Russell Dunlop
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Russell James Dunlop (21 October 194516 May 2009) was an Australian musician, singer-songwriter and record producer-engineer. From the late 1970s he collaborated with Bruce Brown in a production company for albums and singles by Australian performers including
Mental As Anything Mental As Anything was an Australian new wave and pop rock band that formed in Sydney in 1976. Its most popular line-up (which lasted from 1977 to 1999, and recorded all of its charting singles and albums) was Martin Plaza (birth name Martin ...
,
The Reels The Reels are an Australian rock music, rock band which formed in Dubbo, New South Wales in 1976. It disbanded in 1991, and reformed in 2007. Its 1981 song "Quasimodo's Dream (song), Quasimodo's Dream" was voted one of the APRA Top 30 Australian ...
and Machinations. As a musician he was a member of various groups such as
Aesop's Fables Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a Slavery in ancient Greece, slave and storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 Before the Common Era, BCE. Of varied and unclear origins, the stor ...
(1968–70), Levi Smith's Clefs (1971), Southern Contemporary Rock Assembly (SCRA) (1971–72) and Ayers Rock (1976).


1945–1967: early years

Russell James Dunlop, was born in 1945 in
Paddington, New South Wales Paddington is a suburb of Sydney in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Located east of the Sydney central business district, Paddington lies across two Local government in Australia, local government areas. The portion south of Oxford St ...
. His father, Hector Dunlop, was an engineer and his mother was Patricia. The couple had another son, Barry, and both were educated at Bourke Street Primary and Narwee Boys' High School. After leaving secondary school Dunlop worked as a tiler's labourer and then in a pharmaceutical factory. Dunlop began playing in bands as a drummer at 16.


Career


1968–1970: Aesop's Fables / The New Aesop's Fables

In 1968
Aesop's Fables Aesop's Fables, or the Aesopica, is a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a Slavery in ancient Greece, slave and storyteller who lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 564 Before the Common Era, BCE. Of varied and unclear origins, the stor ...
formed as a pop vocal group with Dunlop on drums, Sheryl Blake on lead vocals, Jimmy Doyle on guitar (ex-Telstars), Michael Lawler on bass guitar and Gary Moberly on organ (ex-Ramrods, later worked with
Bee Gees The Bee Gees were a musical group formed in 1958 by brothers Barry Gibb, Barry, Robin Gibb, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio was especially successful in popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers in ...
). The group performed cover versions, including
The 5th Dimension The 5th Dimension is an American vocal group. Their music encompasses sunshine pop, pop soul, and psychedelic soul. They were an important crossover music act of the 1960s and 1970s, although both praised and derided for their particular music ...
, before working on originals. Dunlop also worked as a session drummer and vocalist. In 1969 Aesop's Fables entered the annual Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds competition and won the New South Wales final, at the national final they finished second behind Doug Parkinson in Focus. However this version of the group separated without recording any material. In February 1970 Dunlop and Moberley formed a new line-up, initially called The New Aesop's Fables, with Owen Booth on bass guitar, Brenda Glover on lead vocals (ex-Jet Set) and Brian Holloway on guitar (ex-The Dream, Image). Holloway quit two months later and was replaced by Melbourne-based guitarist, Les Stacpool. The band moved to Melbourne in mid-year, where Charlie Tumahai replaced Booth on bass guitar. Dunlop met Judi Johnston and they married three months later. Aesop's Fables had disbanded by October 1970. The group's only single, "Little Yellow Pills", was issued posthumously in February 1971 as the first single on the Generation Records label. The A-side was a cover of a track by British singer,
Jackie Lomax John Richard Lomax (10 May 1944 – 15 September 2013) was an English guitarist and singer-songwriter. He is best known for his association with George Harrison, who produced Lomax's recordings for the Beatles' Apple record label in the late 1 ...
, and its B-side, "Sandman", was written by Stacpool.


