Linda George (Australian singer)
Encyclopedia
Linda George is an English-born Australian pop, jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...

 and soul
Soul music
Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 singer from the 1970s. In 1973, George performed the role of Acid Queen
Acid Queen
"The Acid Queen" is a song written by Pete Townshend and is the ninth song on The Who's rock opera Tommy. The song tells the attempts of Tommy's parents to try and cure him. They leave him with a gypsy, a self-proclaimed "Acid Queen"...

 for the Australian stage performance of The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...

's rock opera, Tommy
Tommy
Tommy is a given name that is usually the English diminutive of Thomas. The name also could refer to:- People with the given name Tommy :* Tommy Alcedo , Venezuelan road cyclist* Tommy G...

. She won the TV Week King of Pop award for "Best New Female Artist". Her cover version
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 "Neither One of Us
Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)
"Neither One of Us " is a song recorded by Gladys Knight & the Pips. Released in 1973 from the album, Neither One of Us, the song spent four weeks at number one on the Soul Singles chart during the spring of that year. The song was also one of their biggest crossover hits, peaking at number 2 on...

", peaked at No. 12 on the Australian Singles Chart and her 1974 single "Mama's Little Girl" reached the Top Ten. By the mid-1980s, George was a session singer and later became a teacher.

Early career

Linda George was born in 1951 in the United Kingdom and emigrated with her family to Australia in 1964 where they settled in Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...

, South Australia. By 1969, George had joined her first band Nova Express, a jazz fusion
Jazz fusion
Jazz fusion is a musical fusion genre that developed from mixing funk and R&B rhythms and the amplification and electronic effects of rock, complex time signatures derived from non-Western music and extended, typically instrumental compositions with a jazz approach to lengthy group improvisations,...

 group similar to United States acts Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 or Blood Sweat and Tears. With George, as lead singer, the band included Dave Clark on saxophone, Craig Forbes on drums, Ian Hellings on trumpet, Wayne Lanham on bass guitar, Ken Schroder on saxophone, Peter Walsh on organ and Ken White on guitar.

Finding it hard to sustain the ensemble in Adelaide, Nova Express moved to Melbourne. Early in 1970, the band’s first and only single, a cover version of "Take Another Little Piece of My Heart
Piece of My Heart
"Piece of My Heart" is a song written by Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns and originally recorded by Erma Franklin in 1967. The song came to greater mainstream attention when Big Brother and the Holding Company covered the song in 1968 and had a hit with it...

" (originally recorded by Erma Franklin
Erma Franklin
Erma Franklin was an American gospel and R&B singer. She was the oldest daughter of Barbara and the Reverend C. L. Franklin and the elder sister of Aretha Franklin...

, then Janis Joplin
Janis Joplin
Janis Lyn Joplin was an American singer, songwriter, painter, dancer and music arranger. She rose to prominence in the late 1960s as the lead singer of Big Brother and the Holding Company and later as a solo artist with her backing groups, The Kozmic Blues Band and The Full Tilt Boogie Band...

), was released on the EMI label imprint Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...

, which reached No. 28 in Melbourne. They won the Victorian state final of the 1970 Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds
Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds
Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds was an annual national rock/pop band competition held in Australia from 1966 to 1972.-History:Australia's Battle of the Sounds was originally established by Australian tabloid magazine Everybody’s in 1965 as a talent quest for new unsigned bands in Sydney, Melbourne...

 ahead of Zoot
Zoot (band)
Zoot are a pop/rock band formed in Adelaide, South Australia in 1965 as Down the Line. They changed their name to Zoot in 1967 and by 1968 had relocated to Melbourne...

, though they finished behind The Flying Circus
The Flying Circus (band)
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.-Beginnings:...

, Zoot and Autumn at the national finals in August. George left Nova Express later that year for a solo career, including performing with The Marlboro Big Band, The Barry Veith Big Band, Opus Big Band, and Brian May and the ABC Show Band on a tour of Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

.

Solo career

In 1972, Linda George signed with independent label, Image Records, and released her first solo single "Let's Fly Away" in May. In March 1973, she took the role of Acid Queen
Acid Queen
"The Acid Queen" is a song written by Pete Townshend and is the ninth song on The Who's rock opera Tommy. The song tells the attempts of Tommy's parents to try and cure him. They leave him with a gypsy, a self-proclaimed "Acid Queen"...

 in the Australian stage production of The Who
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in 1964 by Roger Daltrey , Pete Townshend , John Entwistle and Keith Moon . They became known for energetic live performances which often included instrument destruction...

