Do-Ré-Mi (often typeset as Do-Re-Mi or Do Re Mi) was an Australian pop rock band formed in

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

in 1981 by Deborah Conway (lead vocals), Dorland Bray (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Helen Carter (bass, backing vocals) and Stephen Philip (guitar). They were one of Australia's most respected and successful

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

groups. Do-Ré-Mi recorded

self-titled An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

EP and '' The Waiting Room'' for independent label Green Records before signing to

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a British record label owned by Universal Music Group. They were originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman (musician), ...

and recording their first LP, '' Domestic Harmony'' in 1985 with Gavin MacKillop producing. ''Domestic Harmony'' achieved gold sales and contained their most played song, "

Man Overboard "Man overboard!" is an exclamation given aboard a vessel to indicate that a member of the crew or a passenger has fallen off of the ship into the water and is in need of immediate rescue. Whoever sees the person fall is to shout, "Man overboar ...

", which was a top 5 hit single in 1985. NOTE: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1970 until

ARIA In music, an aria (, ; : , ; ''arias'' in common usage; diminutive form: arietta, ; : ariette; in English simply air (music), air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrument (music), instrumental or orchestral accompan ...

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 t ...

in mid-1988. This song was notable for its lyrical references to

penis envy Penis envy () is a stage in Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychop ...

and

pubic hair Pubic hair (or pubes , ) is terminal hair, terminal body hair that is found in the sex organ, genital area and pubic region of adolescent and adult humans. The hair is located on and around the sex organs, and sometimes at the top of the inside ...

. Do-Ré-Mi's follow-up singles Idiot Grin and Warnings Moving Clockwise reached the Top 100. Their second album, '' The Happiest Place in Town'', produced by Martin Rushent, included the singles "

Adultery Adultery is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal consequences, the concept ...

", " King of Moomba" and "Haunt You", all of which reached the Australian top 100. The band chose to take an extended break in 1988, with Conway pursuing a solo career, and ended up permanently disbanding later in the decade.

Career

Previous bands

One of Dorland Bray's first groups was Shotgun Willie. They played several gigs in the Melbourne pub scene, mainly performing country material gathered from artists such as the relatively unknown Delbert McClinton and

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and activist. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restr ...

. Conway and Bray were both in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

-based band The Benders with Neville Aresca, Les Barker, John Campbell, Daniel Solowiej and Greg Thomas. Before joining The Benders, Bray had been in

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

group the News. Vocalist Conway joined The Benders in 1979 whilst still at

Melbourne University The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state of Victoria. Its ...

. The Benders performed mostly in Melbourne and gigged around

pubs A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...

playing original material (mostly written by Conway and Thomas) and Blondie and

Devo Devo is an American new wave band from Akron, Ohio, formed in 1973. Their classic line-up consisted of two sets of brothers, the Mothersbaughs ( Mark and Bob) and the Casales (Gerald and Bob), along with Alan Myers. The band had a No. 14 ...

covers. Conway and Bray also wrote songs together. In Sydney, Philip had been a guitarist for Thought Criminals and was also a session musician. Carter was a member of punk band Friction. Carter had been living with punk rocker Roger Grierson of Thought Criminals (later an executive of

Festival Mushroom Records A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival constitutes ...

1981-1988: Do-Ré-Mi

Bray and Conway left Melbourne for Sydney in 1981, forming Do-Ré-Mi with Carter. In July 1982 Do-Ré-Mi recorded some tracks for a

12" EP using Philip as a session musician. Philip formally joined the band by the time of the EP's release in August 1982 on independent label Green Records. In line with the core post-1960s principle that the personal is political, the band's first recording featured a spiky-funk sound working under passionate, personal-political songs, which included the anti-cold war track "Standing on Wires". Conway had lived with

Paul Hester Paul Newell Hester (8 January 1959 – 26 March 2005) was an Australian musician and television personality. He was the drummer for the band Split Enz for their last year together from December 1983 to December 1984, and co-founding member an ...

drummer in Deckchairs Overboard (later in

Split Enz Split Enz were a New Zealand band formed in 1972. Regarded as the first New Zealand band to gain significant recognition outside of Australasia, they were initially noted for their progressive rock, progressive/art rock sound, flamboyant visua ...

and

Crowded House Crowded House are an Australian-New Zealand rock band, formed in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia, in 1985. Its founding members were Neil Finn (vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter) and Paul Hester (drums), who were both for ...

). Hester guested on timbales for "(Just Like) Hercules", a track on their second 12" EP, released by Green Records in January 1983, '' The Waiting Room''. Do-Ré-Mi were signed by

after being spotted by the management of

Cold Chisel Cold Chisel are an Australian Pub rock (Australia), pub rock band, which formed in Adelaide in 1973 by mainstay members Ian Moss on guitar and vocals, Steve Prestwich on drums, Les Kaczmarek on bass and Don Walker (musician), Don Walker on pia ...

and The Angels. Do-Ré-Mi recorded two LP albums: '' Domestic Harmony'' (1985) and '' The Happiest Place in Town'' (1988) and seven singles for Virgin Records. Both albums were recorded in London, ''Domestic Harmony'' had Gavin McKillop producing and peaked at No. 16 on the Australian albums charts;. Martin Rushent produced ''The Happiest Place in Town''. Their best known hit, "

" originally appeared on their 1983 EP ''The Waiting Room''. They re-recorded "Man Overboard" for ''Domestic Harmony'' and the track was released as a single in May 1985. It peaked at No. 5 on the Australian singles chart. "Man Overboard" was the 8th highest Australian song for 1985 End of Year Chart. In the

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...

