Rex Goh

Rex Goh
Birth name Tee Haut Rex Goh
Born (1951-05-05) 5 May 1951
Singapore
Genres Rock
Occupation(s) Musician, songwriter, producer
Instruments Guitar
Years active 1971–present
Associated acts
Website rexgoh.com
Notable instruments
1969 Gibson Les Paul

Rex Goh (born Tee Haut Rex Goh 5 May 1951, Singapore) is a rock guitarist. In 1972 Goh moved to Australia. He has been a band member of various groups including Air Supply (1977, 1981–83), QED (1983–85), and Eurogliders (1988–89, 2005).

Goh has also toured and recorded as a session guitarist with Savage Garden, Randy Crawford, Tom Jones, Guy Sebastian and Daryl Braithwaite. As a producer Goh has worked on albums for Tania Bowra, The Robertson Brothers and Rene Diaz.

Biography

Rex Goh was born as Tee Haut Rex Goh on 5 May 1951 in Singapore and grew up in Aljunied.[1][2][3] At ten he learned the ukulele with guidance from a neighbouring musician, Benny Chan, who was a guitarist for a local group, The Checkmates.[3] After three or four years he started on guitar, and was inspired by early 1960s bands, The Shadows and The Ventures, and then by Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix and Terry Kath.[3] He joined Tani's Titans on bass guitar, which appeared on a children's TV show, performing country music.[3] After finishing secondary school he was a member of Group 123, initially on bass guitar but soon switching to lead guitar.[3] He acquired his 1969 Gibson Les Paul guitar; the group performed at British RAF bases.[3]

He relocated to Australia in 1972, initially living in Adelaide where he played in a covers band, playing Yes material.[3] Subsequently he relocated to Melbourne, and by 1976 he had moved to Sydney.[3] Goh, on guitar, was a member of Leon Berger Band before joining Air Supply early in 1977.[4][5] Other members of Air Supply were Russell Hitchcock on vocals and percussion; Nigel Macara on drums; Jeremy Paul on bass guitar; Graham Russell on vocals and guitar; and Adrian Scott on keyboards.[4][5] Together this line-up recorded the band's second album, The Whole Thing's Started (July 1977).[4][5] He toured with the group later that year as they supported Rod Stewart both in Australia and North America.[4] By early 1978 Goh was replaced by Ken Francis on guitar.[4][5]

In 1980 Goh completed a Diploma of Jazz Studies course at Sydney Conservatorium of Music.[6] He returned to Air Supply by early 1981 and with Russell he co-wrote three tracks, "I Want to Give It All" (B-side of "The One That You Love", July 1981), "She Never Heard Me Call" and "What Kind of Girl" (B-side of Australian single, "I'm Late Again", October 1982).[4][5][7] He also provided electric and rhythm guitar for their sixth studio album The One That You Love (August 1981) and its follow up Now and Forever (July 1982).[4][5][8] By the end of the next year he had left Air Supply to form QED.[5]

QED were a New Wave group with Jenny Morris (ex-The Crocodiles) on lead vocals; Ian Belton (ex-Dave Dobbyn, Renée Geyer) on bass guitar; and Shane Flew on drums.[9][10][11] Goh and Morris co-wrote tracks for the group but their biggest hit was a cover version of The Crocodiles' "Everywhere I Go" (December 1983),[9][10][11] which peaked in the top 20 of the Australian Kent Music Report.[12] QED issued further singles, including "This One" (August 1984) – co-written by Goh and Morris[13] – and a lone album, Animal Magic (November 1984), on EMI Records.[9][10][11] They disbanded in 1985 with Morris starting her solo career.[9]

