Deborah Conway
Encyclopedia
Deborah Ann Conway, is an Australian rock
singer-songwriter
and guitarist
, and had a career as a model and actor. She was a founding member of the 1980s rock band Do-Ré-Mi
with their surprise top 5 hit "Man Overboard
".
Conway performs solo and has a top 20 hit single with "It's Only the Beginning" (1991). The associated album, String of Pearls, also peaked in the top 20. She won the 1992 Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Music Award
for 'Best Female Artist'. Her next album, Bitch Epic, reached the top 20 in November 1993. Conway organised and performed on the Broad Festivals from 2005 to 2008 – show-casing contemporary Australian female artists.
and Conway attended Lauriston Girls' School – photos of her as a schoolgirl were displayed at the Sydney Jewish Museum
. Later she went to University of Melbourne
– modelling and singing her way through. A billboard campaign for Bluegrass jeans featured Conway's nude backside and the phrase "Get yours into Bluegrass". Other ads with Conway as a model include, Big M
and Crunchie
.
At the age of 18, Conway started playing guitar, and in 1979 she joined The Benders as a vocalist
whilst still at university. Her father was so concerned when she joined the pop band that he sent her to a psychiatrist. Other members of The Benders included, Neville Aresca (bass guitar
), Les Barker (guitar
s, vocals), Dorland Bray (drums
, vocals), John Campbell, Daniel Solowiej and Greg Thomas (guitar, keyboards
). They performed mostly in Melbourne pubs playing original material – mostly written by Conway and Thomas – and Blondie
and Devo
covers. Conway also wrote songs with Bray.
with Helen Carter on bass guitar and Stephen Philip on guitar. They recorded two albums, Domestic Harmony (1985) and The Happiest Place in Town (1988), and eight singles. Their best performed hit, "Man Overboard", peaked at No. 5 on the Australia Kent Music Report
Singles Chart and became the 8th highest positioned Australian song on the 1985 End of Year Chart. In the early 1980s, Conway was the domestic partner of Paul Hester
– drummer for Deckchairs Overboard
and then Split Enz
– before he left for Los Angeles in 1985 and formed Crowded House
there.
In late 1983, Conway supplied vocals for actor Tracy Mann's
singing in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
(ABC) TV series Sweet and Sour
(1984) including the hit title song, "Sweet and Sour". Two soundtrack albums and three singles from the series were credited to The Takeaways (and Various Artists). Conway sang lead vocals on half the songs and backing vocals on almost all the rest.
In 1986 Conway performed with The Rock Party, a charity project initiated by The National Campaign Against Drug Abuse
, which included many Australasian musicians, Neil Finn
, Eddie Rayner, Tim Finn
, Nick Seymour
and Hester (all from Crowded House); Geoff Stapleton, Robbie James and Mark Callaghan (all from GANGgajang
); Reg Mombassa
and Martin Plaza
(both from Mental As Anything
); Andrew Barnum and Lissa Barnum (both from The Vitabeats); Mary Azzopardi (Rockmelons
), Michael Barclay, Peter Blakeley
, Jenny Morris, Danny De Costa, Greg Herbert (The Promise), Spencer P Jones, Sean Kelly (Models
), John Kennedy, Paul Kelly
, Robert Susz (Dynamic Hepnotics
) and Rick Swinn (The Venetians
). The Rock Party released a 12" single "Everything to Live For", which was produced by Joe Wissert, Phil Rigger and Phil Beazley.
Do-Ré-Mi disbanded in 1988 not long after their second album was released. Rolling Stone (Australia)
named Conway 'Best Australian Female Singer' for that year.
In 1990, Conway formed Drawcards as a semi-acoustic
band with Vika and Linda
, Stephen Cummings
, Dror Erez, Tim Finn, Ross Hannaford
, Peter Jones
, Shane O'Mara and Chris Wilson. Almost immediately it split with half its members – Conway, Hester, Erez, Jones and Wilson – forming Rose Amongst Thorns as a pub rock
band from 1990 to 1991.
While Do-Ré-Mi were working in England in 1988, Conway became involved in Pete Townshend
's project The Iron Man: The Musical by Pete Townshend. Shortly afterwards she recorded an album of dance music in Los Angeles which was not released except for a solo single "Feel Like Makin' Love" (1990). In 1991, Conway played Juno
in Peter Greenaway
's Prospero's Books
, singing a setting of William Shakespeare
's masque
from The Tempest
to music by Michael Nyman
.
In 1996, a portrait of Conway as Medusa
, painted by Rosemary Valadon, was a finalist in the Archibald Prize. The prize is awarded for the "best portrait painting preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in Art, Letters, Science or Politics".
