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The Expression were an Australian
synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s a ...
band formed in Sydney in 1981 and disbanded in 1985. Their best known single, "With Closed Eyes", was released in 1983 on
Mushroom Records Mushroom Records was an Australian flagship record label, founded in 1972 in Melbourne. It published and distributed many successful Australian artists and expanded internationally, until it was merged with Festival Records in 1998. Festival M ...
and peaked into the top thirty on the
Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to January 1999. The chart was re-branded the Australian Music Report (AMR) in July ...
. NOTE: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1970 until
ARIA In music, an aria ( Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompa ...
created their own
charts A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent ta ...
in mid-1988.


History

The Expression formed in Sydney during 1981 with local musicians Jason O'Donnell on bass and Steve Layton, who went on to work with
Jon Anderson John Roy Anderson (born 25 October 1944) is an English singer, songwriter and musician, best known as the lead singer of the progressive rock band Yes, which he formed in 1968 with bassist Chris Squire. He was a member of the band across thre ...
from Yes, on keyboards, although three of its members hailed previously from
Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to ...
. Tom Haran (vocals), Neville Dowling (keyboards, ex- Dave Warner Band), and Andrew Wong-Yen (guitar) had all played in the
Perth Perth is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the Australian states and territories of Australia, state of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth most populous city in Aust ...
band Visitor during the late 1970s. By 1981 the trio had relocated to Sydney and formed The Expression, along with Stephen Manassah (bass guitar) and Steve Hopes (drums) (ex- Renee Geyer Band). They quickly established themselves on the Sydney live circuit, with a cutting edge brand of ‘ new wave’ pop, combining sharp guitar riffs and haunting synthesizer melodies, topped off by Haran's unique vocal style. It was the early 1980s and a slickly produced brand of pop-rock was in order if a band/artist wanted to break into the charts, with a throng of up and coming bands all jostling for record deals and chart action (
Eurogliders Eurogliders are a band formed in 1980 in Perth, Western Australia, which included Grace Knight on vocals, Bernie Lynch on guitar and vocals, and Amanda Vincent on keyboards. * First edition (online copy): * Second edition: In 1984, Eurogli ...
,
Real Life Real life is a phrase used originally in literature to distinguish between the real world and fictional, virtual or idealized worlds, and in acting to distinguish between actors and the characters they portray. It has become a popular term on the ...
,
Machinations Machinations are an Australian synthpop band which formed in 1980. They reached the top 20 on the Kent Music Report albums chart with '' Big Music'' in 1985. Their top 30 hits on the related singles chart are "Pressure Sway", "No Say ...
).
Mushroom Records Mushroom Records was an Australian flagship record label, founded in 1972 in Melbourne. It published and distributed many successful Australian artists and expanded internationally, until it was merged with Festival Records in 1998. Festival M ...
signed The Expression to a recording deal during 1982 and the band set about working on their debut album. The band's first single was "With Closed Eyes", which entered the
Australian charts The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...
in March 1983 and peaked at No. 27 nationally (No. 18 in Melbourne). The video, produced by Paul Goldman, first aired on ''
Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...
'' in March 1983. The video is described as being 'worthy of some of the great Hollywood epics in terms of its cinematic scope and emotional resonance.' The band's debut self-titled album, '' The Expression'', recorded in Sydney and mixed in New York City, was produced by Charles Fisher (
Radio Birdman Radio Birdman is an Australian punk rock band formed by Deniz Tek and Rob Younger in Sydney in 1974. The group influenced the work of many successful, mainstream bands, and are now considered instrumental in Australia's musical growth. Hi ...
,
Hoodoo Gurus Hoodoo Gurus are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1981, by the mainstay Dave Faulkner (songwriter, lead singer and guitarist) and later joined by Richard Grossman (bass), Mark Kingsmill (drums), and Brad Shepherd (guitar, vocals, ...
, Moving Pictures) was released in late 1983 and reached No. 55 on the album charts. The album was also released in the United States by
A&M Records A&M Records was an American record label founded as an independent company by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss in 1962. Due to the success of the discography A&M released, the label garnered interest and was acquired by PolyGram in 1989 and began distr ...
, with a different cover and slightly different track listing. A further two singles were released from the album, "Decisions", and, "Total Eclipse", both of which did not chart into the top 50. During this period drummer Steve Hopes had been replaced by Guy Slingerland (ex-
Eurogliders Eurogliders are a band formed in 1980 in Perth, Western Australia, which included Grace Knight on vocals, Bernie Lynch on guitar and vocals, and Amanda Vincent on keyboards. * First edition (online copy): * Second edition: In 1984, Eurogli ...
), and soon after the live line-up of the band splintered, leaving the future of The Expression up in the air. Haran and Dowling opted to continue to work under The Expression banner, and recruited several English based session players, including drummer Gary Burke and bassist Steve Greetham, to record material for a second album. Which was recorded in London at the Abbey Road Studios and produced by Ben Rogan (
Sade Sade may refer to: People * Marquis de Sade (1740–1814), French aristocrat, writer, and libertine * Sade (singer) (born 1959, Helen Folasade Adu), British Nigerian musician and lead singer of the eponymous band * Sade Baderinwa (born 1969), WA ...
) and Wally Brill. In March 1984 a new single "Present Communication" was released but failed to chart. A period of almost fifteen months elapsed before the next single from The Expression saw the light of day. "Small Brave Land" was released in July 1985 and was quickly followed by The Expression's second album ''Conscience'', but neither managed to secure a new audience or even retain the band's previous fan base to any great degree. Haran and Dowling recruited a new stage line-up, Bill Heckenberg (drums), Tim Lumsdaine (bass) but by late 1985 the ever-evolving contemporary music scene had left The Expression behind, and soon thereafter the band called it a day. In 2006, The Expression's two original albums were digitally remastered and released on CD by independent record label, What It Is Records, which was established by the band's former bass player, Stephen Manassah. The re-released version of ''Conscience'' included three additional tracks from the 1984 London recordings. That was followed in 2007 by an album, ''Rare & Un-Released'', a compilation of previously unreleased live/demo material, with a bonus DVD which featured all five of the band's music videos, including "With Closed Eyes". The albums were distributed in the United States and Europe by Almacantar Records.


Members

*Gary Burke – drums (1984) *Neville Dowling – keyboards, vocals (1981–1985) *Steve Greetham – bass guitar (1984) *Tom Haran – vocals, guitar (1981–1985) *Bill Heckenberg – drums (1985) *Steve Hopes – drums (1981–1983) *Chris Jarret – guitar (1984) *Tim Lumsdaine – bass guitar (1985) *Stephen Manassah – bass guitar (1981–1983) *Guy Slingerland – drums (1983) *Andrew Wong-Yen – guitar (1981–1983) *Vinnie Zumo – guitar (1984) *Steve Layton – keyboards (1981)


Discography


Albums


Singles


Awards and nominations


Countdown Music Awards

''
Countdown A countdown is a sequence of backward counting to indicate the time remaining before an event is scheduled to occur. NASA commonly employs the terms "L-minus" and "T-minus" during the preparation for and anticipation of a rocket launch, and eve ...
'' was an Australian pop music TV series on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974–1987, it presented music awards from 1979–1987, initially in conjunction with magazine ''
TV Week ''TV Week'' is a weekly Australian magazine that provides television program listings information and highlights, as well as television-related news. Content ranges from previews for upcoming storylines of popular television programs, partic ...
''. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards. , - , rowspan="2" , 1983 , ''The Expression'' , Best Debut Album , , - , "With Closed Eyes" , Best Video , , -


References


External links


The Expression discography
@
Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

The Expression discography
@
MusicBrainz MusicBrainz is a MetaBrainz project that aims to create a collaborative music database that is similar to the freedb project. MusicBrainz was founded in response to the restrictions placed on the Compact Disc Database (CDDB), a database for so ...

The Expression discography
@
Australian Rock Database The Australian Rock Database was a website with a searchable online database that listed details of Australian rock music artists, albums, bands, producers and record labels. It was established in 2000 by Swedish national Magnus Holmgren, who had ...

The Expression – "Glasshouse"
@ YouTube
The Expression – "The Waiting Game"
@ YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Expression, The Australian new wave musical groups Musical groups established in 1981 Musical groups disestablished in 1985 Musical groups from Sydney