For the next few years Goh worked in various bands or as a session musician,[5] and wrote radio and TV jingles.[14] During 1984 Goh and Tommy Emmanuel provided guitars for Zero Zero, a musical film, by Mike Batt (The Wombles), which featured the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and was created for the 50th anniversary of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC, which was founded as Australian Broadcasting Commission).[15][16] According to The Canberra Times it was "a surrealistic video musical for symphony orchestra, rock group, synthesiser and voice", when shown in April on ABC-TV.[16] For the Australian stage version of Alan Bleasdale's musical play, Are You Lonesome Tonight?, Goh provided guitar in August 1986 at Her Majesty's Theatre.[17] In May 1987 Goh was a guitarist for a rock group, The Inevitables, with Armando Hurley on lead vocals; David Jones on drums; and Sam McNally on keyboards.[14]

By 1988 he had joined Eurogliders, an indie pop group, alongside Crispin Akerman on guitar; Bernie Lynch on lead guitar and vocals; Grace Knight on lead vocals; Guy Le Claire on guitar; Lindsay Jehan on bass guitar; and Steve Sowerby on drums.[18][19] As a member of Eurogliders, Goh provided guitar for their fourth album, Groove (April 1988).[18][19] Late in the following year they disbanded.[18] Goh and Lynch co-produced the debut album, Heaven and Earth (1989), by singer-songwriter Tania Bowra.[20] Goh also provided guitar and toured in her backing band in support of the album. In the following year he was a session musician for Ana Christensen's solo album, Brave New World, which was produced by Garth Porter (ex-Sherbet).[21][22] Her material "ranged from Celtic ballads and country-tinged pop to laid-back rock".[21]

During the early 1990s he was a member of Duff and Rhodes led by Jeff Duff and Glenn Rhodes, both on lead vocals, with Greg Henson on drums; Col Loughnan on saxophone and flute (ex-Ayers Rock); and Helen Lutz on violin.[23] In 1993 Goh joined Brian Cadd and Glenn Shorrock (both ex-Axiom) in The Blazing Salads, which issued a self-titled album that year.[24] The other band members were Kirk Lorange on guitar (ex-Richard Clapton Band) and Mark Kennedy on drums (Spectrum, Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines Band).[24] From 1995 Goh was a guitarist in the Phil and Tommy Emmanuel Band, which formed to support the release of the brothers' album Terra Firma.[25] He toured with Tommy's band "for about three years when [Tommy] played mostly electric".[3]

By June 2000 Goh had worked on two albums with Paul Kneipp: they co-produced Everywhere by vocal duo, Tanis and Mandi, while Goh also provided guitar; and Kneipp produced Rich Man by vocal trio, The Robertson Brothers, again with Goh on guitar.[6] Ellie Greenwich-written songs were presented in an Australian rendition of the musical, Leader of the Pack, in June 2003 with Goh providing guitar for the stage band at Sydney's Star City Showroom.[26] In 2005 Eurogliders reconvened with Lynch and Knight using Goh and session musicians to record new material as Eurogliders (2005) and Blue Kiss (2007)

In October 2009 Goh led the house band on guitars for Joni: A Tribute to the Legendary Joni Mitchell.[27] Vocalists were Katie Noonan, Wendy Matthews, Kristin Berardi, Tania Bowra, Louise Perryman, Virna Sanzone and Rachel Gaudry. As a session musician for touring, recording or TV appearances Goh has also worked for Savage Garden (1997's self-titled album), Randy Crawford and Tom Jones (as part of The Midday Show house band for Crawford and Jones' duet), Guy Sebastian (and other Australian Idol contestants as a member of the TV show's house band from 2003 to 2009) and Daryl Braithwaite.[3][8]

He now plays in Marlene Cummins's band.[28]

Discography

According to Allmusic Rex Goh is credited with: guitars (electric, acoustic, rhythm, nylon string, classical, slide), and arranger.[8]

with Air Supply
with Mike Batt
with QED
with Eurogliders
with Marlene Cummins
as session musician