Conway performed Dreaming Transportation: Voice Portraits of the First Women of White Settlement at Port Jackson which was scripted and directed by Andrée Greenwell. The performance premiered at the Sydney Festival in 2003 and a year later was staged again, at the Sydney Opera House
. Performing with Conway were Susan Prior, Christine Douglas, Amie McKenna and Jeannie Van de Velde and musicians, Hope Csuturos (violin), James Nightingale (clarinet, saxophone), Jane Williams (cello), Kim Poole (guitar/mandolin), Denise Papaluca (piano), Mardi Chillingworth (double bass) and Jared Underwood (percussion). The work was inspired by a series of poems by Jordie Albiston
.
Deborah Conway's solo output has included touring following an album's release with some of her session musicians. In October 1991, Conway released her first solo album, String of Pearls, which peaked at No. 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart
. The album was produced by Richard Pleasance
, Joe Hardy and Michael den Elzen
. Singles from the album include "It's Only the Beginning" which reached No. 19 on the ARIA Singles Chart in August, "Under My Skin" (December) and "Release Me" (February 1992). For her work on the album, she won 'Best Female Artist' at the ARIA Music Awards of 1992
. To support the releases, Deborah Conway and the Mothers of Pearl was formed with Alan Harding (keyboards), Peter Jones (drums, ex-Drawcards and Rose Amongst Thorns), Bill McDonald (bass guitar) and Willy Zygier (guitar). Conway and Zygier became domestic partners and have written and performed much of Conway's subsequent material.
Conway released her second album Bitch Epic in 1993, which peaked at No. 18 and was produced by Jim Rondinelli and Zygier. The cover features an upper body shot of a topless Conway, covered in Nutella
(a hazelnut spread) and cream, as she is about to eat a slice of cake thereby illustrating the concept of Gluttony (see album cover at right) for ABC TV mini-series Seven Deadly Sins (1993). Conway, Paul Kelly, Vika and Linda and Renée Geyer
, provided vocals and song writing for the related soundtrack. An eight-track extended play of live songs was added to Bitch Epic to form 1994's Epic Theatre, which was produced by Zygier. Her backing band were Zygier, Harding, McDonald and Hughie Benjamin (ex-Yothu Yindi
) on drums.
Ultrasound, an experimental band, with Conway, Zygier, McDonald and Hester, recorded and produced their self-titled album, Ultrasound (1995). At the end of the year, Conway and Zygier relocated to England with their newborn daughter. Conway recorded a new album My Third Husband with Dave Anderson producing and, after returning to Australia in mid-1997, it was released in October.
In May 2000, Conway released her fourth studio album, Exquisite Stereo, on Shock Records
. Her backing band, Deborah Conway and the City of Women, was Zygier, Cameron Reynolds (samples
), Edmond Ammendola (bass guitar) and Dave Williams (drums) – the latter two are members of Augie March
. This was much more of a rock record than previous releases, it "was a mature album featuring a wide variety of styles, from acoustic love song ("You Come to Earth") and Radiohead-styled epics ("Interzone") to full tilt rockers ("I Lay Down on My Pillow and Cried All Night")".
Following Exquisite Stereo, Conway played the lead role of Patsy Cline
in the Australian stage production of Always... Patsy Cline and recorded a covers album of Cline's songs, called PC (2001), which was produced by Zygier and Reynolds. She supported the release by touring as Deborah Conway and the Patsy Clones which contained Zygier and Reynolds, and Gerry Hale.
Only the Bones is Conway's compilation album
which was released in 2002, it had a cover showing Conway at a table picking over a meal (see left), it was re-titled Definitive Collection, with a different cover, and re-released in 2004. Summertown, her next album was issued in 2004 under the name of Conway and Zygier on the Another Intercorps label and was produced by Conway, Zygier and Hale. It has a 1960s folk-pop sound to it. Conway and Zygier supported sales by appearing in fan's homes. Brisbane group, george
, recorded Do-Ré-Mi's
hit single "Man Overboard", with Conway providing vocals, on their 2004 EP Still Real. Noonan from george also performed with Conway in Broad 2005. In 2005, Conway provided vocals for Man Bites God
's single "Bride of the Dragon" from their album The Popular Alternative, the associated video is anime
based.
Since 2008, Conway is artistic director of the Queensland Music Festival
which runs biennially in late July in odd-numbered years.
In May 2010, Conway and Zygier issued Half Man Half Woman, which was produced by James Black (from stage band for RocKwiz
) who also provided keyboards. The album included a track, "Into the Blue" recorded with Conway and Zygier joined by their three daughters, Syd, Alma and Hettie on vocals. The Age
s Michael Dwyer observed that Conway and Zygier did not compromise, "from [Zygier's] jaunty Wes Montgomery-styled instrumental overture to a charming banjo lullaby featuring their three daughters, it fairly saunters with a relaxed resolve to be whatever it wants to be".
