Ronald Graham Strykert (born 18 August 1957) is an Australian musician. He is best known for playing lead guitar, co-founding and composing songs with the 1980s band

Men at Work Men at Work are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1978 and best known for breakthrough hits such as " Down Under", "Who Can It Be Now?", " Be Good Johnny", " Overkill", and " It's a Mistake". Its founding member and frontman is C ...

Career

Strykert co-founded Men at Work with

Colin Hay Colin James Hay (born 29 June 1953) is a Scottish-Australian musician, singer, songwriter, and actor. He came to prominence as the lead vocalist and the sole continuous member of the band Men at Work, and later as a solo artist. Hay's music ha ...

as an acoustic duo in 1978, regularly performing at the Cricketer's Arms Hotel in

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, Californi ...

, Victoria. From 1979 to 1985 he provided guitar, vocals and bass guitar for that group. He contributed to all three Men at Work studio albums. He wrote or co-wrote many of their songs, including " Down Under" which appears on their first album '' Business as Usual''. He sings lead vocals on "Settle Down My Boy", one of his self composed songs on their second album ''

Cargo Cargo consists of bulk goods conveyed by water, air, or land. In economics, freight is cargo that is transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. ''Cargo'' was originally a shipload but now covers all types of freight, including tra ...

''. Strykert played bass guitar on the very first recordings of the early group in a stage musical called ''Riff Raff'' in 1979. When bassist John Rees was later added in 1980 to the band, he moved forward to lead guitarist. He developed a unique soaring style of playing which added a high amount of energy to their songs. His signature playing went from long sustained notes, to a rapid fire, staccato lead guitar style, with some similarities to bass technique, most often using a customised Yamaha SC-800 guitar with EMG S pickups. He would often duel with fellow guitarist Hay adding dimension to his presentation as well as blending strong backing vocals. He often weaved his guitar playing around the stylistic playing of

Greg Ham Gregory Norman Ham (27 September 1953 – 19 April 2012) was an Australian musician, songwriter, and actor, best known as a member of the 1980s band Men at Work. He played saxophone, flute, organ, piano, and synthesizer. Early life Ham was born ...

on his keyboards, saxophone, clarinet and flute. As a founding member of the group, Strykert was concerned when the group lost their rhythm section of Jerry Speiser and Rees. During the process of recording their '' Two Hearts'' album in 1985, he decided to leave the group.

Legal troubles

On 13 February 2009, Strykert was arrested for allegedly making death threats against former bandmate Hay.

Compositions

Strykert composed and co-composed 13 songs for Men at Work:

Release performance

Strykert took part in 13 singles released by Men at Work. Nine of them charted. He took part in three albums released. All three charted.

Awards

Strykert with Men at Work won the following awards: * 1983 United States

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

for "Best New Artist" * 1983 Canadian

Juno Award The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall o ...

for "International LP of the Year" for ''Business as Usual'' Hay and Strykert received the following awards from APRA Awards for their composition "Down Under": * 1985 Special Award * No. 4 on the

APRA Top 30 Australian songs APRA's Top 30 Australian songs was a list created by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) in 2001, to celebrate its 75th anniversary. A panel of 100 music personalities were asked to list the "ten best and most significant Australi ...

list

Solo release

In 2003, Strykert released a solo debut titled ''Paradise'' on compact disc. It was released by an independent label Le Coq Musique and contained the following tracks composed and produced by Strykert:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strykert, Ron 1957 births Living people APRA Award winners Australian expatriates in the United States Australian male singers Australian new wave musicians Australian rock guitarists Australian songwriters Lead guitarists Men at Work members People from Korumburra Australian male guitarists