References

General
Specific
  1. ↑ "ACE Title Search". American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Retrieved 22 March 2014. Note: user is required to click on 'Writers' tab and enter 'Rex Goh'. Results give both Goh Rex and Goh Tee Haut Rex; they are the same person and lead to the same work.
  2. ↑ "Air Supply Biography". NME. Archived from the original on 25 September 2009. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "An Interview with Rex Goh". The Guitar Column (Clinton Carnegie). 11 October 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 McFarlane, 'Air Supply' entry at the Wayback Machine (archived 3 August 2004). Archived from the original on 3 August 2004. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Holmgren, Magnus; Thornton, Mary Ann; Padgett, Chris. "Air Supply". Australian Rock Database. Passagen.se (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 6 October 2012. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  6. 1 2 "SCALA Steps". Songwriters, Composers and Lyricists Association (SCALA). Archived from the original on 23 June 2000. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  7. ↑ "'I Want to Give It All' at APRA search engine". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 22 March 2014. Note: User may have to click 'Search again' and provide details at 'Enter a title:' e.g I Want to Give It All; or at 'Performer:' Air Supply
  8. 1 2 3 "Rex Goh Credits". Allmusic (All Media Network). Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  9. 1 2 3 4 McFarlane, 'Jenny Morris' entry at the Wayback Machine (archived 9 August 2004). Archived from the original on 9 August 2004. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  10. 1 2 3 Gibson, Mark (26 May 2009). "QED". Australian Music History. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  11. 1 2 3 Spencer et al, (2007) 'QED' entry.
  12. ↑ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. St Ives, New South Wales. ISBN 0-646-11917-6. Note: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1974 until ARIA created their own charts in mid-1988. In 1992, Kent back calculated chart positions for 1970–1974.
  13. ↑ "'This One' at APRA search engine". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA). Retrieved 22 March 2014. Note: User may have to click 'Search again' and provide details at 'Enter a title:' e.g This One; or at 'Performer:' QED
  14. 1 2 "The Inevitables Are Happening". The Canberra Times (National Library of Australia). 28 May 1987. p. 4 Supplement: The Good Times. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  15. ↑ "Zero Zero". Amazon.com. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  16. 1 2 "Video Musical 'Very Dramatic'". The Canberra Times (National Library of Australia). 23 April 1984. p. 25. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  17. ↑ "Contributor: Rex Goh". AusStage. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  18. 1 2 3 McFarlane, 'Eurogliders' entry at the Wayback Machine (archived 3 August 2004). Archived from the original on 3 August 2004. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  19. 1 2 Holmgren, Magnus; Warnqvist, Stefan; François, Ron; Meharry, Don. "Eurogliders". Australian Rock Database. Passagen.se (Magnus Holmgrem). Archived from the original on 27 November 2013. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  20. ↑ "Tania Bowra – 'Heaven and Earth' / 'All True'". 45cat. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  21. 1 2 McFarlane, 'Ana Christensen' entry at the Wayback Machine (archived 29 June 2004). Archived from the original on 29 June 2004. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  22. ↑ "Side Projects: Ana Christensen". The Church Discography (Mike Fulmer). Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  23. ↑ McFarlane, 'Jeff Duff' entry at the Wayback Machine (archived 19 April 2004). Archived from the original on 19 April 2004. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  24. 1 2 McFarlane, 'Brian Cadd' entry at the Wayback Machine (archived 4 July 2002). Archived from the original on 4 July 2002. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  25. ↑ McFarlane, 'Tommy Emmanuel' entry at the Wayback Machine (archived 3 August 2004). Archived from the original on 3 August 2004. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  26. ↑ Shand, John (30 June 2003). "Leader of the Pack". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  27. ↑ Middleton, Carol (24 October 2009). "Joni: A Tribute to the Legendary Joni Mitchell". Australian Stage. Retrieved 22 March 2014.
  28. ↑ "MarleneCummins". facebook. Retrieved 8 February 2015.
  29. ↑ "Who's Who of Australian Rock / Compiled by Chris Spencer, Zbig Nowara & Paul McHenry". catalogue. National Library of Australia. Retrieved 22 March 2014.

External links

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