, Katie Noonan
, Ruby Hunter
, Conway and Clare Bowditch
were Broad 2005. Melinda Schneider
, Mia Dyson
, Kate Miller-Heidke
, Conway and Ella Hooper
were Broad 2006. Anne McCue
, Sally Seltmann, Conway, Jade Macrae
and Abbe May were Broad 2007. Laura Jean
, Elana Stone
, Liz Stringer, Dianna Corcoran
and Conway were Broad 2008.
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriter
Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...
and guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
, and had a career as a model and actor. She was a founding member of the 1980s rock band Do-Ré-Mi
Do-Re-Mi (band)
Do-Re-Mi aka Do-Ré-Mi were an Australian Rock/Pop band formed in Sydney in 1981 when Deborah Conway and Dorland Bray joined Helen Carter and later recruited Stephen Philip...
with their surprise top 5 hit "Man Overboard
Man Overboard (Do-Re-Mi song)
"Man Overboard" is a single by Australian rock/pop group Do-Ré-Mi which was released by Virgin Records in June 1985. The 7" vinyl version has three tracks, which were written by lead vocalist Deborah Conway, drummer Dorland Bray, bass guitarist Helen Carter and guitarist Stephen Philip...
".
Conway performs solo and has a top 20 hit single with "It's Only the Beginning" (1991). The associated album, String of Pearls, also peaked in the top 20. She won the 1992 Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Music Award
ARIA Music Awards
The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Australian Recording Industry Association...
for 'Best Female Artist'. Her next album, Bitch Epic, reached the top 20 in November 1993. Conway organised and performed on the Broad Festivals from 2005 to 2008 – show-casing contemporary Australian female artists.
Early years and The Benders
Deborah Ann Conway was born on 8 August 1959 and grew up in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Her father was a lawyer in ToorakToorak, Victoria
Toorak is a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 5 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district located on a rise on the south side of a bend in the Yarra River. Its Local Government Area is the City of Stonnington...
and Conway attended Lauriston Girls' School – photos of her as a schoolgirl were displayed at the Sydney Jewish Museum
Sydney Jewish Museum
The Sydney Jewish Museum is a museum in Sydney, Australia, which documents the Holocaust and the history of the Jewish people in Australia.-History and description:...
. Later she went to University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
– modelling and singing her way through. A billboard campaign for Bluegrass jeans featured Conway's nude backside and the phrase "Get yours into Bluegrass". Other ads with Conway as a model include, Big M
Big M
Big M is a popular brand of flavoured milk that was established in Melton, Victoria in 1978. Its distribution has expanded to include the states of New South Wales and Queensland as well as its state of origin. The brand has gained popularity through television ad campaigns such as 'Think Big, but...
and Crunchie
Crunchie
Crunchie is a brand of chocolate bar with a "honeycombed" sugar centre. It is made by Cadbury UK and was originally launched by J. S. Fry & Sons in 1929...
.
At the age of 18, Conway started playing guitar, and in 1979 she joined The Benders as a vocalist
Singing
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
whilst still at university. Her father was so concerned when she joined the pop band that he sent her to a psychiatrist. Other members of The Benders included, Neville Aresca (bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
), Les Barker (guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
s, vocals), Dorland Bray (drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, vocals), John Campbell, Daniel Solowiej and Greg Thomas (guitar, keyboards
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
). They performed mostly in Melbourne pubs playing original material – mostly written by Conway and Thomas – and Blondie
Blondie (band)
Blondie is an American rock band, founded by singer Deborah Harry and guitarist Chris Stein. The band was a pioneer in the early American New Wave and punk scenes of the mid-1970s...
and Devo
Devo
Devo is an American band formed in 1973 consisting of members from Kent and Akron, Ohio. The classic line-up of the band includes two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs and the Casales . The band had a #14 Billboard chart hit in 1980 with the single "Whip It", and has maintained a cult...
covers. Conway also wrote songs with Bray.
Do-Ré-Mi to Rose Amongst Thorns
In 1981, Deborah Conway and Bray relocated to Sydney and formed pop rockers Do-Ré-MiDo-Re-Mi (band)
Do-Re-Mi aka Do-Ré-Mi were an Australian Rock/Pop band formed in Sydney in 1981 when Deborah Conway and Dorland Bray joined Helen Carter and later recruited Stephen Philip...
with Helen Carter on bass guitar and Stephen Philip on guitar. They recorded two albums, Domestic Harmony (1985) and The Happiest Place in Town (1988), and eight singles. Their best performed hit, "Man Overboard", peaked at No. 5 on the Australia Kent Music Report
Kent Music Report
The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to 1998...
