That's Livin' Alright: A Biography on David Mackay

By Alan Richards

As in most industries and businesses that are successful, there are the individuals that are out front and take most of the credit for being resourceful, creative and innovative. These can be people that welcome or seek the spotlight of fame and notoriety or simply those that have it thrust upon them by circumstances beyond their control but in most cases, there is usually a driving force behind their success, a clever machine that dominates the whole concept of achievement, ultimately instigated by one person of foresight and of a gifted talent. This is the case of Australian Record Producer DAVID MACKAY, as he is the man responsible for so many hit records and TV themes around the world. This is his story with many contributions from the stars he has worked with such as, Barry Gibb, Bonnie Tyler, Sir Cliff Richard, Francis Rossi and Eve Graham (New Seekers).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Mar 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781528910682

Book preview

(Chronological)

About the Author

Alan Richards has been song-writing and recording music for over 40 years. He was signed to Valley Music Publishers in London, ATV Music Publishers and a recording artiste for AIR London Studios.

His music was produced by Peter Sullivan (Tom Jones producer) and Ronnie Scott (Bonnie Tyler, Lulu and the Casuals). He later became the A&R manager at Liverpool Sound Enterprises before starting Liverpool's first record label ‘Stag Music’.

Later, he became manager to many artistes including ‘Buster’ (No.1 in Japan) and Bonnie Tyler (Mighty Music). He has a Master of Arts Degree (with merit) at Liverpool Hope University in Popular Music Studies and Society.

He currently resides in Herefordshire, UK with his wife Jodie and has four children, Daniel (from his first marriage), Gemma, Katie and Alan.

Dedication

To my wonderful wife Jodie and my brother Dave. For all your patience and listening ears when I needed them the most.

Copyright Information ©

Alan Richards (2018)

The right of Alan Richards to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781787107915 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781787107922 (E-Book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published (2018)

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd™

25 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5LQ

Acknowledgements

To David and Brenda Mackay, and all those from around the world who contributed their stories and anecdotes in making this book possible.

Also, to Dr Mike Broken from Liverpool Hope University for his inspiration.

Introduction

A Portrait of David Mackay

In the hidden history of popular music, many individuals stand in the wings.

In the case of David Mackay, he reached a very high position at an early age. Firstly, in the fledgling but popular music market in his native Australia, then in the more established music industry in the European and USA markets, initially for EMI UK, and later, as an independent producer, arranger and composer.

It was at a very important time in popular music history. Record sales reached their height during the decades of the 1960s and ’70s. The 1978–79 era was the very peak. From then began a gradual decline because of digitalisation and downloads.

We have the history of a young man working for EMI UK during part of its greatest success. As time passes, his work becomes more diverse when he leaves the major players to join the trend of self-employed musical creators, leading to the present day when, although in semi-retirement, he is still a leader in the industry. This is a classic example of someone creating a ‘portfolio career’, which, when trying to encourage more young talent into the industry, could inspire and open possibilities for them to consider.

As in David’s case, any newcomer can lose a sizeable amount of money as well as profit. Besides the multi-millionaires in the music industry, there are many who have lost fortunes, either through poor representation, naivety or crooked dealings. Some, like David, have been able to make it back. In this instance, it is down to the breadth of his expertise. For example, by the late 1980s, he was cutting fewer records, but was arranging and producing soundtracks for international mass arena spectaculars, composing TV themes and underscores, as well as commercial jingles.

So, we consider the issues that affect David Mackay and how he is a personification of someone navigating the fragmentation of the music world between the 1960s and the 21st century.

Much of his early career was with EMI, the world’s major player at that time; so the attitudes of EMI need to be examined. While he was developing a roster of Australian talent, internationally, EMI was taking very few risks, rarely releasing material from the colonies.

They did take a punt on the Aussie band ‘The Easybeats’, only because when the band visited the UK, they recorded for United Artistes who financed the sessions. UA was part of Liberty Records, which in turn was distributed by EMI, so EMI took no risks, yet benefited via their distribution arm. A similar stroke of luck arose with the very early Elvis Presley recordings. Wally Ridley, an EMI executive in the 1950s, received a tape of Elvis but discounted it as ‘nothing special’, claiming he sounded ‘like a black singer’. Sometime later, Elvis actually turned up on the HMV label through a short-lived contractual agreement between RCA and EMI.

This was the EMI David joined in 1968 when he moved to the United Kingdom, where David found himself in an office, two doors down from the same Walter Ridley.

Previously, in 1966, David experienced a preview of the UK and USA markets on a whistle-stop tour, courtesy of EMI Australia. His first stop was in Los Angeles, where he spent four weeks at Capitol Records (EMI’s American company) sitting in on sessions with Glen Campbell and the Stan Kenton Orchestra. The Stan Kenton arranger at that time was the genius, blind arranger from New Zealand, Julian Lee, who as we will see later, had been partially responsible for David moving from AWA to EMI.

Next stop was London, where would begin his lifelong relationship with fellow Australian, then Managing Director of EMI UK, the legendary Ken East and his wife Dolly. Ken’s guidance would prove to be a major influence in David’s long-term career. On this first visit, he spent many days in the Abbey Road studios, watching and meeting the Beatles, thanks to the kindness of George Martin.

What he experienced at EMI was a company enjoying amazing success.

What he would later witness was the demise of that same company.

The success in Britain was due to the Beatles, The Hollies, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Cliff Richard, Cilla Black and an extensive roster of hit artists. In America, Capitol had Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, The Beach Boys and Gene Vincent, Bobby Darin, Dean Martin and many others. Record sales for EMI worldwide were unequalled, yet in future years, sales would diminish, EMI would run into trouble, merge with Thorn Electrical Industries, suffer the fiasco with the CAT scanner, which they could not copyright and eventually ceased to be.

It was 1968 when Mackay returned to live full time in the UK. To many it would appear to have been part of a growing Australian clique in England. As early as 1961, there had been the amazing success of Peter Gormley, an Australian born artiste manager who guided the careers of many recording artists, including Cliff Richard, The Shadows, Marvin Welch and Farrar, Labi Siffre, Olivia Newton-John and Frank Ifield.

In the early ‘70s, the British Music Press (NME et al) sarcastically labelled the Gormley organisation ’The Gum Leaf Mafia’ because of the influx of Aussie artists and musicians, such as The Seekers, Kevin Peek, Terry Britten, Alan Tarney, Trevor Spencer and John Farrar.

Interestingly, much of the Australian success in England at the time had British roots. Frank Ifield, for instance, while many thought he was Australian, was in fact born in Coventry. His family emigrated when he was a child, but he returned to the UK where he found success. People believed the Bee Gees to be Australian, but they were originally from the Isle of Man; emigrating as children, only to return to find International success through their recordings in the UK.

As mentioned above, the Easybeats found International success in 1966. All of them were immigrants from Europe; Stevie Wright and Gordon Fleet were from England, George Young from Scotland, and Harry Vanda and Dick Diamonded were from the Netherlands. Vanda and Young formed a highly successful writing and production team, going on to deliver ‘Love is in the air’ for John Paul Young, and the phenomenal success of ACDC, which features George’s younger brother Angus.

From the 1970s, David Mackay has survived the ever-changing music fashions: punk, new wave, techno, grunge and heavy metal. His grounding from the school years, performing in Gilbert and Sullivan operas, theory and harmony studies at the Sydney Conservatorium, courses in studio techniques at Gore Hill Technical college, theatre performances at the age of 16, engineering in radio at 2CH, then AWA studios; all made it possible for him to work in a wide spectrum of the world of entertainment.

Now in the 21st century while the record industry implodes, he watches bemused as major entities merge, one small label is swallowed by another, and a German book company purchases RCA, all eventually leading to the closure of many historic companies.

As David Mackay is approaching retirement, he continues to compose for theatre—his first love—and is still producing major record releases, as we will discover later.

He is a unique individual in the world of music. As in most fields, there are many who welcome or seek fame and notoriety. There are also those who have it thrust upon them by circumstances beyond their control, but in most cases, there is a driving force behind success—one person with foresight and talent. One of those people is David Mackay, the man in the control room behind the glass.

Chapter 1

The Early Years

The Toppers Tunettes, Col Joye,

Eddie Moses

Bye Bye Birdie

Radio 2CH and AWA studios

David Mackay was born on May the 11th 1944; in Thornley, Sydney, Australia. He had one adopted sister Carlene, three years his senior, who died three years ago. David’s father, Charles ‘Mac’ Mackay was the accounts manager for an Australian meat packaging company while his mother Olga worked in fashion retail. They lived in Neutral Bay, a suburb of Sydney in modest circumstances.

