|
Tully In the Australian music landscape of the late Sixties, Tully was a creature totally apart from the rest of the pack. At a time when the pop acts of the mid-sixties were either fading or maturing, and boogie blues rock was starting to come to the fore, the only prominent acts Tully had any kinship with was Tamam Shud and Spectrum. They came from the same Sydney alternative surf culture base as Tamam Shud, and shared Spectrum's taste for musical adventure. The only English band at the time they might have been able to be compared with was the Incredible String Band. There was nothing in America so gentle and warm. Tully was part of and a symptom of their time. Tully emerged at the end of 1968 from out of Levi Smith's Clefs, like Max Merritt and the Meteors and Ray Hoff and The Offbeats, a breeding ground for musicians' musicians. With singer Terry Wilson they became Tully, playing music that had to be listened to, rather than danced to, part of that transition where bands started playing and writing music that was made for concerts rather than discos, not an easy prospect for that handful of Australian bands tending toward that direction. No wonder that Tully in July 1969 accepted the job of being the resident band for the Australian production of the rock musical 'Hair'. The six months they spent with the show gave them the luxury of developing their own music without the pressures of compromise of commerciality 'normal' bands were under to stay alive. That time also gave Tully the time to develop a reputation as an 'event' band. They staged their own special concerts, starred in their own six episode half hour TV series of the ABC (where else?), played at Australia's first outdoor festival Ourimbah, and performed with the Sydney Orchestra. By the time they deemed to travel beyond their Sydney base, around the time of their self-titled first album (a national top ten without a hit single), Tully's reputation preceded them. On stage they cast an appearance and sound like no other. Singer Terry Wilson stood immobile at the microphone, his body and arms usually hidden by a pancho draped cross his shoulders. On one side of him Michael Carlos played a keyboard instrument called the Moog, the father of the modern synthesiser. Tully were the first Australian band to use the instrument, which in England was an integral part of bands like the Moody Blues and Emerson Lake and Palmer. On the other side of Terry Wilson, Tully's multi-instrumentalist Richard Lockwood sat in a large wooden chair, like guru rather than a rock musician, as he swapped between his sax and clarinet. The band was completed by bass player Ken Firth and drummer Robert Taylor. By then Tully were also known for their devotion to Indian mystic Meher Baba - especially Richard Lockwood. In late 1970 Terry Wilson left the band because the rock and roller in him felt stifled surrounded by this growing spirituality. A few months later drummer Roger Taylor left for similar reasons. At this point Tully semi-merged with acoustic folk group Extradition who bassist Ken Firth moonlighted with, and the now-drummerless Tully line-up featured the voices of both Lockwood and Extradition's female singer Shayna Stewart. Extradition continued in their own right. This version of Tully released the group's only single. The second Tully album was the soundtrack to the surf movie 'Sea Of Joy', a series of musical themes rather than a band album. Each member wrote pieces and arranged them using the rest of the band as session musicians in whatever way they desired. The group had approached EMI about making three solo albums, one for each writer-member in the band, and when they were turned down went ahead anyway, turning the album into a collection of solo efforts. In June 1971, just before the release of 'Sea Of Joy' keyboard player Michael Carlos went back to the rootsy r&b rock of Levi Smith's Clefs. Tully broke up several months later, Richard Lockwood joining Tamam Shud. EMI found enough material for a third Tully album, 'Loving Is Hard', which appeared the following year. Related
artists |
| About | Licensing | Advertising | Statistics | Contact |