Singles Chart and became the 8th highest positioned Australian song on the 1985 End of Year Chart. In the early 1980s, Conway was the domestic partner of Paul Hester
Paul Hester
Paul Newell Hester was an Australian musician and television personality; he was the drummer for the related bands Split Enz and Crowded House.-The early years:...
– drummer for Deckchairs Overboard
Deckchairs Overboard
Deckchairs Overboard was an Australian Pop music band based in Sydney . They developed from Melbourne based Cheks with the addition of Cathy McQuade and had some minor hit singles "That's The Way" , with Ken Campbell on vocals, "Shout", with McQuade on vocals, "Walking In The Dark" and "Fight...
and then Split Enz
Split Enz
Split Enz were a New Zealand band of the 1970s and early 1980s featuring Phil Judd and brothers Tim Finn and Neil Finn. They achieved chart success in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada during the early 1980s ‒ most notably with the single "I Got You", and built a cult following elsewhere...
– before he left for Los Angeles in 1985 and formed Crowded House
Crowded House
Crowded House are a rock band, formed in Melbourne, Australia and led by New Zealand singer-songwriter Neil Finn. Finn is the primary songwriter and creative director of the band, having led it through several incarnations, drawing members from New Zealand , Australia and the United States...
there.
In late 1983, Conway supplied vocals for actor Tracy Mann's
Tracy Mann
Tracy Mann is an Australian actress. Her film credits include Hard Knocks, The Scarecrow, and Fast Talking.Mann got her first big break playing Tina Harris in the 1970s television soap opera The Box. She is possibly best remembered to audiences for playing a character who ended up behind bars, deaf...
singing in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
(ABC) TV series Sweet and Sour
Sweet and Sour (TV series)
Sweet and Sour is an Australian television series which screened on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1984. It was created by Tim Gooding and Johanna Pigott and was produced internally for the ABC by Jan Chapman...
(1984) including the hit title song, "Sweet and Sour". Two soundtrack albums and three singles from the series were credited to The Takeaways (and Various Artists). Conway sang lead vocals on half the songs and backing vocals on almost all the rest.
In 1986 Conway performed with The Rock Party, a charity project initiated by The National Campaign Against Drug Abuse
National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre
The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre is an Australian research institution focusing on treatment and intervention in drug and alcohol abuse. Located at the University of New South Wales Randwick campus, in the suburbs of Sydney, NDARC was established in May, 1986, and officially opened in...
, which included many Australasian musicians, Neil Finn
Neil Finn
Neil Mullane Finn, OBE is a New Zealand Pop recording artist. Along with his brother Tim Finn, he was the co-frontman for Split Enz and is now frontman for Crowded House...
, Eddie Rayner, Tim Finn
Tim Finn
Brian Timothy "Tim" Finn, OBE is a New Zealand singer and musician. Finn is most known for his music with New Zealand 1970s and 1980s rock group Split Enz, and later for his solo work, a temporary membership in his brother Neil's band Crowded House and his joint efforts with Neil Finn as the Finn...
, Nick Seymour
Nick Seymour
Nick Seymour is a musician, painter, and record producer. He is best known for being the bass guitarist in the Australasian rock group Crowded House and brother to Mark Seymour of another successful group; Hunters and Collectors.- Biography :Born in Benalla, Victoria, Australia, Seymour studied...
and Hester (all from Crowded House); Geoff Stapleton, Robbie James and Mark Callaghan (all from 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"...
); Reg Mombassa
Reg Mombassa
Reg Mombassa is the pseudonym of Chris O'Doherty, a New Zealand born artist and musician. Resident in Australia, he is as well known there for his musical exploits — founder and former member of the popular Australian band Mental As Anything and member of Dog Trumpet - as he is for his art...
and Martin Plaza
Martin Plaza
Martin Plaza is the pseudonym of Martin Edward Murphy , who is a vocalist/guitarist/songwriter with Australian pop/R&B band Mental As Anything. Plaza also has a solo music career and in 1986 had a #2 hit in Australia with his cover of the 1960s Unit 4+2 song "Concrete and Clay"...
(both from Mental As Anything
Mental As Anything
Mental As Anything are an Australian New Wave–rock music band formed at an art school in Sydney in 1976. Their most popular line-up was Martin Plaza on vocals and guitar; Reg Mombassa on lead guitar and vocals; his brother Peter "Yoga Dog" O'Doherty on bass guitar and vocals; Wayne "Bird"...
); Andrew Barnum and Lissa Barnum (both from The Vitabeats); Mary Azzopardi (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...
), Michael Barclay, 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...
, Jenny Morris, Danny De Costa, Greg Herbert (The Promise), Spencer P Jones, Sean Kelly (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,...
