Sherbet
A pop sensation of the mid 1970s, Sherbet's popularity was
unrivalled in Australia. Their songs dealt with innocent, romantic
allusions to pubescent sexual experience with lyrics like
"Summer love is like no other love". Good looking and
apparently well-behaved, Sherbet were 'spunks' in satin jackets to
thousands and thousands of teenage fans.
Sherbet were also an extremely hard working and long-lasting
band who dominated the Australian charts for almost a decade.
Remarkably, they had 20 singles in the national Top 40 during the
1970s. Their years of success owed much to the smooth voice of
Daryl Braithwaite and the song writing talents of Garth Porter and
Clive Shakespeare (and later Tony Mitchell).
 Formed by Shakespeare in 1969, the band's first two years were
inauspicious with constant changes in personnel. Garth Porter, a
talented keyboard player and songwriter from New Zealand, joined
late in 1970. It was only at the beginning of 1972, when Tony
Mitchell joined as bass guitarist, that Sherbet's line-up
stabilised, remaining unchanged for four years.
Their first hit came in 1971 with Can You Feel It?. The
songs lyrics may have been nonsensical but they had captured an
appealing sound in the studio, and Daryl's voice showed a
remarkable ability to move effortlessly in and out of falsetto.
More hits followed, including a Ted Mulry
tune, You're All Woman and another called You've Got The
Gun which was the band's first self-penned single.
Sherbet initially attracted strong interest in their home-town
of Sydney, but had to work hard to gain mass acceptance in
Melbourne. They pioneered the practice of embarking on gruelling
Australian tours, playing in town halls and school of arts halls
in hundreds of country towns. These were the days before a
national circuit of large pub venues had been established.
Sherbet's heavy touring schedule saw the band develop into an
accomplished, professional live act. As a result they won the
Hoadley's National Battle Of The Sounds in 1972 - the competitions
final year.
Sherbet went on to win just about every award the Australian
music industry could offer. In 1972 they were voted Top Australian
group in the Go-Set pop poll. For six consecutive years
from 1973 they won the award for best Australian group at the TV
Week King of pop awards. The hit singles kept coming; Cassandra,
Slipstream, Silvery Moon and others. Summer Love
was the biggest selling Australian single of 1975, reaching number
three on the national charts.
Sherbet's astute manager, Roger Davies, continued to keep the
band on the road, organising marathon tours that took in areas
like North Queensland and rural Western Australia. Exposure to a
national television audience on Countdown
vastly increased their popularity across the country. Sherbet
avoided some of the excesses of glam, such as heavy make-up, but
were partial to satin, velvet and custom-made bomber jackets.
"Musical and personal differences" caused the
departure of Clive Shakespeare in 1976. He was replaced by Harvey
James, whose boyish good looks only added to Sherbet's appeal to
its teenage audience.
 That
year also saw the release of the single Howzat. With its
distinctive introductory bass line and its simple 'love is a
cricket match' metaphor, it was a superbly crafted pop song that
became their most memorable recording.
Howzat was Sherbet's only record to chart overseas,
reaching the Top 10 in England in 1976. While Australian acts in
the past had recorded hits overseas, Howzat was the first
single written and recorded locally to chart internationally. It
was a significant achievement.
While remaining with Sherbet, Daryl Braithwaite pursued a
flourishing solo career. He sang the title role in an Australian
production of The Who's rock opera Tommy
in 1973. He also enjoyed chart success in Australia with middle of
the road ballads like You're My World, and was voted King
of Pop every year between 1975 and 1977. Despite his success as a
solo recording artist, Daryl remained loyal to the band through
thick and thin.
Sherbet were able to sustain a longevity that is rare in
Australian music, but they were unable to crack overseas markets
in any lasting way. Known as Highway in the USA, the band had a
couple of minor hits there. Back in Australia at the end of the
70s, they changed their name to The Sherbs, trying to move away
from the saccharine pop image.
 Despite their continuing prolific output and good material, the
public had lost interest and the band suffered from being
derisively labelled a teenybopper's
band.
Sherbet's decline in popularity after a decade of exposure
was a gradual slide rather than a sudden drop, allowing the band
members to come to terms gradually with their loss of fame.
Years later, Garth Porter reflected on the years of hard work
that kept Sherbet at the top for so long; "Always doing
another album, hopefully another big hit. The prime concern was
perpetuating it, rather than the integrity. Not that we were a
band to be taken seriously, because we weren't . . . As a musician
I discourage anyone from being trapped in a pop career. There's
only one way out - the big slide down".
Braithwaite went on to record the platinum albums Edge
(1988) and Rise (1990). Keyboard player and principal
songwriter Garth Porter developed a career as a producer and
composer, achieving outstanding success, especially in the field
of Australian Country music.
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