1970–1972: Levi Smith's Clefs / Southern Contemporary Rock Assembly

In 1970 Dunlop moved back to Sydney and was a member of another pop-rock group, Levi Smith's Clefs. It was fronted by Barrie "The Bear" McAskill on lead vocals and had a varied line-up including Jim Kelly on guitar (ex-Affair) and Mike Kenny on trumpet. The group held a year-long residency at The Chequers night club, Sydney. They issued two singles, "Live Like a Man" (September 1970) and "Gonna Get a Seizure" (April 1971) and followed with an extended play, ''Best of Whisky a Go Go''. Dunlop, Kelly and Kenny formed a jazz-rock group, Southern Contemporary Rock Assembly (SCRA), in mid-1971 together with Sheryl Black on lead vocals, Ian Bloxsom on percussion, Dave Ellis on bass guitar, Greg Foster on trombone and harmonica (ex-Heart 'n' Soul), Micky Leyton on vocals, Peter Martin on guitar and vocals (ex-Little Sammy and the In People) and Don Wright on tenor sax and flute (ex-Ram Jam Big Band). In December they issued their debut album, ''SCRA'', which Australian musicologist,
Ian McFarlane Ian McFarlane (born 1959) is an Australian music journalist, music historian and author, whose best known publication is the ''Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop'' (1999), which was updated for a second edition in 2017. As a journalist ...
, compared to their regular "brash, commercial sound" – he found the album was "more restrained and slickly arranged". It provided a single, "Roly Poly", which peaked at No. 28 on the Australian
Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music historian David Kent from May 1974 through to January 1999. The chart was re-branded the Australian Music Report (AMR) in July 19 ...
Singles Chart in April of the following year. SCRA appeared at the inaugural Sunbury Pop Festival in January 1972 and provided a live version of "Roly Poly" for a double album, ''Sunbury''. By April the group had relocated to the United States. Also in April Dunlop and fellow SCRA members appeared as the studio backing band for Dig Richards' album, ''Harlequin''. SCRA recorded their second album, ''The Ship Album'' (1972), at The Hit Factory in New York; and at United Sound Studios, Sydney. McFarlane felt they had "dispensed with the lighter pop moments of the debut to concentrate on a more innovative and bluesy progressive jazz-rock sound". The group disbanded by the end of that year. During 1973 Dunlop provided drums on several tracks for the debut album, ''Prussian Blue'', by singer-songwriter, Richard Clapton.


