Skyhooks

In the mid Seventies, Skyhook breathed fresh air into Australian Music Industry. Previously, there was not a great deal of Australian content. Skyhooks with their cheeky, brash and colourful image, played amazing tunes peppered with Melbourne place names and Australian themes.

Their debut album Living in the seventies went on to sell 300,000 albums (the equivalent of twenty Gold awards) lodging itself firmly at the number one spot on the Australian charts for many months. Sales were complimented with numerous appearances on Countdown, the most notable of which was the first day of the program’s hour-long colour transmission in early 1975.

The band’s second album EGO is not a dirty word debuted at number one, while the single of the same name was sitting opposite at number one on the singles charts. The LP went on to sell over 200,000 copies and the EGO tour sold out completely. Around this time the band needed new challenges and headed to America. The Mercury/Phonogram label signed them and many months of 1976 were spent stateside trying to crack the American market. There were some hotspots, in Jacksonville (Florida), the band were support for Uriah Heep and received the same hysteria that greeted them at home.

Whilst in America they hit the studios and recorded their third album Straight in a gay gay world. The album went multi platinum in Australia and one single, the country sounding ‘Blue Jeans’ was a huge hit across the Tasman in New Zealand.

On the return Brats Are Back tour, the first single featuring the new line up (without Red Symonds) – ‘Party to end all parties’ made the top 20, but it was the next single – the hard rocking ‘Women in uniform’ that was the hit. Iron Maiden decided to record a version themselves.

Skyhooks fourth album Guilty until proven insane made the top ten and sold well. United Artists released it in Europe. The Hooks took this tougher sounding Skyhooks back to their roots, the Australian Pub circuit, packing out venues like the Bondi Lifesaver and Wollongong Leagues Club. They finished the tour at Melbourne's Palais Theatre for the Nightmoves. Constant tour exhaustion had set in and the simple days of surfing and being a carpenter seemed more appealing each hour. By Xmas 78 Shirl had left the band.

Tony Williams, a friend who had sang with Reuben Tice-Gregs old band replaced Shirley and the first single from the new Skyhook line-up was ‘Over the Border’. The single made the top ten in Queensland and faired well nationally. Due to lack of radio airplay several non charting singles and one album (Hot for the Orient) followed. The Skyhooks played their last show at Kalgoorlie-June 8th 1980. Strangely enough no official announcement was made on Countdown.

In April 1983 the band assembled for a press conference, announcing it would play a Festival in Noosa. Midnight Oil were on the bill and acknowledged the Skyhooks legacy by saying the Hooks were the only Australian band they would let top the bill above them. The band were back in the news, radio was besieged with people wanting shows elsewhere. Suddenly a full-scale reunion tour was underway. It was a triumph. More and more shows were added, whole shows selling out in less than an hour. The final show was in Perth on May 7th. Two of the Melbourne shows were recorded (and partially filmed) and the Live in the 80s album was released. It went gold. The live footage was used on the Right there on my TV Compilation Video.

In October 1984 the band played a one-off Melbourne show as part of the tenth anniversary for ‘Living in the 70s’ and to celebrate ‘Rocktober’. 25,000 punters turned up. A special Gold Vinyl Commemorative issue of Living in the 70s was issued by Mushroom. It too received a gold award.

‘Jukebox in Siberia’ was released in October 1st 1990. After several weeks and limited airplay Skyhooks had a number one single. It was the only Australian single to reach number one in 1990. Suddenly a whole new audience had discovered the band and they had some catching up to do. Mushroom offered them a new "Best Of" titled Latest and Greatest. It too went top ten and hit the double platinum mark.

The Skyhooks found themselves back in the Australian music charts when interest in the band was renewed following the tragic death of Graeme "Shirley" Strachan. The singer perished in a helicopter crash on August 29, 2001, and within two weeks Skyhooks: The Collection was back in the Top 10.

Countdown tip - When Sydney ABC FM radio station 2JJ (now 2JJJ) began transmission on January 19th, 1975 the first song played was Skyhooks' 'You just like me 'cos I'm good in bed'.

Links:
http://www.skyhooks-music.com/