alternative pop singer originally from Canada who has been a member of Models and Absent Friends and is a solo artist...
(vocals)(who performed backing vocals for Models and was a guest vocalist on the Rockmelons
Rockmelons
Rockmelons, often referred to as the Rockies, are an Australian Pop/Dance/R&B group formed in 1983 in Sydney. They are based around Bryon Jones, his brother Jonathon Jones and Raymond Medhurst. They had two Top Five hit singles in the early 1990s with "Ain't No Sunshine" and "That Word ", both sung...
debut and ARIA award winning album, Tales of the City), Garry Gary Beers (the bassist for INXS
INXS
INXS are an Australian rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. Mainstays are Garry Gary Beers on bass guitar, Andrew Farriss on guitar/keyboards, Jon Farriss on drums, Tim Farriss on lead guitar and Kirk Pengilly on guitar/sax...
), Nicole Ainslie (keyboards/vocals), Andrew Duffield (keyboards) ex-Models, James Valentine (saxophone) ex-Models, guitarist Michael King ex-Jimmy Barnes
Jimmy Barnes
James Dixon Swan , better known as Jimmy Barnes, is a Scottish-born Australian rock singer-songwriter. His father Jim Swan was a prizefighter and his older brother John Swan is also a rock singer. It was actually John who had encouraged and taught Jim how to sing as he wasn't really interested at...
, and drummer John MacKay ex-Machinations
Machinations (band)
Machinations was a popular Sydney-based outfit working the mid-1980s independent Australian music scene. Notable national hits included "Pressure Sway", "My Heart's On Fire" and "No Say In It". They also achieved indie prominence with the two versions of their first single, "Average Inadequacy"...
. Within a couple of months the high profile group were supporting Crowded House at their July 1989 ‘Rock For Land Rights’ concert.
In late 1989 the band entered the recording studio to record a few original tracks that they had been playing live. The first single released by the newly named Absent Friends was "Hallelujah" via the rooArt
RooArt
rooArt was an Australian independent record label, founded in 1988 by INXS's then-manager, Chris Murphy. The label's roster included several well-known Australian bands and artists such as Crow, Ratcat, Screaming Jets, You Am I, Wendy Matthews, The Hummingbirds, The Trilobites and Amanda Brown...
label. The playing roster on that track comprised Kelly, Matthews, Beers, Ainslie, Duffield, Valentine, King and MacKay, with guest contributions from keyboardist Roger Mason
Roger Mason (musician)
Roger Ashley Mason is an Australian keyboardist who has been a member of New Wave groups Models, Absent Friends and Icehouse. He was a session and backing musician for United Kingdom's Gary Numan and for various Australian artists...
(ex-Models) and INXS drummer John Farris
John Farris
John Lee Farris is an American writer, known largely for his work in the southern Gothic genre. He was born 1936 in Jefferson City, Missouri, to parents John Linder Farris and Eleanor Carter Farris . Raised in Tennessee, he graduated from Central High School in Memphis and attended Southwestern...
(who contributed percussion to the B-side track "Come Clean"). In early 1990 they recorded their debut album, Here's Looking Up Your Address
Here's Looking Up Your Address
Here's Looking Up Your Address is the debut studio album by Australian rock band Absent Friends and was released in April, 1990 on the RooART label. It was re-released by RooART in October, 2005.-Track listing:...
, released on rooArt through BMG Music. The album was released in May 1990, and was preceded by Absent Friends’ second single, the quirky soul-funk amalgam "Hullabaloo", which reached number 45 on the Australian charts.
The band's next single "I Don’t Want To Be With Nobody But You" was a significant commercial success. It was a cover of the Eddie Floyd
Eddie Floyd
Eddie Lee Floyd is an American soul/R&B singer and songwriter, best known for his work on the Stax record label in the 1960s and 1970s and the song "Knock on Wood".-Biography:...
classic. The cover to the single credited the song to Absent Friends featuring Wendy Matthews, also guesting on the track was vocalist Peter Blakeley
Peter Blakeley
Peter Blakeley is an Australian White Soul/Adult Contemporary singer and songwriter.Blakeley was a lead singer for The Rockmelons in the mid-1980s. He launched a solo career in 1987 and had a massive hit single in Australia in 1990 with "Crying in the Chapel", which was not a remake of the 1950s...
(backing vocals). "I Don’t Want To Be With Nobody But You", peaking at number 4 on the Australian charts during July 1990, and later won the ARIA Award for ‘Best Single’ for 1991. The album Here's Looking Up Your Address (rooArt
RooArt
rooArt was an Australian independent record label, founded in 1988 by INXS's then-manager, Chris Murphy. The label's roster included several well-known Australian bands and artists such as Crow, Ratcat, Screaming Jets, You Am I, Wendy Matthews, The Hummingbirds, The Trilobites and Amanda Brown...
