Mark Naumann - Oz Rock Legends Podcasts

Ray Burgess - Not So Pretty

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 06:03:24 GMT

In this episode I set down with Australian music legend - Ray Burgess.

Raymond Peter Burgess was born in Melbourne in 1951. From 1970 to 1973 Burgess was a singer for Red Time, a pop music covers band, which performed the club circuit in Melbourne and Perth.

Burgess' first solo single, "Touch Me", was released in late 1974 via Festival Records/Infinity Records. It peaked at No. 16 on the Kent Music Report singles chart.This was followed by "Love Fever" (July 1975), which reached No. 21. He promoted his singles by appearances on TV pop music show, Countdown. He became a TV presenter for Melbourne-based programme, Rock 'n' Roll Circus in late 1975. The artist relocated to Sydney to host the pop music and magazine-style, Flashez, for ABC-TV from July 1976.

Burgess issued his debut solo album, Not So Pretty, in 1976, which was produced by Ross Wilson for Festival Records/Infinity Records. It provided the single, "Sad Rock'n'Roll" (September 1976), which was written by Greg Macainsh, and reached the top 100. After Flashez was cancelled in November 1977, Burgess formed a backing band to play the club circuit. His final charting single, "Gloria" (July 1977), reached the top 50. He followed with two more albums, Final Mix (1978) and Gloria—Best of Ray Burgess (1992). His daughter, Casey Burgess, is also a singer and TV personality and former member of children's music group, Hi-5 from 2008 to 2013. In 2013 he worked with fellow Australian artists Tommy Emmanuel, John St Peeters, John "Swanee" Swan, and Marty Rhone, to release the single "Legends of the Southern Land".

Kevin Stanton - Mi-Sex

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 04:57:29 GMT

Kevin Stanton was born on 21 June, 1955 and passed away on May 18th, 2017 at the age of 61. He formed Mi-Sex in New Zealand in 1978 with the late Steve Gilpin and bassist Don Martin, with Murray Burns and drummer Richard Hodgkinson. He relocated to Sydney with his fellow members later that year, but left the band for a spell in 1982 to attend to on-going health issues. He returned four months later before being joined by second guitarist, and former Silent Movies player, Colin Bayley, in 1983, staying with the band through their fourth album Where Do They Go? before departing for good. Kevin was the songwriter or co-songwriter of several of Mi-Sex's best-loved tunes, including their seminal hit Computer Games, from their 1979 debut album Graffiti Crimes, as well as that record's title track and other songs including But You Don't Care (1979), People, Space Race, It Only Hurts When I'm Laughing (all 1980), Shanghaied! (1981), Castaway (1982) ..... and more!

Michael Browning - Author of Dog Eat Dog

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 04:27:34 GMT

Michael Browning was the first manager of AC/DC and the man who signed the fledgling INXS. Boy, does he have a story to tell! In the 1960s, London was in the mecca for music, fashion and design. But it wasn't the only city on earth that was swinging. Melbourne was driven by the same cultural forces and it was most definitely rocking. It was a flashpoint for musicians from all over Australia. It wasn't unusual for a band to play four gigs a day: An afternoon pub set, an early suburban dance spot, a mid-dance spot, followed by the midnight club shift at either the highly fashionable Thump'n Tum, The Catcher, Sebastian's or Berties. Michael Browning was a young Melbourne street kid with an uncanny ear for music, and he ran the latter two venues. His agency business, Consolidated Rock, booked early Australian greats like the 'Purple Hearts, the Loved Ones, the Wild Cherries', Max Merritt and the Meteors and Doug Parkinson In Focus. By the early seventies this dance and club scene evolved into a uniquely Australian phenomena, known simply as 'pub rock', spawning local legends like Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, who Michael managed, and the Colored Balls. In September 1974 Michael spotted AC/DC for the first time at his Melbourne club The Hard Rock Cafe. They were raw and rough, and much of the crowd, Michael included, was bewildered by the flashy guitarist dressed as a school kid. But Michael knew they had something. Within a week he signed them to a management contract and duly embarked on a shared journey that within five years would take them to international prominence. Michael was the band's first 'legit' manager, the man who helped guide AC/DC to world stardom. In the 1980s Michael signed an up-and-coming band named INXS to his label Deluxe Records and also set them on course to superstardom. After basing himself in Los Angeles for many years he returned to Oz and achieved great success with the band Noiseworks - whose singer Jon Stevens would one day replace Michael Hutchence in INXS. This is the story of one of the true believers of the local music industry, the man who helped launch Australia's two biggest ever bands - AC/DC and INXS - to world domination ... and survived to tell the story.