1973–1978: Mother Earth / Johnny Rocco Band

In 1973, Dunlop and Kelly joined Mother Earth, a jazz-rock group, which had Harry Brus on bass guitar, Renée Geyer as lead singer (ex-
Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...
) and Mark Punch on guitar and vocals (ex-Nine Stage Horizon). In 1973 Rory O'Donoghue (of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's TV comedy series, ''
The Aunty Jack Show ''The Aunty Jack Show'' is a Logie Award-winning Australian television comedy series that ran from 1972 to 1973. Produced by and broadcast on ABC-TV, the series attained an instant cult status that persists to the present day. The lead chara ...
'') on lead guitar and lead vocals formed a band, Cool Bananas, which Dunlop joined alongside Stein Bottington on bass guitar, Wayne Findlay on keyboards and Don Reid on flute and saxophone. Cool Bananas issued a single, "Been and Gone", in October. They followed with a novelty hit single, "
Farewell Aunty Jack "Farewell Aunty Jack" was the closing theme to ''The Aunty Jack Show'', played at the end of each episode. It was re-recorded and released as a hit single in late 1973 and spent 3 weeks at number one in the charts in Australia in February and M ...
" (December 1973), which peaked at No. 1 for three weeks in the following year. In February 1974, Dunlop and Punch founded the Johnny Rocco Band as a jazz-funk group, with Tony Buchanan on saxophone (ex-Thunderbirds,
Daly-Wilson Big Band The Daly-Wilson Big Band was an Australian jazz group formed in 1968 by Warren Daly on drums and Ed Wilson on trombone. The business manager and silent partner was Don Raverty. The line-up, at times, was an eighteen-piece ensemble, that played ...
) and Tim Partridge on bass guitar (ex-Clockwork Oringe, King Harvest, Island, Mighty Kong). McFarlane declared that they were "one of the first Australian bands to incorporate funk and soul into the pub-rock forum". A fire at a night club destroyed the group's instruments and equipment three months later, however they continued to perform. They backed
Grahame Bond Grahame John Bond AM (born 21 November 1943) is an Australian Bachelor Architecture, actor, writer, director, musician and composer, known primarily for his role as Aunty Jack. Early career Bond began his career in entertainment at University ...
("Aunty Jack", from the show of that name) and O'Donoghue, on a national tour as Aunty Jack and the Gong. By late 1974, Johnny Rocco Band had added Dunlop's former bandmate, Kenny, and a new associate,
Leo de Castro Leo de Castro (born Kiwi Leo de Castro Kino; c. 1948 – 3 March 2019) was a New Zealand funk and soul singer-guitarist. From 1969 to 1995 he worked in Australia in a variety of bands before returning to Auckland. He contributed to “summer j ...
on lead vocals (ex-King Harvest, Flite, Friends, De Castro). The group issued a single, "Heading in the Right Direction", in August 1975 and followed with their sole album, ''Rocco'', in the following year. Punch had left the group just after the single's appearance, to join Geyer's backing band for her solo career – Geyer released a cover version of "Heading in the Right Direction" in 1976. For ''Rocco'' Dunlop provided drums and vibraphone as well as producing the recording, he co-mixed it with Bruce C. Brown. In January 1976, Tony Catterall of ''
The Canberra Times ''The Canberra Times'' is a daily newspaper in Canberra, Australia, which is published by Australian Community Media. It was founded in 1926, and has changed ownership and format several times. History ''The Canberra Times'' was launched in 1 ...
'' compared ''Rocco'' with
Felix Cavaliere Felix Cavaliere (born November 29, 1942) is an American musician. He is best known for being the co-lead vocalist and keyboard player for The Young Rascals. Although he was a member of Joey Dee and the Starliters, known for their hit " Pepperm ...
's second album, ''Destiny'' (1975). He found that there were "points of contact, apart from them both being soul, in the lyrics ... and the vocals" and that Dunlop's "production work is generally good, and he's roped in a solid list of session-men to add to the already highly talented band, Cavaliere shades him by a good deal." He summarised his opinion "The Johnny Rocco Band, and Dunlop in particular, could improve their already solid work by learning some lessons from Cavaliere. But the converse is true, too." In May 1976, Dunlop left Johnny Rocco Band and replaced Mark Kennedy on drums in the jazz-rock fusion band, Ayers Rock, which toured the US from May to July and included his previous bandmate, Doyle, as a member. He left that group before the end of the year. Dunlop and Doyle subsequently toured Australia in the Aussie Blue Flames, backing the British performer,
Georgie Fame Georgie Fame (born Clive Powell; 26 June 1943) is an English R&B and jazz musician. Fame, who had a string of 1960s hits, is still performing, often working with contemporaries such as Alan Price, Van Morrison and Bill Wyman. Fame is the only B ...
. Dunlop also recorded and toured with other acts, while becoming more involved in record engineering and producing. From the late 1970s, Dunlop and Brown began to collaborate at
Albert Studios Albert Productions, a division of music publishing and recording company Albert Music, is one of Australia's longest established independent record labels to specialise in rock and roll music. The label was founded in 1963 by Ted Albert, whose ...
, where Brown had started as an audio engineer in 1974, the duo also formed their own independent production company, BAD (Brown and Dunlop).


