What a career Tina Charles had! The British singer began as a teenager working in the recording studio singing with people like Elton John and Steve Harley. Tina also sang the lead vocals for a band called 5000 Volts (which was uncredited) and by the time her own run of hits began in 1975 she was a seasoned professional at just 21 years of age.
Some people are just born storytellers. Goanna's Shane Howard has been telling stories for many years via his music. His songs have highlighted Aboriginal injustice as well as the plan in the 1980's to dam Tasmania's now World Heritage listed Franklin River. His hit stories reveal the great meaning behind his music and he has some great stories to tell. Enjoy!
The superlatives you could use in describing Eric Burdon are many, the man truly is a legend. From starting out in the early 60's with the band The Animals he continues to perform and record as he reaches his late 70's. Over the years he's amassed many amazing tales concerning his life and music, just some of those hit stories are shared here.
If there's one band that has shown great perseverance over the years it's Dragon. At one stage early in their career they were in danger of losing their recording contract, so their manager locked them in a room until they came up with a hit. Plus as Dragon's Todd Hunter explains the band has had more than it's fair share of tragedy.
Ian Keenan calls his interview with Andrew Gold "an all-time favourite". It's a fascinating chat with a man who came from a show business background and then carved his own fantastic musical career. The multi-instrumentalist played a major role in the career of Linda Ronstadt before launching himself as a soloist. He also gave us two of the best TV theme songs of the 80's!
"We Built This City", "Sara" and "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" were all huge hits featuring the voice of Starship's Mickey Thomas, but did you known he sang another huge hit before he joined Starship?
Their debut show was on the day we learnt that Elvis Presley died and since then Mental As Anything has become one of Australia's longest serving bands. Here two founding members reveal some embarrassing (and funny) on-stage moments. They tell which superstar challenged Greedy to a boxing match and name the Mental As Anything hit that Martin wrote by drawing chords out of a hat!
Singer/songwriter Janis Ian has had a wide ranging career. She's won two Grammy Awards, one for singing "At Seventeen" and the other for her spoken-word autobiography. She has been a magazine columnist, a science fiction author and she's said "no" to some amazing acting roles. Janis Ian also explains the meaning behind her album "God and the FBI" as we hear her hit stories.
New Zealand's Tim Finn looks back on a very varied musical career. With Ian Keenan he discusses his bad-hair days with Split Enz and the continued partnership with his brother Neil in Crowded House. There's the great start to his solo career to reminisce about while Tim also reveals some disappointments and the one thing he would NEVER do with his music.
It is amazing how many famous singers cite Paul Rodgers as their major inspiration. John Mellencamp went so far as to call him "the best rock singer EVER"! In the 70's he led two of the UK's greatest rock bands in Free and Bad Company. Free's "All Right Now" is just one of his huge hits, but wait until you hear how it came about.
