The Groove (band)
Encyclopedia
Formed in mid 1967, The Groove are considered to be Australia's first "supergroup
" in that all members had considerable experience behind them in a number of successful bands. They were formed in Melbourne Australia and gathered together by well known manager and agent Garry Spry, who teamed up with respected keyboard player Tweed Harris from the Levi Smith Clefs
to put the band together. With Harris on keyboards, they recruited Peter Williams from Max Merritt & The Meteors
on lead vocals and guitar, Rod Stone from The Librettos and Normie Rowe
& The Playboys on lead guitar, Geoff Bridgford from Steve and the Board drums and Jamie Byrne from Running, Jumping, Standing Still
on bass.
The band specialised in doing songs in the Stax Soul /60's R'n'B style of artists such as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Arthur Conley and the Isley Brothers, their repertoire was tailored to the vocal style of Peter Williams, who already had gained considerable experience performing in this genre with The Meteors, who were widely considered to be the best local exponents of soul music in that period.
The Groove scored an immediate national chart breakthrough with their debut single "Simon Says", a song previously recorded by both The Isley Brothers
and The Platters
. It was a Top 10 hit in Sydney and Melbourne and peaked at #17 on the Go-Set
national Top 40 in December 1967.
Their most successful single and their second national Top 20 hit was a cover of Sam Cooke
's "Soothe Me", which peaked at #14 on the Go-Set national chart in April 1968.
Their third single, a strong cover of Ben E. King
's "What Is Soul?" was a hit in their hometown of Melbourne, and also made the Top 40 in Brisbane, but only charted for one week (at #36) in the Go-Set national Top 40.
The group undertook a national tour in February 1968 and in July they won the Grand Final of Australia's most prestigious rock band competition, Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds
. They released a fourth single, "You are the one I love", which made the lower reaches of the Melbourne and Brisbane charts but did not become a national hit. Using their Hoadley's competition prize, the band left for the United Kingdom in March 1969 where they worked and recorded for two years before breaking up in 1971.
They released one more single as The Groove before changing their name to Eureka Stockade and released a single and recorded an album for Decca Records
(UK) which was not released. On breaking up Tweed Harris and Rod Stone did tours in the UK and Europe backing Cliff Richard
also playing with The Echoes
behind John Rowles
, and Stone also toured in the backing band for comedians Eric Morecambe
and Ernie Wise
, which he considers one of the enjoyable moments of his career. Geoff Bridgford joined the Bee Gees
(replacing Colin Petersen
) while Peter Williams teamed up with female vocal trio The Cookies (also managed by Garry Spry) to become The Spirit of Progress and toured the UK. Later on he joined The Mixtures
and toured Europe, the UK and Australia with them.
Tweed Harris became a sought-after arranger and producer in Australia in the 1970s and beyond. His credits include Sherbet
(he orchestrated their single "Cassandra" and its parent album), Daryl Braithwaite
, production for Renee Geyer
, Bobby Bright
, Kush, and folk legend Lionel Long
. He also performed as second keyboardist with the reformed version of The Groop
for its 1988-89 reformation tour, and undertook many TV soundtrack commissions. In later years he had a successful career writing music for TV and advertising both in Australia and Singapore. Harris was disgnosed with throat cancer for in the late 1990s and underwent surgery which was, for a time, successful in halting the progress of the disease but it returned during 2004 and he died on 13 October that year.
Sept. 1967
"Simon Says" / "With This Ring" (EMI Columbia DO 5021)
- #6 Sydney, #4 Melbourne, #16 Brisbane, Go-Set national #17, (Dec. 1967)
Feb. 1968
"Soothe Me" / "I See A New Day" (EMI Columbia DO 5059)
- #8 Sydney, #8 Melbourne, #3 Brisbane
July 1968
"What Is Soul" / "Goin' Back" (EMI Columbia DO 8420)
- #13 Melbourne, #30 Brisbane, Go-Set #36, Aug. 1968
Oct. 1968
"You Are The One I Love" / "Merry Go Round" (EMI Columbia DO 8532)
- #20 Melbourne, #30 Brisbane
Mar. 1969
"Relax Me"/ "Dance To The Music" (EMI Columbia DO 8658)
June 1969
"The Wind" / "Play The Song" (EMI Columbia DO 8811)
Feb. 1970 (as Eureka Stockade)
"Sing No Love Songs" / "Jump Down Turn Around" (UK Decca F22996)
1968?
Things Go Better With Coca-Cola (EMI PRS 2028)
-- various artists promotional compilation of ads for Coca Cola performed by various pop groups including The Groove, The Easybeats
and The Twilights.
Supergroup (music)
In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....
