The Easybeats -

The Easybeats were an Australian rock band that released five albums between 1965 and 1969 and scored national hits with “Sorry,” “She’s So Fine,” “Wedding Ring,” and “Heaven and Hell.” Abroad, they charted with “St. Louis” and the sixties anthem “Friday On My Mind.” The creative team of Harry Vanda and George Young went into production work and later ran the studio-based art-pop project Flash and the Pan.

Members: Stevie Wright (vocals), Harry Vanda (guitar), George Young (guitar), Dick Diamonde [Dingeman van der Sluys] (bass), Gordon “Snowy” Fleet (drums, 1964-67), Tony Cahill (drums, 1967-69)

Background

The Easybeats formed in Sydney in 1964 when guitarists Harry Vanda and George Young teamed with singer Stevie Wright, bassist Dick Diamonde, and drummer Gordon Fleet. All hailed from UK–European families housed at the Villawood Migrant Centre, a community for post-war migrants.

Vanda (b. Johannes Hendrikus Jacob van den Berg, March 22, 1946) hailed from Voorburg, Netherlands. His first band was The Starfighters, a Hague-based act. In 1963, he moved with his family to Australia.

Young (b. George Redburn Young, November 6, 1946) hailed from Glasgow. Amid Scotland’s ‘big freeze’ of 1962–63, where snow levels reached eight feet, he fled to Australia with fifteen family members, including two younger brothers (Angus and Malcolm) and two older, married siblings and their families. (One older brother, Alex, stayed in the UK and later fronted the pop-psych band Grapefruit.)

Wright (b. Stephen Carlton Wright, December 20, 1947) hailed from Leeds, England, and moved with his family to Australia at age nine. In 1963–4, he briefly fronted The Outlaws and Chris Langdon & the Langdells, both surf-inspired backyard bands.

Diamonde (b. Dingeman Adriaan Henry van der Sluijs, December 28, 1947) hailed from Hilversum, Netherlands. When he was four, his family migrated to Australia, where he was raised a Jehovah’s Witness.

Fleet (b. August 16, 1945) came from Liverpool, England, the launching ground of The Beatles, who swept Australia in mid-1964 and inspired The Easybeats and numerous local competitors, including the Bee Gees, Masters Apprentices, Billy Thorpe & the Aztecs, Steve & the Board, and Max Merritt & the Meteors.

The Easybeats played their first shows in late 1964 at Beatle Village, a basement club in Sydney’s Darlinghurst neighborhood. Mike Vaughan, a local music entrepreneur, took them under his managerial wing and secured them a contract with Albert Productions, an independent publishing company that helped them land a deal with EMI Parlophone.

Discography: