Bryan Davies (singer)

Bryan Davies is an Australian singer from Sydney, born in 1945, who came to the attention of Australian rock fans in 1959. His clean-cut good looks and comparatively mellow rock style made him ideal for the TV pop shows of the era, such as Sing! Sing! Sing! and particularly Bandstand, on which Bryan became a regular. Bryan has had songs written for him by acclaimed songwriter, Jay Justin, who wrote songs for many other artists, including Little Pattie, Slim Whitman and Reg Lindsay.

Career

Bryan's first television appearance was on teen music show, Teen Time on September 27, 1960 and he was then in his second last year of High School at Canterbury Boys' High School. He allegedly showed his appreciation of his backing band by bowing to them rather than to the audience after his performance. In spite of his singing career he successfully achieved his Leaving Certificate in 1961 when he was signed by the HMV label. Bryan released his first hit song, a cover version of Mark Wynter's "Dream Girl". Three more Top 40 contenders followed over the next twelve months. His version of "Dream Girl" outperformed the Wynter version on the Australian charts.

Some of Bryan's others hits were "Five Foot Two", "I Don't Want To Be Alone", "Love and Money" and "Ten Pin Bowling".

After having featured on pop shows all over Australia, Bryan scored his own teen music TV series on ABC Television. At age 17, Bryan Davies became the youngest person in the world to host his own television show. The Bryan Davies Show (1962–1963) included regular guests, Neil Williams, Judy Cannon and the Don Burrows Sextet. Resident girl singer in the series was Coral Kelly who later went on to become Coral Drouyn, a well known scriptwriter. As an indication of his success was his purchase of a bright red Jaguar which featured in the opening titles of the program.

At the beginning of 1964 Bryan with The Delltones, Dig Richards, Justin and others including his then girlfriend Jacki Weaver performed in the youth oriented stage production produced and written by Bill Watson at the Palace Theatre in Sydney. The show surrounded the antics of Gadget, played by Weaver. It was a play on the then popular Sandra Dee Gidget films.

However Beatlemania was then the name of the game and the entire music industry world wide was in confusion as to the future of the industry. The emphasis had switched overnight from single performers (including Elvis Presley and Cliff Richard) to singing as distinct from instrumental, male groups, preferably British and London and even Liverpool the home of The Beatles, suddenly became the popular music capital of the world.

In 1963, Bryan had met Norrie Paramour, a top British composer, producer and conductor who produced Cliff Richard and the Shadows' recordings, during a visit to Sydney with actor/singer, Helen Shapiro famous for one hit "Walkin' Back to Happiness". Paramour was impressed with Bryan’s work and encouraged him to go to England which he did in February 1964. In May that year he began recording for Paramour

Bryan achieved only moderate success in the UK and returned to Australia in October 1964 to re-kindle his already established recording career. He shocked his Australian fans after his first Bandstand appearance after his return. His hair was long and this was still a novelty for males in 1964 Australia and his dress, very Carnaby Street! One of Bryan's notable singles over this period was "I Need You", released in November 1965. However, it wasn’t until June 1967 that he re-entered the Australian charts with "Alberta", which became his last hit recording.

In the absence of further chart successes, Bryan has continued his singing career to this day, working mainly in the Sydney music scene.

During his career, Bryan diversified into acting and hosting roles for television shows. He was a cast member for two years on Australia's first major comedy satire program, The Mavis Bramston Show (1964–1968), and featured in the 7 Network's Anything Goes (1968). Bryan has had guest starring roles in other productions. He appeared in a Matlock Police episode, 'What's In It For Me' in 1973. In 1981 Bryan became the presenter of the short-lived Candid Camera -style game show, Catch Us If You Can.

More recently, Bryan has been involved in The Johnny O’Keefe Memorial Show, performing alongside other legends from the JOK era including Alan Dale, Vicki Forrest, Barry Stanton, Johnny Devlin and Adam. He is currently performing with Roland Storm and Lucky Starr in the "Golden Boys of Aussie Rock 'n' Roll" show.

Personal Life : Bryan was prominently romantically involved in 1962-64 with Jacki Weaver. The relationship ended before Bryan departed Australia for England in 1964.

References

1. http://users.ncable.net.au/~ronjeff/top40/charts/Art%20data%20a001.htm 2. http://web.archive.org/web/20090619063049/http://www.memorabletv.com:80/australia/tvab2.htm 3. http://web.archive.org/web/20080829035716/http://jayjustin.com.au/index_files/Page455.htm 4. http://www.johnnyokeefe.com/joktoday.htm 5. http://web.archive.org/web/20091126051945/http://members.optusnet.com.au:80/rolandstorm/pages/page3.html 6. http://www.shownet.com.au/mgs.html 7. http://www.shop.nsw.gov.au/agencypubdetail.jsp?agency=85&publicationId=8429&categoryid=1&subcategoryid=3