1974, I remember it well. It was my first year of High School and I was just becoming aware of how good Aussie music was at the time.
Pop band Sherbet were posing for “risque” portraits, Gough Whitlam was Prime Minister, The Eastern Suburbs Roosters were Rugby League Premiers, Richmond won the VFL Final, John Howard enters politics as an opposition backbencher and Think Big wins the Melbourne Cup. Andrew Johns, Shane Webcke and Ricky Ponting are all born in 1974 and two classic films are screened for the first time, Stone and The Cars That Ate Paris. Christmas 1974 saw the city of Darwin flattened by cyclone Tracey.
In cricket, Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee were wreaking havoc on a shell-shocked English side in The Ashes.
The third Sunbury concert rocked Victoria with a lineup that included Blackfeather, The 69′ers, Skyhooks, The Dingoes, Kush, Buster Brown, Chain, Madder Lake, MacKenzie Theory, Ayers Rock, Sid Rumpo, Ross Ryan, Daddy Cool (reformed for this concert) and Queen
1974 was also the first year that Countdown screened in Australian homes and it changed our lives. It really brought great Aussie music to the masses and genuinely had us huddling around the TV set each week to see who was number 1. Also on TV that year we were watching timeless classics such as “The Class Of ’74″ and “The Box”.
So, here are some of the great Australian tunes we were listening to in 1974, Enjoy!
AC/DC – Can I Sit Next To You Girl (Featuring Dave Evans on Vocals)
Sherbet – Slipstream
Stevie Wright – Evie (This clip is from 1979 but the song was a hit in 1974)
Ross Ryan – I Am Pegasus
The Bootleg Family – Shoop Shoop Song
Brian Cadd – Let Go
Theme from Aunty Jack
If you’ve got any thoughts or memories from 1974 I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below. Likewise, if you know of any film clips from then, let me know & I’ll include them here.
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I worked for the “Sherbs” from Jan 1980 on and off for a couple of years as their lighting guy and sometime foldback engineer…that pic is hilarious! I dont know whats more disturbing? How uncomfortable Daryl Braithwaite looks, or how comfortable Alan Sandow looks…
Re Sherbet photo – Hilarious! I remember that photo, I think it was published in Cleo.
Great site people. An interesting trip down memory lane may well have re-educated me in the importance of by gone times.
I thnk we should all venture back in time nown-again because it is those yesterdays that steered us to our todays so ……maybe a revisit could help many of us get back on track.
LOL Thanks for the time travel machine guys!!!!
Yeah! the memories come flooding back. Alan once a “hunk”, always a spunk!!
Ahh!! The memories! Alan is still the “hunk” he was 30 or so years ago. My heart still palpitates.
The photo, I seem to recall from my hazy youth (whoever he was), was part of a series of Oz band photos with the likes of Buffalo, Hush et al taken in their jocks or less (published in Go Set maybe) – it was hilarious. Buffalo apparently refused to be photographed without either their jocks or their stack-heeled boots (one of their trade-marks).
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