" in that all members had considerable experience behind them in a number of successful bands. They were formed in Melbourne Australia and gathered together by well known manager and agent Garry Spry, who teamed up with respected keyboard player Tweed Harris from the Levi Smith Clefs
The Clefs
The Clefs was an Australian pop-rock group that formed in Adelaide in the early 1960s. Under the leadership of keyboardist Tweed Harris the band performed as The Clefs from 1963 to 1967. Vocalist Barrie "The Bear" McAskill took over the group from Harris in 1967 and renamed it Levi Smith's Clefs...
to put the band together. With Harris on keyboards, they recruited Peter Williams from Max Merritt & The Meteors
Max Merritt
Max Merritt is a New Zealand-born singer-songwriter and guitarist who is renowned as an interpreter of soul music and R&B...
on lead vocals and guitar, Rod Stone from The Librettos and 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...
& The Playboys on lead guitar, Geoff Bridgford from Steve and the Board drums and Jamie Byrne from Running, Jumping, Standing Still
Running, Jumping, Standing Still
Running, Jumping, Standing Still is an album by blues artists "Spider" John Koerner and Willie Murphy, released in 1967. The album is often credited in Koerner's solo discography.-History:...
on bass.
The band specialised in doing songs in the Stax Soul /60's R'n'B style of artists such as Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, Arthur Conley and the Isley Brothers, their repertoire was tailored to the vocal style of Peter Williams, who already had gained considerable experience performing in this genre with The Meteors, who were widely considered to be the best local exponents of soul music in that period.
The Groove scored an immediate national chart breakthrough with their debut single "Simon Says", a song previously recorded by both The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers
The Isley Brothers are a highly influential, successful and long-running American music group consisting of different line-ups of six brothers, and a brother-in-law, Chris Jasper...
and The Platters
The Platters
The Platters were a vocal group of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound was a bridge between the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition and the burgeoning new genre...
. It was a Top 10 hit in Sydney and Melbourne and peaked at #17 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 December 1967.
Their most successful single and their second national Top 20 hit was a cover of Sam Cooke
Sam Cooke
Samuel Cook, , better known under the stage name Sam Cooke, was an American gospel, R&B, soul, and pop singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur. He is considered to be one of the pioneers and founders of soul music. He is commonly known as the King of Soul for his distinctive vocal abilities and...
's "Soothe Me", which peaked at #14 on the Go-Set national chart in April 1968.
Their third single, a strong cover of Ben E. King
Ben E. King
Benjamin Earl King , better known as Ben E. King, is an American soul singer. He is perhaps best known as the singer and co-composer of "Stand by Me", a U.S...
's "What Is Soul?" was a hit in their hometown of Melbourne, and also made the Top 40 in Brisbane, but only charted for one week (at #36) in the Go-Set national Top 40.
The group undertook a national tour in February 1968 and in July they won the Grand Final of Australia's most prestigious rock band competition, 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...
. They released a fourth single, "You are the one I love", which made the lower reaches of the Melbourne and Brisbane charts but did not become a national hit. Using their Hoadley's competition prize, the band left for the United Kingdom in March 1969 where they worked and recorded for two years before breaking up in 1971.
They released one more single as The Groove before changing their name to Eureka Stockade and released a single and recorded an album for Decca Records
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
(UK) which was not released. On breaking up Tweed Harris and Rod Stone did tours in the UK and Europe backing Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....
also playing with The Echoes
The Echoes
The Echoes were formed in London England in early 1960 by singer Chris Wayne for the Conway Twitty, Johnny Preston and Freddy Cannon tour of Great Britain. The Echoes were originally made up from “The Spacemen skiffle group” which were Joe Browns skiffle group. Joe was a regular on Boy Meets Girls...
behind John Rowles
John Rowles
John Edward Rowles OBE is a New Zealand singer. He was most popular in the 1970s and early 1980s, and most famous for his song Cheryl Moana Marie, which he had written about his kid sister back home in New Zealand.Rowles is part Māori. His father, Eddie Hohapata Rowles, played for the 1938 Māori...
, and Stone also toured in the backing band for comedians Eric Morecambe
Eric Morecambe
John Eric Bartholomew OBE , known by his stage name Eric Morecambe, was an English comedian who together with Ernie Wise formed the award-winning double act Morecambe and Wise. The partnership lasted from 1941 until Morecambe's death of a heart attack in 1984...
and Ernie Wise
Ernie Wise
Ernest Wiseman OBE , known by his stage name Ernie Wise, was an English comedian, best known as one half of the comedy duo Morecambe and Wise, who became an institution on British television, especially for their Christmas specials.-Career:Ernest Wiseman was the eldest of five children, and changed...