) went to number 7 on the Australian album charts and was certified Gold
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
. The album yielded one more minor hit with "Harmony" reaching number 91 on the Australian singles charts.
In 1990 Absent Friends supported INXS on an eight-week European tour, with ex-Eurogliders
Eurogliders
Eurogliders were an Indie pop band formed in 1981 in Perth, Western Australia, which included mainstays Grace Knight on vocals and Bernie Lynch on guitar and vocals. The band was originally formed by Bernie Lynch and Amanda Vincent under the name Living Single. After almost a year, Grace Knight...
bassist Ron Francois
Ron François
Ron François was a founder member of The Sinceros , and former member of the London R&B band The Strutters. After the demise of The Sinceros in 1981, François joined The Teardrop Explodes and stayed with Epic Records releasing a solo single, "If You Love Me", in 1982 before departing to live in...
taking Beers’ place and GANGgajang
GANGgajang
Gang Gajang are an Australian rock band who formed in 1984. The three principal figures in the original lineup were former Riptides frontman Mark "Cal" Callaghan and two former members of popular Australian hard rock band The Angels, bassist Chris Bailey and drummer Graham "Buzz"...
keyboardist Geoff Stapleton filling the void on keyboards left by the departure of Andrew Duffield. Ainslie and Valentine also left the band at this time. The band played 10,000 seat stadiums through Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, Holland, Denmark, Scotland, Ireland and England (including five performances at Wembley Arena).
The band continued to tour over the Australian summer of 1990/1991, out of which their final recording surfaced with the live EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, Networking, which was recorded at the Kardomah Cafe in Kings Cross
Kings Cross, New South Wales
Kings Cross is an inner-city locality of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately 2 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of the City of Sydney...
Sydney. Soon after Kelly decided that Absent Friends had run its course, and the band members went their separate ways.
Matthews soon after recorded her debut album, Émigré
Émigré (album)
Émigré is the debut solo studio album by Australian singer-songwriter Wendy Matthews released by rooArt in Australia in November 1990. It was produced by Ricky Fataar and reached No. 11 on the Australian Albums Chart. It yielded three singles: "Token Angels", "Woman's Gotta Have It" and "Let's...
, whilst Kelly and Stapleton pieced together another band during 1991 called The Dukes
The Dukes (Australian band)
The Dukes were a rock band from Sydney, Australia active in the early 1990s.-Biography:The band were originally called Sean Kelly and The Iron Dukes, but were renamed shortly after to The Dukes...
.
Reformation
Absent Friends have recently announced a comeback tour of the U.K. The lineup has been changed to incorporate Matthew Wishart and Anthony Harris on guitar and Chris Lings on drums. They plan to independently release an E.P. later this year.Members
- Wendy MatthewsWendy MatthewsWendy Joan Matthews is an Australian adult alternative pop singer originally from Canada who has been a member of Models and Absent Friends and is a solo artist...
- lead/vocal (1989–1990) - Sean KellySean Kelly (Australian musician)Sean Patrick Kelly Born 9 November 1958, is an Australian singer, guitarist and song writer best known as a founding member of the bands Models, Absent Friends and The Dukes.-Biography:...
- lead vocal/guitar (1989–1990) - Michael "Mick" King - lead guitar/vocal (1989–1990)
- Garry Gary Beers - bass/vocal (1989–1990)
- Ron FrancoisRon FrançoisRon François was a founder member of The Sinceros , and former member of the London R&B band The Strutters. After the demise of The Sinceros in 1981, François joined The Teardrop Explodes and stayed with Epic Records releasing a solo single, "If You Love Me", in 1982 before departing to live in...
- bass/vocal (1990) - John Mackay - drums/percussion/vocal (1989–1990)
- Geoffrey Stapleton - keyboards (1990)
- James Valentine - saxophone (1989)
- Andrew Duffield - keyboards (1989)
- Nicole Ainslie - keyboards/vocal (1989)
Albums/EPs
- Here's Looking Up Your AddressHere's Looking Up Your AddressHere's Looking Up Your Address is the debut studio album by Australian rock band Absent Friends and was released in April, 1990 on the RooART label. It was re-released by RooART in October, 2005.-Track listing:...
- rooArtRooArtrooArt was an Australian independent record label, founded in 1988 by INXS's then-manager, Chris Murphy. The label's roster included several well-known Australian bands and artists such as Crow, Ratcat, Screaming Jets, You Am I, Wendy Matthews, The Hummingbirds, The Trilobites and Amanda Brown...
(May 1990) AUS #7 - Networking mini-LP (December 1990)
Singles
- "Hallelujah" - rooArt (January 1990)
- "Hullabaloo" - rooArt (February 1990) AUS #45
- "I Don't Wanna Be With Nobody But You" - rooArt (April 1990) AUS #4
- "Harmony" - rooArt (August 1990) AUS #91