Nothing needs to be said to embellish the career of American songwriter Diane Warren, the facts speak for themselves. With an amazing list of song writing credits, arm loads of awards and a bank balance we could only guess at......its not surprising to hear the music industry call Diane Warren: "the most important songwriter in the world".
The music of Bread has romantically inspired many people over many, many years. Yet some of the stories behind these hits could affect you in a different way. There's one Bread hit that many would consider to be a love song, which was actually written after the death of David Gates's father. Hearing David Gates tell the story behind this David Gates classic will touch you.
"Mamma Mia", the stage musical, brought ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus back to work in Australia for the first time since the 70's. In this interview with Ian Keenan he discusses how the musical came about, some trivia concerning ABBA hits and how Bjorn felt about touring in the 70's. You might also be interested to find out what was the biggest lie reported about ABBA.
Did you know that it's generally considered that the very first "disco" hit was written and produced by Harry Casey of KC and the Sunshine Band? The twist in the story is that KC didn't sing it! KC put his vocals on the many Sunshine Band hits but NOT on that ground breaking first disco hit. Hear the story in his interview with Ian Keenan.
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!
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!
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.