), John Kennedy, Paul Kelly
Paul Kelly (musician)
Paul Maurice Kelly is an Australian rock music singer-songwriter, guitarist, and harmonica player. He has performed solo, and has led numerous groups, including the Dots, the Coloured Girls, and the Messengers. He has worked with other artists and groups, including associated projects Professor...
, Robert Susz (Dynamic Hepnotics
Dynamic Hepnotics
The Dynamic Hepnotics were a successful Australian soul/blues/funk band during the 1980s. They had major success with their chart topping song Soul Kind Of Feeling in 1984 and 1985, followed up by Gotta Be Wrong later that year....
) and Rick Swinn (The Venetians
The Venetians (Australian band)
The Venetians were an Australian synthpop act that had several hit records in Australia during the middle 1980's.-Biography:The Venetians formed in late 1982, when Rik Swinn arrived in Australia with a 24-track master demo of a song he'd recorded in England. He read a newspaper advert placed by...
). The Rock Party released a 12" single "Everything to Live For", which was produced by Joe Wissert, Phil Rigger and Phil Beazley.
Do-Ré-Mi disbanded in 1988 not long after their second album was released. Rolling Stone (Australia)
Rolling Stone Australia
Rolling Stone Australia is an Australian-based magazine devoted to music, politics, and popular culture that is published monthly, it is the Australian edition of the United States' Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone was initially released in Melbourne in May 1970 as a supplement in Revolution, an...
named Conway 'Best Australian Female Singer' for that year.
In 1990, Conway formed Drawcards as a semi-acoustic
Acoustic music
Acoustic music comprises music that solely or primarily uses instruments which produce sound through entirely acoustic means, as opposed to electric or electronic means...
band with Vika and Linda
Vika and Linda
Vika and Linda Bull are a sister vocal duo who came to prominence after being asked to sing backing vocals in Joe Camilleri's band The Black Sorrows.-Biography:...
, Stephen Cummings
Stephen Cummings
Stephen Donald Cummings is an Australian rock singer-songwriter and writer. He was lead singer of Melbourne-based rock band, The Sports, during 1976–1981, followed by a solo career which has met with critical acclaim but has had limited commercial success...
, Dror Erez, Tim Finn, Ross Hannaford
Ross Hannaford
Ross Andrew Hannaford is an Australian musician. He is often referred to by his nickname "Hanna". Widely regarded as one of the country's finest rock guitarists, he is best known for his long collaboration with singer-songwriter Ross Wilson, which began as teenagers, and with whom he formed the...
, Peter Jones
Peter Jones (drummer)
Peter Jones is a Liverpool-born Australian session drummer, who replaced Paul Hester in Crowded House. After the band split up, he played in Deadstar with Caroline Kennedy and Nick Seymour. Other bands he has been in are, Harem Scarem, Stove Top and is currently the durmmer for the Melbourne rock...
, Shane O'Mara and Chris Wilson. Almost immediately it split with half its members – Conway, Hester, Erez, Jones and Wilson – forming Rose Amongst Thorns as a pub rock
Pub rock (Australia)
Pub rock is a style of Australian rock and roll popular throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and still influencing contemporary Australian music today....
band from 1990 to 1991.
Actor and model
Deborah Conway played the lead role of "Julie", in an Australian teenage road movie called Running on Empty, which was released in 1982. Conway had minor roles in Mallacoota Stampede (1979), Hard Knocks (1980) and The Coca-Cola Kid (1985), and appeared as herself in Diana and Me (1997).While Do-Ré-Mi were working in England in 1988, Conway became involved in Pete Townshend
Pete Townshend
Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career...
's project The Iron Man: The Musical by Pete Townshend. Shortly afterwards she recorded an album of dance music in Los Angeles which was not released except for a solo single "Feel Like Makin' Love" (1990). In 1991, Conway played Juno
Juno (mythology)
Juno is an ancient Roman goddess, the protector and special counselor of the state. She is a daughter of Saturn and sister of the chief god Jupiter and the mother of Mars and Vulcan. Juno also looked after the women of Rome. Her Greek equivalent is Hera...
in Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway
Peter Greenaway, CBE is a British film director. His films are noted for the distinct influence of Renaissance and Baroque painting, and Flemish painting in particular...
's Prospero's Books
Prospero's Books
Prospero's Books , written and directed by Peter Greenaway, is a cinematic adaptation of The Tempest, by William Shakespeare. John Gielgud is Prospero, the protagonist who provides the off-screen narration and the voices to the other story characters...
