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Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs were an Australian pop and rock group dating from the mid-sixties. The group enjoyed huge success in the mid-1960s, but split in 1967. They re-emerged in the early seventies to become one of the most popular Australian hard-rock bands of the period. Thorpe died from a heart attack in Sydney on 28 February 2007.
Billy Thorpe, AM (29 March 1946 – 28 February 2007) was a renowned English-born Australian musician. He earned great success in the 1960s and 1970s as the lead singer of rock band Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs.
Born William Richard Thorpe in Manchester, Billy Thorpe and his parents emigrated to Australia in 1955, arriving in Melbourne, Victoria and settling in Brisbane, Queensland. He performed as a youth under the pseudonym 'Little Rock Allen'. After he was heard singing and playing guitar by a television producer, Thorpe made regular musical appearances on Queensland television, and by the time he was 17 was an experienced singer and musician.
In 1963, Thorpe moved to Sydney and auditioned for a regular gig at Surf City, a popular beat music venue in the city's Kings Cross area. His backing band was an accomplished Sydney surf/instrumental group called The Aztecs, comprising Colin Baigent (drums), UK-born Tony Barber (rhythm guitar, vocals), Vince Melouney (aka Vince Maloney) (lead guitar, vocals), and John "Bluey" Watson (bass). The various incarnations of this group would be Thorpe's musical collaborators for several decades.
In 1964, The Aztecs released their first single, "Blue Day", written by guitarist Tony Barber, but it was their next single release, Leiber and Stoller's "Poison Ivy" (a cover of a song by The Coasters) that the group decided to cover after hearing the version recorded by The Rolling Stones. It was to be the band's breakthrough hit and over the next two years, the band experienced incredible success in Australia, their record sales and concert attendances rivalling those of The Beatles, with hits like "Over the Rainbow", "Mashed Potato" and "Sick and Tired" cohabiting the record charts.
The original Aztecs lineup split from Thorpe at the end of 1965 over a financial dispute, so Thorpe created another band with the same name. Thorpe then formed the second incarnation of The Aztecs with Johnny Dick (drums), Mike Downes (rhythm guitar, vocals), Colin Risby (lead guitar, vocals), Jimmy Taylor (piano), Teddy Toi (bass), and Tony Buchanan and Rocky Thomas (brass).
This lineup achieved further success with huge hits such as "Love Letters", "I Told The Brook", and "Twilight Time". On 27 March 1966, the Seven Network debuted a music show called It's All Happening! hosted by Thorpe with the Aztecs as the house band. Each one-hour episode featured both Australian and international musical guests. When the show ended its run in 1967, the Aztecs broke up again.
Thorpe stayed fairly quiet for the next few years, emerging after a spell of bankruptcy in 1969 in Melbourne, Victoria. With the encouragement of former Purple Hearts guitarist Lobby Loyde (who was briefly in the new band), Thorpe took up electric lead guitar and put together a new "heavy" version of the Aztecs and established himself as one of Australia's premier rock musicians.
With their landmark LPs The Hoax is Over and More Arse Than Class and a breakthrough gig at Melbourne Town Hall in 1970, supporting Daddy Cool, the 'new' Aztecs accrued a considerable reputation in the southern states and became known as one of the loudest acts on the local concert circuit.
In 1972, the Billy Thorpe and The Aztecs played two of their most famous gigs. A show at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl during the Moomba Festival resulted in 250,000 people filling the park to catch the Aztecs' set, and forcing police to close the roads around the venue. Later in the year, The Aztecs released a live recording of their show at the Sunbury Music Festival, which featured the debut of one of Thorpe's most famous anthems "Most People I Know Think That I'm Crazy", which took him back into national prominence.
In 1975, the third version of the Aztecs broke up, and in 1976, Thorpe relocated to Los Angeles in the United States.
Thorpe continued his musical career in the United States, releasing a solo album titled Children of the Sun in 1979. He released three more albums, all of which had some chart success.
In 1984, Thorpe quit live music, and started an electronics consulting company that did work for The Walt Disney Company, Mattel and Universal Studios.
By 1986, Thorpe owned a recording and production studio in Los Angeles, where he worked on musical scoring for television series, including: War of the Worlds, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Columbo, Eight Is Enough and Hard Time on Planet Earth.
He collaborated with Mick Fleetwood (of Fleetwood Mac) and Bekka Bramlett in Fleetwood's side project, a band called The Zoo.
Thorpe returned to Australia permanently in June 1996, where he authored two autobiographies: Sex and Thugs and Rock 'n' Roll (1997) and Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy) (1998).
