The Purple Hearts - Australia

The Purple Hearts 1964 – 1967.

“The stage is dark and tense. A spotlight hits the tall white-clad figure of Mick Hadley - sexy hips begin gyrating to the pulsating beat of the blackest blues sound of the Purple Hearts. Hundreds of eyes are fixed on the wild animal-like movements” - 

Lily Brett writing in Go-Set magazine December 1966.

Like so many Australian beat groups of the 60s The Purple Hearts had their roots far closer to the source of the British Invasion than the sun burnt suburbia from which they finally emerged. While none were born in Chicago or the Mississippi delta, several future Hearts and associates were raised in the UK and migrated to Australia as teenagers settling in semi-tropical northeastern Australia.

Bob Dames was from Blackpool, England and had witnessed the early British R&B scene first hand before immigrating to Brisbane. Together with local drummer Adrian “Red” Redmond and guitarists Michael Riddington and Les Binns, Bob formed The Impacts in 1963. The repertoire consisted of popular Beatles & Stones numbers. In an era where even the smallest town had teenage beat bands entertaining the local kids, the Impacts would be forgotten now if not for the band they spawned.

Mick Hadley: “I arrived in Australia December 1962 as a ten pound pom. I was 19. Through a work social club I met a band called the Impacts. They were a pop band of the time. I ended up joining (sort of pushed my way in) and I kind of turned them into an R&B band”.

A series of events soon transformed the lightweight Impacts into a hard-edged group, possessing talent that would quite possibly have seen them at the forefront of the UK R&B scene…had they not been on the other side of the Earth.

Mick was an early fan of John Mayall and Graham Bond, and like Bob, had also seen the likes of Cyril Davies’ Allstars and Blues By Six on home turf before shifting to Australia. They were determined to be in an R&B band and weren’t going to be compromised by the Beatles pop thing.

One pop paper article quoted their ambition “To have rhythm and blues accepted in Australia”.

In late ’64 Les left the group, but not to worry, a guitarist from another local group had attracted their attention. Barry Islington Lyde aka Lobby Loyde was born in Longreach in central Queensland then moved to Aramac an isolated outback town about 800km from the nearest capital city, Brisbane. From a musical family, his mother played piano and his father, John Robert Lyde was a horn player who had a 12-piece band and could also play blues harmonica. John bought Lobby’s first guitar, a 1956 Fender and would write out notations for rock’n’roll solos so Lobby could learn them, but he also stressed the ability to improvise - don't copy!  Lobby would hear wild hillbilly, country & rock and roll on local radio stations & went to all the touring shows - his only other sibling, a sister 6 years older took him to Brisbane to see Buddy, Chuck, Little Richard, Gene Vincent etc. In the late 50s, he was playing bass in the Devils Disciples and also spent time in The Dominoes and the Planets.  By the time the Hearts called he was playing lead guitar in The Stilettos and, in his early 20s was somewhat of a veteran. In fact some of the teen pop mags listed his age several years younger, as if he was already too old to appeal to the young fans!

Mick : “Before I met Lobby he was in a Shadows style band called the Stilettos. We told him we were forming an R&B band, took him home and played him some Yardbirds. He was in, and he, and we, just sped on from there. The boys with Benzedrine beat. With a Fender Jaguar and a Vox AC30 amp, he had a drive and a feel that took no prisoners. The 'Hearts had an energy, that I am told, paled other bands of the time as most of them played the pretty pop of the hit parade. His stage presence was unique. He had a motionless, emotionless stance somewhat akin to a gangster. A cigarette would dangle from the corner of his mouth, which would then be transferred to the neck of the fender between the nut and machine heads. Thus his face was constantly bathed in smoke. He was very fond of blowing speakers, which was a constant drain on his finances, but that never seemed to faze him. I think this was one of the factors for the name change to Lobby Loyde as speaker suppliers and the tax department chased him across the country. For Lobby, there was no tomorrow. (Sometimes 'today' went missing also.) Lobby was Australia's first Guitar Hero. Britain had Clapton - we had Lobby. He was the guitarist's guitarist.”

The new group was christened The Purple Hearts, a name Bob Dames came up with which was suggestive of the out of control nature of their music and linked directly to the UK mod scene.

“We just wanted a controversial name, something that was up to the minute, and at that stage it was the big thing in England to be taking Purple Hearts, so Bob suggested the name, and the rest of us felt that it expressed our music well” - Tony Cahill speaking in 1966, about a time before he was in the band. He was always there in spirit!