's rock opera Tommy
Tommy
Tommy is a given name that is usually the English diminutive of Thomas. The name also could refer to:- People with the given name Tommy :* Tommy Alcedo , Venezuelan road cyclist* Tommy G...

. Her fellow cast included Daryl Braithwaite
Daryl Braithwaite
Daryl Braithwaite is an Australian pop singer. Best known as the lead vocalist of Sherbet, Braithwaite has also sustained a successful solo career, placing 15 singles in the Australian top 40, including the No...

, Colleen Hewett
Colleen Hewett
Colleen Hewett is an Australian actress and popular singer. She is perhaps best known to international audiences for her 1984 guest role in the television series Prisoner as Sheila Brady.-Pop singer:...

, Billy Thorpe
Billy Thorpe
William Richard "Billy" Thorpe, AM was a renowned English-born Australian pop / rock singer-songwriter and musician...

, Ross Wilson
Ross Wilson
Ross Andrew Wilson is an Australian singer-songwriter, guitarist and producer who fronted the groups Daddy Cool and Mondo Rock, and produced albums by Australian band Skyhooks. He has also performed solo, and as a judge on celebrity singing TV series It Takes Two from 2005...

, Jim Keays
Jim Keays
James "Jim" Keays is an Australian musician who fronted rock band The Masters Apprentices as singer-songwriter, guitarist and harmonica-player during 1965–1972, and subsequently had a solo career including leading Jim Keays' Southern Cross...

, Doug Parkinson
Doug Parkinson
Douglas "Doug" Parkinson is an Australian singer who first came to fame with his band, Doug Parkinson In Focus, in 1969. He has had numerous hits on the Australian Top 40 charts.-Career:...

, Broderick Smith
Broderick Smith
Broderick Smith aka Brod Smith is an Australian singer-songwriter, harmonica, guitar and banjo player. He was a member of 1970s bands Carson and The Dingoes, 1980s Broderick Smith's Big Combo and performed solo...

, Wendy Saddington
Wendy Saddington
Wendy June Saddington is an Australian blues / soul / jazz singer and was in the bands Chain, Copperwine and the Wendy Saddington Band. She wrote for teen pop newspaper Go-Set from September 1969 – September 1970 as an agony aunt in her weekly "Takes Care of Business" column and as a...

, Bobby Bright
Bobby & Laurie
Bobby & Laurie were a popular Australian singing duo of the 1960s, featuring Laurie Allen and Bobby Bright . Their regular backing band were The Rondells...

 and The Who’s own Keith Moon
Keith Moon
Keith John Moon was an English musician, best known for being the drummer of the English rock group The Who. He gained acclaim for his exuberant and innovative drumming style, and notoriety for his eccentric and often self-destructive behaviour, earning him the nickname "Moon the Loon". Moon...

 (as Uncle Ernie for the Melbourne show only). It was later televised by the Seven Network
Seven Network
The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...

 and received a TV award for the year's most outstanding creative effort. For the Sydney show, Australian music commentator Ian "Molly" Meldrum replaced Moon. George won the TV Week King of Pop award for "Best New Female Artist" (1973).

The raised exposure helped promote her second single in July, her cover version of the Gladys Knight & the Pips
Gladys Knight & the Pips
Gladys Knight & The Pips were an R&B/soul family musical act from Atlanta, Georgia, active from 1953 to 1989. The group was best known for their string of hit singles on Motown's "Soul" record label and Buddah Records from 1967 to 1975, including "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" and "Midnight...

 US hit "Neither One of Us
Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye)
"Neither One of Us " is a song recorded by Gladys Knight & the Pips. Released in 1973 from the album, Neither One of Us, the song spent four weeks at number one on the Soul Singles chart during the spring of that year. The song was also one of their biggest crossover hits, peaking at number 2 on...

", which peaked at No. 12 on 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 singles chart. George's follow up single, a remake of Ruby and the Romantics 1963 hit "Our Day Will Come
Our Day Will Come
"Our Day Will Come" is a popular song composed by Bob Hilliard and Mort Garson which was a #1 hit in 1963 for Ruby & The Romantics.-Ruby & the Romantics:...

