Wild Cherries
Encyclopedia
The Wild Cherries was an Australian rock
group, which started in late 1964 playing R&B and became "the most relentlessly experimental psychedelic band on the Melbourne discotheque / dance scene" according to commentator, Glenn A. Baker
.
The band had several personnel changes, the 1967 line-up featured Keith Barber
on drums
, Peter Eddey on bass guitar
, founder Les Gilbert
on keyboards
, Lobby Loyde
(ex-The Purple Hearts
) on guitar
s, and Dan Robinson on vocals. The band released four singles for Festival Records, including "Krome Plated Yabby" in June 1967 and "That's Life" in November, which peaked into the Go-Set
National Top 40. A compilation
, The Wild Cherries: That's Life was released in 2007 by Half A Cow Records. Loyde went on to join Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs
, then formed Lobby Loyde & the Coloured Balls and also had a solo career.
's Architecture
students, John Bastow on vocals, Rob Lovett on rhythm guitar
and vocals, and Les Gilbert on bass guitar
, formed The Wild Cherries. Although Gilbert had studied classical piano with noted pianist Leslie Miers at an early age, he initially played bass guitar. The Wild Cherries were named by word association: Chuck Berry
– Buck Cherry – Black Cherries – Wild Cherries. Local bluesman Malcolm McGee on lead guitar
and vocals, and Geoff Hales on drums
soon joined. Their debut performance was at Melbourne's first discothèque, the Fat Black Pussycat, located in South Yarra
. Drummer Kevin Murphy, who had been playing in a modern jazz trio, replaced Hales almost immediately.
The new line up made a crude recording of Manfred Mann
's "Without You" in Gilbert's parents' living room before Lovett left in October 1965 to join The Loved Ones
. Reduced to a quartet, they made three more crude recordings at a rehearsal at the Fat Black Pussycat, including a cover of John D. Loudermilk
's "Tobacco Road
". Early in 1966, Murphy left to travel to the UK and English-born drummer, Keith Barber
joined. Soon after his arrival, the quartet recorded two further tracks: an original composition, “Get out of My Life” and a cover
of Sonny Boy Williamson
's “Bye Bye Bird” but no label was interested in picking up their songs for a single. By June 1966, the group had disbanded and McGee left to join Python Lee Jackson
while Bastow returned to his studies.
with a Hammond organ
. After rehearsing for several months, former The Purple Hearts
lead guitarist, Barry Lyde aka Lobby Loyde
, from Brisbane
, completed the second incarnation in January 1967.
The group immediately signed to Festival Records and in February travelled to Sydney to play a week-long engagement at Here disco in North Sydney filling in for the absent Jeff St John & The Id. The band then returned to Melbourne and started picking up local gigs, including an appearance at the Catcher on 4 March with The Clefs, The Mind Excursions and The Chelsea Set and playing a two-nighter at Sebastian’s on 8–9 March. The Wild Cherries returned to Sydney in April for an extended engagement at Here Disco and attracted rave reviews from the local press. While there, they laid down tracks for a debut single, including the Loyde penned "Krome Plated Yabby" and a cover of Otis Redding
's "Fa-Fa-Fa" which was never completed.
"Krome Plated Yabby" failed to chart when it was released in June 1967. Undeterred, the group followed it up with Loyde’s "That's Life", which was released in November and became a minor hit in Melbourne, it peaked at #37 on the Go-Set
National Top 40 in January 1968. By early 1968, Eddey had left to return to Sydney, and university, and John Phillips from The Running Jumping Standing Still joined on bass guitar.
The band's third single, released in April 1968, was "Gotta Stop Lying", which also failed to chart. For the group's final Festival single, Robinson and Loyde collaborated on the sublime "I Don't Care", which took the "wall of sound" approach, complete with echo effects, orchestration and female backing vocals. The Wild Cherries' crowning achievement on a creative level, it was another chart failure and the group underwent a mass exodus with founding member Les Gilbert first to leave in September 1968. Soon afterwards, Barber, Phillips and Robinson departed and Loyde retained the band’s name. Rock historian, Ian McFarlane described their four singles for Festival as "exciting, revolutionary excursions into a musical void with no concessions to commercial demands [...] all remain classic examples of hard guitar psychedelia."
