On this day in 1985, the first Farm Aid concert was held

The 1985 Live Aid concert, Dylan made a comment during his performance that he would like to see some portion of the money raised go towards the mortgages of American farmers. Though these comments were criticised, they inspired Willer Nelson, John Mellencamp and Neil Young to organise the Farm Aid benefit concert.

Held at the Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois, the show drew a crowd of approximately 80,000 people. Among the performers were Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, B.B. King, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. The stacked line-up clearly worked as the many attendees raised a significant figure for U.S.  farmers.

The original plan was to raise enough money to help cover some mortgages for farmers and help with their businesses. The organisers believed one show would be enough to raise this money and while they did raise over $9 million for U.S. family farmers, the conclusion was drawn that the issues facing the agricultural industry were more complex than originally thought and it was decided to make Farm Aid an annual event.

The event continues today, and Nelson, Mellencamp and Young still sit on the board of directors.

On this day in 1979, Led Zeppelin’s final album hits #1 in the United States

Two years after the release of their seventh studio album, Presence, the band decided it was time to record again.  Deciding on a change of scenery, the band headed to ABBA’s Polar Studios in Stockholm, Sweden to record through November and December 1978.

The album they recorded, In Through The Out Door, is notable for its increased focus on keyboard instruments, with John Paul Jones and vocalist Robert Plant showing greater influence than drummer John Bonham and guitarist Jimmy Page. Both Bonham and Page were struggling with health issues at the time which likely contributed to the shift in focus. 

The band held on to the recordings and continued working on the album until its release on the 15th August 1979. It found immediate success, climbing rapidly to the number one spot. The success seemed to be infectious, as the release pulled the rest of the band’s catalogue into the Top 200 alongside it.  

Sadly, In Through the Out Door would be the final release from the band. In late 1980, John Bonham would tragically be found dead from alcohol-induced asphyxiation, which in turn pushed the band to call it quits, claiming the band would not have been the same without one of its members.

On this day in 1965, an advertisement was put out that would cast The Monkees

The original idea for The Monkees as a television show and musical project was conceived in 1962 by aspiring filmmaker Bob Rafelson, though he was initially unable to sell the concept. The project was then idle until an agreement was made with Columbia Pictures in April 1965. 

Rafelson had originally planned to make the program with an existing folk rock group called the Lovin’ Spoonful but soon realised the band had signed a record deal, making it impossible to use their music on the television program. Soon after, Rafelson and his partners discovered and focused on Davy Jones, a star in the Broadway show Oliver! 

By September, the project was ready to find its other members, and an ad was run in the Daily Variety and The Hollywood Reporter calling for auditions. The ads read;

“Madness!! Auditions. Folk  & Roll Musicians-Singers for acting roles in new TV series. Running parts for 4 insane boys, age 17-21. Want spirited Ben Frank’s-types. Have courage to work. Must come down for interview.”

A total of 437 applicants were  auditioned before Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz were chosen for the roles. The series officially began in August of 1966 and before long the members were both TV and rockstars.

On this day in 1979, INXS played their first show

The bands origins began at Davidson High School in Sydney when Andrew Farriss convinced his classmate Michael Hutchence to join his band Doctor Dolphin with fellow classmates Kent Kerny and Neil Sanders, as well as Garry Beers and Geoff Kennely from a nearby school. The line-up changed in 1977 when Andrew’s older brother Tim invited him, Hutchence and Beers to join him, younger brother Jon and friend Kirk Pengilly for a new band they would call “The Farriss Brothers”.

The Farriss Brothers played their first show together in August of 1977 at Whale Beach, north of Sydney. In 1978, the Farriss’ parents relocated to Perth with Jon, and as soon as they finished school the rest of the band followed. They performed briefly in Perth as The Vegetables before moving back to Sydney 10 months later.

Soon after, at chance meeting in the car park of the Royal Antler pub on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Tim Farriss was approached by the manager of Midnight Oil, Gary Morris. This meeting would become a big opportunity for the band as they begin to regularly support Midnight Oil and other local bands. 

Morris informed the band that a member of Midnight Oil’s crew had suggested a new name of INXS, inspired by English band XTC and Australian jam company IXL. He also suggests the band adopt a Christian image, which the band briefly considered but decided against. On the 1st of September 1979, the band appear as INXS for the first time at the Ocean Beach Hotel in Umina, kickstarting their long and hugely successful careers.

