When promoter Marc Christowski put together an Australian supergroup to honour the music of Vanda & Young and The Easybeats he went top shelf.
Chris Cheney (The Living End), Tex Perkins (The Cruel Sea, Beasts of Bourbon), Kram (Spiderbait), Tim Rogers (You Am I) and Phil Jamieson (Grinspoon) are five of the finest rock musicians Australia has ever produced. Who better to honour one of Australia’s finest rock bands and first Australian rock act to break internationally The Easybeats.
To cement the sound musical director Jak Housden (The Whitlams) gathered some of the countries best players Ashley Naylor (Even), Dario Bortolin (Baby Animals), Dave Hibbard (Joe Bonamassa) and Clayton Doley (Divinyls) to supply the muscle the original band originally delivered live. Jak was also the musical director on the recent Easybeats biopic.
This was a short tour, just four shows. Hopefully a bigger tour can be arranged for 2018. The issue is getting these five guys together at the same time.
The Easybeats were the precursor to what was to become pub rock in Australia. The band featured George Young, brother of Malcolm and Angus, who would go on to be the architect of the early AC/DC albums along with Harry Vanda, his Easybeats co-founder and partner.
The Vanda and Young songwriting and production team was a powerhouse in Australia in the 70s and 80s. They were like Australia’s Motown in that all of the components to make a record, the songs, the production, the artists, were all in-house.
EasyFever wasn’t just a nod to The Easybeats. It also paid tribute to Vanda and Young with additions of John Paul Young’s ‘Yesterday’s Hero’ (written and produced by Vanda and Young), the Stevie Wright solo songs ‘Evie Parts 1,2,3’, ‘Black Eyed Bruiser’ and ‘Guitar Band’, also written and produced by Vanda and Young and a trilogy of Vanda & Young’s 70s’s project Flash & The Pan.
There were some rare inclusions. ‘Who’ll Be The One’, sung by Chris, was the follow-up single to ‘Friday On My Mind’. It flopped but Chris Cheney gave it some relevance in 2017. ‘Say That You’re Mine’ was the b-side to the first single ‘For My Woman’. Only the staunchest Easybeats fans would know the song. And then there were all the massive hits like ‘Friday On My Mind’.
The Vanda and Young songbook is one of the greatest songbooks Australia has ever produced. It was all homegrown compared to the Bee Gees catalogue over the same period that grew mostly out of the UK then the USA.
With Stevie Wright and George Young no longer with us there will never be an Easybeats reunion. Shows like EasyFever help the music live on.
EasyFever setlist 19 December 2017
Set 1
Women (Make You Feel Alright) (from It’s 2 Easy, 1966) (Phil)
She’s So Fine (from Easy, 1965)(Tim)
For My Woman (from She’s So Fine EP, 1965) (Tex)
Who’ll Be The One (single, 1967) (Chris)
I Can See (from It’s 2 Easy, 1966) (Kram)
Wedding Ring (from It’s 2 Easy, 1966) (Tex)
Say That You’re Mine (b-side of For My Woman, 1965) (Ash & Jak)
Made My Bed Gonna Lie In It (b-side of Friday On My Mind, 1967) (Phil)
Come and See Her (from It’s 2 Easy, 1966) (Tex & Kram)
Sad Lonely and Blue (from It’s 2 Easy, 1966) (Phil & Chris)
Sorry (from Volume 3, 1966) (Kram)
A Very Special Man (from Easyfever EP, 1966) (Ash)
Tryin’ So Hard (from Easyfever EP, 1966) (Tim)
I’ll Make You Happy (from Easyfever EP, 1966) (Chris)
Set 2
Not In Love With You (Kram & Chris)
Heaven & Hell (single, 1967) (Tim)
Falling Off The Edge of the World (single, 1967) (Jak)
Peculiar Hole In The Sky (single, 1969) (Tim)
Friday On My Mind (from Friday On My Mind, 1967)(Phil)
Guitar Band (from Stevie Wright, Black Eyed Bruiser, 1975) (Chris)
Black Eyed Bruiser (from Stevie Wright, Black Eyed Bruiser, 1975) (Tim)
Hey St Peter (from Flash & The Pan, 1978) (Chris)
Walking In The Rain (from Flash & The Pan, 1978)(Tex)
Down Among The Dead Men (from Flash & The Pan, 1978) (Phil, Kram, Tex)
Yesterday’s Hero (from John Paul Young’s Hero, 1975) (Kram & Chris)
St Louis (from Friends, 1970)(Tex)
Hard Road (from Stevie Wright, Hard Road, 1974)(All)
Encore
The Music Goes Round My Head (from Vigil, 1968) (Tim)
Evie Part 1(from Stevie Wright, Hard Road, 1974)(Kram)
Evie Part 2 (from Stevie Wright, Hard Road, 1974)(Tex)
Evie Part 3 (from Stevie Wright, Hard Road, 1974)(Phil)
Good Times (from Vigil, 1968)(All)