Rehearsals were conducted in a grain storage warehouse owned by Adrian’s dad and at this stage the Hearts were mixing in the R&B with popular beat numbers that audiences demanded to hear. At one of their regular gigs they befriended Clive Murray White who had only recently arrived from the UK and filled them in on the latest developments.

Clive: “I was an art student in Guildford, and like every English Art Student of the time could play Cyril Davis' Country Line Special. We used to go to the local Ricky Tick Club; the regular bands on that circuit other than the old black guys that were going around were The Rolling Stones, original Yardbirds, Cyril Davis, Animals, Graham Bond Organisation. Zoot Money, Pretty Things, Manfred Mann, Georgie Fame and so on. We also used to go to Eel Pie Island to see Long John Baldry and up to town to see the Downliners Sect. I arrived in Australia from England on 25 January 1965 & shortly after I turned up at the Broadbeach Surf Club where a band was playing, needless to say I was wearing clothes that I had brought out and was dancing like they did in UK. I was given a handful of free beer tickets for my dancing efforts and was soon in deep conversation with the band. The band played 50/50 surf and British. I learned later anybody who was obviously from UK was approached and grilled about what was going on over there, vital info such as bands don’t wear uniform clothes anymore. I brought many records to Australia with me including Long Legged Baby, my favourite Graham Bond memory Early in the Morning, Yardbirds, Stones first album, Downliners Sect, Georgie Fame, Pretty Things, compilations etc.”

The Hearts immediately added some of the more obscure numbers from Clive’s collection to their repertoire and while other Brisbane groups took to the stage in suits the Hearts wore old jeans or whatever streetwear they happened to be wearing.  Some of their streetwear could be fairly outlandish however!

Lobby:  “(promoters) think we’re difficult, because we don’t walk on stage in identical suits - we are individuals, and play our own music. Most people expect us to be a lot of trouble, but they eventually realise how lovely we really are! I think this feeling came about because in the beginning we used to smoke on stage, wear sandshoes and t-shirts, play as loudly as we liked and tell people where to go! Come to think of it we are practically the same now, it’s just that people are accustomed to us”. (Go-Set, Aug 3, 1966).

The Purple Hearts EP cover features an early photo with everyone wearing at least one article of Clive’s clothing!

Shortly after Lobby joined, guitarist Michael Riddington departed to be replaced by Paul, whose surname has been lost in the fog of time. The repertoire was by now almost purely British R&B - Stones, Yardbirds, Animals, Graham Bond Organisation, Spencer Davis Group, Kinks, Pretty Things. The Bluesbreakers “Beano” lp was a massive influence, especially on Lobby, while Mick was picking up on US black singers rather than his UK counterparts. Bob, with his long hair was sort of the Phil May of Brisbane, and attracted the attention of rednecks and women alike.

The Hearts played frequently around Brisbane and the Gold Coast, and had a residency at a Brisbane club, the Primitif, which was actually a little coffee bar in an inner city arcade. The owner, Peter suggested they play there and she had the place modified accordingly, putting a wire fence up to block off the subway so more people could fit in. The windows were painted out, roughly in keeping with the aesthetics of the time and so a Cavern of sorts was born! “The Five” were another band of note to play regularly at the Primitif. Around this time they were managed by one of countless budding Brian Epsteins, Dal Myles, however the band fell out with Myles over some financial issues and they parted company after a short while.

Early in 1965, and still without a recording contract, the group made their first venture into a recording studio to put down some tracks for their own use. Mick, Red, Lobby and Bob with Paul on rhythm guitar recorded 4 tracks at the newly opened Soundtrack Studios. Soundtrack was Brisbane’s first independent commercial studio and operated from an old disused bakery in the suburb of Cannon Hill. The 4 tracks were cut onto two acetate singles with paste-on “Soundtrack Studios” labels and never pressed up onto vinyl. Although certainly ragged these tracks display the raw enthusiasm that made them so popular live. With Mick’s trademark howl well to the fore, raucous backing vocals, a meaty rhythm section and of course Lobby, these tracks have “the sound” that only 60s teenage groups could muster! Lob played his Burns 12-string on Long Legged Baby, a Fender Jaguar on the others. Around this time Glenn Wheatley sat in occasionally on rhythm guitar but probably did not record. Wheatley went on to play bass with fellow Brisbane blues group the Bay City Union, before moving onto the Masters Apprentices, band management and world domination.

