Deborah Conway

Deborah Ann Conway (born 8 August 1959) is an Australian rock singer-songwriter and guitarist, and had a career as a model and actress.

Deborah Ann Conway was born on 8 August 1959 in Melbourne, Victoria.

Her father was a lawyer in Toorak and Conway attended Lauriston Girls' School—photos of her as a schoolgirl were displayed at the Sydney Jewish Museum.

Later she went to University of Melbourne—modelling and singing her way through.

A billboard campaign for Bluegrass jeans featured Conway's nude backside and the phrase "Get yours into Bluegrass".

Other ads with Conway as a model include Big M and Crunchie.

Conway had minor roles in the films Mallacoota Stampede (1979) and Hard Knocks (1980).

She was a founding member of the 1980s rock band Do-Ré-Mi with their top-5 hit "Man Overboard".

At the age of 18, Conway started playing guitar, and in 1980 she joined The Benders as a vocalist whilst still at university.

Her father was so concerned when she joined the pop band that he sent her to a psychiatrist.

Other members of The Benders included Neville Aresca (bass guitar), Les Barker (guitars, vocals), Dorland Bray (drums, vocals), John Campbell, Daniel Solowiej and Greg Thomas (guitar, keyboards).

They performed mostly in Melbourne pubs playing original material—mostly written by Conway and Thomas—and Blondie and Devo covers.

Conway also wrote songs with Bray.

In the early 1980s, Conway was the domestic partner of Paul Hester—drummer for Deckchairs Overboard and then Split Enz—before he left for Los Angeles in 1985 and formed Crowded House there.

In 1981, Conway and Bray relocated to Sydney and formed pop rock band Do-Ré-Mi, with Helen Carter on bass guitar and Stephen Philip on guitar.

Conway played the lead role of "Julie" in an Australian teenage road movie called Running on Empty, which was released in 1982.

In late 1983, Conway supplied vocals for actor Tracy Mann's singing in the ABC Television series Sweet and Sour (1984), including the hit title song, "Sweet and Sour".

Two soundtrack albums and three singles from the series were credited to The Takeaways (and various artists).

Conway sang lead vocals on half the songs and backing vocals on almost all the rest.

They recorded two albums, Domestic Harmony (1985) and The Happiest Place in Town (1988), and eight singles.

Their best performed hit, "Man Overboard", peaked at No. 5 on the Australia Kent Music Report Singles Chart and became the eighth-highest-positioned Australian song on the 1985 End of Year Chart.

Conway had a minor role in The Coca-Cola Kid (1985).

In 1986 Conway performed with The Rock Party, a charity project initiated by The National Campaign Against Drug Abuse, which included many Australasian musicians: Neil Finn, Eddie Rayner, Tim Finn, Nick Seymour and Hester (all from Crowded House); Geoff Stapleton, Robbie James and Mark Callaghan (all from GANGgajang); Reg Mombassa and Martin Plaza (both from Mental As Anything); Andrew Barnum and Lissa Barnum (Vitabeats); Mary Azzopardi (Rockmelons), Michael Barclay, Peter Blakeley, Jenny Morris, Danny De Costa, Greg Herbert (The Promise), Spencer P. Jones, Sean Kelly (Models), John Kennedy, Paul Kelly, Robert Susz (Dynamic Hepnotics) and Rick Swinn (The Venetians).

The Rock Party released a 12" single "Everything to Live For", which was produced by Joe Wissert, Phil Rigger and Phil Beazley.

Do-Ré-Mi disbanded in 1988 not long after their second album was released.

Rolling Stone (Australia) named Conway 'Best Australian Female Singer' for that year.

While Do-Ré-Mi were working in England in 1988, Conway became involved in Pete Townshend's project The Iron Man: The Musical by Pete Townshend.

Shortly afterwards she recorded an album of dance music in Los Angeles which was not released except for a solo single, a cover of Bad Company's "Feel Like Makin' Love" (1990), produced by Scott Cutler.

In 1990, Conway formed Drawcards as a semi-acoustic band with Vika and Linda, Stephen Cummings, Dror Erez, Tim Finn, Ross Hannaford, Peter Jones, Shane O'Mara and Chris Wilson.

Almost immediately it split with half its members—Conway, Hester, Erez, Jones and Wilson—forming Rose Amongst Thorns as a pub rock band from 1990 to 1991.

Conway performs solo and has a top-20 hit single with "It's Only the Beginning" (1991).

The associated album, String of Pearls, also peaked in the top 20.

In 1991, Conway played Juno in Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books, singing a setting of William Shakespeare's masque from The Tempest to music by Michael Nyman.

Deborah Conway's debut solo album was released in October 1991, titled String of Pearls, which peaked at No. 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart.

The album was produced by Richard Pleasance, Joe Hardy and Michael den Elzen.

She won the ARIA Award for Best Female Artist at the 1992 awards.

Singles from the album include "It's Only the Beginning" which reached No. 19 on the ARIA Singles Chart in August, "Under My Skin" (December) and "Release Me" (February 1992), all three of which were co-written with Scott Cutler.

For her work on the album, she won ARIA Award for Best Female Artist at the ARIA Music Awards of 1992.

Her next album, Bitch Epic, reached the top 20 in November 1993.

Conway organised and performed on the Broad Festivals from 2005 to 2008—show-casing contemporary Australian female artists.