Loyde recruited Brisbane's Matt Taylor
on vocals and harmonica
from The Bay City Union and three musicians from another Brisbane group, Thursday’s Children: Barry Harvey on drums, Steve Pristash on bass guitar and Barry Sullivan on rhythm guitar
. The new version of The Wild Cherries performed in October 1968 but Loyde left within a month to join Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs
. Brian Wilson joined on vocals to replace Taylor who left in November (eventually he joined Chain
in 1970), Tim Piper joined The Wild Cherries on lead guitar in December 1968. The Wild Cherries disbanded in April 1969 without recording any further material. Harvey, Piper and Sullivan joined Chain in late 1969.
, Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs
, Fanny Adams). The new line-up of The Wild Cherries issued one single on the Havoc label, "I am the Sea (Stop Killing Me)" in November 1971. Raven Records included "I am the Sea (Stop Killing Me)" on the compilation
Golden Miles: Australian Progressive Rock 1969–1974 released in 1994. The band appeared at the inaugural Sunbury Pop Festival in January 1972, but disbanded a month later.
. Loyde died on 21 April 2007.
Gilbert dropped out of the music scene but in 1975 returned to university to study music, majoring in composition. He currently runs the company Magian Design Studio with his partner Gillian Chaplin and creates sound and multimedia installations.
Barber joined New Zealand
band, The La De Das
and they travelled to the UK in April 1969 where they recorded a cover of The Beatles
' "Come Together" for Parlophone Records. He stayed with the group until the mid-1970s. He died of cancer in May 2005.
Dan Robinson replaced Malcolm McGee in The Virgil Brothers and also travelled to the UK where the trio recorded a cover of The Knight Brothers' "Temptation’s About To Get Me". He subsequently returned to Australia and later worked with the bands, Duck, Hit and Run, Champions and Rite on the Nite.
Barber, Loyde and Robinson reunited The Wild Cherries for Australia Day 2002, together with bass player Gavin Carroll and keyboard player John O’Brien, they performed The Wild Cherries’ four Festival singles at the Corner Hotel in Richmond, Victoria. It was the first time that all of the band’s recordings had been performed live and the first time that some of the tracks had been given a public airing. Half A Cow Records released a compilation album, The Wild Cherries: That's Life in 2007 shortly before Loyde's death.
Kevin Murphy after leaving the band travelled to the UK, where he played with the Graham Bond Organization, returning to Australia in 1967. He also played with the Virgil Brothers in 1967, Doug Parkinson (1968), Rush (1969) and Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs during 1970-71. He died in 1994, aged about 48 years. He should not be confused with another drummer of the same name associated with Tina Arena, Tommy Emmanuel and Peter Cupples.
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...
group, which started in late 1964 playing R&B and became "the most relentlessly experimental psychedelic band on the Melbourne discotheque / dance scene" according to commentator, Glenn A. Baker
Glenn A. Baker
Glenn A. Baker is an Australian journalist, commentator, and broadcaster well known in Australia for his vast knowledge of Rock music. He has written books and magazine articles on rock music and travel, interviewed celebrities, managed bands such as Ol' 55 and promoted tours of international stars...
.
The band had several personnel changes, the 1967 line-up featured Keith Barber
Keith Barber (drummer)
Drummer Keith Barber was born in Kilburn, North West London, England, moved to Melbourne when he was 10 years old and later joined a local band, the Wild Cherries in early 1966. Together with founding member Les Gilbert, he put together a second incarnation of the group that recorded four singles...
on 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 ....
, Peter Eddey on bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, founder Les Gilbert
Les Gilbert
Les Gilbert is an Australian musician who was a founding member of the 1960s band, Wild Cherries...
on 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...