On this date in 1994, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant reunite for a MTV concert

After Led Zeppelin parted ways in 1980, Plant and Page formed the Honeydrippers along with a number of studio musicians and friends, releasing their only album in 1984. Following this, the members of Zeppelin would reunite for a 1985 Live Aid concert  in Philadelphia and a 1988 Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary concert with mixed results.

In 1994, Plant and Page were contacted to perform a concert for MTV’s “Unplugged” series, a popular set of concerts where performers played acoustic versions of their well-known songs. The pair met at LTV Studios in London, where they set about recording the 90 minute performance, later titled “UnLedded”. 

This performance led to Plant and Page recording an album based on the premise, with “No Quarter: Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded” releasing in October and featuring numerous reworked Led Zeppelin songs. This was followed by a world tour, giving a new generation of fans a chance to see their heroes.

On this date in 1962, Ringo Starr played his first concert with The Beatles

Throughout the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, Starr was drumming for one of Liverpool’s leading bands, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, which is where he got the stage name Ringo Starr, based on his rings and the country and western implication.

Eventually, in 1960 the band agreed to a residency in Hamburg that they had initially turned down. This residency led to them performing at the Kaiserkeller alongside The Beatles, introducing Starr to his future band. He performed as stand-in for them on several instances from 1960 to 1962. On the 14th August 1962, John Lennon officially invited Starr to join the band, which he promptly accepted. Two days later, Pete Best was fired as drummer.

On the 18th, Starr made his debut with The Beatles, at a horticultural society dance at the Hulme Hall, Port Sunlight. Starr’s first few months were plagued by unhappy Best fans, with loud protesting and one fan going as far as to give him a black eye. By November, however, he had been widely accepted by most fans, ahead of the band’s meteoric rise.

On this day in 1966, The Beatles arrived at O’Hare Airport in Chicago ahead of their last tour of the US

The tour, consisting of 17 US shows and 2 Canadian, the tour would prove to be a deciding factor in the bands decision to quit touring and shift their focus to producing albums.

The tour was overshadowed by the controversy caused by Lennon’s controversial comment regarding The Beatles “being more popular than Jesus”, a comment that incited protests and threats against the band, especially throughout the Bible Belt in the south. Upon their arrival in Chicago, Lennon appeared at his first in a series of press conferences to explain and apologise for the remark.

The band were also dissatisfied with noise levels at many of the shows, as well as the usual issues with security and crowd control. On top of this, the band would cause further controversy when they spoke out against the Vietnam War. By the end of the month their retirement from touring had been decided on, with their last paid concert taking place on the 29^th August in San Francisco, California.

Remembering Australian music legend Archie Roach

This week as Australia mourns the loss of one of our Indigenous legends, Archie Roach, we here at the Ritchie Yorke Project decided to focus on his incredible life and achievements rather than our usual Throwback Thursday. Archie Roach was a legend of Australian music and a staunch supporter of Indigenous rights in our country, and his contributions have led to great advancements in our relations with Indigenous Australians. 

Archie Roach was born in 1956, during the times of the Stolen Generation, a policy started by the Australian Government that forcibly removed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, based on an assumption that Indigenous peoples were dying off. The horrific logic determined that these stolen children would marry into white society and eventually be assimilated. In practice, the Stolen Generation movement led to abuse, neglect, poverty and addiction issues amongst the generation.

Roach was born in Mooroopna, Victoria and when he was two or three was forcibly removed from his parents custody, along with his sisters and placed in an orphanage. He was placed in two unpleasant foster care arrangements before being adopted by a family of Scottish immigrants, who taught him the basics of guitars and keyboards and broadened his musical horizons. At fifteen years old, he was contacted by his sister who informed him his mother had died. He spent the next fourteen years battling alcoholism and homelessness. During this period he met his wife and musical partner Ruby Hunter who strongly supported and encouraged his efforts throughout his entire career.

In the late 1980’s Roach and Hunter formed their first band, the Altogethers and moved to Melbourne, where Roach wrote “Took the Children Away” based on his experiences as part of the Stolen Generation. Australian musical legend Paul Kelly invited Roach to perform the song at one of his concerts where it was meant with stunned silence and then thunderous applause. Emboldened by this experience, Roach decided to write his debut solo album, Charcoal Lane, which was certified gold and awarded two ARIA Awards. Roach went on to write another nine incredible albums and opened for huge acts like Bob Dylan, Tracy Chapman and Joan Armatrading.

