But let’s go back to the start. The Beeb Birtles (Gerard Bertelkamp) who arrived in Australia with his family from Holland in 1959 initially played another part in Australian history. The vast underpopulated Southern Hemisphere island colony opened its arms to post-war Europe, offering new beginnings. A generation of post-war children were set to make a significant mark on world culture. The thirst to make a difference, the quest to belong was all the more intense because of the migrant factor.
The young Bertelkamp happened to find himself growing into his teenage years in Adelaide, which more than any other Australian city had evolved into a British enclave. As the cultural and musical revolution that was about to sweep the world evolved in England it was Adelaide’s heartbeat that was racing fastest, Adelaide that heard and saw the latest as migrants stepped off the ships, Adelaide that most eagerly embraced and emulated this Great Adventure. The revolution was already well underway in 1966 when Beeb joined his first group.
Times Unlimited became Zoot. Beeb was the bass playing, harmonising anchor behind the group’s charismatic chick-magnet lead singer Darryl Cotton.
Beeb proved then, as he would continue to prove, that he was more interested in making an essential contribution than dominating the spotlight. He was happy to stand alongside Darryl, enough of a chick magnet in his own right to be satisfied on that level, as well as the musical one.
After Zoot moved to Melbourne and enjoyed significant success as a pop group, they – and this might have been at Beeb’s instigation – were keen to improve themselves musically and brought in the multi-talented songwriting (equally handsome) Rick Springfield, pushing Beeb another step back into the shadows. He didn’t mind. The group was obviously much better for Rick’s entry.
Beeb next made his mark with Mississippi, Graeham Goble’s group. They’d had one major debut hit, and now needed to become a working band in order to survive. Attracted by the quality of the songs, by Graeham’s vision, the already famous, already legendary Beeb Birtles allowed himself to be diverted, agreed to pick up his bass again and give Mississippi the benefit of his experience and talent. Beeb and Graeham formed a unique bond. Mississippi eventually became Little River Band.
Commercially, in Australia, LRB’s strength was its “Supergroup” status – lead singer Glenn Shorrock had seen success previously with The Twilights and Axiom. Artistically their strength was the combined vocal front line, Glenn, Graeham and Beeb, and their individual songwriting. Graeham was (and is) one of the most melodic songwriters of our time. Glenn’s songs gave LRB its pop sense. Beeb’s songs had (and have) heart. It was Beeb who provided LRB with the song they needed as their first single, ‘Curiosity (Killed The Cat)’. As LRB’s career and music evolved, it was always Beeb’s songs that were the most honest, most real, the meat in the sandwich. If you knew Beeb, you knew how true his songs were to his own life experience.
Those LRB years are long behind Beeb Birtles, as is Australia. Life goes on. Music goes on. Whatever else has happened, whatever else will be, the essentials of Beeb Birtles’ character outlined above remain. He never was and never will be a scene-stealer. The song is what’s important, the task at hand, that’s the ultimate objective. And inside that song, inside whatever Beeb Birtles has put his mind to, you’ll sense a spirit of someone who has worked hard, thought hard, dug deep, at whatever the personal cost, in order to arrive at the result we’re privileged to share.
Ed Nimmervoll
Australian Music Journalist, Author and Editor
prologue
Sometime in late 2001 I received a phone call from Graeham Goble. He asked me if I was open to a Little River Band (LRB) reunion of what fans were calling the classic lineup: David Briggs, George McArdle, Derek Pellicci, Glenn Shorrock, Graeham Goble and myself. We were going to call ourselves the Original Little River Band.
By then, it had been eighteen years since I quit the band. I told him that I would be interested because, in my mind, time had healed many things. I was also keen to hear Glenn and Graeham’s voices with mine after all these years.
The reunion idea had actually come from Paul Rodger.
In Paul’s own words:
In 2001, Stream AV started providing DVD authoring services to Warner Vision, which was, at the time, the largest producer and distributor of concert DVDs in the world. I was travelling to Sydney every other week to see them and on one of those visits I was talking with Warner Vision’s production team about how successful the Eagles’ Hell Freezes Over DVD was. I said that we should do a similar thing in Australia.
Darryl O’Connor, the managing director of Warner Vision, laughed and asked me who would be big enough and have the appeal to that market to make it worthwhile. I said I thought LRB would be a great choice and the room fell silent. Darryl said that LRB would be the right fit for them but how could we get it to happen? Warner Vision said if we could pull it together they would fund the production.
LRB had carved out a place in world music history and were the first Australian band to have a gold album in the USA, paving the way for other Australian artists. We informed Stephen Housden (LRB member from 1982) that we intended to perform under the name ‘The Original Little River Band’. Stephen’s lawyer, Thomas Stevens, claimed we didn’t have any rights to the Little River Band trademark anymore and he sent us a ‘cease and desist’ order. He claimed Stephen Housden now legally owned the LRB name and trademark. What was about to unravel would cost us — Graeham Goble, Glenn Shorrock and I — more than $300,000 in legal expenses.
As reported by Nui Te Koha in the Herald Sun on December 14, 2001:
A musician trading as the Little River Band has vowed to block plans by the group’s original members to tour the US under the name.
Stephen Housden, a member of the Little River Band since 1982 and who bought the worldwide rights to the famous band name four years ago, says he will not allow a re-formed version of the group to use the LRB name in any shape or form.
“I can tell you now, there’s no hope of them coming to America because I own the trademark in America and I own it for the world,” Housden told the Herald Sun from his home in Ireland yesterday. “I’ve been working in America for the last 20 years in the Little River Band and this new group just cannot happen.”
This ‘new group’ consisted of original members of LRB, first formed in 1975. I had not been paid for the loss of the name or any goodwill associated with the name of the band we had created.
On October 17, 2004, ‘The Classic Lineup’ was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. Stephen Housden almost prevented this from happening but eventually agreed to issue a 24-hour licence to the original members, allowing us to perform one song at the awards and use the name Little River Band.
In 2005, the historical story of the Little River Band, a DVD titled It’s A Long Way There, was manufactured, pressed and scheduled for release by EMI/Capitol, but Stephen Housden and Wayne Nelson threatened to sue EMI Records and the product was withdrawn. It was never released.
We had lost all rights to the LRB trademark that we had thought would be ours forever…
preface
SEVEN SEAS
Tonight the waves are sending their spray across my bow
I ride the ocean’s turbulence with a heavy brow
I keep straining as if my back is breaking
Like men who man the oars
Pressing on until I reach distant shores
Today the mist hangs low like a blanket on my deck
I sail through unknown waters never to go back
At the Captain’s command I