The mysterious Paul departed sometime mid-1965 to be replaced by yet another recent migrant, Fred Pickard from Edinburgh, Scotland.

Just after Fred joined, the group did a tour up to Cairns in North Queensland with the Easybeats, Vince Maloney, Tony (Worsley) and the Blue Jays, Ian Saxon and others. This was the first beat band tour of the area and the local kids made the most of it. Entrepreneur Ivan Dayman organised the shows, and naturally the unsigned Purple Hearts caught his attention and were duly hooked up to his own Sunshine Records label. Sunshine was one of a number of independent labels manufactured and distributed by Festival Records and it was to Festival’s Sydney studios that the Hearts went in October 1965 to record their first 45. A rerecording of  “Long legged Baby” backed with “Here Tis” was released within weeks but only made headway in the hometown of Brisbane.

EVERYBODY’S magazine reported that a new Hearts track “King of Love” would be out before Christmas. In fact the band never had a song of that title, the Sunshine publicity machine probably made it up to keep the bands name in the press.

For the remainder of 1965, Ivan Dayman kept the band busy promoting the 45 and with a residency at the Brisbane Bowl, a major disco owned by Dayman. By now Queensland was sold on the Hearts and it was time to look south to the bigger markets of Sydney and Melbourne. The break came when they scored the opening slot for the Sydney Tom Jones/Herman’s Hermits gig. Ivan also arranged gigs for them at his Sydney Bowl; however, before they got there they suffered a major setback.

Mick: ”It was pretty sad story. We’d just turned professional and we were going to Sydney. We had all these jobs lined up and then Red had a car accident, which smashed his legs up. The doctors said he’d be in hospital for at least a couple of months so we decided to press on to Sydney and try to pick up another drummer there.  We auditioned about half a dozen drummers and Tony Cahill was one of them. He was so good, his technique just blew us out.”

Little is known about Cahill’s pre Purple Hearts days although it’s thought he’d played in a few jazz bands and possibly played a few gigs with an unstable Missing Links lineup before Baden Hutchins scored that job. Apparently he also played in Screaming Lord Sutch’s band on his Aussie tour! The intention was that Red would return after recuperating, but by then Tony was well established in the group and there was no way Red could make it back in. He remained in Brisbane and started up the Red Orb nightclub. He stayed on good terms with the guys and The Hearts would perform their last ever show 12 months later at his club.

After only a few busy weeks in Sydney which saw them playing at the Bowl in Castlereagh St, the Pavilion, and the Tom Jones show at the Hordern Pavilion on Jan 21 & 22, 1966 they moved on to Melbourne. Oh, and before they left Sydney they paid another visit to Festival and recorded their 2nd 45, Of Hopes Dreams Tombstones b/w I'm Gonna try. The producer was Pat Aulton who had plenty of big hits to his name from Normie Rowe and Tony Worsley etc. He directed the band to an obscure American soul 45 which, when rearranged by the Hearts, became one of the fiercest Aussie 45s of all time.

Mick:  “Sydney was just a stopover for us. At that time Melbourne was the centre of music in Australia. Sure, there were a few nice things in Sydney like Python Lee Jackson but Melbourne was where all the energy was coming from. When we arrived it was about the time the whole disco scene exploded. Of course I don’t mean discos like today, but with live bands. In the early days the mega-trendy Thumpin’ Tum was the place to hang out. The only other band that was reasonably similar to us was the Wild Cherries but at that stage they were a 3 piece with stand up double bass. We were probably the first band to hit Melbourne fairly big with R&B.”

Bands relocated from all over Australia to fill the demand for live music in the numerous discos all over the city. The Hearts played several times a week, mainly at the Red Door and Sebastian’s, and shared stages with the likes of The Twilights, Max Merritt, Running Jumping Standing Still, the Clefs and the original jazz/R&B Wild Cherries with Mal McGee.

This was the period when the band really cemented their reputation. Throughout 1966 they were mentioned nearly every week in the pop papers, scored TV appearances, and did several tours to Sydney & Adelaide and once up to northern Victoria. They also made the long drive back home to Queensland on several occasions, including to open for the Rolling Stones at the Brisbane Town Hall in February.