, Lobby Loyde
Lobby Loyde
Lobby Loyde , also known as John Barrie Lyde or Barry Lyde, was an Australian rock music guitarist, songwriter and producer....
(ex-The Purple Hearts
Purple Hearts (Australian band)
The Purple Hearts were an Australian rock group, formed in Brisbane in 1964. The band consisted of lead vocalist Mick Hadley, lead guitarist Barry Lyde , rhythm guitarist Fred Pickard, bassist Bob Dames, and drummers Adrian 'Red' Redmond and Tony Cahill .It is notable that Brisbane, traditionally...
) on 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, and Dan Robinson on vocals. The band released four singles for Festival Records, including "Krome Plated Yabby" in June 1967 and "That's Life" in November, which peaked into the Go-Set
Go-Set
Go-Set was the first Australian pop music newspaper, published weekly from 2 February 1966 to 24 August 1974, and was founded in Melbourne by Phillip Frazer, Peter Raphael and Tony Schauble...
National Top 40. A compilation
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...
, The Wild Cherries: That's Life was released in 2007 by Half A Cow Records. Loyde went on to join Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs
Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs
Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs were an Australian pop and rock group dating from the mid-sixties. The group enjoyed huge success in the mid-1960s, but split in 1967. They re-emerged in the early seventies to become one of the most popular Australian hard-rock bands of the period...
, then formed Lobby Loyde & the Coloured Balls and also had a solo career.
Early years: 1964–1966
In 1964, Melbourne UniversityUniversity 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...
's Architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
students, John Bastow on vocals, Rob Lovett on rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
and vocals, and Les Gilbert on bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, formed The Wild Cherries. Although Gilbert had studied classical piano with noted pianist Leslie Miers at an early age, he initially played bass guitar. The Wild Cherries were named by word association: Chuck Berry
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter, and one of the pioneers of rock and roll music. With songs such as "Maybellene" , "Roll Over Beethoven" , "Rock and Roll Music" and "Johnny B...
– Buck Cherry – Black Cherries – Wild Cherries. Local bluesman Malcolm McGee on lead guitar
Lead guitar
Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
and vocals, and Geoff Hales on 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 ....
soon joined. Their debut performance was at Melbourne's first discothèque, the Fat Black Pussycat, located in South Yarra
South Yarra, Victoria
South Yarra is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 4 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area are the Cities of Stonnington and Melbourne...
. Drummer Kevin Murphy, who had been playing in a modern jazz trio, replaced Hales almost immediately.
The new line up made a crude recording of Manfred Mann
Manfred Mann
Manfred Mann was a British beat, rhythm and blues and pop band of the 1960s, named after their South African keyboardist, Manfred Mann, who later led the successful 1970s group Manfred Mann's Earth Band...
's "Without You" in Gilbert's parents' living room before Lovett left in October 1965 to join The Loved Ones
The Loved Ones
The Loved Ones were an Australian rock band formed in 1965 in Melbourne following the British Invasion. The line-up of Gavin Anderson on drums, Ian Clyne on organ and piano, Gerry Humphrys on vocals and harmonica, Rob Lovett on guitar, and Kim Lynch on bass guitar recorded their early hits...
. Reduced to a quartet, they made three more crude recordings at a rehearsal at the Fat Black Pussycat, including a cover of John D. Loudermilk
John D. Loudermilk
John D. Loudermilk is an American singer and songwriter.-Biography:Born in Durham, North Carolina, Loudermilk grew up in a family who were members of the Salvation Army faith and was influenced by the church singing. His cousins Ira and Charlie Loudermilk were known professionally as the Louvin...
's "Tobacco Road
Tobacco Road (song)
"Tobacco Road" is a song written and first recorded by John D. Loudermilk in 1960 that was a hit for The Nashville Teens in 1964 and has since become a standard across several musical genres....
