Wednesday 5 March 2014

Ted Mulry Gang.

                                                                    Ted Mulry Gang.

Ted Mulry first came to the attention of the music industry when he sent a demo of some of his own compositions to Albert Productions inSydney. He was persuaded to be recorded himself and soon rose to fame as a solo singer/songwriter with his own composition, the pop ballad "Julia", which made the Australian charts in 1970. He then went on to score a major hit with The Easybeats songwriting team,Harry Vanda & George Young song, "Falling In Love Again" in 1971. He was a prolific songwriter and a number of bands and artists, such as John Farnham and Alison MacCallum, recorded his songs, the most notable being rock band Sherbet, who had a hit with his song, "You're All Woman". He travelled to England briefly in 1972 and recorded one single there under the name Steve Ryder but returned to Australia soon after. During his time as a solo artist he released two albums, Falling In Love Again and I Won't Look Back.

Ted Mulry Gang        After getting tired of being backed by different backing bands, in 1972 he switched from acoustic guitar to bass and formed his own band, Ted Mulry Gang, with guitarist Les Hall & drummer Herman Kovac. The band signed a recording deal with Albert Productions in 1974 and released their first album Here We Are. When that album didn't do as well as expected, the record company wanted Mulry to go back to singing solo.  Ronnie Clayton told them to stick to it and brought in second guitarist Gary Dixon to complete the foursome. With his own band behind him he adopted a more hard rocking style.

Their first major hit, and the biggest of their career was the 1975 single "Jump in My Car" which spent 6 weeks at number one on the Australian singles charts in 1976. It was the second single released from the Here We Are album produced by John L Sayers at Trafalgar Studios. Over the next few years they achieved a string of hit singles including a rocked up version of the old jazz song, "Darktown Strutters' Ball", "Crazy", "Jamaica Rum" and "My Little Girl". Many of TMG's songs, including "Jump In My Car", were co-written with guitarist Les Hall. By late 1980 their chart success had ended but they remained popular performers on the Australian pub circuit. In 1989, after some time apart, the Ted Mulry gang reformed, releasing the album "Re-Union" for Albert, on Sony. This release also marked the first release of the Ted Mulry Gang on compact disc. Other CD reissues would follow in the early 90's.

In 1998 Ted released a solo CD called This Time featuring songs co-written by himself and his brother Steve Mulry. In early 2001 Ted Mulry announced that he had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancerGimme Ted, a series of tribute concerts organized shortly before his death, brought together an assortment of Australian rock acts of his era to pay tribute to him. These included a reunion of his band Ted Mulry Gang with his brother Steve Mulry standing in for him as lead vocalist. Steve now fronts the rock band Black Label   and performs at many venues, around New South Wales and Victoria, often supporting bands such as The Angels.

In January 2006, David Hasselhoff recorded a version of Ted's classic "Jump In My Car' whilst in Australia. Hasselhoff's version was subsequently released in the UK and went to #3 in the charts there in October 2006.








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