, singing a setting of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's masque
Masque
The masque was a form of festive courtly entertainment which flourished in 16th and early 17th century Europe, though it was developed earlier in Italy, in forms including the intermedio...
from The Tempest
The Tempest
The Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
to music by Michael Nyman
Michael Nyman
Michael Laurence Nyman, CBE is an English composer of minimalist music, pianist, librettist and musicologist, known for the many film scores he wrote during his lengthy collaboration with the filmmaker Peter Greenaway, and his multi-platinum soundtrack album to Jane Campion's The Piano...
.
In 1996, a portrait of Conway as Medusa
Medusa
In Greek mythology Medusa , " guardian, protectress") was a Gorgon, a chthonic monster, and a daughter of Phorcys and Ceto. The author Hyginus, interposes a generation and gives Medusa another chthonic pair as parents. Gazing directly upon her would turn onlookers to stone...
, painted by Rosemary Valadon, was a finalist in the Archibald Prize. The prize is awarded for the "best portrait painting preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in Art, Letters, Science or Politics".
Conway performed Dreaming Transportation: Voice Portraits of the First Women of White Settlement at Port Jackson which was scripted and directed by Andrée Greenwell. The performance premiered at the Sydney Festival in 2003 and a year later was staged again, at the Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House is a multi-venue performing arts centre in the Australian city of Sydney. It was conceived and largely built by Danish architect Jørn Utzon, finally opening in 1973 after a long gestation starting with his competition-winning design in 1957...
. Performing with Conway were Susan Prior, Christine Douglas, Amie McKenna and Jeannie Van de Velde and musicians, Hope Csuturos (violin), James Nightingale (clarinet, saxophone), Jane Williams (cello), Kim Poole (guitar/mandolin), Denise Papaluca (piano), Mardi Chillingworth (double bass) and Jared Underwood (percussion). The work was inspired by a series of poems by Jordie Albiston
Jordie Albiston
Jordie Albiston is a contemporary Australian poet and academic.Jordie Albiston grew up in Melbourne, and studied flute at the Victorian College of the Arts before completing a PhD in literature. Her first collection of poems, Nervous Arcs, won the Mary Gilmore Award, received runner-up in the Anne...
.
Solo and company
ARIA Charts
The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...
. The album was produced by Richard Pleasance
Richard Pleasance
Richard Arnold Pleasance is an Australian rock musician and producer. He was a founding member of Boom Crash Opera on guitar, bass guitar, vocals and as a songwriter in 1985; they released three albums before Pleasance left in 1992...
, Joe Hardy and Michael den Elzen
Michael den Elzen
Michael den Elzen is a musician and music producer based in Melbourne, Australia. He has performed for over 25 years with many well-known Australian and New Zealand artists, principally as a guitarist, and has contributed music for several Australian movie soundtracks.-Early career:Den Elzen spent...
. Singles from the album include "It's Only the Beginning" which reached No. 19 on the ARIA Singles Chart in August, "Under My Skin" (December) and "Release Me" (February 1992). For her work on the album, she won 'Best Female Artist' at the ARIA Music Awards of 1992
ARIA Music Awards of 1992
The Sixth Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards was held on 6 March 1992 at the World Congress Centre in Melbourne. Hosts were international guest, Julian Lennon and local Richard Wilkins, they were assisted by presenters, Spinal Tap, Rod Stewart and Mick Jones to distribute 24...
. To support the releases, Deborah Conway and the Mothers of Pearl was formed with Alan Harding (keyboards), Peter Jones (drums, ex-Drawcards and Rose Amongst Thorns), Bill McDonald (bass guitar) and Willy Zygier (guitar). Conway and Zygier became domestic partners and have written and performed much of Conway's subsequent material.
Conway released her second album Bitch Epic in 1993, which peaked at No. 18 and was produced by Jim Rondinelli and Zygier. The cover features an upper body shot of a topless Conway, covered in Nutella
Nutella
Nutella is the brand name of a chocolate spread. Nutella, manufactured by the Italian company Ferrero, was introduced on the market in 1963. The recipe was developed from an earlier Ferrero spread released in 1944. Nutella is now sold in over 75 countries....
(a hazelnut spread) and cream, as she is about to eat a slice of cake thereby illustrating the concept of Gluttony (see album cover at right) for ABC TV mini-series Seven Deadly Sins (1993). Conway, Paul Kelly, Vika and Linda and Renée Geyer
Renée Geyer
Renée Rebecca Geyer is an Australian singer who has long been regarded as one of the finest exponents of jazz, soul and R&B idioms. She had commercial success as a solo artist in Australia, with "It's a Man's Man's World", "Heading in the Right Direction" and "Stares and Whispers" in the 1970s and...