Roach is remembered not just for his musical efforts, but also his dedication to activism and the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples. Roach was an elder of the Gunditjmara and Bundjalung people and strongly advocated for their rights and freedom. Throughout his career, he has written numerous songs regarding the Stolen Generation and other mistreatments of First Nations people. In 2013, he called on recently elected Prime Minister Tony Abbott to end the Northern Territory Intervention, a largely discriminatory set of restrictions placed on Aboriginal communities in the territory, including changes to education, employment, health, welfare payments and restrictions on the purchase of alcohol. In 2014 he started the Archie Roach Foundation alongside a number of significant elders, a charity designed to nurture meaningful opportunities for First Nations artists, including coaching youth to make positive choices and encouraging creative projects amongst Indigenous people.

Roach has been honoured numerous times for his efforts, musically and otherwise. In 2011, he was amongst the first to be inducted to the Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll. In 2015 he received a Member of the Order of Australia for services to music and as prominent supporter of social justice. In 2020, Roach was named Victoria Australian of the Year. He has received 8 ARIA awards from 21 nominations. He has also received a Red Ochre Award form the Australia Council for the Arts, a Don Banks Music Award, a J Award, an APRA award, two Mo Awards, a Music Victoria Award, A National Dreamtime Award, four National Indigenous Music Awards and eight Deadly Awards. Roach is also an inductee of the ARIA Hall of Fame, the Music Victoria Hall of Fame and the National Indigenous Music Awards Hall of Fame. In 2013 he was awarded The Lifetime Contribution Award For Healing The Stolen Generations by the Deadly Awards. This year, two pillar shaped monuments were erected on the shores of Lake Bonney at Barmera in honour of Archie Roach and wife Ruby Hunter. The artwork on each totem depicts Hunter’s Ngarrindjeri totem, the pelican and Roach’s totem, the eagle.

Archie Roach, tragically passed away on the 30th of July 2022. He is important to the Australian people not just as a musician, but for his tireless efforts in advancing the rights and recognition of Indigenous peoples in this country. Songs like “Took The Children Away” showed the power of using music to bring attention to social injustices like the horrific mistreatment of Aboriginal families, while charitable work like fostering youths and forming the Archie Roach Foundation have performed an invaluable role in beginning to heal the divides formed in Australia. He will be remembered as a powerful songwriter, performer, artist and advocate. The Ritchie Yorke Project encourages you to read further obituaries and accounts of his incredible life, as well as to listen to some of his amazing music. As Ritchie and John agreed, music is the instrument to social change. 

A link to more information about the Archie Roach Foundation, as well as to donate is available here.

Rest In Peace Archie Roach 

1956-2022

On this day in 1971, George Harrison released his song “Bangla Desh”

In late 1970, the state of East Pakistan suffered around 300,000 casualties when the Bhola cyclone struck its shores. The governments indifference was a factor that led to the Bengali national movement seeking independence, and ultimately the Bangladesh Liberation War.

After the growing humanitarian crisis was brought to Harrison’s attention by friend and spiritual guide Ravi Shankar, Harrison decided to hold the Concert for Bangladesh at Madison Square Garden in New York on the 1^st of August, leading to several weeks of frantic organisation.

While preparing, Harrison and Shankar became concerned by the mainstream medias reluctance to report the whole story and realised more widespread attention needed to be drawn to the events unfolding. Harrison later revealed he sat down at the piano and wrote the song in around 10 minutes.

The songs content deliberately steers away from the politics of the situation, focusing instead on the human perspective. The recording of the track was rushed through in Los Angeles during the scramble to prepare for the Concert for Bangladesh. Despite this, the song was a hit and served its purpose in drawing attention to the crisis. The concert, held three days after the songs release is remembered as the first benefit of this magnitude, inspiring countless others to use their music to create change.

On this day in 1969, The Beatles recorded their anthem, “Come Together”

Lennon had a busy start to 1969 with his and Yoko Ono’s peace campaign, and during the Montreal portion of the bed-in, they were met by numerous countercultural figures. One of these people was American psychologist Timothy Leary, who intended to run for governor of California in 1970. Leary requested that Lennon write him a campaign song based on his slogan, “Come together – Join the Party!”

Lennon recorded a simple chant of “come together and join the party” and Leary recalls Lennon giving him a tape of the piece with a promise to complete it, however the two did not interact again. During the sessions for Abbey Road, Lennon decided to use the phrase “come together” as the basis for a new song. The song was also heavily inspired by the 1956 single “You Can’t Catch Me” by Chuck Berry, with some lyrics only slightly altered, which led to a later string of lawsuits.

“Come Togther” is now widely considered one of The Beatles best and most iconic songs, shooting to the top the charts around the world. Rolling Stone listed it at number 202 on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.