The Pleazers were an originally 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...

n-based rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues

Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...

 musical group that was popular in 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...

 in the mid-1960s.

The band began in 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...

 as the G-Men, before moving to Sydney

Sydney

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...

, changing their name and going professional. In Sydney, they were noticed by Eldred Stebbing of Zodiac Records

Zodiac Records (New Zealand)

Zodiac Records was a New Zealand based label founded in 1957 . It was owned by Stebbing Recording and Sound, LTD, headquartered in Auckland; the company also released both 78s and 45s. Artists that released their records on that label included Howard Morrison, Herma Keil The Keil Isles, Ray...

, who brought them to New Zealand in 1964, where they soon appeared on the Let's Go show. The initial release, "Last Night" / "Poor Girl

Where Did You Sleep Last Night

"In the Pines", also known as "Black Girl" and "Where Did You Sleep Last Night", is a traditional American folk song which dates back to at least the 1870s, and is believed to be Southern Appalachian in origin. The identity of the song's author is unknown, but it has been recorded by many artists...

", did poorly but the followup release, a cover of Them's

Them (band)

Them were a Northern Irish band formed in Belfast in April 1964, most prominently known for the garage rock standard "Gloria" and launching singer Van Morrison's musical career...

 "Gloria" broke into the national charts. The band eventually released seven singles, one EP and one album, called Definitely Pleazers. The band went through several personnel changes and, in March 1965, moved back to Australia, only to break up six months later. Their EP-only release "Bald Headed Woman" was included 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...

 CD Pebbles, Volume 12

Pebbles, Volume 12 (CD)

Pebbles, Volume 12 is a compilation album among the CDs in the Pebbles series and is subtitled The World. According to the AIP Records website, this is the last numbered CD in the series, although the Pebbles, Volume 11 CD was not released until several years later.-Release data:This album was...

.

External links

• Pleazers, sergent.com.au