Glenn Wheatley, the former bass player for the Masters Apprentices and who went on to direct the careers of Little River Band and John Farnham and run a media empire, has died at the age of 74.
Noise11 understands that Glenn contracted Covid over the Christmas period and had been in ICU.
Glenn joined The Masters Apprentices in 1968 and played on two of their best-known songs ‘Turn Up Your Radio’ and ‘Because I Love You’.
Later as manager of Little River Band, Glenn negotiated a deal with Capitol Records in Los Angeles that made the band one of the biggest rock groups in the world in the late 70s.
He then took over the career of John Farnham who had been one of Australia’s biggest pop acts of the 1960s but was forgotten in the 1970s. Under Glenn’s guidance, Farnham made his comeback with the album ‘Uncovered’ (1980) produced by LRB’s Graeham Goble who also wrote most of the songs on the album, with the exception of The Beatles’ ‘Help’.
Farnham then joined Little River Band as lead singer for three albums before going solo and recording ‘Whispering Jack’. It is still the biggest selling Australian album of all time. He also built the career of Delta Goodrem.
Wheatley became involved with media in 1980 as a co-founder of Melbourne rock radio station EON-FM. More recently he purchased radio stations on the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. In 2017 he took over Sydney’s 2CH, only recently selling the station.
On a personal note, Glenn was a good friend and great supporter of Noise11. To his wife Gaynor, son Tim and the family, your loss will be felt right across the world today. Glenn was a great man.
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