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Kevin Borich Express are an Australian rock band formed in 1976 by the
New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
-born
Kevin Borich Kevin Nicholas Borich (born 27 October 1948, Huapai, North Island, New Zealand) is a New Zealand-born Australian guitarist and singer-songwriter. He was the mainstay of the La De Da's, the leader of Kevin Borich Express, and a founding member of ...
. After the demise of New Zealand's successful band
the La De Da's The La De Da's were a New Zealand rock band from 1963 to 1975. They were formed as a mod-ish group, the Mergers, in Te Atatū, by long-term members Kevin Borich on lead guitar and vocals, Phil Key on lead vocals and guitar and Trevor Wilson ...
, Borich moved to Australia and formed the group Kevin Borich Express. It featured Harry Brus on bass guitar (ex-
Blackfeather Blackfeather are an Australian rock group that formed in April 1970. The band has had numerous line-ups, mostly fronted by founding lead singer, Neale Johns. An early heavy rock version recorded their debut album, ''At the Mountains of Madness' ...
) and Barry Harvey on drums (Wild Cherries, Chain). They recorded a track, "The End of Me", before the line-up changed and Reuben San Fiansco took up bass guitar and Gil Matthews replaced Harvey on drums. Subsequent line-ups were typically a three piece with a succession of bass guitarist and drummers. They released their debut single, "Goin' Somewhere", in October using Fiansco and John Annas on drums, and followed this up with recording and releasing the band's debut album, ''Celebration!'' in 1977, replacing the bass part with riff master Tim Partridge ( Mighty Kong, The Johnny Rocco Band). The album was critically acclaimed by the media and peaked in the top 30 on the Australian Music Charts. In early 1977, Kevin Borich Express supported UK rock guitarist
Jeff Beck Geoffrey Arnold Beck (24 June 1944 – 10 January 2023) was an English musician. He rose to prominence as the guitarist of the rock band the Yardbirds, and afterwards founded and fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, ...
, and later that year released their second album, ''Lonely One''. This was followed in October with a Rockarena tour supporting
Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac are a British-American Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1967 by the singer and guitarist Peter Green (musician), Peter Green. Green named the band by combining the surnames of the drummer, Mick Fleetwood, and the bassis ...
,
Carlos Santana Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the Rock music, rock band Santana (band), Santana. Born and raised in Mexico where he developed his musical background, he r ...
and
Little River Band Little River Band (LRB) are a rock band formed in Melbourne, Australia, in March 1975. The band achieved commercial success in both Australia and the United States. They have sold more than 30 million records; six studio albums reached the top ...
. Kevin Borich was invited to perform with
Carlos Santana Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the Rock music, rock band Santana (band), Santana. Born and raised in Mexico where he developed his musical background, he r ...
twice. Kevin Borich Express earned a support tour to the US with Australian heavy rockers
AC/DC AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock and Heavy metal music, heavy metal, although the band calls it simply "rock and roll". They are cited as a formativ ...
. The Express then featured John Annas, Paul Christie and Tim Shafer, with this line-up recording the album ''No Turning Back'', which was released in March 1979 and featured the hit title track of the same name. The album first charted on 19 March 1979, peaked at 48th position in Australia and stayed in the charts for nine weeks. Tim Partridge and John Annas returned after Christie and Shafer moved on to other projects. Together with Borich they recorded another album, ''Live!'', recorded by Australian broadcaster DoubleJJ which had recently acquired new mobile studio equipment and recorded two live performances in Melbourne Victoria and Wollongong New South Wales. Kevin Borich Express toured the UK and Europe. They put together an album featuring tracks from across their recordings and released this compilation in Germany. After the tour, John Watson (Heavy Division) replaced Annas on drums and the band recorded ''Angel's Hand'' in November 1979. Similar line-up changes continued into the early 1980s with Michael Deep replacing Partridge in April 1980. In 1981 this line-up collaborated with Australian blues guitarist Dutch Tilders to record ''Blues Had a Baby and They Called It Rock'n'Roll'', later released on
RCA RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded in 1919 as the Radio Corporation of America. It was initially a patent pool, patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Westinghou ...
Records. Kerry Jacobsen from former ex-pat New Zealand band (
Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...
) replaced Watson on drums, and the new line-up recorded ''Shy Boys Shy Girls''. In 1982, John Annas rejoined the Express on drums, Steve Balbi took up bass and for a short while Andy Cowan joined the now four piece band on keyboards. Later in 1982, Borich joined
The Party Boys The Party Boys was an Australian rock supergroup with a floating membership commencing in 1982. Created by Mondo Rock's bass guitarist, Paul Christie, with founding member Kevin Borich (ex– La De Da's, Kevin Borich Express) as a part-time ...
, touring with this Australian super band's ever changing line-up. He recorded on all their albums until 1989, when they disbanded. Kevin Borich Express slowed down although didn't stop performing during the Borich era, helping to found, record and tour with The Party Boys from 1982 to 1989 with a reunion tour in 1999. They then took up full national and international touring again, using varying arrangements of Australia's best musicians that included Brus on bass and Borich's son Lucius Borich on drums, who would later form the progressive rock outfit Cog. Other line-ups would again feature John Annas with Ian Lees (ex- Moving Pictures) joining the rhythm section on bass guitar. John Watson was in and out of the line-up as required, and during the 2000s South Australia's Chris Finnen and Frank Lang worked the rooms with Borich for South Australian shows. Kevin Borich Express recorded and released ''Live at the Big Kahuna'' in 1995 followed by another studio album in 1998 titled ''Heart Starter'', this time with son Lucius on drums and Ben Rosen on bass. This was followed by the album ''Nomad'' in 2004. In 2009 Kevin Borich, Brus and Lucius Borich recorded ''Live at the Basement'', in Sydney's The Basement venue in Circular Quay, a double CD and DVD under the banner Borich X Borich. Borich recorded and released the studio album ''Totem'' on 28 May 2015, for which he toured in Australia with the current Kevin Borich Express line-up featuring Chris Gilbert on bass guitar and Jon Carson on drums. They performed a successful season at Adelaide Fringe Festival in March 2017.


Discography


Albums


References

{{Reflist Australian rock music groups Musical groups established in 1976 1976 in music