, provided vocals and song writing for the related soundtrack. An eight-track extended play of live songs was added to Bitch Epic to form 1994's Epic Theatre, which was produced by Zygier. Her backing band were Zygier, Harding, McDonald and Hughie Benjamin (ex-Yothu Yindi
Yothu Yindi
Yothu Yindi are an Australian band with Aboriginal and balanda members formed in 1986. Aboriginal members come from Yolngu homelands near Yirrkala on the Gove Peninsula in Northern Territory's Arnhem Land...
) on drums.
Ultrasound, an experimental band, with Conway, Zygier, McDonald and Hester, recorded and produced their self-titled album, Ultrasound (1995). At the end of the year, Conway and Zygier relocated to England with their newborn daughter. Conway recorded a new album My Third Husband with Dave Anderson producing and, after returning to Australia in mid-1997, it was released in October.
In May 2000, Conway released her fourth studio album, Exquisite Stereo, on Shock Records
Shock Records
Shock Records is Australia's largest independent record label. It helps distribute records from overseas records labels such as Epitaph Records, and also for small record labels designed specifically for that band such as Cement Records...
. Her backing band, Deborah Conway and the City of Women, was Zygier, Cameron Reynolds (samples
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
), Edmond Ammendola (bass guitar) and Dave Williams (drums) – the latter two are members of Augie March
Augie March
Augie March are an Australian indie/pop rock band. Formed in 1996 in Shepparton, Victoria, the band currently consists of vocalist and rhythm guitarist Glenn Richards, lead guitarist Adam Donovan, bassist Edmondo Ammendola, drummer David Williams, and keyboardist Kiernan Box...
. This was much more of a rock record than previous releases, it "was a mature album featuring a wide variety of styles, from acoustic love song ("You Come to Earth") and Radiohead-styled epics ("Interzone") to full tilt rockers ("I Lay Down on My Pillow and Cried All Night")".
Following Exquisite Stereo, Conway played the lead role of Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline , born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Gore, Virginia, was an American country music singer who enjoyed pop music crossover success during the era of the Nashville sound in the early 1960s...
in the Australian stage production of Always... Patsy Cline and recorded a covers album of Cline's songs, called PC (2001), which was produced by Zygier and Reynolds. She supported the release by touring as Deborah Conway and the Patsy Clones which contained Zygier and Reynolds, and Gerry Hale.
Conway and Zygier
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
which was released in 2002, it had a cover showing Conway at a table picking over a meal (see left), it was re-titled Definitive Collection, with a different cover, and re-released in 2004. Summertown, her next album was issued in 2004 under the name of Conway and Zygier on the Another Intercorps label and was produced by Conway, Zygier and Hale. It has a 1960s folk-pop sound to it. Conway and Zygier supported sales by appearing in fan's homes. Brisbane group, george
George (band)
George are a rock band from Brisbane, Australia. Their first album, Polyserena reached #1 in the Australian Charts on 17 March 2002.-History:...
, recorded Do-Ré-Mi's
Do-Re-Mi (band)
Do-Re-Mi aka Do-Ré-Mi were an Australian Rock/Pop band formed in Sydney in 1981 when Deborah Conway and Dorland Bray joined Helen Carter and later recruited Stephen Philip...
hit single "Man Overboard", with Conway providing vocals, on their 2004 EP Still Real. Noonan from george also performed with Conway in Broad 2005. In 2005, Conway provided vocals for Man Bites God
Man Bites God
Man Bites God is a three-piece band from Melbourne, Australia; founded in 2000 by James Hazelden and Chris Tomkins after the demise of Hazelden's previous band, The Drowning Hitlers...
's single "Bride of the Dragon" from their album The Popular Alternative, the associated video is anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
based.
Since 2008, Conway is artistic director of the Queensland Music Festival
Queensland Music Festival
The Queensland Music Festival is a series of musical events staged in a number of locations in Queensland, Australia usually around late July, every second year. It is financially supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland and a wide range of other partners...
which runs biennially in late July in odd-numbered years.
In May 2010, Conway and Zygier issued Half Man Half Woman, which was produced by James Black (from stage band for RocKwiz
RocKwiz
RocKwiz is an Australian television quiz show series, focused on rock music, and broadcast on SBS One. It premiered in 2005.-Summary:The forty minute program airs on Saturday at 9:20 pm, and is hosted by Julia Zemiro. It is shot in The Gershwin Room at St Kilda's Esplanade Hotel, commonly...
) who also provided keyboards. The album included a track, "Into the Blue" recorded with Conway and Zygier joined by their three daughters, Syd, Alma and Hettie on vocals. The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
s Michael Dwyer observed that Conway and Zygier did not compromise, "from [Zygier's] jaunty Wes Montgomery-styled instrumental overture to a charming banjo lullaby featuring their three daughters, it fairly saunters with a relaxed resolve to be whatever it wants to be".
Broad and more
From 2005 to 2008, Deborah Conway collaborated with different female artists to tour Australia as part of the Broad Festival project. Each year's roster performed their own and each other's songs. Sara StorerSara Storer
Sara Storer is an Australian country music singer. She won seven Golden Guitars in the Tamworth Country Music Festival 2004 awards in Tamworth, the most awards ever won in one year in the 32-year history of the awards. As of the 2010 Golden Guitar awards, Storer has won a total of eleven...
, Katie Noonan
Katie Noonan
Katie Anne Noonan is an Australian singer-songwriter. In addition to a successful solo career encompassing opera, jazz, pop, rock and dance, she sings in the groups george and Elixir, duets with her mother, Maggie Noonan and is currently playing with support from the group The...
, Ruby Hunter
Ruby Hunter
Ruby Charlotte Margaret Hunter was an Australian singer and songwriter. She was a member of the Ngarrindjeri Aboriginal nationality, and often performed with her partner, Archie Roach, whom she met at the age of 16, while both were homeless teenagers...
, Conway and Clare Bowditch
Clare Bowditch
Clare Bowditch is an Australian musician from Melbourne, Victoria. She released her fourth album Modern Day Addiction via Island Records on 13 August 2010. It became both 3RRR Album of the Week and ABC Radio National's Album of the Week. MDA is the first of Bowditch's album's to enter the Top Ten...
were Broad 2005. Melinda Schneider
Melinda Schneider
Melinda Schneider is an Australian country music performer and the daughter of yodeler Mary Schneider. Schneider performed with her mother on the album The Magic of Yodeling at the age of eight. She studied dance as a child and made her acting debut on the popular Australian drama A Country...
, Mia Dyson
Mia Dyson
Mia Dyson is an Australian singer, songwriter, and guitarist. She shot to fame with her 2003 album Cold Water and her subsequent follow-up album, Parking Lots, which won "Best Blues & Roots album" at the 2005 ARIA Awards....
, Kate Miller-Heidke
Kate Miller-Heidke
Kate Miller-Heidke is a singer-songwriter from Brisbane, Australia. Although classically trained, she has followed a career in alternative pop music. She is signed to Sony Australia, Epic in the US and RCA in the UK.-Career:...
, Conway and Ella Hooper
Ella Hooper
Ella Keighery Hooper is an Australian rock music singer-songwriter. Hooper is the lead singer of Killing Heidi, which she has fronted, with her older brother Jesse Hooper, since its formation in 1996...
were Broad 2006. Anne McCue
Anne McCue
Anne McCue is an alternative country singer-songwriter, guitarist & producer from Australia.- Early life and education :McCue grew up in Campbelltown, an area southwest of Sydney, Australia and graduated from the University of Technology, Sydney with a degree in Film Production and Film Studies...
, Sally Seltmann, Conway, Jade Macrae
Jade MacRae
Jade MacRae is an Australian R&B/Soul singer and the daughter of two professional New Zealand musicians living in the UK. Her debut single "You Make Me Weak" debuted in the top 50 of the Australian singles charts in November 2004...
and Abbe May were Broad 2007. Laura Jean
Laura Jean
Laura Jean Englert is an Australian musician from Melbourne, Victoria who performs as Laura Jean. She is known for her classically inspired folk songs, often using a range of orchestral instruments. She garnered much critical acclaim for her debut album, Our Swan Song, receiving high rotational...
, Elana Stone
Elana Stone
Elana Stone is a vocalist, songwriter, pianist, accordion player, and band leader based in Sydney, Australia. Described by John Bailey from Sunday Age as 'One of the most impressive singing voices in the country' , her album In the Garden of Wild Things was released in 2006 on the Jazzgroove label...
, Liz Stringer, Dianna Corcoran
Dianna Corcoran
Dianna Corcoran is an Australian country music singer-songwriter. Among numerous awards, she is a two-time Golden Guitar winner-History:Corcoran's initial interest in country music involved yodeling...
and Conway were Broad 2008.
Discography
- "Feel Like Makin' Love" 1990 (single release)
- String Of Pearls 1991 toured by Deborah Conway and The Mothers of Pearl
- Bitch Epic 1993
- Epic Theatre 1994 (contains Bitch Epic and an additional CD of live songs)
- Ultrasound 1995 by band Ultrasound: Conway, Zygier, McDonald and Hester
- My Third Husband 1997
- Happy New Year 1999
- Exquisite Stereo 2000 toured by Deborah Conway and City of Women
- PC 2001 performed by Deborah Conway and the Patsy Clones
- Only The Bones 2002 aka Definitive Collection 2004
- Summertown 2004 by Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier
- Half Man Half Woman 2010 by Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier