Legendary Spectrum frontman Mike Rudd has turned 70 years old.
Rudd was born June 15, 1945 in Christchurch, New Zealand and moved to Australia with his first band Chants R&B in 1966. The band didn’t last long after the migration and Rudd soon found himself in a new band The Party Machine with Ross Wilson and Ross Hannaford.
Party Machine made it through to 1969 and then split creating the opportunity for Ross and Ross to move onto Daddy Cool and Rudd to team with bass player Bill Putt to form Spectrum.
In 1971 both Spectrum, then Daddy Cool both delivered two iconic Australian rock songs with ‘I’ll Be Gone’ from Spectrum in March and ‘Eagle Rock’ from Daddy cool two months later in May.
Spectrum signed with EMI and were released on UK label Harvest, at the time home to Deep Purple. They released the first Australian rock double album with ‘Milesago’ and also recorded and performed as prog rock band Indelible Murtceps. (Murtceps is Spectrum backwards).
After Spectrum split Rudd formed Ariel (still with Putt) and with Tim Gaze who had been with Taman Rudd. Ariel’s album ‘Rock & Roll Scars’ from 1976 was recently reissued by Gil Matthews’ Aztec label.
Bill Putt and Mike Rudd continued to work together for the next 44 years. It was Bill’s death in 2013 that brought one of Australian music’s most enduring partnership’s to an end.
Happy Birthday Mike Rudd.
Mike Rudd, the Noise11 interview
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