John Paul Young reveales his biggest music crush

“LOVE is in the Air” with 70s pop star John Paul Young (JPY) revealing his ultimate music crush as he prepares to hit the road again.
                                       

And it is not some scantily-clad, twerking R&B pop princess, that honour belongs to former Easybeats members Harry Vanda and George Young, the hit-making machines at the forefront of the British invasion of the Aussie music charts in the mid-’60s through to the ’80s new wave movement. George Young died this week, aged 70.

Vanda and Young, who met in 1964 at Villawood Migrant Hostel, formed The Easybeats with Dick Diamonde, Snowy Fleet and Stevie Wright.

From rehearsing in the hostel laundry to moving to London and collaborating with early Kinks producer Shel Talmy on “She’s so Fine” the Easybeats enjoyed a meteoric rise and by 1966 they were the biggest band in Australia.

The Easybeats, who are the subject of a new two-part ABC TV mini-series that tells the story of the five young newly-arrived immigrants who took Australian rock’n’roll to the world that is due to air later this year, disbanded in 1969 but this was just the start for Vanda and Young.

They returned to Sydney in 1974, and gave Wright, the former Easybeat’s lead singer, an instant hit with “Evie”.

For JPY they produced hits like “Yesterday’s Hero”, “Standing in the Rain”, “I Hate the Music” and “Love Is in the Air”.

They are also the production team behind the first six albums of AC/DC, that featured Young’s younger brothers Angus and Malcolm, with hits like “High Voltage” and “It’s A Long Way To The Top".

He was also wondering how a kid from Glasgow, who landed in Australia with his parents when he was 11, could be so lucky.

Chamber music festival offers a fine selection

Sticking to the usual format of three simultaneous programs changing on the hour across the day, this year's chamber music festival seemed to offer its enthusiastic patrons some more concentrated options than in previous years.
                                               

Not that all the events had a single focus; you could find quite a few with varied content like soprano Sara Macliver's​ program of songs by four composers, or Anna Goldsworthy's tour from Bach, through Schubert and Prokofiev, to the Rigoletto Paraphrase by Liszt.

In the Abbotsford Chapel, the Arcadia Winds gave a stellar account of Barber's amiable, polished Summer Music and handled Nielsen's Wind Quintet with sterling security – not least from the unflappable horn of Rachel Shaw. The building's vivid resonance helped the music travel effectively, but much the same could be said of all the festival venues.

Cellist Caleb Wong, one of the festival's Young Performers, infused the long Mural Hall with Bach's E flat Suite, complete with all repeats; and then Kodaly's prolix Suite, which emerged as impassioned, urging almost to becoming strident.

By contrast, in the spacious Rosina Auditorium pianist Stefan Cassomenos​ faced down the multiple problems presented by Beethoven's Seventh Symphony in Liszt's full-blooded transcription: virtuosity riddled with smashing chords, a no-holds-barred exhibition of relentless drive.