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flying circus - gyspy road 1-1 thousand years.wav
flying circus - gyspy road 1-2 green patch.wav
flying circus - gyspy road 1-3 maple lady.wav
flying circus - gyspy road 1-4 summer song.wav
flying circus - gyspy road 1-5 old enough.wav
flying circus -gypsy road 2-1 gypsy road.wav
flying circus -gypsy road 2-2 train ride.wav
flying circus -gypsy road 2-3 another winter's day.wav
flying circus -gypsy road 2-4 me and you.wav
A rare photo of The Flying Circus taken in
1971, on the day the band left for San Francisco.
The Flying Circus is one of the most misunderstood, overlooked
and underrated Australian groups of the '64-75 period.
They're mainly remembered these days for their two early "bubblegum"
hits, which is unfortunate, as Greg Quill, leader of the acclaimed
Country Radio, points out:
"Wrongly labelled a pop band because of
their lightweight recordings, they were actually a complex and very
progressive live act, the first link in Australia between pop and
country rock."
In spite of their musical excellence, and a flying start with
three hit records, they never really managed to gain a firm footing in
Australia. They eventually found a more receptive audience after
relocating to Canada, becoming one of the first Australian acts to
establish themselves overseas. Many factors -- changes of musical
style, frequent changes of lineup (Rowe and Walker being the only
constants) and long periods overseas combined to restrict their chances
of establishing a strong and lasting identity with the local media and
the public.
But the overriding factor that worked against the group after
their initial burst of pop success was that, like so
many other local acts, they were poorly support by their label and
after their first hits, virtually ignored by
Australian commercial radio, which blatantly failed to get behind
country rock and progressive music. It's ironic that,
at the same time, the American music market was broadening
significantly, thanks to FM broadcasting, college radio and
the new album-oriented rock (AOR) programming formats. But Australian
radio, which would remain trapped on the AM band
until 1975, was becoming ever more conservative. Commercial AM stations
had a stranglehold on the Australian pop market,
and apart from one or two valiant ABC efforts like
Room To
Move, commercial radio was the only outlet for pop and
rock music in this country.
The problem was compounded at the turn of the '70s, when many
stations around the country adopted new programming
regimes like those promoted by the Digamae consultancy, headed by
former DJs Rod Muir and DJ Hans Torv. Narrowly
focused, rigidly-controlled and hugely profitable, this model favoured
a limited range of pop songs in a highly
structured, high-rotation playlist, with programming choices largely
taken out of the hands of DJs. This was a critical
change, since many of the leading "personality" DJs -- like Sydney's
Ward 'Pally' Austin and Melbourne's Stan 'The Man'
Rofe -- had been free to select much of the material they played and
these same DJs were often crucial in breaking and
supporting local acts through the 1960s. Programming now came under the
control of a collusive network of faceless cabal
of programmers and record company A&R managers, for whom the
ultimate obscenity was "uncommercial". Diversity and
innovation were stifled, overseas pop fodder was favoured over
innovative local music and many fine Australian bands --
including Flying Circus -- suffered as a result.
The Flying Circus was formed in August 1967 by New
Zealand-born singer, songwriter and lead guitarist Doug Rowe.
Before coming to Australia Doug had been a member of two NZ bands, The
Saints, from Palmerston North (not to be confused
with the better known Christchurch band of the same name) and
Peter
Nelson & The Castaways, which had also included
bassist Reno Tehei (later of
Compulsion
and briefly a member of The La De Das) and future
Twilight Laurie Pryor.
Doug had come to Australia with The Castaways but had quit the
band not long after they arrived. The formation of The
Flying Circus came about through Doug's work as a cadet journalist at
the Sydney Morning Herald. He got know bassist Bob
Hughes, another
Herald journo, who clsSubHeadared
his interest in country rock. Doug and Bob began jamming regularly at
Wooloomooloo's Frisco Hotel and it was here that they met Jim Wynne.
The final member was another friend of Bob's, Colin
Walker. Colin had only just taken up drums but his brother Terry was
already an establiclsSubHeaded musician who played with The
Hi-Fives, The Times, The Strangers and Pastoral Symphony.
