LAURIE ARTHUR

MAJOR MUSICIANS - AUSTRALIA


Image Unavailable
Laurie Arthur

DESCRIPTION: Laurie Arthur

ACTIVITY STATUS: Active

ACTIVITY PERIOD: 1960's - Current

MUSIC GENRE: Pop, Rock

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: AUSTRALIA

MAIN INSTRUMENT: Guitar, Vocals

BANDS / OUTFITS: The Strangers, The Mixtures

AUSTRALIAN MUSIC DATABASE PAGE: http://www.australianmusicdatabase.com/people/laurie-arthur


ABOUT HIM:

Laurie Arthur was born in Melbourne on August 10th 1942.

In some ways it can be said that Laurie began his music career at the age of 9. He suffered a number of serious medical conditions as a child including polio, and as a result was encouraged by his father to building and making "things".

The young Laurie had a keen and focussed mind and jumped straight into electronics, building crystal sets and valve radios. As a result he developed an interest and skill that he would use in both the latter part of the 1950's and in the 1960's.

Developing a passion for music at a young age Laurie built his first guitar - a bass guitar. In the late 1950's so he could join the well known and popular Melbourne instrumental based group, ThePlanets. That group, along with the The Thunderbirds, ruled the Melbourne music scene at this time.

However his time with the Planets was limited. Laurie wanted to have his own band and to play lead guitar and so the fabulous group - The Strangers, was formed by Laurie in his desire to have a group that would wow the audiences.

The original group consisted of Laurie Arthur on guitar, Peter Robinson on bass, who in fact he had joined the band from the Thunderbirds, Graeme (Garth) Thompson on drums and Fred Wieland on rhythm guitar.

Image Unavailable
Laurie Arthur in The Strangers

In addition to playing lead guitar Laurie also managed the Strangers. He drove the promoters mad and the group into a higher and higher level of playing until they were the top group in and around Melbourne in the early 1960's, commanding appearance fees other bands could only marvel at.

Laurie also found success in composing and arranging several instrumentals that include Cry of the Wild Goose and Outcast.

It was at this time Laurie also called upon those knowledge and skills he had developed with electronics to modify his amplifier to provide a sound that other guitarists didn't have, but after hearing Laurie - wanted!

By now Laurie desired to take the group overseas. However, when some members of the group indicated their unwillingness or inability to go, he decided the time was ripe to leave the Strangers and form a group that could do overseas touring.

Seeking the best available musicians in Melbourne he formed an ad-hoc group. Because it's members came from a variety of other groups, it took on the name The Mixtures.

That first line-up consisted of Laurie Arthur on lead guitar, Terry Dean on vocals, John Creech on drums and Rod De Clerk on bass. Interestingly, over the life of this group it would have a total of nineteen different musicians, which certainly reinforced the name of the group.

The Mixtures became more and more popular and recorded several singles including Music Music Music. Yet while the group found success with live gigging, it was failing to find success on the charts.

it was around this time Laurie decided that he would stop playing in the group and do full-time management.

Under the management of Laurie the group found major success both in performance and through recordings, with such hits as The Pushbike Song and In the Summertime.

Laurie's career has continued on as he formed and continues to form groups for various projects and performances.

In 2003 he produced Interactive Guitar - a guitar tutorial and manual consisting of 2 Audio CDs and Chord Game suitable for Beginner to Advanced.

He has also since produced a companion work, Interactive Bass. Both are still available.

He currently resides in the Melbourne suburb of Reservoir and can be found performing still.


VIDEO:


LINKS:


Parent Category Page Links: Major Musicians - Australia

Please contribute any writings or images to this page if you have more information or history to share with the Music Industrapedia Community on LAURIE ARTHUR. Please visit our Contributions page for details. Also, please feel free to discuss the development of this page by clicking on the "DISCUSS" link at the bottom right hand side of this page.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License