Stuart Fraser of Noiseworks and John Farnham Band Has Passed Away - Noise11.com
Guitarist Stuart Fraser of Noiseworks performs as part of the Red Hot Summer tour in Mornington at the Mornington Racecourse on 23 January 2016. Photo by Ros O'Gorman

Guitarist Stuart Fraser performs as part of the Red Hot Summer tour in Mornington at the Mornington Racecourse on 23 January 2016. Photo by Ros O'Gorman

Stuart Fraser of Noiseworks and John Farnham Band Has Passed Away

by Paul Cashmere on December 1, 2019

in News

Australian guitarist Stuart Fraser has passed away. Stuart, a founding member of Noiseworks and longtime guitarist for the John Farnham band, announced he had lung cancer in 2017 after being diagnosed the previous year.

Stuart (known as Chet to his mates) met Jon Stevens on Melbourne Cup Day in 1982. In 1986 Stuart and Jon together with Steve Balbi, Justin Stanley, Kevin Nicol formed Noiseworks.

Stuart joined the John Farnham Band in 1994 and performed with Farnham through to 2018. He has also worked with Tom Jones, Ray Charles, Boz Scaggs, Kylie Minogue, Joe Camilleri, Tommy Emmanuel, Tina Arena, Olivia Newton-John, Nick Barker, Diesel, Daryl Braithwaite and David Hirschfelder.

Noiseworks’ three studio albums and Greatest Hits all went Top 10 in Australia. ‘Love Verses Money’ (1991) was a number one record.

Stuart’s guitar work is credited on Kylie Minogue ‘Kylie Christmas’, Kate Ceberano ‘Merry Christmas’, Anthony Callea ‘This Is Christmas’, David Campbell ‘Good Lovin’, The Black Sorrows ‘Roaring Town’, John Farnham’s ’33 1/3’, ‘Jack’, ‘The Last Time’, ‘Anthology’, ‘Then Again’, Jimmy Barnes ‘Hindsight’, Ross Wilson ‘Tributary’ and Mark Vincent ‘Compass’.

Stuart also worked with Chong Lim for the Sydney Olympic Games and was a member of the Dancing With The Stars band from the show’s first season.

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