Blackfeather - Live Sunbury 73

Blackfeather are an Australian rock group which formed in April 1970. The band has had numerous line-ups, mostly fronted by founding lead singer, Neale Johns. An early heavy rock version recorded their debut album, At the Mountains of Madness (April 1971), which peaked at number seven on the Go-Set Top 20 Albums chart. It provided the single, "Seasons of Change" (May 1971), which was co-written by Johns with lead guitarist, John Robinson. In July 1972 a piano-based line-up led by Johns issued an Australian number-one single, "Boppin' the Blues" which went to number 1 on the Australian charts.Blackfeather formed in April 1970 in Sydney by Leith Corbett on bass guitar, Mike McCormack on drums, and John Robinson on lead guitar (all from the Dave Miller Set), plus lead vocalist, Neale Johns.[1][2][3] Robinson recalled meeting Johns, "a small guy with a huge voice, Neale was very taciturn. He was into the blues and had excellent range. Their name was derived from two found suggested in a book, "Whitefeather" and "Heavyfeather" Corbett and McCormack left soon after, replaced by Robert Fortesque on bass guitar and Alexander Kash on drums. Corbett subsequently reunited with singer Dave Miller to record a duo album, Reflections of a Pioneer. Johns and Robinson wrote or co-wrote the band's original materialBlackfeather became a popular hard rock group in Sydney and Melbourne and signed with Festival Records' newly founded progressive subsidiary, Infinity Records.[1] They recorded their debut album, At the Mountains of Madness (April 1971) with co-production by Robinson and Richard Batchens (The Cleves).[1][3] The album peaked at number seven on the Go-Set Top 20 Albums chart.[4] Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, felt it "remains a highly regarded progressive rock album, highlighted by Robinson's fluid, inventive guitar technique and a swag of adventurous songs."[1]
At the Mountains of Madness included the track, "Seasons of Change", co-written by Johns and Robinson. During recording, in late 1970, Robinson asked members of the group Fraternity, John Bissett and Bon Scott, to contribute to the album. Neale and Robinson gave Fraternity "Seasons of Change" to record as a single, with Scott on lead vocals. That group relocated to Adelaide and released it in March 1971, which peaked at number one on the local charts. Robinson had a verbal agreement with Infinity's David Sinclair that their label would not release the original Blackfeather version to compete with it. As soon as Fraternity's version began charting in Adelaide, Festival rush-released the Blackfeather variety as a single. It reached number 15 on the Go-Set National Top 40, charted for 16 weeks and was listed at number 40 on Go-Set's top singles for 1971.[6]Despite their success internal frictions escalated and there were further line-up changes. By August 1971 the line-up was Neale, Robinson, Harry Brus (ex-Dave Miller Set, Jeff St John's Copperwine) on bass guitar and Steve Webb on drums.[1][3] Johns and Robinson parted ways and each fronted their own version of Blackfeather.In early 1972 Blackfeather with Johns, Ward and Wylde were joined by Billy Taylor (ex-Flake) on lead guitar. With Gil Matthews (of Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs) guesting on drums they recorded a new song called "Boppin' the Blues" (July 1972).[1][2] It became a number-one hit in Australia in October for four weeks. In September of that year a four-piece line-up of Johns, Ward, Wylde and Greg Sheehan on drums were recorded live at Melbourne Town Hall and the Q Club for the second Blackfeather album, Boppin' the Blues.[1][3] It was produced by Howard Gable and released in December 1972.[1][3] McFarlane noticed they "relied on dominant boogie-woogie piano as a substitute for guitar."[1]Wylde quit at the end of 1972; he was replaced by two guitarists, Lindsay Wells (ex-Healing Force) and Tim Piper, which returned Blackfeather to the harder, guitar-based style of the Robinson-era group.[1][3] They performed at the second Sunbury Pop Festival in January 1973.[1][2] The set was released in the following year as another live album, Live! (Sunbury). A track, "I'm Gonna Love You", appeared on Mushroom Records' inaugural release, the triple-album, Sunbury 1973 – The Great Australian Rock Festival (April 1973). The third Blackfeather single, "Slippin; & Sliddin'", a cover of Little Richard's track, was issued in February 1973; by which time Sheehan had quit and the group split in April. Johns briefly performed solo before joining former band mates, Penson and Ward, in Flake; which disbanded late in 1974.[1]
Live footage from an Australian ABC recording of the band doing the famous Stones track.
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/album/7d0UlUS5suybZ3gfrmDjJh?si=qtx-OLgOTK-zfX5IIJgAmQ

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