1979–1980s: Player 1 & other bands

Dunlop's credits as producer or co-producer (with Brown) include Machinations' ''Esteem'',
Mental As Anything Mental As Anything was an Australian new wave and pop rock band that formed in Sydney in 1976. Its most popular line-up (which lasted from 1977 to 1999, and recorded all of its charting singles and albums) was Martin Plaza (birth name Martin ...
's ''Cats and Dogs'' and ''
Creatures of Leisure ''Creatures of Leisure'' is the fourth studio album released by Australian band, Mental As Anything. It was released in March 1983 and peaked at #8 on the Australian Album charts. NOTE: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1970 ...
'',
Jon English Jonathan James English (26 March 1949 – 9 March 2016) was an English-born Australian singer, songwriter, musician and actor. He emigrated from England to Australia with his parents in 1961. He was an early vocalist and rhythm guitarist for S ...
's '' Words Are Not Enough'' and
Doug Ashdown Douglas Wesley Ashdown (born 29 July 1942) is an Australian rock music singer-songwriter from Adelaide. He had a top 40 hit on the Australian singles chart with " Winter in America" or "Leave Love Enough Alone" (1976). It also reached No. ...
's single, "
Winter in America ''Winter in America'' is a studio album by American vocalist Gil Scott-Heron and keyboardist Brian Jackson. It was recorded in September to October 1973 at D&B Sound Studio in Silver Spring, Maryland, and released in May 1974 by Strata-East Re ...
". As well as working with local acts, Dunlop and Brown recorded as Player One for the 1979 novelty single, "
Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up video game developed and published by Taito for Arcade video game, arcades. It was released in Japan in April 1978, with the game being released by Midway Manufacturing overseas. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed s ...
", which was inspired by the arcade video game of the same name, for
Warner Bros. Records Warner Records Inc. (known as Warner Bros. Records Inc. until 2019) is an American record label. A subsidiary of Warner Music Group, it is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded on March 19, 1958, as the recorded music division ...
. It peaked at No. 3 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart and was followed by the related album, ''Game Over'', in the next year. In 1985, Dunlop contributed on the Australian supergroup Australia Too, which recorded " The Garden". The song peaked at number 22. N.B. The Kent Report chart was licensed by
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 ...
between mid-1983 and 19 June 1988.


1990–2009: final years and death

Dunlop continued to play in live bands but session work gradually dried up during the 1990s, especially for drummers, as computerised rhythm machines increasingly replaced live musicians for recording. He worked as a radio operator for a courier company for a decade, before moving with his family to Lismore in 2007, where he set up a small studio, and more recently he worked as an ensemble coach at
Southern Cross University Southern Cross University (SCU) is an Australian public university, with campuses at Lismore and Coffs Harbour in northern New South Wales, and at Coolangatta, the most southern suburb of the Gold Coast in Queensland. In 2019, it was ranke ...
. One of his last music projects was producing and mixing the soundtrack for the
Rachel Ward Rachel Claire Ward (born 12 September 1957) is an English-Australian actress,
movie ''
Beautiful Kate ''Beautiful Kate'' is a 2009 Australian drama film directed by Rachel Ward and starring Ben Mendelsohn, Rachel Griffiths, Bryan Brown, Maeve Dermody and Sophie Lowe. The film premiered in June 2009 at the Sydney Film Festival and was released i ...
'', which had its world premiere at the
Sydney Film Festival The Sydney Film Festival is an annual competitive film festival held in Sydney, Australia, usually over 12 days in June. A number of awards are given, the top one being the Sydney Film Prize. , the festival's director is Nashen Moodley. Histo ...
in June 2009. Dunlop died on 16 May 2009 – he had collapsed after playing a drum set at his son's wedding in Sydney. He is survived by his wife, Judi, his son, Aaron and his daughter, Kane. Dunlop's funeral was held at the
Northern Suburbs Crematorium The Northern Suburbs Crematorium, officially Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens and Crematorium, is a crematorium in North Ryde, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. It was officially opened on 28 October 1933, and the first cremation t ...
on 22 May.


References

;General * Note: Archived n-linecopy has limited functionality. ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:Dunlop, Russell 1945 births 2009 deaths Australian rock singers 20th-century Australian male singers Ayers Rock (band) members Levi Smith's Clefs members