Australian

Baby Animals are a hard rock band from Australia, formed in 1989 by vocalist Suze DeMarchi, drummer Frank Celenza, guitarist Dave Leslie and bass player Eddie Parise. They scored an immediate domestic No. 1 single with “Early Warning” and featured further Top 10 hits with “Painless”, “Rush You” and “One Word”. Their eponymous debut album Baby Animals was released in February 1992 and went multi-platinum. In 1993, the group released Shaved and Dangerous and attempted to break into the international market. However, in 1995, on the verge of their first major US tour, their US-based record company Imago Records folded. Following contractual problems and DeMarchi requiring surgery for her vocal cords, the band split in early 1996. DeMarchi eventually married guitarist Nuno Bettencourt of Boston-based Extreme and released a solo album, Telelove in 1999.

Baby Animals reformed in 2007 and released an acoustic CD of their hits entitled "Il Grande Silenzio" on January 19th 2008, as part of the Liberation Blue Acoustic Series. January 21st 2008 saw Liberation Records re-release their previous two albums ("Baby Animals" and "Shaved and Dangerous" remastered) as a 2 CD set, albeit missing the track "Big Time Friends". The band also toured Australia in January 2008 and appeared live on the Australian breakfast TV program "Sunrise" on January 22nd 2008.

On January 12th 2009 Baby Animals announced another Australian tour, playing 14 shows across Adelaide, Melbourne, Wollongong, Sydney, Sunshine Coast, Brisbane and the Gold Coast during April 2009. Frank Celenza resigned from the band only to reinstate himself two days later, and due to this and other internal conflicts DeMarchi & Leslie decided to continue the band with two hand-picked Sydney musicians, Matt Cornell (Bass/ Vocals) and Mick Skelton (Drums).

DeMarchi moved back home to Australia with children Bebe and Lorenzo in 2010 and the plan was for her husband, Bettencourt, to follow soon afterwards. The move never happened with Bettencourt sending an email saying the marriage was over. The breakup gave rise to the song E-Mail which features on the 3rd album This Is Not The End that was released in 2013.

The Baby Animals lineup behind that 3rd album now boasted a new line-up of Suze DeMarchi (Vocals/Guitar), Dave Leslie (Guitar/Vocals), Dario Bortolin (Bass/Vocals) and Mick Skelton (Drums). The album was a fast turnaround. After an intensive writing period, the band entered a two-week pre-production period. The recording stage at Sydney’s Blackfoot Studio was also relatively quick. This Is Not the End was cut in three weeks, and mixed-down in another two. The album was followed by an intense number of tour dates.

Baby Animals celebrated the 25th anniversary of the self-titled album in May 2016 with a concert in Melbourne and Sydney that featured both the current and original line-ups. The current line-up played songs off of the 2nd and 3rd albums, whilst the original lineup powered through end-to-end set of the self-titled album. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

Richard Clapton (1951?-) is an Australian singer/songwriter. His date of birth is somewhat elusive, but in an interview with the Melbourne Age in 2002, he described himself as 50 something. In an article in "Who" magazine his birthdate was given as 1951.

His albums include: "Prussian Blue" (1973)"Girls on the Avenue" (1975) "Main Street Jive" 1976 "Goodbye Tiger" 1977, "Past Hits and Previews" 1978 "Hearts on the Nightline" 1979 "Dark Spaces" 1980 "The Great Escape" 1982 "Solidarity" 1984 "Glory Road" 1987 "The Best Years of Our Lives" 1989 "Distant Thunder" 1993 "Angeltown" 1995, "Diamond Mine" 2004 and "Rewired" 2006.

Although not well-known outside Australia, a number of his songs such as "Girls On The Avenue", "Capricorn Dancer", "Deep Water", "Lucky Country", "The Best Years of Our Lives", and "I Am an Island" are staples of FM radio playlists in Australia.

The early 1970s are often regarded as a stagnant time for Australian rock music. In this context, the emergence of Richard Clapton as a talented and ambitious songwriter in the "troubadour" tradition of, for instance, Neil Young and Jackson Browne (both of whom later expressed their admiration for Clapton) was refreshing. Although no hit singles were on his first album, "Prussian Blue", by the time of his second album, "Girls on the Avenue," Clapton enjoyed a reasonable amount of mainstream success, with the title song from the album reaching #2 spot on the Australian top 40 charts. Clapton's first five albums were produced by Richard Batchens.

At the times of its release, "Goodbye Tiger" was one of the most critically acclaimed albums an Australian artist had produced. It was produced by Richard Batchens, who was one of the most prominent and successful producers of the era.(See articles collected on the fan site linked below for confirmation of this). Many Clapton fans continue to regard this notably melancholic record as Clapton's masterpiece.

Thereafter, Clapton played less of a central role in the music industry; although "The Great Escape" (featuring contributions from members of Cold Chisel and INXS) sold strongly and contained memorable singles in "I Am an Island" and "The Best Years of Our Life." During the early 1980s he was acknowledged as a mentor to several bands emerging from the then vigorous pub-rock scene, in particular INXS whose second LP, Underneath the Colours he produced.

On a 2006 album, Rewired, recorded at his home studio, Clapton produced "unplugged" acoustic versions of his early songs. This album contains many early Clapton Gems that have been reworked to fit in with the acoustic vibe of the album.

(From the Wikipedia entry for Richard Clapton) Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.