Graeme 'Shirley' Strachan

Graeme Strachan was born in the Melbourne suburb of Malvern on January 2, 1952. He became a carpenter after woodwork was the only subject he passed in fourth form at Mt.Waverly High. After hearing the wah wah pedal on Jimi Hendrix's 'Foxy Lady' the surfing carpenter had also become a music fan. Meeting drummer Freddy Strauks as a party Graeme was drawn into Freddy's circle of friends, which included Strauks' high school buddy Greg Macainsh. In 1971 when the two friends decided to form another group together, Freddy suggested Graeme. He hadn't heard him sing. He just liked Strachan's personality. Working for his father as a carpenter, Strachan also had a panel van which would come in very handy for carrying the group's equipment. They called themselves Frame, and gave their first performance at Eltham's artists' colony Montsalvat on April 19, 1971. For Frame's early performances their singer stood facing the band, too shy to face the audience. In November 1972 he decided to leave the band and carpentry to go surfing at Phillip Island. He would have done it earlier but his father insisted on Graeme finishing his apprenticeship. Now he had and he was off, and Frame was forced to split.

In Graeme Strachan's absence Greg Macainsh and Freddy Strauks chose to press on with their music career, found another singer, Steve Hill, some other musicians, and formed a new group. For no other reason than that they were sick of the name Frame they renamed themselves Skyhooks. They were starting to get somewhere, with a lot of gigs and Mushroom Records hovering, thinking of offering them a record contract. But Steve Hill was "freaking out" at the thought of becoming a pop star. It was against his radical political activist principles. He decided to leave and Mushroom Records quickly lost interest. Daddy Cool's Ross Wilson, who had signed up Greg Macainsh's songs, briefly considered offering his own services. Greg briefly considered the Masters Apprentices' Jim Keays. In March 1974 Greg and Freddy decided to go down to Phillip Island to find Graeme Strachan, not knowing that at the same time he was on the same road heading back to Melbourne for winter. In the meantime he'd been nicknamed "Shirley" by his surfie mates.

"Shirl" was happy to rejoin the band. Not only did he have a new identity, he took his singing role on with new maturity and attitude. Greg told him he'd need to work the stage, and 'Shirl' never looked back, roaming the stage like a maniac. When Mushroom saw the group again they were immediately interested once more. They tried to get the singer to drop the 'Shirley', but he refused. Three months after joining the band Shirl stopped working for his father again, this time for a career in music. Things were happening for Skyhooks. They were on the road to success. As well as his singing duties Graeme Strachan took on the band's management, right until they became too big, and they let Mushroom records' Michael Gudinski handle things.

In August 1975, after a record 16 weeks at No.1 nationally with their first album, 'Living In The Seventies', and the second album just entrenched at the top, presumably for another long stay, Skyhooks finally took a break. Even the band was surprised by the newspaper headlines which announced that 'Shirl' had gone to London to catch up with the girlfriend he'd left behind in Phillip Island, and Graeme and Sandy had married at the Hammersmith registry office. Ironically Skyhooks' latest single was 'All My Friends Are Getting Married'. Speculation that Shirl wanted out altogether was squashed by the announcement that Skyhooks had been signed to an American recording contract.

After the Hooks released their American-recorded third album Shirl embarked on a solo recording career, making sure not to get in the way of the Hooks by recording non-original material. Shirl's first solo single, his version of American r&b singer's 'Every Little Bit Hurts' (suggested by Melbourne radio legend Stan Rofe) was a top ten hit. Eight months later he released the Miracles' 'Tracks Of My Tears'. Skyhooks in the meantime had started to struggle, and not one to do something he wasn't enjoying any more, Shirl left. It didn't mean that much to him. This time Greg Macainsh thought about poaching Midnight Oil's Peter Garrett, but ended up going back to his drawer of old singers and invited his pre-Frame group's singer Tony Williams to take Shirl's place.

Shirley Strachan had fallen in love with television. Every time he'd been allowed to do something other than just sing and mime on television he'd made an impression with the mischievous and irreverent personality that had made him such a potent rock star. He would have loved to have been allowed to host a talk show or something. But television didn't have room to indulge someone young and new like Shirl. So Shirl came up with something they would like, a national children's show, featuring the former rock singer and a variety of animal characters. He recorded a couple of albums with 'Shirl's Neighbourhood', happily destroying his rock credentials.

In the years which followed Strachan juggled his various interests. He became a radio personality. He recorded a rock and roll album for TV sales specialist Hammard. He took part in Skyhooks reunions. Eventually he joined TV's 'Our House' team as their resident carpentry hints host, a means to an end to all the other things that obsessed his life away from the public eye. On August 29th, 2001 the helicopter he was learning to fly crashed into Mount Alexander near Kilroy, northwest of Brisbane. Graeme 'Shirley' Strachan died instantly.

Related artists
Skyhooks