Ronnie Charles Goes to London

Go-Set: 2 January 1971: Page 2

Ronnie Charles was best known to audiences in the late sixties as the lead singer of the Groop.
Ronnie's move to England follows the fact that he made good contacts when the Groop had won Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds, and had learnt a bit more about the London music scene.
During my thesis Ronnie had been very helpful on background to Molly Meldrum, and the changes in his personality as a result of going to London, and of the way that Go-Set worked in the early days of 1966.
I will write more about Ronnie Charles once I find my interviews with him.

Australian Charts 25 December 1971

Go-Set Australian charts: Section: Page 23

Ed Nimmervoll was quite thorough, at this time in his presentation of the state of the information in the. The charts page which was nearly always full of charts now included both the US and UK singles charts, at least a top 10 of both. Included too, was the album chart top 20, and on the side and shown above is two views of the Australian singles charts.
At the top of the column is the actual Australian content of the National top 40 chart, which in some cases shows Australian content that was too low on the National top 40 chart to actually make it. So we see for example that Sherbet is at number 12 (National top40 (NTF) at 43) with Free The People, and perhaps on its way out. Billy Thorpe is at 16 (NTF69) with The Dawn Song, and the lowest Australian song is by Allison Gros at 20 (NTF88).
The broader implication is at the end of 1971, only 11 Australian artist songs were in the National Top 40. Quite good considering that Number 1 was Rod Stewart's Maggie May.
An interesting omission from the Australian Top20 is Olivia Newton-John, whose "Banks of the Ohio" is located at Number 2. Australia was proud to have Olivia back as an Australian when she saw fit to return, yet her omission as an Australian artist, begs a question or two!!
Ricky Springfield is included on the Australian Top20 with "Speak To the Sky" (NTF8). Mind you Ricky had not been long in the United States.
Could it be that Australian artists resident overseas for a certain period were denied entry on the Australian Top20? 
Another interesting omission is The Mixtures, on the NTF and debuting at 31 with Captain Zero; and lastly Barry Crocker sits at NTF39 with "Love Is A Beautiful Song". Neither of these are included on the Australian Top20.
Perhaps they were missed, or maybe there is another reason. Ed Nimmervoll must be applauded for his means of highlighting the singles of groups SCRA, Healing Force, Flake and Freshwater. Songs that were powerful enough to make national sales, yet not strong enough to make the national top 40.
In future posts I will examine the charts in more detail.

The Last Keyhole News from Ian Meldrum

19740817: Page 10: Keyhole News

This is a tiny part of the Keyhole news from the second last edition of Go-Set. Meldrum had a whole page of material that was published. Not that it says very much, except that it says more of the same about what is happening that week.
His work has been described as a 'stream of consciousness" by some, and in my thesis I determined that in some respects, Meldrum's contributions gave no intrinsic value to the magazine, except that they provided readers with an insiders view on their stars doings.
By this time, the only two contributors left from Go-Set's main years were Phillip Morris, who contributed the "Scene" photographs, and Ian Meldrum who wrote the gossip column. By this time Mitch had left, and Ed Nimmervoll had decided to stay in Melbourne, rather than go to Sydney, where the magazine was to be edited.
The last issue was the one after this, dated 25 August 1974. There was no Keyhole News. The issue would be made up from items drawn from other magazines from the IPC stable.
Like the Beatles last released album "Let It Be", the last Go-Set was a sad reflection of what it had been. The spark was finally gone!!
Next posting will go back to a more happy period!!