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Melissa (46)

Australian prog-rock band A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SYDNEY BAND “MELISSA” AS RECALLED BY RICHARD BARRETT MARCH 2020 © COPYRIGHT RICHARD BARRETT 2020 Melissa’s” beginnings can be traced back to 1964 when Ken Frazer and Richard (Rick) Barrett were at high School. They formed a band playing instrumental music by The Shadows and The Ventures. It wasn’t long before they came under the influence of the British bands and started to play music by Them, The Animals, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles etc; and later The Yardbirds and Traffic. For a time the band was called “The Senate”, and although they didn’t get many gigs, they certainly rehearsed a lot. It was probably in 1968 when drummer Warren Sparke and singer Robert (Bob) Gunn joined with bass player Ken Frazer and guitarist Rick Barrett and started playing gigs around Sydney as “Molten Hue”. They were one of the first rock bands in Sydney to perform live with an orchestra, which they did at the “Here” disco in North Sydney. Although they rarely backed solo performers, they did so on one memorable occasion for Johnny Farnham at Hornsby where he had a huge hit with Sadie the Cleaning Lady. In early 1970 the band’s name was changed from Molten Hue to Melissa. Later that year they recorded their one and only single Mississippi Mamma b/w Too Much of Nothing. They worked through Dal Myles Enterprises, a management and booking agency, and were signed to his record label Banner Records. It was Dal Myles who thought Mississippi Mamma had commercial potential and “suggested” it as the band’s first recording. Although it was not the style of music the band was playing it was duly recorded and released later that year through Festival Records. Melissa paid for the recording too-$500. The record was produced by Rory Thomas who played piano on Mississippi Mamma. Singing on the chorus of Mississippi Mamma in addition to the members of Melissa are Billy Thorpe and Lobby Lloyd (from The Aztecs), Peter Figures (drummer with Jeff St.John) and some other musicians who’d been attending a Jeff St.John recording session in the same building. At the time of the single’s release in March 1970, local radio stations were in dispute with local record companies over the amount of royalties payable for playing Australian records on their programs and were not playing any Australian recordings. The single received no radio play. Melissa did make several TV appearances where they mimed to their record. In September 1970, Ken Frazer (who had married in June) played his last gig with the band. That brought to an end his musical adventure started with Rick back in 1964. Ken subsequently worked for a record company and went on to run his own very successful record store. September 1970 also brought new bass player and singer Joe Creighton to the band. Joe came from Belfast in Ireland. Although Joe was only with Melissa for six months (until March 1971), this was probably the band’s most exciting and productive period. The influences of Van Morrison, Charles Mingus, Roland Kirk etc. were having a marked effect on what music the band was playing and how they were playing it. Bob Gunn had been playing flute for a while now and that added a new and distinct flavour to the sound. Joe Creighton and Rick Barrett started writing together and their original songs were added to the band’s repertoire. Still signed to Banner Records, and Rick and Joe to Dal Myles’ Mountain Music for publishing, the band started recording the “Midnight Trampoline” album later in 1970. The meaning of the title is left to your imagination. Recording was again at United Sound Studios with Spencer Lee producing and engineering. This was where the earlier single was recorded with Spencer engineering that session. Most of the recording was done in late night to early morning sessions and spread over many months. This was to keep costs down, and yes, the band was footing the bill once again. The songs recorded for the album were the Creighton and Barrett originals, Getting Through (Creighton), Matalla (Creighton & Barrett), Jennifer in New York (Barrett), Cuckoo (traditional arr. Creighton & Barrett) and two Van Morrison songs Young Lovers Do and Madame George. These were songs the band was playing at the time in their live performances. Also recorded was the Williams & Nicholls song Out in the Country, again at the insistence of manager Dal Myles who wanted a more commercial song on the album. There are a couple of stories related to this track. On the album cover Peter Martin is listed as playing 12-string guitar. This is incorrect. Spencer Lee brought Peter in one night to overdub the lead guitar fills and guitar solo. Rick is playing the acoustic rhythm guitars. Secondly, who was the mysterious “Martin” who sang vocal harmony on Out in the Country? The answer is Ted Mulry who was a good friend of the band and was starting his solo career. He was signed to Albert’s Music and couldn’t use his real name on the cover. He later had huge success with the Ted Mulry Gang. His given name was Martin and, as he told the story, when he was living in England before coming to Australia, he dressed like a “Teddy Boy” and thus earned the nickname “Ted”. With the inclusion of Out in the Country, the other Creighton & Barrett composition Into Your Head, intended for the album, was not recorded. Rick did record a rough demo of this song in 1977. The Midnight Trampoline cover and artwork was by Danny Burke. The front cover initials “M” and “T” were copied from “The Book of Kells” held in the Library of Trinity College, University of Dublin. His wonderful pen and ink sketch of the band on the back cover shows top to bottom, Rick, Bob, Warren and Joe Joe Creighton played his last gig with Melissa at the Paddington Town Hall on the 28th of March 1971, a gig they shared with “Tully”. Rick’s recollection is that this was the band’s best ever live performance. The band didn’t perform for a month but resumed gigs in May 1971 with new bass player Ken “Claude” Hanley and pianist Glen Farley. With the Midnight Trampoline album still not mixed, it was decided, rightly or wrongly, to have Glen Farley overdub her Fender Rhodes electric piano onto a few tracks, namely Young Lovers Do, Cuckoo and Madame George. The intention was to give some continuity to the band’s current line-up when the album was finally released. The band continued gigging with this 5-piece line-up to the end of September 1971, when Bob Gunn was ousted from the band. This had been coming for some time, but his departure meant that when Midnight Trampoline was eventually released in October 1971, neither of the musicians singing on the album were still with the band. Needless to say, the album didn’t sell very well. Whatever “cult” following it eventually received, didn’t happen till much later. Bob went to work for Dal Myles Enterprises and became a producer of some live shows in Sydney. Melissa did three gigs in October 1971 as a 4-piece with Warren, Rick, Glen and Claude before new singers Chris Keystone and Peter Saurine joined the band later that month. Chris had been in the Sydney stage production of “Hair” and came highly recommended by her friend Wendy Saddington. Peter also played guitar and was a songwriter. They were both fine singers. Their second gig with the band was on the 31st of October 1971 when Melissa were the support band for Elton John’s concert at Randwick, part of his first Australian tour. This did not go well. The band was under-rehearsed and not helped on the day by the “star’s” prima-donna-ish antics which were partly justified by the mateurishness of the promoters. Melissa’s payment of $60 as support band was never received. Glen Farley left the band shortly after this, and after a month of rehearsals, in early December 1971 Melissa continued playing with the new line-up of Warren, Rick, Claude, Chris and Peter. Melissa performed a lot of good music with this band although in a different style to that on the Midnight Trampoline album and continued to play in a diverse range of venues. This all came to an end on 13th of May 1972 when Melissa played their final gig at the Goldstein Hall, University of NSW for the New Guinea Students Association.