Australia's Little River Band Trivia Quiz

Answer: AC/DC

The first line up of Little River Band were Glenn Shorrock on lead vocals, Beeb Birtles on guitar and vocals, Graeham Goble on guitar and vocals, Derek Pellicci as drummer, with another two sessions players covering lead and bass guitars.
Mr Birtles was the bass player from Zoot, the band that launched Rick Springfield's career. They had an Australian top ten hit with a hard rock version of "Eleanor Rigby" (1968).
Mr Goble and Mr Pellicci (and later Mr Birtles) were in Mississippi, a country rock band with an Australian Top Ten hit, "Kings of the World" (1972).
Mr Shorrock had had previous success with two iconic early Australian rock bands, The Twilights and Axiom (alongside Brian Cadd), the latter having three Australian Top Ten Hits.

Answer: Passed a directional road sign "Little River" on their way to their first gig in Geelong, Victoria

One of the many astute moves Little River Band made was appoint Glen Wheatley, an experienced US/UK musical promoter as their manager. In 1975 he booked the group a gig at Geelong, 75 kilometres down the highway from their Melbourne base, as a reformed Mississippi.

As they passed the turnoff for the tiny town of Little River, they thought that was a good name for the band so they played their first gig on 1 March 1975 as the Little River Band despite being booked as Mississippi.

Answer: Howzat!

In May 1975 Mr Wheatley had managed to sign the group to EMI Records, arguably the biggest record company in Australia at the time. When their album was released, sales of the album and the lead single "Curiosity (Killed the Cat) were enhanced because of their their appearance on "Countdown" an Australian cultural icon of a TV music program. Any band that appeared on this national show were almost guaranteed to be have a subsequent hit. Little River Band had hit the big time within six months of forming.

"Howzat!" was the 1976 smash hit for Sherbet in 1976, arguably, Australia's most popular band at the the time.

Answer: Harmony Rock

LRB (as they were affectionately known) had a very tight sound. After a few lineup changes with bass and lead guitarists, George McArdle (Bass) and David Briggs (Lead) became the "classic" LRB lineup. A six piece band was unusually large at the time with three guitarists and bass, (Mr Shorrock was also a guitarist but concentrated on vocals).

This band had exquisite guitar interplay and very clever harmony vocals that became their characteristic sound.

Answer: Combined their two Australian albums to produce a single US album

Little River Band were helped with some good fortune when they arrived in the States. They had a West Coast Sound and their music was appealing to the emerging FM "Adult Contemporary" market. Capitol, their US record company, merged their second album, 1976's "After Hours" (containing the Australian top forty hit, "Everyday of my Life") with their their Aussie album ("Diamantina Cocktail", 1977, which contained three Australian hits) to produce a single album which was given the same name, ("Diamantina Cocktail") but was very different in tracklisting.
The band had had a Billboard Hot 100 hit with "It's a Long Way There" but after the release of the album, "Help Is On Its Way" (1977) reached number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 (Number one in Australia).

Little River Band went on to have a total of 13 US Billboard Hot 100 hits.

Answer: John Farnham

John Farnham, Australian musical royalty, also managed by Glen Wheatley, joined the band in 1982. Despite a string of minor hits, the two powerhouses never quite gelled - the back catalog had to be re-arranged as Mr Farnham and Mr Shorrock sang in different registers and there were some personality issues as well as a departure from their signature sound with an addition of a keyboardist. Mr Farnham left in 1986 where his solo career had a renaissance as "Whispering Jack" and Mr Shorrock returned.

Answer: 11

LRB's 1990 "Get Lucky" was their last album to chart on the Australian Kent Report Between 1976 and 1990 they had 11 albums on this chart and 23 singles. (Albums 2-6 made the top ten [2 gold, 2 platinum]). In the US, they had seven albums in the Billboard 200 Album chart between 1977-1985 with 1979's "First Under the Wire" reaching the top ten.

The band released at least two live albums (depending on the country of release) and many compilation albums.

Answer: Zero

One of the great inconsistencies was that Little River Band were not successful in the UK, failing to have a single top ten hit. Whilst they achieved modest success in Europe they had none in UK. This is in stark contrast to other Australian bands that made it big internationally. Most headed to the UK first and when they became successful there, they moved on to the US.

Answer: Selected as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time

"Cool Change" was a hit song by Little River Band and was the second single from their sixth Australian album "First Under the Wire". Ironically "Cool Change" did not chart on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart Top 50 at all but in the US it peaked at number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 early in 1980.
"Cool Change" was selected by Australasian Performing Right Association as one of the "Top 30 Australian songs of all time" alongside hits from such iconic Australian bands as Midnight Oil, Powderfinger and Savage Garden.

Answer: Induction into Australian Recording Industry Association Hall of Fame

Mr Shorrock had previously being inducted as a solo artist into the Australian Recording Industry Association Hall of Fame but it was the whole band that was inducted in 2004 joining such as John Farnham (ironically last year's inductee), Olivia Newton-John, INXS, Cold Chisel and The Seekers. Fittingly it was "The Classic Lineup of the Little River Band": Birtles, Shorrock, Goble, Pellicci, Briggs and McArdle, the band of 1976-78, that was inducted.

Little River Band left a legacy of being one of the greatest Australian Rock bands of all time and their influence on modern music in Australia endures well into the 21st century.