LRB STORY

Rip It Up, Issue 14, 1 August 1978, Page 3

LRB STORY

The moral of Little River Band’s story is simple: even in these enlightened times, success is seldom unearned. Take Glenn Shorrock, for instance back in 1965 he was lead singer of the Australian band, the Twilights, and later he was with Axiom when they went to England. They disbanded and he stayed in England; spending two years in a band called Esperanto and barely making a living from session work. Shorrock met Graham Goble, Beeb Birtles and Derek Pellicci in London in 1974. Goble, Birtles and Pellicci had all been in an Australian band, Mississippi, whose first single (“Kings of the World’’) was a top ten national hit even before they had made any live appearances. That was in 1972: an album followed and it was named “Album of the Year", there were two more hit singles. In April 1974 Mississippi went to England and eventually disbanded. Charlie Tumahai had been playing bass he went to play alongside Bill Nelson in Be-Bop Deluxe. Goble,

Birtles, and Pellicci returned to Australia with Shorrock as the Little River Band. In Australia the Little River Band picked up a guitar player (Rick Formosa) and a bass player (Roger McLachlan), signed to EMI and was working on an album within two months. Little River Band sold 60,000 copies in Australia and went platinum. A second album, After Hours, sold 40,000.

In April 1976 Little River Band began its first tour of Europe, Canada and the U.S. Formosa and McLachlan soon left; David Briggs and George McArdle took their places.

“It’s A Long Way There” was edited down from QV2 minutes on album to make a 2Vi minute single; it made the US top 30. The band’s first two albums were combined into one album for American release and it sold an estimated 300,000 copies. A third album, Diamantina Cocktail, produced a single that made America’s top 15. The album sold over 160,000 copies in Australia, went gold in the States and platinum in Canada. Little River Band’s fourth album, Sleeper Catcher, has just been released and the band will be performing in Auckland on September 4.