Men At Work

Original line-up:

• Colin Hay (vocals, guitar),
• Greg Ham (flute, sax, keyboards, vocals; ex-Sneak Attack),
• Ron Strykert (lead guitar, vocals),
• John Rees (bass; ex-Chetarca)
• Jerry Speiser (drums)

Men at Work were one of the most successful Australian musical exports ever. The quick rise to fame for Men at Work seems to have been the main contributor to the band's major split just five years after its inception.

Glasgow-born musician Colin Hay and his family emigrated to Australia from Scotland in 1967 when he was 14. Hay played in numerous bands throughout his high school and university years and in 1978, while working in Sydney on the stage musical Heroes, he met guitarist Ron Strykert. The pair formed an acoustic duo playing in and around Melbourne and started to write together what would become the basis of Men at Work's repertoire.

While studying economics at university Hay met drummer Jerry Speiser and he invited Speiser to one of the duo's informal jams at the Grace Emily Hotel. With a drummer onboard, Men at Work joined prog-rocking keyboard player Greg Sneddon to provide backing music for the amateur musical Riff Raff to which Sneddon had written the lyrics and music. For a short time Sneddon was an official member of Men At Work but multi-instrumentalist Greg Ham who provided keys, sax, flute and other instruments to the Men at Work sound replaced him.

The group had a residency at the Cricketers Arms Hotel in Melbourne for a few months before deciding to bring in a bassist. Until this point guitarist Ron Strykert had been providing the low-end for the group.
Bass player John Rees became Men at Work's fifth member and the group started to build a loyal following. Their Thursday night residency at the Cricketers Arms continued for over a year and by the end of 1980 the band were selling out venues all over Melbourne.

In 1980 they financed their first release under their own label M.A.W. The single featured the A-side ‘Keypunch operator’, with the B-side being an early version of ‘Down under’

By early 1981 Men at Work, after some hard work from a determined A & R man, signed to the CBS label and released their first single with the label, ‘Who can it be now’. By August the single had reached the number one spot on the Australian charts. The second single, a reworked ‘Down under’, and the group's debut album, Business as usual, were released with both hitting number one on their respective charts. The debut was the biggest selling Australian album since Skyhooks' record-breaking Living in the 70s. It also became the first Australian album to debut at number one in New Zealand.

Six months after its release in Australia, Business as usual was released in both the U.S. and the U.K. The lads from Melbourne then set out on a US tour supporting Fleetwood Mac and by October, 1981, ‘Who can it be now’ had reached number one on the U.S. singles chart. The following month Business as usual hit the number one spot on the U.S. albums chart, a position it held for the next twelve straight weeks. Not since The Monkees had a debut album been so successful on the U.S. charts. By January the following year the album was number one on both the U.S. and U.K. charts, a milestone for an Australian artist and a record that, to this day, hasn't been repeated. That year also saw Men at Work become the first Australian band to win a Grammy Award.

Business as usual was over eighteen months old when the band decided to release their second album Cargo. However, the debut album still had plenty of legs in the overseas markets and the release of Cargo, coupled with the large amount of live shows the band had been doing, meant over-exposure. It was released, after all, only three months after Business as usual had reached number one in the U.S. and the U.K. Cargo saw top ten chart positions in both countries after the band toured relentlessly behind it and the album also saw the number one chart position in Australia.

However, Men at Work, was beginning to buckle under the heavy workload and, by the end of 1983, the group returned to Australia to take an agreed year’s break. During the year Colin Hay married and honeymooned in France. He also produced an album for Melbourne band Le Club Foot. Greg Ham joined his girlfriend in the cover band Relax with Max. John Rees and Jerry Speiser had become close friends and were working towards the next Men at Work album when the internal strife really began.

So the band was down to three members when they rejoined to record their third album Two Hearts, the empty spots being filled by session musicians. But their earlier success was not to be repeated and the album performed poorly. A scheduled tour of the US was cancelled due to poor ticket sales. Rod Strykert left the band, followed soon after by Greg Ham and Colin Hay was left as the only member of Men at Work. Hay made attempts at continuing the band but by 1985 had also thrown in the towel and embarked on his solo career.

Content taken from Article featured on www.bmusic.com.au 15th November 2003.

Links:
http://www.colinhay.com/
http://www.myspace.com/menatwork