The Long and Winding Way to the Top by Andrew P Street

Author:Andrew P Street
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2017-10-13T04:00:00+00:00

28

1986

You’re the Voice

John Farnham

In which a washed-up teen idol becomes the biggest-selling Australian artist of all time, and creates an alternative national anthem to boot

Given John Farnham’s exalted position as a national treasure it’s hard to fathom the fact that before Whispering Jack became the highest-selling Australian album by an Australian artist of all time,1 absolutely no-one gave a shit about him.

Born in the UK, his family had moved to Australia when he was ten and he’d played with various Melbourne bands before coming to public prominence with his 1967 novelty single ‘Sadie (The Cleaning Lady)’. The song was a #1 hit and Little Johnny Farnham was voted TV Week’s King of Pop for five years running, beginning in 1969. However, the hits started to dry up in the mid-seventies and Farnham decided to concentrate on his television career, starring in the one-season sitcom Bobby Dazzler and only singing in stage musicals.

By 1980 he was considered old hat, but the first seeds of his eventual renaissance were sown when he finally found a manager who understood his potential: former Masters Apprentices bassist Glenn Wheatley. The pair met when both were managed by Darryl Sambell, with whom Farnham had split. Wheatley immediately took control, giving Farnham a top 10 hit with his power ballad cover of the Beatles’ ‘Help!’, but that appeared to be a one-off, as subsequent singles sank without trace.

The next big idea was to plonk Farnham in the space vacated by Glenn Shorrock in Little River Band in 1982, where he got to preside over a significant decline in their commercial fortunes and an uptick in internal disagreements. By 1985 he’d jumped ship—but the experiment united him with someone who would have a significant impact on his future success: keyboardist David Hirschfelder, who joined LRB around the same time as Farnham.

Another significant thing happened around this time: while on a US trip Farnham was at a jazz club where a friend told the MC that there was a star in their midst. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, we have an Australian great in the house tonight,’ he subsequently announced. ‘Maybe he’ll step up and give us a song. Here he is folks: Jack Phantom!’—which, to be fair, is a great name.2

To his credit Farnham very reasonably thought this was hilarious, and he adopted the nickname. Then one fateful night, while some locals played pool in a pub, he started doing mock commentary of the game in the style of Pot Black’s legendary snooker caller ‘Whispering’ Ted Lowe. In that moment Whispering Jack Phantom was born: all he needed was an album.

And that was a problem, because no-one was willing to stump up the cash for a comeback record by a man best known at the time as a pop culture punchline. Wheatley had faith, though, and mortgaged his house to raise the $150,000 they needed to get the album done. Farnham, for his part, had been all but wiped out by a series of bad business decisions. He was acutely aware that this album was his last chance to save his career and financial future.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.