", reached the Top 40 in February 1974.

Her debut LP album, Linda, appeared in August on Image Records. Session musicians were used and US record producer Jack Richardson
Jack Richardson (record producer)
Jack Richardson, CM was a Juno Award-nominated Canadian record producer and Order of Canada recipient. He is perhaps best known for producing the biggest hit records from The Guess Who from 1969 to 1975...

 (Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper
Alice Cooper is an American rock singer, songwriter and musician whose career spans more than four decades...

, The Guess Who
The Guess Who
The Guess Who are a Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Initially gaining recognition in Canada, they also found international success from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s with numerous hit singles, including "American Woman", "These Eyes" and "Share the Land"...

, Poco
Poco
Poco is an Southern California country rock band originally formed by Richie Furay and Jim Messina following the demise of Buffalo Springfield in 1968. The title of their first album, Pickin' Up the Pieces, is a reference to the break-up of Buffalo Springfield. Highly influential and creative,...

 and Bob Seger
Bob Seger
Robert Clark "Bob" Seger is an American rock and roll singer-songwriter, guitarist and pianist.As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s...

) was brought to Australia by label boss, John McDonald, and her manager, Garry Spry. The first single from Linda was her biggest hit and became her signature song, "Mama's Little Girl" (previously by Dusty Springfield
Dusty Springfield
Mary Isobel Catherine Bernadette O'BrienSources use both Isabel and Isobel as the spelling of her second name. OBE , known professionally as Dusty Springfield and dubbed The White Queen of Soul, was a British pop singer whose career extended from the late 1950s to the 1990s...

), which went to No. 8 on the Australian 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. The second single, "Give It Love", did not reach the top 40. Linda peaked at No. 32 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart and stayed in the top 100 for five months. George won awards for "Best Female Vocalist" and "Best Female Single".

She appeared at the 1975 Sunbury Pop Festival in January. Richardson also produced her second album, Step by Step
Step by Step (Linda George album)
Step by Step is the second album by Australian singer Linda George.-Track listing:#Shoo Be Doo Be Doo Da Day #New York City#Drift Away #Goin' Thru Some Changes...

, which was released in December. It featured a tougher rock sound compared to the previous album's soul and pop sound. After the release of Step by Step, her management company parted ways. To promote it she formed the Linda George Band which performed throughout 1976 to positive reviews. The album's first single "Shoo Be Doo Be Doo Dah Day" charted reasonably well in former hometown Adelaide, but public reaction in the rest of Australia was lukewarm. The album peaked in the Top 40. A third single, the title track, was released in May 1976 but failed to make the charts.

George then released a non-album single "Sitting in Limbo" in November, a cover of the Jimmy Cliff
Jimmy Cliff
Jimmy Cliff, OM is a Jamaican musician, singer and actor. He is the only currently living musician to hold the Order of Merit, the highest honour that can be granted by the Jamaican government for achievement in the arts and sciences...

 song, it also did not chart. George left Image to continue working as a session singer.

Session singer and beyond

Linda George had already provided backing vocals on releases by her contemporaries, including Brian Cadd
Brian Cadd
Brian George Cadd is an Australian singer-songwriter, keyboardist and producer who has performed as a member of The Groop, Axiom, Flying Burrito Brothers and solo...

, Madder Lake
Madder Lake (band)
Madder Lake is an Australian progressive rock band formed in Melbourne in 1971. They were one of the first band's signed to the Michael Gudinski co-owned Mushroom Records which released their debut single, "Goodbye Lollipop" in February 1973, followed by the album Stillpoint in August. This...

, Daryl Braithwaite, Normie Rowe
Normie Rowe
Norman John "Normie" Rowe AM was a major male solo performer of Australian pop music in the 1960s. Known for his bright and edgy tenor voice and dynamic stage presence, many of Rowe's most successful recordings were produced by Pat Aulton, house producer for the Sunshine Records, Spin Records and...

, Marcie Jones of Marcie and The Cookies
Marcie and The Cookies
Marcie & The Cookies were an Australian musical ensemble, made up of Marcie Jones and the three Cook sisters. The all girl, vocal only group, were a rarity in Australia’s “mod” music scene of the 1960s, dominated as it was by all male rock bands and solo artists.-Personnel:* Marcie Jones *...

 and Kerrie Biddell. During the 1970s through to the late nineties, she also sang radio and TV jingles. These advertisements endorsed the virtues of everything from margarine to real estate and provided a lucrative income.