Somehow, despite, or perhaps because of all the attention the Hearts only managed to release two 45s during the year, the 3rd 45, Early in the Morning, b/w Just a little bit being released in August. As usual studio time was limited, but the 16 track Armstrong Studios in South Melbourne were a huge step up from Festivals 4 tracks, and with Roger Savage at the controls the results were as good as could be achieved in Australia. Savage had engineered some of the earliest Rolling Stones recordings in his native UK and hence was…. famous….and hip, as well as being good! This was the first record the group was really happy with. Lobby thought it the most original record ever recorded in Australia. The crowds loved it live, but it was radical track to release at that time, yet it became their most successful and, to this day, most remembered track amongst the Australian public.

In Go-Set of Sept 14, 1966 Lobby, briefly, summed up the records so far:  I only like “Early in the Morning” as it’s a song we wanted to do. But “Hopes and Dreams” was much better than “Long Legged Baby” which was rude.

Their Sept 1966 “Go Show” television appearance survives, giving us the only opportunity to see footage of the Hearts, albeit miming to both sides of the latest 45. Fred provides the frantic rhythm for “Just a Little Bit” on his Fender Mustang while Lobby picks impassively on his Fender Jaguar - perhaps teen TV shows weren’t his thing, and the absence of the customary dangling cigarette wouldn’t have helped!  Lobby aside they all seem to be having a good time, Fred on the verge of laughter during the “serious” Early in the Morning, Bob swinging his Gibson Thunderbird bass, Mick wildly hipshakin’ and pelvic thrusting, while Tony displays a drum style not unlike the Pretty’s Viv Prince.

A 4th 45 You can’t sit down b/w Tiger in your tank was again recorded at Armstrong Studios with Roger Savage, and released in January 1967.  Reviewing “You Can’t Sit Down” Everybody’s magazine commented, “You can’t dance to it either, because the tempo goes up and down like a yo-yo, but this hasn’t damped the enthusiasm of Melbourne fans”. As usual the record sold reasonably well, without setting the charts alight, and outwardly things seemed to be cruising along for the band with regular engagements and plenty of press. But rumours of a split started to circulate and after several weeks of denials, on January 23rd an announcement was made and reported in Go-Set. Officially the split was due to “musical stagnation”. Mick: “we felt we’d gone as far as we could go, we just ran out of gas. It was good fun while it lasted”.  Although the Hearts put up a united front it seems Lobby had seen the writing on the wall and instigated the split on the eve of an Adelaide tour! Lobby went straight into the reformed Wild Cherries and was gigging with them immediately, while the others carried on as a 4 piece for a month or so filling the outstanding engagements. Fred, now the sole guitarist, really starred in these shows and with David Bentley, from Python Lee Jackson, added on keyboards for the last ever gigs back in Brisbane their sound would have been quite different to the Lobby fuelled Hearts. The final gig was at Red’s “Red Orb” club in late February 1967.

The disbanding announcement went on to mention the future plans of each member: Lobby was to join Wild Cherries; Bob to stay in Australia and work in advertising; Tony going to England at the end of Feb to join an English group; Mick and Fred to hitch to England, and that was mostly what did happen. Tony played with Georgie Fame for a few months before joining the Easybeats, Mick traveled the overland trail across Asia to Europe reporting back to Go-Set, Lobby we know about and Bob and Fred stayed on in Brisbane. The 5th & final 45 Chicago b/w Bring it on home was released in April, months after the split, and still managed respectable sales!

Trying to analyse why the Hearts didn’t go further is difficult.  As they became more successful they could choose their own material to record, but rather than write new originals they continued to pick cover versions that were popular with audiences.

Mick: “that was our problem, we didn’t release anything we’d written, in fact, we only ever performed a couple of our own tracks, and they were just your basic 12 bar blues thumpers. A lot of bands covered black stuff that wouldn’t be released here. That was one of the symptoms of the sixties, and it was a helluva lot easier that writing your own stuff! “Early in the Morning” and “You can’t sit down” both went down so well live that we had to record them.

Given the opportunity to record a long player no doubt they would have come up with some original material but in those days very few Aussie beat groups were fortunate enough to record more than a few 45s. As it was the Purple Hearts did have more success than most, doing well from live work and getting decent chart action. Every record made at least Top 40 in one city or another, and although not exactly common, only the Ep is really difficult for collectors to find these days. Had they stuck together it’s not hard to imagine them rivaling say, Cream, though naturally it would have taken a trip to the UK and more than a bit of luck! For several years though, they did indeed rule the roost in Australia for that short period when pop music was classic R&B!