Chain

One of the longest surviving names in Australian rock, nearly 50 musicians can lay claim to have been a member of Chain since the group’s formation in 1968. In the end, Chain remains Australia’s most famous exponents of 60s/70s era rock blues.

Chain’s history starts in Perth with a pop/blues/r&b group named The Beaten Tracks. When the band moved to Melbourne they lost a couple of original members and were joined by Tasmanian guitarist Phil Manning and female blues singer Wendy Saddington, who renamed the group The Chain (after the Aretha Franklin song ‘Chain Of Fools’).

By the time the group recorded its first single, ‘Show Me Home’, Wendy and others had moved on, and just three months later The Chain (soon to be shortened to plain Chain) were a completely different group again. Of the original Beaten Tracks organist Warren Morgan remained, and Phil Manning was still there. They had been joined by Barry Sullivan on bass, Barry Harvey on drums, and the most recent addition, New Zealander Glyn Mason on vocals and guitar. This was the line-up which recorded the group’s first album 'Live Chain' at Sydney’s ‘Caesar’s Palace’ discotheque in June 1970. That album was acknowledged as a milestone in Australian rock musicianship, but by the time it was released Warren Morgan had joined Billy Thorpe’s Aztecs, and Glyn Mason had chosen to go overseas. No-one expected Chain to survive.

Melbourne in 1970 was alive with the blues. It was THE scene, attracting musicians from all over the country, like Sydney’s Billy Thorpe, and Brisbane singer Matt Taylor, who had arrived as part of Bay City Union and watched his group disintegrate because of Matt’s uncompromising dedication to the blues. Matt had just formed a new group, Genesis, and had recorded a single with members of Carson as Meeting, when the opportunity came along to join what was left of Chain.

With young entrepreneur Michael Gudinski acting at their manager the new Chain quickly rose to the top of the pile in Melbourne’s blues scene. Not only had they hit on a hot combination musically, they had a big difference in Matt Taylor’s laconic, dinky-dye Aussie patter between songs. Matt’s wry observations on life in general brought the blues the band played to life. Chain’s first single with Matt ‘Black And Blue’ (with its “we’re groaning” chorus) climbed to the No.1 spot in Melbourne, and was top 10 nationally. The album, ‘Toward The Blues’ has the distinction of being a consistent seller over the next couple of decades, achieving gold status more than twenty years after its release.

The ‘Black And Blue’ Chain lasted 10 months. Then, between July and October 1971, Matt fronted a completely new line-up before disbanding the group to ‘find’ himself. Matt Taylor temporarily gave up the music business to live on a commune. Again it looked like Chain was finished.

Just one month later however the Live Chain line-up reformed long enough to record another live album (three months) before Phil Manning left and a three-piece Chain (Morgan,Sullivan,Harvey) continued for another six months, recording one single, ‘Sunny Day’. Then Chain was dormant again. At the end of 1972 Manning, Sullivan and Harvey found themselves back together as part of a group called Mighty Mouse. In February 1973 they simply changed their name back to Chain, and recorded ‘Two Of A Kind’ with members of the touring Muddy Waters Band.

From July 1974 until January 1982 Chain’s name was unused while the key players pursued their separate music careers (Taylor and Manning joining forces at one point as the Matt Taylor Phil Manning Band). In January 1982 the ‘Black And Blue’/’Toward The Blues’ Chain reformed for the Mushroom Tenth Anniversary concert, and reformed again on a permanent basis for three years from December 1983, their longest period in one form.

Since then Matt Taylor, now resident in Perth, has consistently toured versions of Chain, consolidating into a line-up comprising Matt, Phil Manning, Barry Harvey and 'new boy' Dirk Du Bouis on bass. In October 2001 Chain celebrated the 30th anniversary of the release of 'Toward The Blues' with a remastered version of the album, with tracks not including in the original version, in particular, the single 'Judgement'.