". Early in 1966, Murphy left to travel to the UK and English-born drummer, Keith Barber
Keith Barber (drummer)
Drummer Keith Barber was born in Kilburn, North West London, England, moved to Melbourne when he was 10 years old and later joined a local band, the Wild Cherries in early 1966. Together with founding member Les Gilbert, he put together a second incarnation of the group that recorded four singles...
joined. Soon after his arrival, the quartet recorded two further tracks: an original composition, “Get out of My Life” and a cover
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
of Sonny Boy Williamson
Sonny Boy Williamson II
Willie "Sonny Boy" Williamson was an American blues harmonica player, singer and songwriter, from Mississippi. He is acknowledged as one of the most charismatic and influential blues musicians, with considerable prowess on the harmonica and highly creative songwriting skills...
's “Bye Bye Bird” but no label was interested in picking up their songs for a single. By June 1966, the group had disbanded and McGee left to join Python Lee Jackson
Python Lee Jackson
Python Lee Jackson was an Australian rock band active from 1965 to 1968, before a brief sojourn in the United Kingdom. The group's most famous hit was "In a Broken Dream", featuring Rod Stewart as guest vocalist.-Members in Australia:...
while Bastow returned to his studies.
Peak years: 1967–1969
At the end of 1966, Barber and Gilbert reformed The Wild Cherries by recruiting singer Dan Robinson, who had previously played bass guitar in The Weird Mob, and added Peter Eddey on bass guitar, who was the founder and lead guitarist of The Weird Mob. Gilbert had switched to keyboardsKeyboard 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...
with a Hammond organ
Hammond organ
The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
. After rehearsing for several months, former The Purple Hearts
Purple Hearts (Australian band)
The Purple Hearts were an Australian rock group, formed in Brisbane in 1964. The band consisted of lead vocalist Mick Hadley, lead guitarist Barry Lyde , rhythm guitarist Fred Pickard, bassist Bob Dames, and drummers Adrian 'Red' Redmond and Tony Cahill .It is notable that Brisbane, traditionally...
lead guitarist, Barry Lyde aka Lobby Loyde
Lobby Loyde
Lobby Loyde , also known as John Barrie Lyde or Barry Lyde, was an Australian rock music guitarist, songwriter and producer....
, from Brisbane
Brisbane
Brisbane is the capital and most populous city in the Australian state of Queensland and the third most populous city in Australia. Brisbane's metropolitan area has a population of over 2 million, and the South East Queensland urban conurbation, centred around Brisbane, encompasses a population of...
, completed the second incarnation in January 1967.
The group immediately signed to Festival Records and in February travelled to Sydney to play a week-long engagement at Here disco in North Sydney filling in for the absent Jeff St John & The Id. The band then returned to Melbourne and started picking up local gigs, including an appearance at the Catcher on 4 March with The Clefs, The Mind Excursions and The Chelsea Set and playing a two-nighter at Sebastian’s on 8–9 March. The Wild Cherries returned to Sydney in April for an extended engagement at Here Disco and attracted rave reviews from the local press. While there, they laid down tracks for a debut single, including the Loyde penned "Krome Plated Yabby" and a cover of Otis Redding
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. was an American soul singer-songwriter, record producer, arranger and talent scout. He is considered one of the major figures in soul and R&B...
's "Fa-Fa-Fa" which was never completed.
"Krome Plated Yabby" failed to chart when it was released in June 1967. Undeterred, the group followed it up with Loyde’s "That's Life", which was released in November and became a minor hit in Melbourne, it peaked at #37 on the Go-Set
Go-Set
Go-Set was the first Australian pop music newspaper, published weekly from 2 February 1966 to 24 August 1974, and was founded in Melbourne by Phillip Frazer, Peter Raphael and Tony Schauble...
National Top 40 in January 1968. By early 1968, Eddey had left to return to Sydney, and university, and John Phillips from The Running Jumping Standing Still joined on bass guitar.