Four days after the band formed, a young salesman and
aspiring promoter, John Sinclair, was taken to a rehearsal at
the group's Woolwich house by his flatmate, singer
Marty Rhone. The group's strong
renditions of
songs like "Walk Away Renee", "Wild Mountain Thyme" and "Turn Turn
Turn" impressed Sinclair so much that the following
month he presented them at the first dance he promoted, at Cronulla
Masonic Hall -- their first gig. Two weeks later he
was driving them to gigs and in the new year he became their manager.
Shortly after this, the band was offered their first major
engagement -- a short tour of New Zealand. By this time they had
settled on the name The Flying Circus which (fortunately) edged out
second contender Iron Cross. Both choices were apparently inspired by
the current 'Red Baron' fad which derived from the popular Charles
Schultz
Peanuts comic strip and The Royal
Guardsmen's novelty single "Snoopy vs The Red Baron"
The Flying Circus started out as a four piece, playing a
mixture of country, bluegrass, folk and rock, drawing on a
wide range of influences including The Byrds, Dylan, The Dillards and
Revolver-period
Beatles. Doug Rowe began
making demo tapes of original songs with the help of his friend, the
respected musician-composer-arranger-producer
Mike Perjanik --
another Kiwi expatriate who has made a huge mark on Australian
music. As a result of the demos and Perjaniks interest and help, The
Flying Circus signed a contract with EMI's
Columbia label in
late 1968.
According to Glenn A. Baker, Mike Perjanik's original choice
for their debut single was a track called "Shame, Shame"
which the band knocked out in a couple of hours. But by the time EMI
were ready to release it the song had also
been recorded by Manchester group The Magic Lanterns, who scored a
surprise US Top 40 hit with it, spurring Phonogram to
rush-release the Magic Lanterns' version in Australia, thus nobbling
The Flying Circus version before it even came out.
So the first Flying Circus recording went un-issued as a single,
finally creeping out as a track on EMI's 1969 Royal
Easter Show Souvenir EP. It was also included on Glenn A. Baker's 1995
CD anthology.
After this false start there was a change of lineup. Bob
Hughes left so Jim Wynne brought in his friend Greg Grace
(vocals and harmonica) who in turn brought in bassist Warren Ward (ex
Nutwood Rug,
Stonehenge (with Tim Gaze & Nigel Macara), A Love Supreme (with
Gulliver Smith) and
Quill,
thus expanding the group to a five-piece.
The group signed with manager John Sinclair on 1 January 1969
and the new lineup made its first major appearance at
an outdoor concert in Sydney's Domain on Australia Day. Their
commercial breakthrough was not long in coming. They
signed to EMI they were offered a song called "Hayride". Originally
recorded by Gary Lewis & The Playboys, it had been
penned by the American team of
Buzz
Cason and Mac
Gayden. Although "Hayride" was trite, formulaic bubblegum pop, it had
obvious commercial
appeal. So despite some reservations, they agreed to cut it as their
first single.
Released in February 1969, it became a Top 40 hit around the
country, reaching #4 in Sydney and #24 nationally. Incredibly enough,
the song apparently caused concern among staid New Zealand radio
programmers and
objections to the shocking phrase "making love in the hay" resulted in
the NZ release being delayed while the group
battled to prevent it being banned, and it was not released there until
May. Significantly, the single was also released
in Canada, where it became a minor hit in several east coast cities,
and it made the Top-40 on CFNB in New Brunswick.
The national success of "Hayride" was also an interesting
pointer to the future marketing trends for Australian
pop. Even though Flying Circus had not toured outside New South Wales
at that stage, the song gained considerable
interstate exposure via a promotional film-clip which was aired on
nationally-screened TV pop shows including
Uptight.
The clip was made for them by Aggy Read and David Perry from Sydney
underground media collective
UBU.
The following year, Chris Lofven's classic promotional clips
played a critical part in the national success of Spectrum's "I'll Be
Gone" and Daddy Cool's "Eagle Rock", and over the next few years music
video (as it came to be known) took on an increasingly important role
in the marketing of pop music. This culminated in the huge change which
came with the advent of the ABC-TV's
Countdown at the end of 1974, which initiated a
critical shift from radio to television as the major venue for
breaking pop bands and records and helped to usher in the music-video
era.
