Billy Thorpe

Billy Thorpe, Bandstand and Sunbury Pop Festival veteran died of a heart attack on 28/2/07. Billy Thorpe first came into public prominence on a national level as lead singer of the group Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs. The group was originally formed in Sydney in 1963,with Billy Thorpe as lead singer. His powerful voice and showmanship made him one of the most popular and respected rock performers in Australian music both then and later.



Billy Thorpe was born on 29 March 1946 in Manchester. He was "discovered" in Brisbane and at the age of ten he was appearing regularly on Queensland television. When he was 17 he moved to Sydney as a solo country/pop singer just as the Beatles were breaking. Always one to recognize opportunity knocking Thorpe teamed up with instrumental band The Aztecs and together they became one of the first Australian groups to contribute to the new sixties era of pop. The group broke through in mid-1964 with a massive nationwide hit, their cover of the Leiber and Stoller classic "Poison Ivy". Over the next twelve months the band reigned supreme as the most popular 'beat' group in Australia, scoring further hits with the songs "Mashed Potato", "Sick And Tired" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", until they were eclipsed by the emergence of The Easybeats in 1965.
Thorpe went solo in 1967 and for a brief time he hosted his own TV pop show, It's All Happening, but personal problems and a widely publicised bankruptcy brought this phase of his career to an end in 1968.
In 1969 Thorpe decided to go to England, after being offered a recording deal by the Australian-born, London-based impresario Robert Stigwood, who had risen to become manager of The Bee Gees and Cream. While rehearsing a backing band in Melbourne that would form the basis for a new Aztecs, the guitarist unexpectedly dropped out, leaving Thorpe to assume lead guitar role at short notice. It marked another turning point in his career and from this point on Thorpe played lead guitar in The Aztecs as well as continuing as lead vocalist. His planned six-week stay in Melbourne soon stretched into months and eventually Thorpe decided to remain in Australia and re-launch his career.
The new Aztecs' blues-based heavy-rock repertoire was dramatically different in style from the original group, and they quickly became famous (or notorious) for the ear-splitting volume at which they played. Thorpe had also drastically changed his appearance -- he grew a beard, often wore his now shoulder-length hair braided in a pigtail, and he had long since traded the tailored suits for jeans and t-shirts. Needless to say this did not endear to people who came to the shows expecting the 'old' Billy Thorpe of the "Poison Ivy" era, and this led to sometimes violent confrontations with disgruntled fans and promoters.Thorpe himself openly acknowledges that this new 'heavy' version of the Aztecs owes much to 'guitar hero' Lobby Loyde.
In early 1972 the Aztecs released what became their biggest hit, the song which became Thorpe's signature tune -- "Most People I Know (Think That I'm Crazy)", a song now widely regarded as one of the classics of Australian rock. It was a huge national hit for the new Aztecs, going Top 5 in all cities (there was no national chart at this time), propelled to the top of charts by the band's triumphant appearance at the legendary 1972 Sunbury Music Festival. Thorpe himself saw this as a pivotal moment in the development of Australian music, thanks to the promoters' decision to feature an all-Australian lineup, rather than relying on imported stars.
After "Most People I Know" was unsuccessfully been released in England Thorpe set his sights on the US, disbanding the Aztecs and adopting more of an adult rock oriented style. In 1979 Thorpe signed a US deal with American producer Spencer Proffer and recorded the ambitious science fiction/rock opera concept album Children Of The Future, which achieved Top 20 status in America, selling 500,000 copies. The follow-up album 21st Century Man also gained a US gold record. The years that followed saw Thorpe concentrated on non-music business activities as diverse as electronics and toys, before forming Zoo with Mick Fleetwood in 1990.
In July 1996 Billy Thorpe returned to Australia to live and authored two highly-entertaining best selling books touching on his life and career, Sex Thugs And Rock'n'Roll, and naturally, Most People I Know.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia