The Flying Circus (band)
Encyclopedia
The Flying Circus was a pioneering Australian country rock
band who had a number of pop hits in Australia
from 1968 to 1971 and then re-located to Canada
from 1971 to 1974 where they also achieved a degree of success.
, Australia starting out as a country/folk-rock band. They performed "harmony-rich covers of Byrds, Dylan and Dillards country songs". Like The Byrds
, a prominent part of their early sound came from the featured use of a 12 string Rickenbacker guitar. They were brought together by lead guitarist Doug Rowe who had been a member of New Zealand band, The Castaways, before coming to Australia. The original lineup was Doug Rowe [lead guitar, vocals], James Wynne [lead vocals, rhythm guitar], Bob Hughes
[bass, vocals] and Colin Walker [drums]. Bob Hughes left in early 1969 and went on to become a well known screen actor with credits including the hit TV sitcom Hey Dad..! and ABBA: The Movie. He was replaced by bassist Warren Ward, an experienced musician.
- Mac Gayden
song, "Hayride", in early 1969. As the song was firmly in the bubblegum pop
genre (e.g. the Chipmunks sounding intro), this resulted in the band being branded with a bubblegum image, although their stage performances and later recordings were in the country rock vein.
Nothwithstanding its trite nature, "Hayride" was initially banned from release in New Zealand because of the lyric "...making love in the hay..." The song gained vital Australian national exposure thanks to a pioneering promotional film-clip which was shown on nationally-screened TV pop shows like Uptight!. Their second single, another Cason-Gayden song, "La La", was an even bigger hit, but this only served to reinforce their image as a bubblegum band.
The group recorded their self-titled debut album around this time, produced by Mike Perjanik
. The LP was an odd mixture of styles. Alongside the band's original country-rock numbers they included their pop hits and a medley of songs from the popular musical Hair
.
Greg Grace left in June 1969 (to form Hot Cottage); Warren Ward left in September, to form Stonehenge and later performed on the hit "Boppin' The Blues" by Blackfeather
). Ward was replaced as bass player by Terry Wilkins (ex-Starving Wild Dogs, Quill).
"Run Run Run", released in December 1969 was their last "bubblegum pop" release. It sounded much like the first two Cason-Gayden hits although this one was actually written by Doug Rowe.
Frontier, the band returned to their country-rock roots; it featured four pure country songs, including Terry Wilkins' "When Will I See You As You" and covers of Bob Dylan
's, "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight", and Merle Haggard
's, "The Day The Rains Came Down".
In April 1970 they added a fifth member, noted lead guitarist & pedal steel player, Red McKelvie
, (ex-Starving Wild Dogs, Quill). McKelvie's arrival steered the group towards straight-ahead country music and the change was evident on their second LP, Prepared In Peace, released in July 1970, again produced by Perjanik and consisting entirely of original country-rock songs. It was critically well received, but not a major commercial success. That month they scored a dramatic victory over teen favourites Zoot
in the Grand Final of the prestigious Hoadley's National Battle of the Sounds band competition.
In October Flying Circus released the single, "Israel" written by Red, backed with "Giselle." Red McKelvie
, however departed the band the same month. He went on to form the country-rock groups Powderhorn and Third Union Band and played with Richard Clapton
's band - he is responsible for the distinctive slide guitar work on Clapton's breakthrough hit "Girls On The Avenue".
Red McKelvie
's departure marked a shift to a rockier but still country-tinged style. This was emphasised by the adding of a keyboard player, Sam See (formerly with Sherbet
and subsequently with Stockley See and Mason) and reflected in the next album, a much more straight-ahead rock LP, although there was still some country, such as "The Longest Day", which chronicled the events surrounding the band's Hoadley's competition win. This album, with the joking title Bonza, Beaut & Boom Boom Boom, again consisted of all original material by the group. Two singles, "Turn Away" and "It Couldn't Happen Here", were released from the LP, but they only charted modestly. The band had a penchant for writing and recording songs about steam trains, with titles such as "Kempsey Mail", "3667", and "The Last Train", mainly due to the presence of James Wynne, a lifelong train enthusiast who later became an artist noted for his paintings of steam trains.
July 1971 saw them back in Australia where they released their next single, the Crosby, Stills & Nash influenced track, "The Ballad of Sacred Falls" which was released in September. They headed off back to Canada in late 1971 where they worked regularly for most of 1972. During the brief time in Australia in 1971, Sam See left to join progressive group Fraternity
(which included Bon Scott
as lead singer) and Greg Grace rejoined to replace him. Flying Circus found Canadian audiences much more receptive to their style than in Australia and from then on they effectively became part of the Canadian rock music scene. After scoring a reputed million-dollar contract with Capitol Records, they cut their highly-regarded Gypsy Road LP, which consolidated all their past hard work. The single "Old Enough (To Break My Heart)" reached #19 on the Canadian charts and the follow-up, "Maple Lady" made the lower end of the US Top 100.
They returned to Australia for the second Sunbury Pop Festival in January 1973, but their local popularity had waned by then, and the band received a less than enthusiastic reception. They returned to Canada, where Sam See rejoined the group (having left Fraternity while in England). Greg Grace again left the band (for the final time), later becoming the roadie for Canadian band Wireless, which included three ex-members of Australian band, Autumn.
. Doug Rowe remained in Toronto, where he set up his own studio and lived for some years before eventually returning to Australia. By 1982 he had returned to Australia where he joined the country-rock band, Grand Junction, which went on to win a Golden Guitar
at Australia's annual Tamworth Country Music Festival
for "Married Women", although the track was recorded using Peter Johnson on vocals, who left the band prior to it winning the Golden Guitar.
Country rock
Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...
band who had a number of pop hits in 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...
from 1968 to 1971 and then re-located to Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
from 1971 to 1974 where they also achieved a degree of success.
Beginnings
The Flying Circus were formed in August 1968 in SydneySydney
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 starting out as a country/folk-rock band. They performed "harmony-rich covers of Byrds, Dylan and Dillards country songs". Like The Byrds
The Byrds
The Byrds were an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple line-up changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member until the group disbanded in 1973...
, a prominent part of their early sound came from the featured use of a 12 string Rickenbacker guitar. They were brought together by lead guitarist Doug Rowe who had been a member of New Zealand band, The Castaways, before coming to Australia. The original lineup was Doug Rowe [lead guitar, vocals], James Wynne [lead vocals, rhythm guitar], Bob Hughes
Robert Hughes (Australian actor)
Robert Lindsay Hughes is an Australian actor whose most significant roles include ABBA: The Movie and the television sitcom Hey Dad..!-Early career:...
[bass, vocals] and Colin Walker [drums]. Bob Hughes left in early 1969 and went on to become a well known screen actor with credits including the hit TV sitcom Hey Dad..! and ABBA: The Movie. He was replaced by bassist Warren Ward, an experienced musician.
La La Land
They signed to EMI records in late 1968 and made one of their first major appearances at an outdoor concert in Sydney's Domain on Australia Day 1969. After recording, with the original line-up, a cover of the song, "Shame Shame" (which was not put out out at that time), they had their first chart success soon after with their debut single, a cover of the Buzz CasonBuzz Cason
Buzz Cason is an American rock singer, songwriter, producer and author....
- Mac Gayden
Mac Gayden
McGavock Gayden better known as Mac Gayden born in Nashville, Tennessee is an American rock and country singer, songwriter, musician and producer. He is also president of Wild Child Records formed in 2004....
song, "Hayride", in early 1969. As the song was firmly in the bubblegum pop
Bubblegum pop
Bubblegum pop is a genre of pop music with an upbeat sound contrived and marketed to appeal to pre-teens and teenagers, produced in an assembly-line process, driven by producers, often using unknown singers.Bubblegum's classic period ran from 1967 to 1972...
genre (e.g. the Chipmunks sounding intro), this resulted in the band being branded with a bubblegum image, although their stage performances and later recordings were in the country rock vein.
Nothwithstanding its trite nature, "Hayride" was initially banned from release in New Zealand because of the lyric "...making love in the hay..." The song gained vital Australian national exposure thanks to a pioneering promotional film-clip which was shown on nationally-screened TV pop shows like Uptight!. Their second single, another Cason-Gayden song, "La La", was an even bigger hit, but this only served to reinforce their image as a bubblegum band.
The group recorded their self-titled debut album around this time, produced by Mike Perjanik
Mike Perjanik
Mike Perjanik is a New Zealand-born musician, record producer, composer, arranger and bandleader who became well known in Australia from the late 1960s for his work on pop and rock recordings, and as a composer, arranger, bandleader and producer of music for film, television and advertising.-New...
. The LP was an odd mixture of styles. Alongside the band's original country-rock numbers they included their pop hits and a medley of songs from the popular musical Hair
Hair (musical)
Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical is a rock musical with a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music by Galt MacDermot. A product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, several of its songs became anthems of the anti-Vietnam War peace movement...
.
Greg Grace left in June 1969 (to form Hot Cottage); Warren Ward left in September, to form Stonehenge and later performed on the hit "Boppin' The Blues" by Blackfeather
Blackfeather
Blackfeather was an Australian rock group in the 1970s. The group had many members and went through two major incarnations - the earlier heavy rock version of the group, which recorded the album At The Mountains of Madness and the hit single "Seasons of Change", and the later piano-based lineup...
). Ward was replaced as bass player by Terry Wilkins (ex-Starving Wild Dogs, Quill).
"Run Run Run", released in December 1969 was their last "bubblegum pop" release. It sounded much like the first two Cason-Gayden hits although this one was actually written by Doug Rowe.
Prepared in Peace - Changes
With their next release, the EPExtended 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...
Frontier, the band returned to their country-rock roots; it featured four pure country songs, including Terry Wilkins' "When Will I See You As You" and covers of Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
's, "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight", and Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard
Merle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...
's, "The Day The Rains Came Down".
In April 1970 they added a fifth member, noted lead guitarist & pedal steel player, Red McKelvie
Red McKelvie
Red McKelvie is a New Zealand singer-songwriter-instrumentalist and session musician who has been described as "Australasia's greatest pop guitarist"....
, (ex-Starving Wild Dogs, Quill). McKelvie's arrival steered the group towards straight-ahead country music and the change was evident on their second LP, Prepared In Peace, released in July 1970, again produced by Perjanik and consisting entirely of original country-rock songs. It was critically well received, but not a major commercial success. That month they scored a dramatic victory over teen favourites Zoot
Zoot
Zoot may refer to:*Zoot , an Australian pop group active 1965-1971*Zoot, a character in the television series The Tribe*Zoot, a character in the fictional Muppet band Dr...
in the Grand Final of the prestigious Hoadley's National Battle of the Sounds band competition.
In October Flying Circus released the single, "Israel" written by Red, backed with "Giselle." Red McKelvie
Red McKelvie
Red McKelvie is a New Zealand singer-songwriter-instrumentalist and session musician who has been described as "Australasia's greatest pop guitarist"....
, however departed the band the same month. He went on to form the country-rock groups Powderhorn and Third Union Band and played with Richard Clapton
Richard Clapton
Richard Clapton is an Australian singer-songwriter and guitarist from Sydney, New South Wales. His solo top 20 hits on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart are "Girls on the Avenue" and "I Am an Island"...
's band - he is responsible for the distinctive slide guitar work on Clapton's breakthrough hit "Girls On The Avenue".
Red McKelvie
Red McKelvie
Red McKelvie is a New Zealand singer-songwriter-instrumentalist and session musician who has been described as "Australasia's greatest pop guitarist"....
's departure marked a shift to a rockier but still country-tinged style. This was emphasised by the adding of a keyboard player, Sam See (formerly with Sherbet
Sherbet (band)
Sherbet was one of the most prominent and successful Australian rock bands of the 1970s. Their biggest singles were "Summer Love" and "Howzat" , both reaching number one in Australia. "Howzat" was also a top 5 hit in the UK. Though the band's success in the U.S...
and subsequently with Stockley See and Mason) and reflected in the next album, a much more straight-ahead rock LP, although there was still some country, such as "The Longest Day", which chronicled the events surrounding the band's Hoadley's competition win. This album, with the joking title Bonza, Beaut & Boom Boom Boom, again consisted of all original material by the group. Two singles, "Turn Away" and "It Couldn't Happen Here", were released from the LP, but they only charted modestly. The band had a penchant for writing and recording songs about steam trains, with titles such as "Kempsey Mail", "3667", and "The Last Train", mainly due to the presence of James Wynne, a lifelong train enthusiast who later became an artist noted for his paintings of steam trains.
Canada - Maple Lady
As result of the image problem that followed them from their early days and, that in Australia at that time, they were too country for rock audiences and too rocky for country audiences, they became frustrated by the lack of serious recognition in Australia. This led them to use their Hoadleys prize to head for North America, basing themselves in San Francisco. Lead singer Jim Wynne left the band, ultimately for good. They ended up in Toronto as they were unable to attain US working visas. The trip to Canada met with some success and they gained a deal from Toronto music agency Music Factory for a $10,000, two-month tour. The single "Turn Away" was also released in the USA but to no success.July 1971 saw them back in Australia where they released their next single, the Crosby, Stills & Nash influenced track, "The Ballad of Sacred Falls" which was released in September. They headed off back to Canada in late 1971 where they worked regularly for most of 1972. During the brief time in Australia in 1971, Sam See left to join progressive group Fraternity
Fraternity (band)
Fraternity were an Australian rock band which formed in Sydney in 1970 and relocated to Adelaide in 1971. Former members include successive lead vocalists Bon Scott , John Swan , and his brother Jimmy Barnes...
(which included Bon Scott
Bon Scott
Ronald Belford "Bon" Scott was a Scottish-born Australian rock musician, best known for being the lead singer and lyricist of Australian hard rock band AC/DC from 1974 until his death in 1980...
as lead singer) and Greg Grace rejoined to replace him. Flying Circus found Canadian audiences much more receptive to their style than in Australia and from then on they effectively became part of the Canadian rock music scene. After scoring a reputed million-dollar contract with Capitol Records, they cut their highly-regarded Gypsy Road LP, which consolidated all their past hard work. The single "Old Enough (To Break My Heart)" reached #19 on the Canadian charts and the follow-up, "Maple Lady" made the lower end of the US Top 100.
They returned to Australia for the second Sunbury Pop Festival in January 1973, but their local popularity had waned by then, and the band received a less than enthusiastic reception. They returned to Canada, where Sam See rejoined the group (having left Fraternity while in England). Greg Grace again left the band (for the final time), later becoming the roadie for Canadian band Wireless, which included three ex-members of Australian band, Autumn.
The Last Laugh
The Flying Circus went on to put out one more rock album, the ironically titled, Last Laugh in 1974. The lineup on this LP was Doug Rowe, Terry Wilkins, Sam See and Colin Walker. However by the end of 1974 the group had run its course. Sam See and Terry Wilkins toured and recorded with Canadian band LighthouseLighthouse (band)
Lighthouse is a Canadian rock band formed in 1968 in Toronto which included horns, string instruments, and vibraphone; their music reflected elements of rock music, jazz, classical music and swing...
. Doug Rowe remained in Toronto, where he set up his own studio and lived for some years before eventually returning to Australia. By 1982 he had returned to Australia where he joined the country-rock band, Grand Junction, which went on to win a Golden Guitar
Golden Guitar
The Big Golden Guitar is one of the many "big" attractions that can be found around Australia. Located in Tamworth, New South Wales, the monument is one of the best-known points of interest in New England New South Wales...
at Australia's annual Tamworth Country Music Festival
Tamworth Country Music Festival
The Tamworth Country Music Festival is an annual music festival held in Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia and is a celebration of Australian country music culture and heritage. The festival lasts for two weeks during late January and during this period the city of Tamworth comes alive, with...
for "Married Women", although the track was recorded using Peter Johnson on vocals, who left the band prior to it winning the Golden Guitar.
Singles
- "Hayride"/"Early Morning" 1969 (#3 Sydney, #1 Brisbane, #23 Nationally (Go-Set))
- "La La"/"Last Train" 1969 (#5 Sydney, #1 Brisbane, #1 Adelaide, #4 Melbourne, #9 Nationally (Go-Set))
- "Run Run Run"/"All Fall Down" 1969 (#9 Sydney, #36 Brisbane, #5 Adelaide, #25 Melbourne, #21 Nationally (Go-Set))
- "Giselle"/"Israel" 1970 (#15 Brisbane)
- "Turn Away"/"Longest Day" 1971 (#27 Brisbane,#51 Adelaide)
- "It Couldn't Happen Here"/"Somerville" 1971
- "Finding My Way"/"Ballad Of Sacred Falls" 1971
- "Old Enough (To Break My Heart)"/"Train Ride" 1972 (#19 Canada National Charts, #19 Toronto CHUM AM charts)
- "Maple Lady"/"Green Patch" 1972
- "Jabber Jabber"/"Gypsy Road" 1974
EPs
- Frontier - "I Remember Joanne"/"I'll Be Your Baby Tonight"//The Day The Rains Came"/"When Will I See You as You"
Albums
- Flying Circus (self titled) 1969
- Prepared in Peace 1970
- Bonza Beaut & Boom Boom 1971
- Gypsy Road 1972
- Last Laugh 1974
- Steam Trains & Country Lanes 1977 ("Best of" album)
- Flying Circus 1969-71 ("Best of" album)