The success of their second single only compounded their image
problem. It was even dumber than its predecessor, but
this was after all the height of the bubblegum craze and "La La" turned
out to be an even bigger hit, going Top Ten
across the country in June and peaking at #8 in Sydney. It sold in huge
numbers and rather remarkably it became the
biggest selling Australian group single released to date, an honour it
held until it was overtaken by Zoot's "Eleanor
Rigby" about a year later.
The problem was that although both Singles were major hits,
they had virtually nothing to do with the real musical
interests of The Flying Circus and their chart success would prove
problematic for the further development of their
career. Some of the blame must rest with Mike Perjanik, who was
apparently in full control of their recorded repertoire,
but evidently the band themselves felt that recording a few pop numbers
might be an effective
way of gaining notice. As Jim Wynne later recalled: "We were so glad to
be in a studio that we would have recorded
nursery rhymes. As it turned out, that's pretty much what happened.
It was a good move in the short term, but we can only
speculate on what the group would have chosen to
do had they been able to foresee what millstones those pop hits would
become. Although the Singles were perfectly
suited the chart trends of the day -- and were more than ably performed
by the band -- they had the effect of
immediately branding Flying Circus as a one-dimensional bubblegum act
among certain sections of the audience and the
media. As Doug Rowe ruefully observed:
"La, La" sealed our fate and made it
impossible for us to break out and be honest about the music we
played."
A couple of years earlier (or later) this might not have
mattered, but this was a period of rapid transition in Australian
music, a time when many bands and solo artists were trying to shake off
the restrictive "pop" image and be seen as serious musicians.
Conversely, younger fans drawn to their concerts by the pop hits were
bemused by the group's serious stage demeanour and their country-rock
repertoire.
The band had some difficult times in the second half of 1969.
In June, the house they had shared in Woolwich burned down,
and Greg Grace left Flying Circus to form his own group Hot Cottage,
unhappy with the pop direction and was also because he was suffering
from persistent throat problems (although he would return to the band
later).
In July the band was scheduled to head out on a NSW-Qld.
country tour with Johnny Farnham, Mike Furber, Free Fall and The
Valentines, but just before they left Warren Ward collapsed and had to
be replaced for the tour by The Valentines' John Cooksey. On their way
back from Brisbane, the band's truck was written off in an 80 mph
collision with a Volvo. During August Jim Wynne fell victim to
ill-health -- he collapsed on stage in Melbourne, suffering from
pleurisy and pneumonia, and again in Sydney due a severe throat
infection. This
second collapse happened on the eve on the N.S.W. Final of the Battle
of the Sounds, forcing them to withdraw from the competition.
Their run of bad luck continued -- during an Adelaide tour,
Doug was almost electrocuted and was laid up for two weeks. In
September Warren Ward quit due to his severe bouts of pneumonia and
asthma, and with Rowe still out of action, the group were forced to
play a Wollongong gig as a three-piece. Warren's fifteen year-old
brother Ross (still working today and currently leading his own band,
Ward's X-press) helped out for a string of gigs, including an major
open-air concert in Newcastle NSW.
The gig in Newcastle in late 1969 led to major changes in The
Flying Circus. One of the support acts was a Sydney wine-bar band
called Quill (previously known the Starving (Wild) Dogs and the Savage
Rare Blues Band). It comprised the late Keith Barr (ex-Nutwood Rug
Band, Heart'n'Soul), drummer Daryl McKenzie, guitarist Red McKelvie and
bassist Terry Wilkins . At the end of the gig Terry quit his band on
the spot and took over Warren Ward's place in Flying Circus.
Amidst all this turmoil,the band somehow also managed to
record their debut LP, which was EMI released the band's self-titled
debut album. With Perjanik firmly in control of repertoire, the LP was
an odd mish-mash of styles and clearly showed the tension between the
pop image foisted on them by EMI and their own preference for country
rock. It predictably featured the three pop hits, although it also
included two other Doug Rowe originals, a medley of songs from the
popular stage musical
Hair,
two Byrds covers, a version of Simon & Garfunkel's "Scarborough
Fair / Canticle", The only real concession to the group's country-rock
leanings was a cover of Dylan's "You Ain't Going Nowhere", one of the
profoundly influential batch of songs written by Dylan and The Band in
late 1967, which had been circulating as part of the legendary
"Basement Tapes" demos.
The Flying Circus' last Australian hit single was "Run Run Run"
(December 1969), which was also their last "pop" release. They had
originally been asked to record another Cason-Gayden formula piece
called "Groupie" (which was later a hit for
The
New Dream) but the band flatly refused. In its place they cut
a version of a
Guy Fletcher song, "All Fall Down".
Doug Rowe's "Run Run Run" was intended as the B-side, but to the band's
delight Perjanik eventually decided to flip the single and release
Doug's song as the A-side. It proved a successful decision, making a
very respectable #19 in January 1970.
But just as the single hit the airwaves in December, disaster
struck again when Doug suffered a perforated ulcer and
had to be flown home to New Zealand to recover. Needing to promote it,
the band hunted desperately for
someone to fill in, so Terry Wilkins called up his former Quill
bandmate Red McKelvie, who stayed on with the group after Doug's return
and
became a permanent member in April 1970.
During 1970 The Flying Circus worked hard to leave behind the
pop image and establish themselves as a serious country rock group.
Red's arrival steered the group even further towards straight country
music and the change was evident on their
Frontier
EP, which featured four pure country songs, two band originals plus
covers of Dylan's I'll Be Your Baby Tonight and Merle Haggard's "The
Day The Rains Came Down".
According to Glenn Baker, fate now dealt the group a long
overdue favour. A 'pay for play' dispute was flaring up
between commercial radio and major record companies and when talks
broke down, the commercial radio industry body, the
FACB, imposed an embargo -- the infamous
Radio Ban -- on most
major label product. As the Ban took hold the local industry (including
EMI) ground to a halt and with the pressure off to cut hit Singles that
would not get airplay, The
Flying Circus were able to enjoy an unprecedented luxury of having
virtually unlimited recording time at EMI's Sydney studio -- 130 hours,
according to
Baker and just as importantly, free reign to record whatever material
they wanted.
The band took full advantage of the opportunity. Red
officially joined halfway through the sessions and as well as his
superb guitar work Red contributed one original song "Israel" on which
he also played mandolin (which he learned to play two days before the
session!)
Sympathetically produced by Perjanik,
Prepared In Peace,
was a major step forward for the group, and it
remains one of the lost gems of early '70s Australian rock. The album
consisted almost entirely of original country-rock
songs by the band, except for the coda, a brief
a capella
rendition of Leadbelly's "Goodnight, Irene". It was
dominated by the songs of Doug Rowe, who contributed his best material
yet, but also included Jim Wynne's "3667", a song
commemmorating the scrapping of an old NSW Railways steam engine (which
were known as "pigs"). It was one of many Flying Circus
songs with a railway theme -- Jim and Doug were both dedicated
steam-train enthusiasts. Terry Wilkins was also coming to
the fore as a writer and contributed two self-penned songs, the title
track and "Giggling Guru" (supposedly a swipe at poet and hip identity
Adrian Rawlins) as
well as "One Way Out", which he co-wrote with Doug.
The LP was taken very seriously by the group and in a
contemporary interview Doug said: "It's a do-or-die effort
which will either establiclsSubHead us (as) a force in our own right
or, if not accepted, will mean obscurity". It was
critically lauded, and while not a major commercial success, it sound
quite respectably -- 12,000 copies, according to
Baker -- and is long overdue for a reissue on CD. Along with Axiom's
debut album it was a pioneering record for
Australian music and a landmark of the local country-rock-harmony
style. The original pressing was released in a special
black gatefold cover with an oval die-cut window on the front, which
framed the heads of the group.
On 1 June 1970 Flying Circus took part in an historic event,
supporting soul legends The Four Tops at the last concert
ever held at the legendary
Sydney
Stadium, which was demolished the following
year to make way for the elevated section of the Eastern Suburbs
Railway. The group marked the occasion by dressing in
formal evening wear. This was followed by two more major events -- the
release in July of
Prepared In Peace
followed on August 9 by their somewhat contentious victory in the
Hoadleys National
Battle of The Sounds.