The band's third single, released in April 1968, was "Gotta Stop Lying", which also failed to chart. For the group's final Festival single, Robinson and Loyde collaborated on the sublime "I Don't Care", which took the "wall of sound" approach, complete with echo effects, orchestration and female backing vocals. The Wild Cherries' crowning achievement on a creative level, it was another chart failure and the group underwent a mass exodus with founding member Les Gilbert first to leave in September 1968. Soon afterwards, Barber, Phillips and Robinson departed and Loyde retained the band’s name. Rock historian, Ian McFarlane described their four singles for Festival as "exciting, revolutionary excursions into a musical void with no concessions to commercial demands [...] all remain classic examples of hard guitar psychedelia."
Loyde recruited Brisbane's Matt Taylor
Matt Taylor (musician)
Matt Taylor is an Australian blues musician. He is best known for his work with long-lasting blues band Chain and for the hit song "I Remember When I Was Young".-Biography:...
on vocals and harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
from The Bay City Union and three musicians from another Brisbane group, Thursday’s Children: Barry Harvey on drums, Steve Pristash on bass guitar and Barry Sullivan on rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar
Rhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
. The new version of The Wild Cherries performed in October 1968 but Loyde left within a month to join Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs
Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs
Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs were an Australian pop and rock group dating from the mid-sixties. The group enjoyed huge success in the mid-1960s, but split in 1967. They re-emerged in the early seventies to become one of the most popular Australian hard-rock bands of the period...
. Brian Wilson joined on vocals to replace Taylor who left in November (eventually he joined Chain
Chain (band)
Chain are an Australian blues band formed in Melbourne as The Chain in late 1968 with a lineup including guitarist, vocalist Phil Manning; they are sometimes known as Matt Taylor's Chain after lead singer-songwriter and harmonica player, Matt Taylor...
in 1970), Tim Piper joined The Wild Cherries on lead guitar in December 1968. The Wild Cherries disbanded in April 1969 without recording any further material. Harvey, Piper and Sullivan joined Chain in late 1969.
Later years: 1971–1972
Loyde resurrected the name in 1971 as a three-piece hard rock outfit with Johnny Dick on drums and Teddy Toi on bass guitar (both ex-Max Merritt & the MeteorsMax Merritt
Max Merritt is a New Zealand-born singer-songwriter and guitarist who is renowned as an interpreter of soul music and R&B...
, Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs
Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs
Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs were an Australian pop and rock group dating from the mid-sixties. The group enjoyed huge success in the mid-1960s, but split in 1967. They re-emerged in the early seventies to become one of the most popular Australian hard-rock bands of the period...
, Fanny Adams). The new line-up of The Wild Cherries issued one single on the Havoc label, "I am the Sea (Stop Killing Me)" in November 1971. Raven Records included "I am the Sea (Stop Killing Me)" on the compilation
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...
Golden Miles: Australian Progressive Rock 1969–1974 released in 1994. The band appeared at the inaugural Sunbury Pop Festival in January 1972, but disbanded a month later.
After disbanding
Loyde formed Lobby Loyde & the Coloured Balls in March 1972, while Dick and Toi later re-joined Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs. Loyde then established a solo career in the 1970s and was briefly a member of Rose TattooRose Tattoo
Rose Tattoo is an Australian rock and roll band, now led by Angry Anderson, that was formed in Sydney in 1976. Their sound is hard rock mixed with blues rock influences, with songs including "Bad Boy for Love", "Rock 'n' Roll Outlaw", "Nice Boys", "We Can't Be Beaten" and "Scarred for Life"...
. Loyde died on 21 April 2007.
Gilbert dropped out of the music scene but in 1975 returned to university to study music, majoring in composition. He currently runs the company Magian Design Studio with his partner Gillian Chaplin and creates sound and multimedia installations.
Barber joined New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
band, The La De Das
The La De Das
The La De Das were a leading New Zealand rock band of the 1960s and early 1970s. Formed in New Zealand in 1963 , they enjoyed considerable success in both New Zealand and Australia until their split in 1975....
and they travelled to the UK in April 1969 where they recorded a cover of The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
' "Come Together" for Parlophone Records. He stayed with the group until the mid-1970s. He died of cancer in May 2005.