Thorpe suffered from chest pains at his home on 28 February 2007, and was taken by an ambulance to St. Vincent's Hospital in Sydney around 2:00 am AEDT after having a massive heart attack. He remained in the emergency ward in a serious condition. He went into cardiac arrest around half an hour later, and the hospital staff unsuccessfully attempted to resuscitate him. His family was by his side when he died. Thorpe was 60 years old.
He is survived by his wife Lynn, and daughters Rusty and Lauren. Thorpe's manager Michael Chugg said the death is a "terrible tragedy", as Thorpe had just finished recording a new album Tangier and was very happy after a recent acoustic tour.
He was posthumously appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in June 2007 for his contribution to music as a musician, songwriter and producer.
Originally a four-piece instrumental group who had put out one surfing instrumental, "Smoke & Stack", they formed in Sydney in 1963. With the advent of the Merseybeat sound, they added a lead singer, Billy Thorpe. His powerful voice and showmanship (which made him one of the most popular and respected rock performers in Australian music), completed the original line-up, which consisted of drummer Col Baigent, bassist John "Bluey" Watson and guitarists Valentine Jones and Vince Maloney (who later played with The Bee Gees).[Valentine Jones] left the band shortly after [Billy Thorpe] had joined and was later replaced by [Tony Barber].
The group broke through in mid-1964 with a massive nationwide hit, their cover of the Leiber and Stoller classic "Poison Ivy", which famously ousted The Beatles from the #1 spot on the Sydney charts at the very moment that the group was making its first and only tour of Australia -- a feat which resulted in Thorpe being invited to meet the Fab Four at their hotel. Over the next twelve months the band reigned supreme as the most popular 'beat' group in Australia, scoring further hits with the songs "Mashed Potato", "Sick And Tired" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", until they were eclipsed by the emergence of The Easybeats in 1965.
During 1965 the original Aztecs quit after a financial dispute, so Thorpe put together a new five-piece version consisting of drummer Johnny Dick, pianist Jimmy Taylor, guitarists Col Risby and Mike Downes and NZ-born bassist Teddy Toi. This group performed until 1966, scoring further hits with "Twilight Time", "Hallelujah I Love Her So", "Love Letters" and "Word For Today".
Thorpe went solo in 1967 and for a brief time he hosted his own TV pop show, It's All Happening, but personal problems and a widely publicised bankruptcy brought this phase of his career to an end in 1968. but then as he went solo he became more of an outcast.
In 1969 Thorpe decided to try England, after being offered a recording deal by the Australian-born, London-based impresario Robert Stigwood, who had risen to become manager of The Bee Gees and Cream. While rehearsing a backing band in Melbourne that would form the basis for a new Aztecs, the guitarist unexpectedly dropped out, leaving Thorpe to assume lead guitar role at short notice. It marked another turning point in his career and from this point on Thorpe played lead guitar in The Aztecs as well as continuing as lead vocalist. His planned six-week stay in Melbourne soon stretched into months and eventually Thorpe decided to remain in Australia and re-launch his career.
Thorpe himself openly acknowledges that this new 'heavy' version of the Aztecs owes much to 'guitar hero' Lobby Loyde. Lloyde already had a cult following due to his stints in two of the most original Australian bands of the Sixties, The Purple Hearts and The Wild Cherries. While his stint in the new Aztecs was short (only a few months), his musical influence proved crucial in steering Thorpe in a completely new direction, and he strongly encouraged Thorpe to keep playing guitar.
The new Aztecs' blues-based heavy-rock repertoire was dramatically different in style from the original group, and they quickly became famous (or notorious) for the ear-splitting volume at which they played. Thorpe had also drastically changed his appearance -- he grew a beard, often wore his now shoulder-length hair braided in a pigtail, and he had long since traded the tailored suits for jeans and t-shirts. Needless to say this did not endear to people who came to the shows expecting the 'old' Billy Thorpe of the "Poison Ivy" era, and this led to sometimes violent confrontations with disgruntled fans and promoters.
Their breakthrough recording was an ambitious album, The Hoax Is Over, recorded in September 1970 with new drummer Kevin Murphy. The album was an unequivocal signal of the Aztecs' new direction, containing only four tracks, three of which were Thorpe originals. The LP is dominated by two extended tracks: a version of Johnny "Guitar" Watson's "Gangster Of Love", which clocked in at 24:35 and ran the entire length of Side 1 (an unprecedented move in Australian pop music) and Thorpe's own "Mississippi" which ran 19'35". According to Thorpe, the band (which at this time comprising himself, Murphy, pianist Warren Morgan, guitar legend Lobby Loyde and bassist Paul Wheeler), were all high on LSD and jammed continuously while engineer Ernie Rose just let the tapes roll. The result heralded the fully-fledged arrival of the new Aztecs and live shows at Melbourne venues consolidated the band's reputation and drew enthusiastic responses.
