Daryl Braithwaite has returned to the studio with Garth Porter for a new Sherbet recording, almost 20 years after the band last recorded new material together.
by Paul Cashmere
Daryl Braithwaite has revealed that he is recording vocals for a new Sherbet single with Garth Porter, an unexpected development just months after announcing his retirement from live performance.
Braithwaite made the announcement on social media earlier this week, posting from Rancom Studios in Botany: “This is Rancom studios in Botany. I am there today with Garth recording the vocal on a new Sherbet single.”
The brief statement raises an obvious question about who else, if anyone, is involved. Braithwaite and Porter are confirmed for the recording, but there is currently no information about whether bass player Tony Mitchell, drummer Alan Sandow or any other musicians associated with Sherbet are participating.
The timing is also significant. Sherbet’s music is about to be revisited in Howzat! The Story of Sherbet, a new feature documentary examining the band’s rise and fall around the 50th anniversary of their biggest international hit. The film is a 2026 Screen Australia-supported production directed by Paul Clarke and produced by Angela Downing.
For Braithwaite, the studio return comes after a very different announcement in June. After 58 years as a performer, he said he was stepping away from live performance because ongoing physical difficulties were making singing increasingly challenging. “For some time now it has been increasingly physically challenging for me to sing comfortably and as a result it has taken the joy out of performing,” he said at the time.
Recording, however, is a different proposition from touring, and the new Sherbet project suggests that retirement from the stage does not necessarily mean retirement from making music.
Sherbet last recorded new material as a reunited band in 2006. The Super Hits compilation that year included two newly recorded songs, “Hearts Are Insane” and “Red Dress”.
“Red Dress” brought together Braithwaite, Porter, Mitchell, Sandow, Clive Shakespeare and Harvey James, effectively creating a remarkable meeting of Sherbet’s different eras. “Hearts Are Insane”, written by Porter, was an older song idea that had originally been demoed during the Sherbs period and was finally completed for the reunion.
Those recordings have an added historical significance now. James died in 2011 and Shakespeare died in 2012, leaving Braithwaite, Porter, Mitchell and Sandow as the surviving members of Sherbet’s classic line-up. Founding vocalist Denis Loughlin, who preceded Braithwaite in the band, died in 2019.
The 2006 sessions therefore remain the last known occasion when Sherbet recorded genuinely new band material with multiple members of the classic line-ups.
Braithwaite and Porter have, however, worked together on Sherbet material since then. In 2019 they returned to the studio to record a new version of “Howzat” for the cricket season. The song was rewritten with new lyrics for Cricket Australia, updating the 1976 Sherbet classic for a contemporary cricket audience.
That recording was particularly appropriate given the history of “Howzat”. Written by Porter and Mitchell, the song became Sherbet’s defining international hit, reaching number one in Australia and New Zealand and number four in Britain. It was the title track of Sherbet’s 1976 album.
Sherbet had already established themselves as one of Australia’s biggest pop-rock acts before “Howzat”, with a run of 20 Australian hit singles and major songs including “Cassandra”, “Slipstream”, “Silvery Moon” and “Summer Love”. After Shakespeare left in 1976, James joined the group and Porter and Mitchell became the principal songwriting partnership behind the band’s international breakthrough.
The band eventually moved into a new-wave direction as The Sherbs before returning to the Sherbet name for their final period and breaking up in 1984. Reunions followed from 1998, including the six-member 2006 Logie Awards performance featuring Braithwaite, Porter, Mitchell, Sandow, Shakespeare and James.
The new recording is therefore not simply another Sherbet reunion appearance. It would represent the first new Sherbet song since the 2006 sessions, if it is completed and released as described.
For now, Braithwaite has revealed only the studio session and the involvement of Porter. There is no announced title, release date, songwriter credit or confirmation of the other musicians. The first indication of what this new chapter sounds like may come when the recording is completed.
And after Braithwaite’s decision to leave the stage, a new Sherbet song would provide an unexpected way for one of Australia’s most enduring musical partnerships to continue.
Watch the 2011 Noise11 Daryl Braithwaite interview:
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