Dan Robinson replaced Malcolm McGee in The Virgil Brothers and also travelled to the UK where the trio recorded a cover of The Knight Brothers' "Temptation’s About To Get Me". He subsequently returned to Australia and later worked with the bands, Duck, Hit and Run, Champions and Rite on the Nite.
Barber, Loyde and Robinson reunited The Wild Cherries for Australia Day 2002, together with bass player Gavin Carroll and keyboard player John O’Brien, they performed The Wild Cherries’ four Festival singles at the Corner Hotel in Richmond, Victoria. It was the first time that all of the band’s recordings had been performed live and the first time that some of the tracks had been given a public airing. Half A Cow Records released a compilation album, The Wild Cherries: That's Life in 2007 shortly before Loyde's death.
Kevin Murphy after leaving the band travelled to the UK, where he played with the Graham Bond Organization, returning to Australia in 1967. He also played with the Virgil Brothers in 1967, Doug Parkinson (1968), Rush (1969) and Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs during 1970-71. He died in 1994, aged about 48 years. He should not be confused with another drummer of the same name associated with Tina Arena, Tommy Emmanuel and Peter Cupples.
Personnel
- John Bastow – vocals (1964–1966)
- Malcolm McGee – lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
, vocals (1964–1966) - Rob Lovett – rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
, vocals (1964–1965) - Les Gilbert – bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA 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...
: Hammond organHammond organThe Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond in 1934 and manufactured by the Hammond Organ Company. While the Hammond organ was originally sold to churches as a lower-cost alternative to the wind-driven pipe organ, in the 1960s and 1970s it became a standard keyboard...
(1964–1966, 1967–1968) - Geoff Hales – drumsDrum kitA 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 ....
(1964) - Kevin Murphy – drums (1964–1966)
- Keith BarberKeith Barber (drummer)Drummer Keith Barber was born in Kilburn, North West London, England, moved to Melbourne when he was 10 years old and later joined a local band, the Wild Cherries in early 1966. Together with founding member Les Gilbert, he put together a second incarnation of the group that recorded four singles...
– drums (1966, 1967–1968, 2002) - Dan Robinson – vocals (1967–1968, 2002)
- Peter Eddey – bass guitar (1967–1968)
- Lobby LoydeLobby LoydeLobby Loyde , also known as John Barrie Lyde or Barry Lyde, was an Australian rock music guitarist, songwriter and producer....
(aka Barry Lyde) – guitars (1967–1969, 1971–1972, 2002) - John Phillips – bass guitar (1968)
- Matt TaylorMatt Taylor (musician)Matt Taylor is an Australian blues musician. He is best known for his work with long-lasting blues band Chain and for the hit song "I Remember When I Was Young".-Biography:...
– vocals, harmonicaHarmonicaThe harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
(1968) - Barry Harvey – drums (1968–1969)
- Steve Pristash – bass guitar (1968–1969)
- Barry Sullivan – rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together...
(1968–1969) - Brian Wilson – vocals (1968–1969)
- Tim Piper – lead guitar (1968–1969)
- Johnny Dick – drums (1971–1972)
- Teddy Toi – bass guitar (1971–1972)
- Gavin Carroll – bass guitar (2002)
- John O’Brien – keyboards (2002)
External links
- ABC TV Long Way to the Top Episode 3
- Photo of the Wild Cherries held by the State Library of VictoriaState Library of VictoriaThe State Library of Victoria is the central library of the state of Victoria, Australia, located in Melbourne. It is on the block bounded by Swanston, La Trobe, Russell, and Little Lonsdale streets, in the northern centre of the central business district...
http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/hwtports/0/0/3/doc/hp003470.shtml - Wild Cherries at Milesago
- Ugly Things magazine, issue 22: http://www.ugly-things.com/