During 1971 they continued to win over Melbourne's audiences with their power-blues repertoire, A landmark event for the band took place on 13 June 1971. Now a four-piece following the departure of Loyde, the Aztecs (Thorpe, Morgan and Wheeler, with new drummer Gil "Rathead" Matthews) headlined a major concert at the Melbourne Town Hall before a capacity crowd of 5000. The evening's performance, including Morgan's commandeering of the huge town hall organ, was captured on the album Live at Melbourne Town Hall, and which has since become known for the group's deafening performance, which (it was claimed) cracked the windows of neighbouring buildings.
By contrast, the pastoral-sounding "The Dawn Song" was released in '71. A moderate hit, it displayed the musical diversity of Thorpe and his colleagues at this time.
In early 1972 the Aztecs released what became their biggest hit, and Thorpe's signature tune -- "Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy)", a song now widely regarded as one of the classics of Australian rock. It was a huge national hit for the new Aztecs, going Top 5 in all cities (there was no national chart at this time), propelled to the top of charts by the band's triumphant appearance at the 1972 Sunbury Music Festival. Thorpe himself claimed this as a pivotal moment in the development of Australian music, thanks to the promoters' decision to feature an all-Australian lineup, rather than relying on imported stars.
While by no means the first of Australia's outdoor rock festivals, Sunbury '72 has assumed the mantle of "Australia's Woodstock". It was held at the end of January, 1972, over the Australia Day long weekend. The venue was a natural amphitheatre site on farmland near Sunbury, a rural town north of Melbourne, Victoria. The Aztecs shared billing with such other prominent acts as Spectrum/Murtceps, The La De Das, Max Merritt & the Meteors, SCRA, Pirana, Greg Quill's Country Radio and many others.
Part of the Aztecs' set was issued on the double-album recording, Sunbury [EMI-HMV SOXLP 7561/2], and it was also captured on the film made of the event. A double-album collecting the Aztecs' full set, Aztecs Live at Sunbury [Havoc HST 4003/4] was issued later in the year and this has recently been reissued on CD. In mint condition, the original LP release, with pop-up inserts, is much sought after by collectors today.
After the release of "Most People I Know" they released a follow-up single, "Believe It Just Like Me", which attacked local radio's preference for overseas material, but it failed to emulate the success of "Most People", which remains their best-known song.
The band repeated their festival success at Sunbury '73, and a record culled from this performance, Summer Jam, was released later in the year. They enjoyed another triumph by selling out the Myer Bowl in Melbourne, in marked contrast to their abortive excursions to the UK earlier in the year. It is said that a major reason that their Marquee Club gigs in London failed was that British audiences could not tolerate the group's punishing volume.
During 1973 Thorpe collaborated on a duo album with his long-time friend and colleague Warren "Pig" Morgan, the LP Thumpin' Pig and Puffin' Billy. Morgan and Thorpe also co-wrote and produced, with the Aztecs backing, a highly regarded single, "Looking Through a Window", for soul-blues singer Wendy Saddington.
In August, Thorpe switched record labels from the independent Havoc to the newly-opened local arm of Atlantic Records, releasing "Movie Queen" and "Don't You Know You're Changing?" as solo singles of singles, although they featured most of the Aztecs line-up. Late in 1973 the group mounted a band's farewell concert at the newly-opened Sydney Opera House, becoming the first rock band to perform there. The concert was recorded and released as a double album, Steaming at the Opera House. The show consisted of three one-hour sets, the first acoustic, the second, an elaborately-staged concept suite called "No More War". The third set was an all-in all-star jam, reuniting Thorpe with former bandmates Lobby Loyde, Kevin Murphy and Johnny Dick.
Before disbanding, the Aztecs recorded one more album for Atlantic, the provocatively titled More Arse Than Class, after which Thorpe embarked on a solo career. He released several more solo albums in Australia before re-locating to the United States, where he embarked on a series of business ventures, including a successful toy company with his old bandmate Tony Barber.
In the late 1990s Billy Thorpe returned to Australia, where he was recognised as one of the elder statesmen of Australian music. In 1991 Billy Thorpe was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
In 1998 Australia Post issued a special edition set of twelve stamps celebrating the early years of Australian Rock 'n' Roll, featuring Australian hit songs of the late 50s, the 60s and the early 70s.
"Each of them said something about us, and told the rest of the world this is what popular culture sounds like, and it has an Australian accent."
One of the stamps featured was the 'Most People I Know' stamp as illustrated to the left.
