![]() |
![]() |
|
RECORDED AT ST. CLAIR STUDIO, 56 Queens
Road, HURSTVILLE
Due to the lack of a studio log-book, this list has been compiled from liner notes to various CD releases, and kind assistance from Mark Crohan, Joe Brennan, Peter Cox and George Crotty. BIP ADDISON Hey / Young man's fancy (Down Under UK 1454) August 1966 TONY BARBER Wait By The Water/What Now (Spin EK 1321) April 1966 Wondrous place / No, no, no (Spin) July 1966 THE BEE GEES Monday’s Rain / Playdown, (Spin EK 1345) May 1966 Monday’s Rain/All of my life (Spin EK 1384) June 1966 Spicks And Specks / I Am The World (Spin EK 1474) September 1966 Born A Man / Big Chance (Spin EK 1634) February 1967 RONNIE BURNS Very last day/Let it be me (Spin EK 1346) May 1966 Coalman/All the King’s Men (Spin EK 1578) January 1967 Exit Stage Right/In The Morning (Spin EK 1789) July 1967 Ronnie Burns’ single True True Lovin’/Too many people (Spin EK 1447) Jul 1966 may have also been recorded at St. Clair. Ronnie thought it was cut at Bill Armstrong’s studio in South Melbourne, but his then manager Jeff Joseph thought it was a St. Clair recording. APRIL BYRON He's a thief / A long time ago (Down Under UK 1513) October 1966. MAL CLARKE I don’t want you/You can’t have it all (Down Under UK 1418) July 1966. BARRINGTON DAVIS Complicated riddle/Dear lady (Down Under UK 1503) October 1966 As fast as I can / Raining teardrops (Spin EK 1771) July 1967 DEREK'S ACCENT Ain't Got No Feelin' / That Is Life Today (Down Under 1399) June 1966 CHRIS HALL & THE TORQUAYS Don’t ask me why/Little lovin’ (Spin EK 1272) March 1966 JENENE (WATSON) So long boy / Don't say no (Spin EK 1715) March 1967 JON (BLANCHFIELD) Town Of Tuxley Toy Maker / Upstairs Downstairs (Leedon 1662) 1967 KEVIN BIBLE AND THE BOOK Rockin' Pneumonia / I Found A New Love (Down Under UK 1400) July 1966 DINAH LEE 98.6/Too many people (HMV EA 4835) 1967 GEOFF "TANGLETONGUE" MACK & HIS MACK-ANIKS I’ve had everything/Give it a go, Joe (Spin EK 1280) March 1966 VINCE MALONEY I Need Your Lovin’ Tonight/Mystery Train (Kommotion KK 1498) October 1966 VINCE MALONEY SECT Sticks and Stones/Watch Your Step (on Kommotion EP, This is the Vince Maloney Sect, KX 11160) August 1966 IAN B. McLEOD and the MAJOR SIX I believe/I’m going home (recorded in 1966, unissued until 1984, now on Ian’s CD Return to Six O’Clock Rock, Rockabilly label, 2001) MPD LTD Absence Makes The Heart Grow Fonder / I Am What I Am (Go!! 5031) 1966 THE MYSTICS Turn The Lamp Down / Don't You Go, I Need Your Love (Down Under UK 1462) September 1966 MARTY RHONE 13 Women/I Can Tell (Spin EK 1294) April 1966 I Want You Back/What More Can I Do (Spin EK 1383) June 1966 She Is Mine/Village Tapestry (Spin EK 1571) January 1967 RICK AND THE BAD BOYS Bad Boy/Listen (Down Under UK 1398) June 1966 THE SECOND THOUGHTS Run Back Home / The World Keeps Going Round (Down Under UK 1397) June 1966 ANNE SHELTON Talk to me / I miss you (Down Under UK 1456) August 1966. THE SOUL AGENTS I Just Want To Make Love To You / I'm Still Mad At You (Down Under UK 1512) October 1966 JEFF ST. JOHN AND THE ID The jerk/Take this hurt off me (Spin EK1328) April 1966 Black girl/Eastern dream (Spin EK1446) July 1966 STEVE AND THE BOARD Margot / I've Just Realised (Spin 1271) March 1966 I Call My Woman Hinges / I Want (Spin 1381) June 1966 Now I'm Older / So Why Pretend (Spin 1463) September 1966 Sally Was A Good Old Girl / Good For Nothing Sue (Spin 1570) January 1967 SANDY SUMMERS Messin' round / Girl needs to love (Down Under UK 1455) August 1966. TONY SUMMERS & THE ECHOES I’m on the right side/I only have myself to blame (Spin EK 1270) March 1966 We’re through/It hurts me [not released] (Spin EK 1281] 1966 TWILIGHTS Long life (on their 1966 LP The Twilights Columbia 330 SX 7779) VYT (VYTAUTAS ZVIRZDINAS) Why Do I Cry? / I Haven't Got You (CBS 221344) December 1966 WEE LIZ Tiny little pebble/Lonesome 409 (Down Under UK 1403) July 1966 Other artists are thought to have recorded at St. Clair as well as those above. Derek Lee, a Wollongong singer/songwriter, and a mate of Ossie’s, recorded demos at the studio. On Johnny O’Keefe’s TV show, Sing Sing Sing, Derek had won a talent contest, the prize being a trip to England. When Ossie Byrne and the Bee Gees left Australia on the Fairsky in January 1967, Derek Lee was with them. He had recorded 2 singles at Festival studios for the Leedon label: DEREK LEE My heart can’t make up its mind/Watch what you do with my baby (Leedon LK 720) September 1964 DEREK LEE with THE DEL-FI’S What can I do/How many nights (Leedon LK 958) June 1965 The Del-Fi’s were the band that Ossie Byrne had managed 1961-1965. One of Derek Lee’s songs was recorded at St. Clair by the group Derek’s Accent. The Derek in that group was Derek Fitton, a young Englishman who’d arrived in Australia in 1965.
