Sherbet

During the seventies no act was more popular on Countdown than Australia’s premier pop band, Sherbet. Sherbet made more appearances on Countdown than any other band in the program’s 13 year history.

Sherbet had a clean-cut boys-next door image; a big contrast to the bad boy persona favoured by their peers. There were often scenes of screaming, shirt-ripping and general girl-fan mayhem on the Countdown set when the band appeared. Sherbet’s first Countdown appearances coincided with their Slipstream album, which earned them five gold records. Life is for Living and a greatest hits album followed.

Despite strong sales, Sherbet remained pretty much a teenybopper band until the release of ‘Howzat’. In July 1976 it went to No. 1 knocking ABBA’s ‘Fernando’ from the top after 14 weeks. The album, also titled Howzat, achieved a Gold award on advance orders alone. The band embarked on a national Howzat tour and departed Australia for tours in the U.S.A, U.K and South East Asia. ‘Howzat ‘, written by Garth Porter and Tony Mitchell, reached number four in the U.K, number two in Thailand, top ten in Israel, South Africa and many European countries.

The success of Sherbet in 1976 came despite founding member Clive Shakespeare leaving the band in January of that year. Gunther Gorman ex Home, initially replaced Shakespeare. Harvey James ex Mississippi and Ariel in turn replaced Gorman. The settled line up remained intact right through to 1982.

In 2006 the boys from Sherbet returned to the stage to blow away audiences in the Countdown Spectacular Tour.

Countdown tip – Sherbet became 'Highway' for the American market in 1979 and had a further name change to 'Sherbs' in 1980. Sherbet was inducted into the Australian Hall of Fame at the 1989 ARIA awards.

Bio reference - 'Countdown - The Wonder Years' DVD/CD Researched and written by Brendon Pearce and Countdown the Wonder Years Book by Dave Warner, published by ABC Books. 

Band members
Daryl Braithwaite [vcls] 1969-84
Gunther Gorman [gtr] 1976
Harvey James [gtr] 1976-84
Dennis Laughlin [vcls] 1969
Tony Mitchell [bs] 1972-84
Garth Porter [kbds, vcls] 1970-84
Doug Rae [bs] 1969
Alan Sandow [dr] 1969-84
Sam See [kbds] 1969-70
Clive Shakespeare [gtr, vlcs] 1969-76
Danny Taylor [dr] 1969
Bruce Worrall [bs] 1969-72