, which he considers one of the enjoyable moments of his career. Geoff Bridgford joined the Bee Gees
Bee Gees
The Bee Gees are a musical group that originally comprised three brothers: Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was successful for most of their 40-plus years of recording music, but they had two distinct periods of exceptional success: as a pop act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and as a...
(replacing Colin Petersen
Colin Petersen
Colin Petersen is a former child actor and rock drummer. He played as a member of the Bee Gees on their first five albums.-Biography:Petersen began his acting career at the age of seven...
) while Peter Williams teamed up with female vocal trio The Cookies (also managed by Garry Spry) to become The Spirit of Progress and toured the UK. Later on he joined The Mixtures
The Mixtures
-Biography:Australian musicians Terry Dean and Rod De Clerk met in Tasmania in 1965. They then met Laurie Arthur, a member of The Strangers, and the three decided to form a band together after a jam session. They quickly signed to EMI that same year and released three singles. They went through...
and toured Europe, the UK and Australia with them.
Tweed Harris became a sought-after arranger and producer in Australia in the 1970s and beyond. His credits include 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...
(he orchestrated their single "Cassandra" and its parent album), 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...
, production for Renee 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...
, Bobby Bright
Bobby Bright
Bobby Neal Bright, Sr. is an American politician who served as U.S. Representative for from 2009 to 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party. The district includes just over half of the state capital, Montgomery, as well as most of the Wiregrass Region in the southeastern part of the state....
, Kush, and folk legend Lionel Long
Lionel Long
Lionel Joaquin Paul Long, OAM was an Australian country, Western, folk singer and a television actor.Long became one of Australia's most successful and talented country/western/folk artists in the 1960s, recognised as one of EMI's most popular and successful artists releasing over a dozen LPs...
. He also performed as second keyboardist with the reformed version of The Groop
The Groop
The Groop were an Australian folk, R&B and rock band formed in 1964 in Melbourne, Australia and had their greatest chart success with their second line-up of Max Ross on bass, Richard Wright on drums and vocals, Don Mudie on lead guitar, Brian Cadd on keyboards and vocals, and Ronnie Charles on...
for its 1988-89 reformation tour, and undertook many TV soundtrack commissions. In later years he had a successful career writing music for TV and advertising both in Australia and Singapore. Harris was disgnosed with throat cancer for in the late 1990s and underwent surgery which was, for a time, successful in halting the progress of the disease but it returned during 2004 and he died on 13 October that year.
Singles
Sept. 1967
"Simon Says" / "With This Ring" (EMI Columbia DO 5021)
- #6 Sydney, #4 Melbourne, #16 Brisbane, Go-Set national #17, (Dec. 1967)
Feb. 1968
"Soothe Me" / "I See A New Day" (EMI Columbia DO 5059)
- #8 Sydney, #8 Melbourne, #3 Brisbane
July 1968
"What Is Soul" / "Goin' Back" (EMI Columbia DO 8420)
- #13 Melbourne, #30 Brisbane, Go-Set #36, Aug. 1968
Oct. 1968
"You Are The One I Love" / "Merry Go Round" (EMI Columbia DO 8532)
- #20 Melbourne, #30 Brisbane
Mar. 1969
"Relax Me"/ "Dance To The Music" (EMI Columbia DO 8658)
June 1969
"The Wind" / "Play The Song" (EMI Columbia DO 8811)
Feb. 1970 (as Eureka Stockade)
"Sing No Love Songs" / "Jump Down Turn Around" (UK Decca F22996)
Extended Play
- Soothe Me (EMI Columbia SEGO 70166, July 1969) - A:"Soothe Me"/"Simon Says" B:"What is Soul"/"Goin' Back"
Compilation LP
1968?
Things Go Better With Coca-Cola (EMI PRS 2028)
-- various artists promotional compilation of ads for Coca Cola performed by various pop groups including The Groove, The Easybeats
The Easybeats
The Easybeats were an Australian rock and roll band. They formed in Sydney in late 1964 and broke up at the end of 1969. They are regarded as the greatest Australian pop band of the 1960s, and were the first Australian rock and roll act to score an international pop hit with their 1966 single...
and The Twilights.
- The Groove (EMI Columbia OSX 7869, Apr. 1968)
Notations
- Ian McFarlane, The Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop (Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1999)
- Noel McGrath, Noel McGrath's Australian Encyclopedia of Rock & Pop (Outback Press, Sydney, 1978)
- Chris Spencer, Zbig Nowara & Paul McHenry, Who's Who of Australian Rock (Moonlight Publishing)
- Gavin Ryan's Chart Books