Billy Thorpe & The Aztecs
Billy Thorpe's influence on Australian music is immeasurable.
Beginning as a clean-cut pop singer in the early 60s, Thorpe's
transformation to long-haired shouter both mirrored and informed
the development of the nascent Australian music scene.
Born in Manchester, England, in 1946, his family emigrated to
Australia in the early 1950s. From 1964 to 1968, Thorpe (with his
backing band The Aztecs) was Australia's biggest pop star and even
had his own television show.
Thorpe's association with The Aztecs began in January 1964 when
he played an audition at Sydney's Surf City. During the audition
Billy was accompanied by the Aztecs (who had recorded
instrumentals as The Vibrators) who liked his style so much that
they asked him to join as permanent lead vocalist.
In 1969 he formed a new Aztecs, and the subsequent recording of
their LSD-soaked LP The Hoax Is Over left no doubt as to
their new direction: simple, loud, irreverent. Hit singles, hit
albums, arrests and outrage followed: their LP sleeve of More
Arse Than Class featured the band's naked buttocks.
In 1972 The Aztecs drew 200,000 people to Melbourne's Sidney
Myer Music Bowl for a free concert by radio station 3XY - one of
the largest concert audiences ever assembled in the country to
date.
Billy later enjoyed solo success in America before returning to
Australia in the early 90s. Rarely idle, Thorpe authored two
autobiographical books and spent the last five years of his life
working on his symphonic concept album, Tangier.
On his death (from a heart attack) in 2007, former Aztecs
drummer Gil Matthews said of Thorpe, "We have lost
Australia's greatest rock singer".
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