SINGLES RECORDED ON THE EVERYBODY’S LABEL, and produced by Nat Kipner in 1965. Everybody’s was the precursor of the Spin label. These sides are believed to have been recorded at the Festival studio at Harris St., Pyrmont, Sydney. TONY BARBER Some Day/Is It Raining (Everybody’s EK1155, reissued as Spin EK 1155) September 1965 TONI McCANN Saturday Date/If You Don't Come Back (Everybody's EK 1200, reissued 2/66 as Sunshine QK 1200) January 1966 BIG NORM MILLER Blue Horizons for me/All I have to do is dream (Everybody’s EK 1199, reissued 2/66 as Spin EK 1199) January 1966 STEVE & THE BOARD Giggle Eyed Goo / Rosalyn (Everybody's EK 1156, 10/65; reissued 2/66 on Spin EK 1156) September 1965
There was also another small recording
studio operating in Hurstville in the mid-1960s, the Top Spot Studio, in
Forest Road.
Ian B. McLeod and the Major Six, a Sydney rockabilly band, were also signed to David Gibson’s Top Spot label. The band weren’t impressed with the recording made at the Top Spot studio. Gibson booked them into Ossie Byrne’s St. Clair studio to record two songs for a single. Top Spot then folded before the single could be issued (see discography above.) The two songs were finally released on a 1984 LP called Return to Six O’Clock Rock, issued on CD, 2001 on Ian’s Rockabilly label.
LPs recorded, either wholly or in part, at ST CLAIR STUDIO, 56 Queens Road, HURSTVILLE BEE GEES: SPICKS AND SPECKS, (Spin EL 32031) 1966 Side 1. Monday’s rain, How many birds, Play down, Second hand people, I don’t know why I bother with myself, Big chance. Side 2. Spicks and specks, Jingle jangle, Tint of blue, Where are you?, Born a man, Glass House. Re-issued on BRILLIANT FROM BIRTH, 2CD, Festival D46066, with bonus tracks. STEVE AND THE BOARD: GIGGLE EYED GOO, (Spin EL 31997) 1966 The Giggle Eyed Goo, I'm To Blame, Rosalyn, I've Just Realised, Margot, Rosemarie, I Want, I Call My Woman Hinges, Little Miss Rhythm & Blues, Farmer John, Love's Made A Fool Of You, Lonely Winter, Now I'm Older, So Why Pretend, Good For Nothing Sue, Sally Was A Good Old Girl. Re-issued as Ascension CD, ANCD 025, 2000. With bonus tracks as above. TONY BARBER: SOMEDAY…NOW! (Spin EL 31882) 1966 Fever, I want her too, If you want my old clothes, Is it raining?, No more moaning, Nobody, Someday, Someday now, Talkin’, Tea for one, Untrue, Wait by the water, What now, You can’t lie Re-issued as Ascension CD, ANCD 026, 2000. With bonus tracks. RONNIE BURNS: THIS IS RONNIE, (Spin EL 32439) 1967 Top hat, My little red book, Exit stage right, Can’t let you go, You got to hide your love away, Monday Monday, Coalman, Butterfly, In the morning, All the king’s horses, True true lovin’, I’ll know what to do, Fifi the flea, Terrible way to treat your baby GEOFF MACK: GEOFF "TANGLE TONGUE" MACK - AND HIS MACK-ANIKS, (SPIN EL 31911) 1966 Side 1. I’ve had everything; Corrugated rhythm; Double headed penny that me father left to me; The snake that didn’t like music; I’m gonna buy me mother-in-law a block of land on Mars; Hot rod. Side 2. Give it a go, Joe; We all go up and down the mountain; Makin’ love injun style; Arunta the hunter; One armed bandit Back cover of LP - Courtesy of ScreenSound Australia. MARTY RHONE: VILLAGE TAPESTRY, (FESTIVAL L19009) 1988 As the sun goes down; Every minute of you; Green mansions; Hurry poor working man; I can tell; I want you back again; Lonely too long; Nature boy; No no no no; She is mine; She’s coming home; So you want to be a pop singer?; Tell me love; Thirteen women; Village tapestry; What more can I do? VARIOUS ARTISTS: SPINNING HIGH, (SPIN EL 31930) Dec. 1966 Tony Barber – Someday, I want her too, Is it raining?, You can’t lie to a liar; Marty Rhone – Every minute of you, Nature boy, Thirteen women, I can tell; Steve & the Board – Giggle eyed goo, Rosalyn, Margot, Rose Marie; Ronnie Burns – Very last day, Too many people, True true lovin’, Let it be me. VARIOUS ARTISTS – SPIN DISCOVERY, (SPIN EL 32689) 1967 Ronnie Burns – Butterfly, In the morning; Janice Slater – Don’t let me be misunderstood, Let my love come through; Ram Jam Big Band – I don’t know, My girl; The Id – If I had a ticket, Watch out; Marty Rhone – No no no no no, Village tapestry
|