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From yesterday to hero

The revival of Love is in The Air for Strictly Ballroom rescued John Paul Young from near-oblivion.

_MG_9735 John Paul Young

John Paul Young has managed to squeeze me into his busy day for a quick 10 minute chat.

This week he is on the road in regional Queensland, gigging in Mackay one day, Bundaberg the next, then onto Rockhampton, Sunshine Coast and Toowoomba.

At the age of 65 (yes, 65) he is still performing the songs that saw him crowned King of Pop in 1978 and inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2009. Like most pop stars Young has ridden the wave, both in demand and waiting for the next job, including even having to become a DJ in the late 80s.

Strictly Ballroom got me out of that! It got me back on the road and I’ve been on and off the road ever since. I’m here in Mackay doing the Vanda Young Project, playing some of the songs that George & Harry wrote that I didn’t record, as well as the hits they wrote for me,” he tells TV Tonight.

Indeed Vanda & Young penned a slew of hits for the ’70s pop idol including Love is in the Air, Yesterday’s Heroes, Standing in the Rain, I Hate the Music, The Love Game, Where the Action Is, and Keep On Smiling.

The story of how the two songwriters turned Albert Records into a hit factory is told in the ABC documentary Blood & Thunder: The Story of Alberts. John Paul Young had his first hit from the pair with another song in 1972.

“We were at Liverpool Town Hall. A guy named Simon Napier-Bell was scouting for a singer for a song called Pasadena, which I heard another band play and absolutely loved the song. So it was a big, delightful shock to me that I was picked to be the one to sing it,” he recalls.

It charted at #16 before Young spent two and a half years touring in Jesus Christ Superstar.

“Then I was unemployed for a couple of months and luckily for me George and Harry came back from London and decided to start up what was to become their little hit factory. I was one of the first ones they contacted.

By early 1975 he debut appearance on Countdown would become the stuff of infamy when producers whipped teenagers into a frenzy, ripping his clothes on camera during a performance of Yesterday’s Hero. With that, he never looked back.

But he owes much of it to Vanda & Young, whose knack for writing a melody and producing an Australian guitar sound catapulted The Easybeats, AC / DC, Stevie Wright, The Angels, Rose Tattoo, Ted Mulry, William Shakespeare and Cheetah to chart success.

“It’s pure pop with a rocky edge and it’s got some balls. Like a lot of things in life it’s the product of failure,” he continues.

“They failed to set the world on fire with The Easybeats and found themselves in a tough position with their backs to the wall, owing money and broke in London. All they had to work on was their own talent. So they basically shut themselves away and became workaholics.

For JPY, or ‘Squeak,’ as Molly Meldrum would dub him, the duo even produced Australian disco, with a mix of percussion, bass and piano.

“That was almost accidental. It happened because of an album track called Standing in the Rain. It was one facet of the songs that they wrote. To be honest I think they were just as surprised as anybody when Standing in the Rain became a hit in Germany. We sent it over as a B-Side to Keep On Smiling. I don’t think anybody had any expectations that would happen.”

It was a sound that would underpin Love is in the Air, the song that has been endlessly covered and that reignited Young’s career thanks to Strictly Ballroom. It was Alberts boss Ted Albert, who championed Vanda & Young’s early ability, who backed the film after seeing it on stage.

“Ted gave Baz Lurhmann the CD of 30 Years of Alberts Music and said ‘Pick what you like.’ To my joy he picked three of mine,” he recalls.

“It’s been marvellous. It’s something that doesn’t happen to everybody.

“By the late ‘70s it had been covered by 50 artists so it’s probably in the range of 500 by now.”

Ted Albert is profiled in the doco with interviews from artists, former staff and family. His story of wanting an Australian sound is just as inspiring -and hard- as Vanda & Young.

“I didn’t know him incredibly well but he was a lovely guy. I’m only learning now that he was knee-deep in the entertainment business for a long time in the ‘60s, with Billy Thorpe, Bobby & Laurie, Ray Brown and the Whispers. He was determined to expand the Australian music scene,” says Young.

“Everybody got along well with Ted. He was this God-like figure who you paid a lot of respect to. He was the boss but he was softly-spoken guy. He had a lot of brain power too. He produced Falling in Love Again for Ted Mulry and some of the early Easybeats stuff.”

I can’t help but ask if JPY was related to George Young and the AC / DC family -given all of them were born in Scotland? Young isn’t completely sure, but isn’t too fussed, either.

“I think we are, but we haven’t actually put our finger on it,” he says.

“We didn’t live far away from each other in Glasgow. The only major difference is my family is Catholic, George was in a Protestant family. But I have since found out my grandfather used to be a Protestant but became Catholic in order to marry my grandmother from Ireland.”

When he finishes in Queensland, Young will be busy with a certain other TV project that is set to see him take to the dancefloor as dancer rather than singer.

“I’ve got to say ‘No Comment,’ apparently! So there you go, I said it,” he laughs.

Seems Strictly Ballroom‘s own Love is in the Air isn’t done with him just yet, eve at 65.

“I won’t be singing it, but I think they will have me dancing it.”

I don’t believe him.

Blood & Thunder: The Sound of Alberts airs 8:30pm Thursday June 25 and July 2 on ABC.

11 Responses

  1. And Alberts *still* refuses to reissue JPY’s original albums on CD or iTunes. I’ve contacted them several times via Facebook requesting this but I get no reply. The Painting, Take the Money, Gay Time Rock and Roll City and numerous other JPY classics have never been released on CD or iTunes.

  2. Thank you for this David Knox….I am still smiling….All those names….from the ones in the 60’s on….@ Surf City in Kings Cross…a lovely interview with a really nice man….

    1. Watched this show last night… great! but one thing was missing, the actual detail of how and when the Albert Productions record label was established(during 1970) and what was the label’s very first issue?

        1. @Hoin, actually, I thought it might’ve been “Love Is A Beautiful Song” by Dave Mills(AP-9461) but checking with “The Book” Top-40 Research Ed.#7(Steve Scanes & Jim Barnes), you are perhaps correct. “Falling In Love Again” by Ted Mulry(AP-9338) charted near the beginning of 1971, so it would’ve been issued late in 1970. I had the opportunity, not once, but twice of meeting Ted. Easy-going, friendly, not full-of-himself like some are.

          1. Hmmm. Love Is A Beautiful Song, oh so out of character for the Albert Productions label! Especially when you look at the label’s latter issues!

  3. I remember seeing JPY at the height of his white “sailor suit” era, at The Hordern Pavilion, along with Ol’ 55 and I think, Sherbert.
    Like so many teenage girls at that time, I had a massive crush on Squeak.
    So looking forward to Blood and Thunder, especially Acca Dacca.
    One of my biggest regrets is never getting to see them live during their TNT/High Voltage era – by all accounts Bon was the ultimate showman and they were wild.

  4. I remember spending some time with JPY in the early ’80s, before Strictly Ballroom, when he was attempting a comeback performing at little clubs around Australia. He’s such a nice, genuine guy.

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