GREG ANDERSON

Greg Anderson (b. Melbourne, 12 Oct. 1950) was a "one-hit wonder" in terms of pop chart success, but he was born into show business and he has been performing for most of his life. His parents had a whip-cracking act, and at fifteen months old the infant Greg was appearing with them on tour in England at venues like the London Palladium, and he regularly appeared with them as he grew up. At seven he took part in the Moomba Rodeo Festival as a trick rider and by the time he was ten years old Greg was appearing on major television shows and performing his own stage show for Coca Cola, which traveled throughout his home state of Victoria, after which he joined Channel Nine's "Tarax Show", where he performed weekly.

At 15, Greg gained national recognition by reaching the Grand Final of the prestigious television talent quest Showcase, which led to him being represented by top management agency NLT. By the mid-Sixties the multi-talented youngster -- who sang, danced and played guitar, piano and drums -- was a regular on the Melbourne pop circuit, making TV appearances and undertaking country tours. Some of his TV appearances were on the pop show Kommotion, and he recorded his first two singles for the short-lived Kommotion label.

Greg's debut single (Feb. 1966) is of particular interest to Bee Gees fanatics because it features uncredited backing by The Vince Maloney Sect (who also released one single of their own on Kommotion). The A-side of the single is a pounding cover of "I Feel Good"; this was not the James Brown classic, but a song written by the great Allen Toussaint under the pseudonym 'Naomi Neville'.

The best-known version is by The Artwoods, the '60s UK beat outfit led by Arthur Wood (brother of Faces/Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood), which also included future Deep Purple member Jon Lord. It's been assumed that Greg's version was a cover of The Artwoods', but if discography dates are correct, Greg's version actually preceded The Artwoods' by about six months; in fact the original version was recorded in 1965 by New Orleans singer Benny Spellman, best known for his version of "Fortune Teller".

Like so many Aussie covers of British and American tracks from this period, Greg's version is considered by many to be superior to the Artwoods' version and Vernon Joyson justly describes it as "a superb beat number with a great guitar riff". This very rare track was anthologised on the LP Diggin' For Gold, Vol. 5 and more recently on the fantastic bootleg CD compilation Pretty Ugly. Greg's second Kommotion single, "I've Been Unfaithful", was backed by a cover of Smokey Robinson's "Mickey's Monkey". It was not successful and it would be another three years before he returned to the studio.

By 1970, Greg's music had taken a new direction and he had begun writing his own material. That year he was one of the Australian performers chosen to represent Australia at Expo '70 in Osaka. Later that year he scored his only national hit, the title track for the telemovie No Roses For Michael, one of the first local screen productions to address the rising problem of heroin addiction among young Australians.

"No Roses For Michael" (Festival, 1970), written by Greg and produced by Pat Aulton, gained a lot of airplay in late 1970 peaked at #21 at the end of October. It was followed by a self-titled album on Festival. Vernon Joyson (who clearly had little time for anything other than hard rock and psychedelia) was scathing in his assessment of the album:

" ... a soft and fluffy recording, sitting somewhere between easy listening and muzak and offering nothing for the rock purist. The songs are banal and predictable, the instrumentation mundane and Anderson's vocals and lyrics are at best commonplace, at their worst overwrought and pretentiously idealistic".

Greg recorded three more singles for Festival, one in 1971 and two in 1972, but evidently none of these made any impression on the charts. A curious feature of all three is that the A-side of his Dec. 1971 single, "It's Over", was evidently recycled as the B-side of both subsequent singles. 

Noel McGrath's Encyclopedia notes that Anderson made a second LP called Harlequin, released in December 1973, but this may be a misunderstanding -- Joyson's discography lists this as a reissue of Anderson's debut LP, issued on the budget label Harlequin.

Discography

Singles

Feb. 1966 (Kommotion KK-1242)
"I Feel Good" (Naomi Neville) / "When It's All Over" 

Nov. 1966 (Kommotion KK-1530)
"I've Been Unfaithful" / "Mickey's Monkey" (Robinson) 

Oct. 1970 (Festival FK-3850)
"No Roses For Michael" (Anderson) / "Ned Kelly" (Anderson)

(Go-Set #21) Produced by Pat Aulton

Feb. 1971 (Festival FK-4128)
"Just Come Running To Me" / "Live For Life" 

Dec. 1971 (Festival FK-4489)
"It's Over" / "Shame" 

Oct. 1972 (Festival FK-4842)
"Somewhere Somewhere" / "It's Over" 

Dec. 1972 (Festival FK-4890)
"Thank Your Lucky Star" / "It's Over" 

Albums

1971
Greg Anderson (Festival L-25053) LP

(tracklisting unavailable)

References / Links

Greg Anderson official website
http://www.australiaselectriccowboy.com/

Noel McGrath
Encyclopedia of Australian Rock (Outback Press, 1978)

Ian McFarlane
Australian Encyclopedia of Rock & Pop (Allen & Unwin, 1999)

Vernon Joyson
Dreams, Fantasies & Nightmares: Australia (Borderline Books, 1999)

Track notes for Pretty Ugly CD (In!! CDCD-1002)
(author unknown)

Go-Set Australian charts
http://www.poparchives.com.au/gosetcharts/1970/19701031.html

Bendigo Live
http://bendigolive.com/birthday/times_october12.htm

Rate Your Music - Greg Anderson
http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/greg_anderson

Gala Artists - Greg Anderson
http://www.galaartists.com/artists/greganderson/bio.html

Funky16Corners (blog) 
"The Artwoods meet Solomon Burke and Benny Spellman"
http://funky16corners.blogspot.com/2006/05/artwoods-meet-solomon-burke-benny.html

Wikipedia - The Artwoods
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Artwoods

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