The Go-Betweens
Grant McLennan was born in Rockhampton, Queensland (Australia)
on 12 February 1958. While studying at Queensland University he
met a flamboyant dandy - and fellow drama student - named Robert
Forster. Together they formed The Go-Betweens.
The Go-Betweens released their first single, Lee Remick,
in 1978 on the independent Able label. The song was not a hit, and
by the mid-eighties had become such a collector's item that the
producers of The
Mike Walsh Show paid $80 for a copy, so they could present
it to actress Lee Remick when she appeared on the show.
In early 1980, The Go-Betweens' third single I Need Two
Heads was voted Single Of The Week by British music paper Sounds.
After releasing a string of lively garage-pop singles they
recorded their debut album, Send Me A Lullaby, in 1981,
and emigrated to London. In this self-imposed exile, they began
writing songs that evoked their homeland vividly.
They went on to record five more LPs of such unique
consistency that, decades later, critics and fans still
furiously debate their order of merit.
In 1989 The Go-Betweens took a 10-year hiatus, leaving
McLennan to release a flurry of solo albums, but when the band
re-formed in 2000 (with their first album in 10 years, The
Friends Of Rachel Worth) their return was greeted with
adulation by a new generation of fans and musicians (such as
Belle & Sebastian).
McLennan was an unparalleled lyricist and a prolific and
meticulous composer. His autobiographical masterpiece, Cattle
and Cane, was voted by the Australian Performing Rights
Association as one of the 10 greatest Australian songs of all
time.
He died in his sleep on 6 May 2006.
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