During 1979, George performed backing vocals on Mike Brady
Mike Brady
Michael Brady may refer to:* Michael Brady, retired U.S.-English soccer player, coach of the American University women’s soccer team* Mike Brady , American professional golfer* Mike Brady , Australian musician...

’s album Invisible Man. Brady had just had a No. 1 hit with "Up There Cazaly
Up There Cazaly
"Up There Cazaly" is an Australian sporting catchphrase inspired by former St Kilda and South Melbourne great Roy Cazaly...

" and set up his own label, Full Moon Records. George signed to his label and returned to the studio with new material. Her first single in four years was a duet with Melbourne singer Paul McKay, "Love Is Enough" released in April 1980, which reached No. 23 locally. Her next single was the up tempo, "Telephone Lines", in 1981, but it was not a chart success. While resuming her session work, George also spent much of the 1980s singing with her own ensemble, the Linda George Band, the line-up included David Allardice on piano, Ron Robinson on bass guitar. By 1992, George as a member of WJAZ, with Penny Dyer on vocals, Alex Pertout on drums and percussion, Ron Pierce on guitar and Steve Wade on vocals, performed at the "Montsalvat Jazz Festival" in Melbourne. A later line-up of WJAZ was George, Dyer and Pertout, with Craig Newman and Colin Hopkins. She often guested with the Cox-Brady band, which has a variable line-up centred on drummer Geoff Cox
Geoff Cox
Geoff Cox is an Australian musician and media personality. He is often referred to as Coxy.He is most notable for having played drums with the Little River Band. More recently he became a light entertainment presenter on the Seven Network. Currently he hosts Coxy's Big Break.Cox has been an...

 and Brady.

During the 1990s, George toured Russia with two of her seven brothers and Hopkins, working for the Freedom from Hunger
Freedom from Hunger
Freedom from Hunger is recognized for fighting hunger with innovative self-help programs. An international development organization working in seventeen countries across the globe, Freedom from Hunger is a nonprofit, nongovernmental, nonsectarian organization classified by the IRS as a 501 charity...

 campaign. Back in Melbourne, she created a venue, Music on Q, for local original artists. She recorded an album, Circle Dance, with Hopkins and Pertout which was released in 1996 as a limited edition CD.

George became a teacher, she taught voice at the Victorian College of the Arts
Victorian College of the Arts
The Faculty of the VCA and Music is a faculty of the University of Melbourne, in Victoria . VCAM is located near the Melbourne central business district, on two campuses, one - the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - on the Parkville campus of the University of Melbourne, and the other - the...

. In 2001, with Steve Vertigan, she published, The Greatest Ever Improve Your Singing Book for Contemporary Vocalists, which included 2 CDs with practice tracks. Whilst raising three daughters she continues to teach at Pascoe Vale Girls College, Melbourne. In 2008, she formed the Vocalistix group to train young singers. In 2009 and 2010, the group entered the Royal South Street Competition
Royal South Street Eisteddfod
The Royal South Street Eisteddfod is held annually in Ballarat, Australia. It is also known as The Grand National Eisteddfod of Australasia and is administered by the Royal South Street Society.- History :...

, receiving an honourable mention in 2009 and placing second in 2010. In2011 the group entered again placed second but was asked and were one of 8 finalists.

Albums

Year Album details AUS
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...

 chart
peak
1974 Linda
  • Released: August 1974
  • Label: Image Records (ILP-741)
  • Format: LP
    LP album
    The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

32
1975 Step by Step
Step by Step (Linda George album)
Step by Step is the second album by Australian singer Linda George.-Track listing:#Shoo Be Doo Be Doo Da Day #New York City#Drift Away #Goin' Thru Some Changes...

  • Released: October 1975
  • Label: Image Records (ILP-750)
  • Format: LP
  • 93
    1996 Circle Dance
  • Released: 1996
  • Label:
  • Format: CD
    Compact Disc
    The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

  • "—" denotes releases that did not chart.

    Singles

    External links

    • http://www.poparchives.com.au/feature.php?id=885
    • http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/linda_george
    The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
     
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