2001 TV series ''

Long Way to the Top ''Long Way to the Top'' was a six-part weekly Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) documentary film series on the history of Australian rock and roll, from 1956 to the modern era, it was initially broadcast from 8 August to 12 September 2 ...

'' Carter described the delight Do-Ré-Mi had in the success of this single, which came despite the concerns of their record company: In 1985 Do-Ré-Mi performed three songs for the

Oz for Africa Oz for Africa was an Australian concert held on 13 July 1985 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. It was organised by Bill Gordon who also organised the EAT Concert held at the Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne at the end of January 1985. That event was ...

concert as part of the global

Live Aid Live Aid was a two-venue benefit concert and music-based fundraising initiative held on Saturday, 13 July 1985. The event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 famine in Ethiopia, a m ...

program – "Man Overboard", " Warnings Moving Clockwise" and "1000 Mouths". It was broadcast in Australia (on both the

Seven Network Seven Network (stylised 7Network, and commonly known as Channel Seven or simply Seven) is an Australian commercial free-to-air Television broadcasting in Australia, television network. It is owned by Seven West Media, Seven West Media Limited, ...

and

Nine Network Nine Network (stylised 9Network, and commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of the five main free-to-air television ...

) and on

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

in the US. Not long after their second album was released in February 1988, Do-Ré-Mi travelled to the United Kingdom to begin recording a third album. Before this was finished

offered Conway a solo deal and Do-Ré-Mi disbanded.

Subsequent careers

Bray became a member of

Ghostwriters A ghostwriter is a person hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often hir ...

for their first album ''Ghostwriters'' (1991). Carter and Philip wrote and performed together first with short lived Lupi and later (c. 2001) in Underfelt. Philip wrote soundscapes for a number of theatre productions of Macbeth, featuring David Field at the Performance Space in Sydney, and produced for Peter Milton Walsh and Grant McLennan. Conway has a successful solo career, winning an

award for her first solo album '' String of Pearls'' in 1991 (co-writing three songs with Bray). Her best known solo hit was 1991's " It's Only the Beginning" reaching No. 19. Conway is still involved in musical activities with a 2007 version of . Thought Criminals reformed in February 2006: se
Official website

Reunion

In 2018, Carter, Conway and Philip reformed Do Re Mi to perform at the inaugural '
Australian Women in Music Awards
'' ceremony in Brisbane. Carter and Conway decided to continue with the reunion after being approached to be a part of the By The C concert series. The group, alongside new members Bridie O’Brien (guitar), Julia Day (drums) and Clio Renner (keyboards), would go on to announce a run of headlining shows for 2019.

Covers and others

"Man Overboard" was used for ''

He Died with a Felafel in His Hand ''He Died with a Felafel in His Hand'' is a purportedly non-fiction autobiographical novel by Australian author John Birmingham about his experiences as a share housing tenant, first published in 1994 by The Yellow Press (). The story consist ...

'' (2001) performed by Conway and

Wicked Beat Sound System Wicked Beat Sound System is a Sydney based group whose sound is best described as a mixture of electronica, dub and soul. The group formed in 1992, following a series of live "jams" instigated by DJ Dave Carnovale (Crucial D) in collaboration ...

. It was also recorded by the band ''

george George may refer to: Names * George (given name) * George (surname) People * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Gior ...

'' (with Conway guesting) for their 2004 EP ''Still Real''. "Standing on Wires" was used for Australian TV series

Love My Way ''Love My Way'' is an Australian television drama series created by John Edwards and Claudia Karvan, which premiered on Fox8 on 22 November 2004, before moving to W. for its second season, and Showtime for its third and final season, conclu ...

(2004–2007) episode 2.03.

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

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, particu ...

''. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards. , - , rowspan="3" , 1985 , ''Domestic Harmony'' , Best Debut Album , , - , "Man Overboard" , Best Debut Single , , - , Themselves , Most Promising Talent , , - , 1986 , Deborah Conway in "Guns & Butter" by Do-Re-Mi , Best Female Performance in a Video , , -

ARIA Music Awards

The

ARIA Music Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of

Australian music The music of Australia has an extensive history made of music societies. Indigenous Australian music forms a significant part of the unique heritage of a 40,000- to 60,000-year history which produced the iconic didgeridoo. Contemporary fusions o ...

. They commenced in 1987. , - ,

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

, "Guns and Butter" , Highest Selling Single ,

References

External links

Deborah Conway's Do-Ré-Mi Discography
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Do-Re-Mi (Band) Australian rock music groups Musical groups established in 1981 Musical groups disestablished in 1988 Musical groups reestablished in 2018 New South Wales musical groups