David attended St Aloysius College, a Jesuit school for boys founded in 1879, situated beside the famous harbour, in the shadow of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It was here from the age of eight that David’s interest in music was nurtured. This was aided greatly by the encouragement of a Jesuit priest and teacher, Father Comerford.

David was a member of the choir at his local parish church, St Joseph’s in Neutral Bay, under the direction of Choir Master Bill Caspers, who coincidentally was also the musical director at St. Aloysius.

Today David reflects, There are two people who were a massive influence in my life and who I honestly think of and thank in my prayers every day of my life, Father Comerford and Bill Caspers. Academically, I was rubbish, actually I was worse than that, but Father Comerford went to the Rector, Father Casey and fought my corner. Both he and Bill Caspers believed my career would be in music and together, uncovered and developed a talent through persistent encouragement. To me that is what real teachers do.

As soon as David was old enough to take part in the stagings of the St. Aloysius Gilbert and Sullivan Operas, he joined the chorus. On the first day of rehearsals in his second year, Father Comerford was circling the chorus listening intently to each voice, when his head shot up and he pointed at David, singling him out with a stern reprimand for talking in class ordering him to stay behind and write 50 lines of ‘I will not talk in class’. David was horrified and close to tears, as he had never previously had a school punishment and worse than that, he hadn’t even been talking. David knew this would make him late for home from school and he dreaded to think what his parents would say, but he knew better than to argue with Father Comerford.

When class was dismissed, the principals that remained for more intensive rehearsal moved to the front of a raised stage, while a disheartened David moved to the back where he began writing his 50 lines. After a few minutes, Father Comerford came over and sat beside him saying,

You enjoy singing don’t you?

David replied gingerly Yes Father

Then I’d like you to come up to the piano and sing something for me Father Comerford added.

David was surprised and said that he hadn’t finished the 50 lines as yet, but a grinning Father Comerford told him not to worry about that just now. They went onto the stage where he sang to the accompaniment of Mr Caspers, and so began a career for which David is eternally grateful to both man and God.

David continued along the pathway of his chosen career, which was the love of everything musical, by studying piano privately in his spare time also music theory and clarinet at the Sydney Conservatorium. At this time, the ‘Doyle Carte Operatic Company’ noted St Aloysius to be producing the best non-professional ‘Gilbert and Sullivan’ productions they had experienced.

Singing alongside David in the chorus was Ross Linton, while at St. Joseph’s church it was Graham McGahen [1] and their paths were fatefully entwined over the forthcoming years.

The Toppers, Tunettes and Col Joye

It was 1958 in Sydney and David like many other teenagers of that era would eagerly watch the Saturday TV show on TCN Channel 9 ‘Bandstand’. On a particular Saturday he was impressed by a young female trio called ‘The Tunettes’, three very pretty girls about his own age, actually singing on TV!

The following Monday, David asked his school pal Ross Linton if he had seen the girls. Ross was equally intrigued as was Graham McGahen with whom David sang in their church choir.

David noted that while the girls sure looked gorgeous, they only sang in unison. The boys decided to give it a go themselves, but adding harmonies AND instruments.

They formed a trio calling themselves ‘The Toppers’ and quickly put together a small repertoire covering songs by the ‘Everly Brothers’ and ‘Buddy Holly’.

Ross was quite accomplished on the guitar, and Graham and David strummed along. Graham sang lead and David worked out the harmonies. The boys were just 14 years old and full of naive confidence. David’s mother, just three weeks later managed to get The Toppers an audition for 2UE’s ‘Howard Craven’s Rumpus Room’, a live radio program that had been running for fifteen years and gave young hopefuls their initial exposure. It was extremely popular and had a waiting list of two years for audience tickets. The Toppers became regulars on the show alternating with other fledgling artists ‘The Bee Gees’ and the ‘Allen Brothers’.

Howard Craven, who had the reputation of being ‘The Mister Nice Guy’ in Radio, suggested to The Toppers that they should audition for Channel 9 TV’s ‘Bandstand’ programme. They held auditions at Anthony Hordens, a big city department store every few weeks on a Saturday morning.