In 2002 he was one of the major driving forces behind the hugely successful TV and live concert series, "It's A Long Way To The Top", a celebration of 40 years of Australian Rock music. This was an occasion for him to bring together and perform with two versions of The Aztecs, the "Original Aztecs and, later in the show the "Sunbury' Aztecs.
His talent and his powerpacked voice were virtually untouched by the passing of the years and he continued to perform energetically around the country until his untimely death at age 60. He was working on his long anticipated album "Tangier" at the time of his death. He was recording in Marrakech at Marrakech Prod Recording Studio.
Billy Thorpe played his last gig at Westernport Hotel in San Remo, Victoria, on Sunday 25 February, 2007. He died of a massive heart attack at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney, in the early hours of Wednesday, 28 February 2007. Tributes soon flowed readily for this legend of Australian music.
Gil Matthews runs the re-issue label Aztec Music. Their first release was Bill Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs Live At Sunbury
* Billy Thorpe was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1991.
* Thorpie had his own Channel 7 TV show in 1966 called ‘It’s All Happening’. The Aztecs were the house band.
* Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs made history when they were the first rock band invited to play at Sydney’s Opera House.
A
Billy Thorpe (vocals, guitar, harmonica) backed by:
Aztecs Mk I, 1963-1965
Colin Baigent (drums)
Tony Barber (rhythm guitar, vocals)
Vince Maloney aka Vince Melouney (lead guitar, vocals)
John "Bluey" Watson (bass)
The Aztecs Mk II, 1965-1966
Johnny Dick (drums)
Mike Downes (rhythm guitar, vocals)
Colin Risby (lead guitar, vocals)
Jimmy Taylor (piano)
Teddy Toi (bass)
Tony Buchanan & Rocky Thomas (brass)
Aztecs Mk III, 1968-70
Lobby Loyde (lead guitar)
Dave McTaggart (bass) 1968
Jimmy Thompson (drums)
Paul Wheeler (bass)
Aztecs Mk IV, 1970-72
Gil "Rathead" Matthews (drums, vocals) 1971-72
Warren "Pig" Morgan (piano, vocals)
Kevin Murphy (drums) 1970
Steve Ninnis (drums) 1970
Paul "Sheepdog" Wheeler (bass)
Aztecs Mk V, 1972-73
Bruce Howard (piano)
Gil Matthews (drums)
Paul Wheeler (bass)
Aztecs Mk VI, 1973-75
Gil Matthews (drums, vocals)
Warren Morgan (piano, vocals)
Teddy Toi (bass)
Singles:
 Poison Ivy (EP) - Aug 1964 (Linda Lee HX-10834)
"I'm Talking About You"
Side 1: | Side 2:
1. Somebody Left Me Crying
Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs appeared at the 1972 Sunbury Music festival. Although an album was produced of the highlights of the festival, a separate album was released including the songs they performed. The resulting double LP made it to number 8 on the Australian national album chart in 1972. In mint condition, the original LP release, with pop-up inserts, is much sought after by collectors today. * C C Rider (7:08)
1. Captain Straightman
Recorded Live at Sunbury '73 between the hours of 3:30am and 4:45 am on Monday 29 January
1. Captain Straightman
Side 2: Side 3: Side 4:
Produced by Billy Thorpe
Side 2:
Side 2:
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21st Century Man (Mushroom / Elektra USA) Produced by Spencer Proffer and Billy Thorpe
Side 2: Produced by Spencer Proffer and Billy Thorpe |
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Great Hits - 1972
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Rock Classics - 1974
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Gold - 1975 (Atlantic 600015) 1. "Over the Rainbow"" 2. "Cigarettes & Whiskey" 3. "Movie Queen" 4. "Don't You Know You're Changing" 5. "Yes, I'm Tired" 6. "Captain Straightman" 7. "Back Home In Australia" 8. "Let's Have A Party" 9. "Mame" 10."Ooh Poo Pa Doo"
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Time Traveller - 1980 (Blue Goose MLR-2335) LP
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It's All Happening - 1981 (EMI / Albert Productions APLP 050) later reissued on CD Note: This compilation mixing Aztecs mark I & II material is highly recommended as a thorough overview of the early years, compiled, designed and annotated by Glenn A Baker.
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Anthology Vol. I - 1994
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Lock Up Your Mothers - 1994 (Mushroom D-80968) 3CD anthology
(Live at the Sydney Opera House, 1973. Produced and engineered by Gil Matthews)
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The Best And The Rest of Lock Up Your Mothers 1994 (Mushroom D 98009) CD 1. "Rock'n'Roll City"
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Solo - The Last Recordings 2007 (Liberation Blue) |
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