The Battle of the Sounds final was being held in Sydney for
the first time this year and although The Flying Circus expected to do
well, they faced stiff competition from the hot favourites, Adelaide's
Zoot
-- who, ironically, were fighting their own battle to overcome their
image as bubblegum popsters -- and fellow Sydney band
Autumn (who were also
managed by Sinclair) who were riding high on the success of their
national #1
hit "Yellow River".
As Bernie Howitt notes in his 1994 article on the band, the
lead-up to the Hoadley's final was a graphic illustration of the
punishing workload
faced by bands at the time, and the saga of the 24 hours leading up to
the Hoadleys performance would later be
immortalized in Terry Wilkins song "The Longest Day".
The night before the final, they were booked for a gig from
8pm until midnight in Tamworth, hundreds of kilometres from Sydney.
They then had to drive to Armidale for an early-morning set from 2am to
4am, followed by a drive back to Tamworth to catch the early morning
flight back to Sydney for the Hoadley's final.
Arriving at the venue with only half an hour to freclsSubHeaden up and
prepare, they trooped on and
dutifully played their set as best they could. Doug Rowe later
commented that Zoot and The La De Das probably played
better on the day but felt that the originality of the
Prepared
In Peace material tipped the balance in their
favour. All but Doug then left the theatre, convinced that they had
lost. As it turned out, the judges -- John Bromwell
(of Essex Music) and journalists David Elfick,
Greg Quill, Jock Veitch and
Donnie Sutherland -- evidently felt that The Flying Circus were overdue
for some recognition and in a surprise decision
they awarded them first prize, an outcome which was greeted with boos
and hisses by diehard Zoot and Autumn fans.
In October EMI released a single from the LP, Red McKelvie's
"Israel" (b/w "Giselle") but it did not
chart. Red was sacked from the band the same month, a victim of the
perennial problem, "musical differences". According to
Glenn Baker's account, Doug claimed that Red was confusing the band's
direction and wanted to "completely change the
group", but Baker asserts that the core problem was that Doug was
concerned that Red posed a threat to his leaderclsSubHeadip of the
group. Whatever the truth of the matter, it was evidently an
acrimonious parting, and
according to Noel McGrath there was even talk of Red suing the band for
his clsSubHeadare of the Hoadleys prize, a trip to the USA.
McKelvie's departure precipitated yet another change in style
and a step away from the strong country flavour of their recent
recordings. To replace Red they headhunted guitarist and keyboard
player Sam See (Sam Ruthven), one of the founding members of
Sherbet.
Sam See: "I was
supposed to play keys and guitar. We went to a small town called
North Haven to rehearse, the truck
blew up and my
Hammond never arrived. I thus became a guitarist for the band, which
was fine by me. It was terrifying to replace Red as the lead guitar
player at that point!
"The album we recorded over the next few months was to be called
Northhaven
Harvest as we were changing to Harvest as a label,
we all thought it was a grand title. EMI thought differently and
somebody outside the band suggested
Bonza, Beaut &
Boom Boom Boom.
We thought it was a joke, as the song was a joke and put-down of Oz
apathy. It ended up as the title, so beware of jokes which can bite the
teller on the arse!"
The album was more straight-ahead rock in style and despite
being lumbered with the bizarre title, it was another sterling effort
which again consisted of all original material by the group. The single
"Turn Away" / "The Longest Day" (Feb. '71) was the first lifted from
the LP. The band were particularly proud of "Turn
Away" and said so at the time: "We know its the best thing we've ever
done, whatever happens with it, we've
achieved everything we ever wanted to do". Sadly, neither it nor the
follow-up "It Couldn't Happen Here" / "Somerville"
(Aug. '71) made any impression on the charts, even though they are
regarded as being among the band's best work.
Depressed, exhausted, disillusioned and increasingly
frustrated by the lack of
recognition at home, The Flying Circus were itching to take advantage
of the Hoadleys prize and try their luck overseas,
although it apparently took some time for the whole group to agree on
the best course of action. At one point, only a
week before they were scheduled to leave, they took a vote during a set
break at Chequers and decided
they were not going to America -- instead, they stunned manager John
Sinclair by telling him that they had voted (by 3-2) on packing
up and taking their families to Perth to "get it back together" Nothing
Sinclair could do would change their minds and
he went home despondent -- only to be rung the next morning at 7am by
Doug, telling him that the band had changed their
minds again and would go to America after all.
After an impromptu photo session for the new album on the
deck of the cruise ship, The Flying Circus set sail for North America
on 20 January 1971, although they left without Doug, who was still
completing his production of the Megan Sue Hicks album
Maranatha.
During a stopover in Hawaii , Terry and Sam wrote "The Ballad Of Sacred
Falls", which became their next single.
The American trip was a bold step -- only a few Australian
acts had attempted it before them. Neither Johnny OKeefe nor Ray
Brown had any success, and it would be several years more before
expatriate Australians such as Helen Reddy and Peter Allen achieved
their commercial
breakthroughs there. The band were reunited in for San Francisco, where
they intended to study the local scene, rest and refocus after more
than two gruelling years of constant touring.
John Sinclair found them a house in the celebrated Haight-Ashbury
district, but by this time the Summer of Love was well and truly over,
the hippies were long gone, and the band found itself in what was now a
largely black neighbourhood, dominated by the militant Black Panther
movement. Scraping by on their meagre savings and living on vegetable
stew, they took in the sights and sounds and became regular visitors to
Bill
Graham's fabled Fillmore West, seeing legendary acts including
Fleetwood Mac, Boz Scaggs, Tower of Power and Aretha Franklin.
Just before they were due to come home in February they made
crucial breakthrough -- the influential Music Factory
agency offered them a $10,000, eight-week tour of Canada. Just before
the tour, Jim Wynne left the band for personal
reasons, and although he intended to return he did not do so. The band
soldiered on and fulfilled the tour as a
four-piece, impressing the receptive Canadian audiences with their
distinctive repertoire and fine musicianship.
They returned to Australia in July 1971, brimming with
confidence and eager to return to Canada and build on their initial
success, but by this time Sam See had already been approached by Bruce
Howe to join
progressive group
Fraternity,
which was fronted by Bon Scott. Sam had already committed to
the Flying Circus Australian tour, but once that was completed in
September he left the group. Doug called up the erstwhile Greg
Grace, taught him guitar and brought him back into the band. Their next
single "The Ballad Of Sacred Falls" / "Finding My
Way" was released in September and "Turn Away" / "The Longest Day" was
also released in the USA, but made no impression.
Flying Circus headed back to Canada in late 1971, by which
time they had parted company with John Sinclair. He subsequently set up
a management agency in Sydney which looked after Autumn, Jeff St. John
and Copperwine, Sherbet, Third Union
Band and Sabbath. Later, he returned to Canada to work as a booking
agent, returning to Australia in
the late '70s. Meanwhile, Flying Circus became permanent residents of
Canada, enabling them to work
and live there. Once again they found audiences much more receptive
than at home and they gradually built up a solid
following.
During 1972 they scored their biggest break yet -- a major contract
with Capitol Records, for whom they
recorded their first American album. It was reported at the time that
the deal was worth $1 million; according to Glenn
Baker it was a ten-album deal with a promised advance of $50,000 per
album. Either way it was a coup and probably the
best international deal to date for an Australian act.
The new LP was recorded in Canada in late 1972 and released as
Flying Circus in the USA and Canada, and as
Gypsy
Road in Australia, where it was issued through the Warner
label. For the recordings the band were assisted by Canadian musicians
Lenny Solomon (violin), Rob Lehman (steel guitar), Dick Armin (cello,
from Lighthouse) and "Fatman" Paul Hoffert (vibes and piano).
The band made their last visit back to Australia for the
second Sunbury Festival in January 1973, but the time away had eroded
their local popularity, and the band was disappointed by their lukewarm
reception, although they reportedly played a "magnificent set of fiery
guitar-based country rock".
Gypsy Road was (and remains) a highly
regarded album, one which consolidated all their past hard work. It was
set for a major promotion by Capitol and received glowing reviews in
the American music press. Unfortunately the then president of Capitol,
who had been a major fan of the group, was sacked just as the album was
released and their chance to crack the US market was lost. Despite
these setbacks it still made the Top Ten in Canada and produced two
successful Singles. Back home, with only the Sunbury performance to
promote it, the record vanished without trace.
Sam See: "I don't
think it was released in Australia owing to a publishing dispute."
Ironically, depsite it being ignored in their homeland,
Gypsy
Road produced the most successful American single for Flying
Circus, Doug Rowe's
"Old Enough (To Break My Heart)", which spent nine weeks on the
Canadian charts in mid-May of '73, reaching #8 (or #12, depending on
which source you accept) . The follow-up "Maple Lady" reached #58 in
Canada and also made the lower reaches of the US Top 100.
During 1974 Greg Grace left again, this time for good and he
was replaced by none other than Sam See. whom Doug invited to rejoin
while Sam was in England with Fraternity -- he did not "talk his way
back into the band" as Glenn Baker claims. Sam's decision evidently
caused some rancour in Fraternity, but by his own account that band was
on its last legs by the time he decided to quit and in his own words he
"took the escape hatch gladly". This final Flying Circus lineup
recorded one more album, ironically entitled
Last Laugh
in 1974 and a US-only single "Jabber Jabber" / "Gypsy Road". The album
sold well in Canada but once again it was totally ignored back in
Australia.
The end of the band was precipitated by Terry and Sam's
decision to quit in early 1975 to join Canadian band Lighthouse. The
remaining members struggled on briefly with Canadian replacements, but
Flying Circus split for good soon afterwards.
After The Flying Circus ...
Terry Wilkins settled permanently in
Toronto , where he became "a guiding force and a leading light to a
generation of musicians on the Toronto scene". His thirty-year career
as a performer, composer, arranger and producer has
made him one of Toronto's most respected musicians and has earned him a
Maple Blues Award. In the period
immediately after Flying Circus split up, Terry and Sam See toured and
recorded with Canadian bands The Headliners and Lighthouse. In 1974
Terry was part of a cross-Canada tour with Lighthouse, which, as he
recalls, marked a turning point
in his musical career:
"... 68 concerts in 75 days from
Victoria to St. John's caused me to fall into a funk regarding the
seemingly shallow reality of the modern musician. This was the era of
'tight' bands and rehearsed-to-death performances. It was on that tour
that I started to fantasize about which era I would rather have been a
musician."
Terry's disenchantment with the rock scene and meetings with
other similarly inclined Toronto musicians in the late '70s led to an
abiding interest in authentic jazz, swing, blues and Caribbean music, a
switch from electric to acoustic bass, and the formation of a
succession of popular Toronto bands including Professor Piano &
The Canadian Aces, and The Signifying Monkey (who recorded the CD
New
Standards which Terry wrote). In recent years, Terry has been
key member of the core group of musicians who play in the three bands
at the heart of Toronto s "Swing Jazz" scene --
Jake and the Blue Midnights, Tyler Yarema & His
Rhythm and Terry's own group
The Swing Gang.
Terry produced the debut CD for Jake & The Blue Midnights and
co-wrote six songs on the album; he also produced
seven tracks on Chris Whiteley's
Blues Party album.
More recently, he formed Acoustic
Mojah!, which performs all acoustic West Indian folk, reggae and
calypso, and he also leads a junior version of The
Swing Gang that includes his children Julian and Gabriela.
Thanks to Greg Quill we were able to contact Terry in 2000,
and he sent us these thoughts about his career in music before, during
and after The Flying Circus: P class=Quote>"... for me this is
like 3 centuries ago and since then I have had 3 or 4 whole music
careers. Before I joined FC I was on the Taylor Square scene playing
blues and jug band music and this is my true roots. Although my time
with FC was exciting, definitely interesting and lots of hedonistic
fun, the pull of what is essentially Black-American music has always
proved to be the strongest force in music for me. In the years that I
have been here (29 years and counting) I have had the privilege of
working with some of the greats of jazz and blues like Eddie
'Cleanhead' Vinson, Sunnyland Slim, Dr.John and more. I currently play
acoustic bass in a collective of swing musicians (mostly in their 20's)
called The Swing Gang. Last year I was the recipient of The Maple Blues
Award for Bassist of The Year and this year I was nominated for Bassist
of The Year and for Producer of Year, neither of which I won but what
the heck..."
Doug Rowe also stayed in Toronto, where he set up
his own studio and lived and performed for many years before eventually
returning to Australia. He now lives in Bathurst, NSW; he still
performs regularly and remains one of Australia's most respected
country-rock artists. He has released two Albums on his own Rowe
Records label,
Havannah Street Blues and
Hometown
Lights (with Bob Breese). He has recorded four CDs with Rob
Reese (available from Rob's website -- se Links) and he's also a member
of The Woodpickers with Broderick Smith (See links).
Sam See joined
Greg
Quill's last band Southern Cross (1975-78). After that band
split during a visit to
Australia he formed
Stockley See & Mason
with fellow veterans Chris Stockley (
Cam-Pact,
Axiom,
Dingoes) and Glyn Mason (
Chain, Copperwine, Home,
Ariel). Sam has been a mainstay
of the Australian
music scene ever since and his bulging CV includes work with Goanna,
The Black Sorrows, Greg Page (The Wiggles), John
Farnham, Ross Wilson, Daryl Braithwaite, Brian Cadd, Swanee, Broderick
Smith, Rose Bygrave, Olivia Newton-John, Tina
Arena, Glenn clsSubHeadorrock, Dale Ryder, Debra Byrne, Brian Cadd.
Thelma Houston, Men At Work, Marie Wilson,
Jane Saunders, Joe Camilleri, The Revelators and The Hornets as well as
recording music for films and
advertising. Sams first solo album,
Unhinged, was
released in late 2002.
Red McKelvie moved on to form the
country-rock groups Chant (with Jim Wynne and Colin Walker's brother
Terry),
Johnny & The Ringworms, Powderhorn and Third Union Band. He
became a sought-after session player and performed on Richard Clapton's
1972 debut LP
Prussian Blue. In 1974 he provided
the signature slide guitar on Richard's breakthrough hit "Girls On The
Avenue". He returned to New Zealand soon after, where he continued
working as session musician, reputedly playing on almost ever country
record released there during the late '70s and '80s. He still lives in
New Zealand and was most recently a member of the Glen Moffatt Band.
Bob Hughes has been an enduring presence
in the Australian media through his acting, advertising and voice-over
work. He starred as the reporter in
ABBA, The Movie
(1976) and is best known in Australia and elsewhere for his title role
in the long-running and very successful TV sitcom Hey Dad! in the
1980s.
James Wynne was an accomplished artist as
well as a musician, and his interest in art was fostered by his
grandmother, a keen amateur watercolourist. Jim learned to draw as a
teenager, but his obvious talent for music led to him joining Flying
Circus. After he left the band
in 1971 James played in Chant with Red McKelvie, and then decided to
turn to painting as a career. In his early
years he had worked part-time as a fireman on the New South Wales
railways, which supplemented his income and allowed
him indulge in his passion for steam engines, which became a feature in
the songs he wrote for Flying Circus, and
featured prominently in his paintings. Working in an Impressionist
style, James establiclsSubHeaded his reputation with his
paintings of relics of the steam era, which were often done on-site in
railway scrap-yards. He held his first one-man
exhibition at Copperfield Gallery in 1974, and since then he has
exhibited at major galleries, such as Prouds, Parker
Galleries, Artarmon Galleries, Barry Stern and the Wentworth. He is
represented in many prestigious private collections
in Australia and overseas. James belongs to the great Australian
tradition of Impressionist painters, started by the
Heidelberg School. James also works as a tutor for the Charles Sturt
University winter and summer schools, he has produced an instructional
video on oil painting for
Australian Artist
magazine, and has featured in several articles of the magazine. He has
also had five works reproduced in print form by 'Art Throughout
Australia'. Music still plays an important part
in Jim's life, and it's an interest he shares with his two grown-up
sons -- they are both professional musicians and they
and James write, play and perform together whenever possible.
Greg Grace became the roadie for Canadian
band Wireless, which included three ex-members of Flying Circus' Sydney
contemporaries
Autumn. No other
information about his later career has been located so far.
Colin Walker still lives in Canada, where we
understand he became a stained-glass artist.