Once again fate was to play a hand, for as David, Ross and Graham ended their audition, a man named Rolly Burgraff approached them. Rolly informed them that he worked as a talent scout for TCN Channel 9 and he would like to take them ‘then and there’ to the studios at Willoughby, where they could actually watch the live broadcast of Bandstand. The three youngsters were impressed by his interest and excitedly went along. At the end of the show, Rolly asked the boys to sing a song for Brian Henderson who was the compere of the show. Being full of confidence from their weekly appearances on the radio, the boys performed, and Brian loved them; so much so, he offered them a slot on the following week’s show. They now had their first TV booking. The boys performed wearing their outfits of yellow shirts, shoe string ties and draped ‘Perry Como’ jackets worn atop grey flannel trousers and white moccasin shoes. A frantic following of young girls and older women were enchanted by them, Don’t put too much TV make-up on them, cried the older women, as it will hide their freckles.

Whilst performing on Bandstand, the boys met the ‘Tunettes’ Dianne Walsh, Geraldine Brown and Edna Ross. Following on from an earlier conversation with Graham and Ross. David as an aspiring musical producer and arranger (although he wasn’t actually aware of that talent at that time) felt the girls could achieve so much more if they sang in harmony, and if they were interested, he was the ‘man for the job’. The girls agreed and as Geraldine Brown (now Geraldine Walters) remembers of their first meeting with The Toppers [2]:

They were three boys, Graham was a boy soprano with red hair and we nicknamed him ‘Magoo’, David was skinny with a cheeky smile and a deliberate quiff at the front of his head and was noticeably adept with music and Ross nicknamed ‘Bones’ who was good-looking with an angel face and he played guitar.

Rehearsals were arranged at David’s parents’ house and later at Geraldine’s parents’ house, where the two groups plus Rolly with musical instruments, sound equipment and hours of loud noise, practiced their singing whilst being ‘fed and watered’ by Geraldine’s ever patient Mum and Dad. Shortly afterwards, the voices were attuned and arranged, and a short-term singing and performing involvement was founded between The Toppers and The Tunettes.

[3]: David was extremely patient with his endeavours to try and teach us to harmonise, Geraldine adds, We were really not good singers but hey, we looked good and people liked us.

But unbeknown to them all at the time, a lifelong friendship was also created, culminating in a reunion on 13th February 2014, the first since 1960 in Australia, when they all got together and sang some of their old favourite songs for the fun of it.(See Photo later).

It wasn’t long before the singing talents of The Toppers and The Tunettes were recognised through their regular appearances on Bandstand. They were approached by ‘Festival records’ (which at the time was managed by Fred Marx, later to be appointed head of the Phillips Label in the UK) and offered a contract to record on the ’REX 4 Star label, a subsidiary of Festival.

The Toppers’ first single was ‘The Three Bells’, the old Jimmy Brown song which highlighted their close harmony and featured Graham’s soprano vocal. The song was recorded at Festival studios in Pyrmont and proved a great success in 1959. Numerous appearances on TV and Radio followed most weekends in all of the major Australian cities. They performed as regulars on Graham Kennedy’s IMT ‘In Melbourne Tonight’, the Sydney based ‘Bobby Limb’s late show’, the Roger Climpson Show, Ernie Sigley’s ‘In Adelaide tonight’ and Brian Henderson’s Bandstand.

As Geraldine of The Tunettes recalls [4]:

We all got to meet emerging Australian talent that year. Names like the ‘Bee Gees’ (three teenage boys in black vests with cowboy ties around their shirts), Trisha Noble, Lana Cantrell, Frank Ifield, Col Joye, Johnny O’Keefe, Dig Richards and so many others

There was some controversy about The Toppers six month contract for Bobby Limb’s late show which was transmitted from 10 pm to11 pm. Ordinarily, no one under 16 would be allowed to appear on TV after 10pm, but the Child Welfare Department saved the day and granted the boys and girls special dispensation allowing their appearances.

During that time, another lasting friendship was to blossom between David and the regular group on Bandstand, Col Joye and the Joye Boys. They were the most successful act on Festival records and Col, as lead singer, was a huge star. (Col and the Joye Boys performed