Grant McLennan

Grant William McLennan (12 February 1958 – 6 May 2006) was an Australian alternative rock singer-songwriter-guitarist.

Grant William McLennan was born on 12 February 1958 in Rockhampton, Queensland.

His father was a general practitioner, and McLennan grew up with a younger brother and sister.

After the death of their father, when McLennan was four years old, his family moved to Cairns.

He spent five years at the Anglican Church Grammar School in Brisbane as a boarder.

His mother remarried, and the family then relocated to a cattle station in central Far North Queensland.

McLennan's songs, which often evoke the impressions and imagery of the regional background of his childhood, include "Cattle and Cane", "Unkind and Unwise", "Dusty in Here" (about his father), "Boundary Rider" and "Bye Bye Pride".

In 1976, McLennan began a Bachelor of Arts degree at the University of Queensland.

Joh Bjelke-Petersen was Premier of Queensland at the time, and McLennan was arrested in a student protest against aspects of that government's conservative policies.

He co-founded the Go-Betweens with Robert Forster in Brisbane in 1977.

In addition to his work with the Go-Betweens (1977–89, 2000–06), he issued four solo albums: Watershed (1991), Fireboy (1992), Horsebreaker Star (1994) and In Your Bright Ray (1997).

He also undertook side-projects and collaborations with other artists.

McLennan received a number of accolades recognising his achievements and contributions as songwriter and lyricist.

In 1977, Grant McLennan met Robert Forster at university.

Forster encouraged him to learn bass guitar – McLennan had no musical training – and to form an alternative rock band, the Go-Betweens, in Brisbane.

For several months they used a succession of interim drummers, with McLennan on bass guitar and Forster on lead guitar and lead vocals.

Grant McLennan at the Australian Rock Database:

During the group's initial period, Forster provided most of the songwriting and lead vocals.

In November 1979, the Go-Betweens' McLennan and Forster travelled to England and then to Scotland, where they recorded new material, including their third single, "I Need Two Heads" (June 1980).

By the time it appeared, they had returned to Australia.

As McLennan's own distinctive compositional style developed, the two shared lead vocal duties almost equally.

For Go-Betweens releases from about 1980 forward, some songs were credited to "Forster/McLennan", although the two generally wrote separately, each singing their own compositions.

In November 1981, the Go-Betweens issued their debut album, Send Me a Lullaby, with Lindy Morrison as their permanent drummer.

Aside from lead vocals and bass guitar McLennan also provides lead guitar for three of its eight tracks – he wrote four tracks and co-wrote one with Forster.

In 1982, they relocated to London and recorded new material, also during that year McLennan was part of a side project, Tuff Monks, with Forster and Morrison joined by label mates, Nick Cave, Mick Harvey and Rowland S. Howard of the Birthday Party.

The group released only a single, "After the Fireworks", on Missing Link Records.

In late 1983 the Go-Betweens added Robert Vickers on bass guitar – which allowed McLennan to shift to lead guitar.

Late in 1986, Amanda Brown joined on oboe, violin, guitar, keyboards and backing vocals.

McLennan and Brown were soon in a romantic relationship.

Many of McLennan's new lyrics were about this relationship.

John Willsteed replaced Vickers on bass guitar in November 1987.

After recording six albums the Go-Betweens disbanded in December 1989.

McLennan and Forster had made tentative plans to form an acoustic duo together.

When McLennan told Brown, she ended their relationship.

McLennan and Forster each pursued solo careers while Brown and Morrison formed Cleopatra Wong in 1991.

McLennan told Gavin Sawford of Rave magazine, in April 1996, that "[it] is to me an inauspicious debut... if I'd heard that and I wasn't in the band, I think my comment would have been 'What the fuck is going on here.' There's great melodies but then there's changes which to this day I can't work out. There's lyrics to this day which I don't understand and when I actually summon up enough courage to get to the microphone, I sound like a choirboy with a mouthful of fruitcake."

McLennan and Forster reformed The Go-Betweens in 2000, and recorded three more studio albums.

In May 2001, the Australasian Performing Right Association listed "Cattle and Cane" (1983), written by McLennan, as one of their top 30 Australian songs of all time.

Their last one, Oceans Apart (October 2005), won the band their first ARIA Award: for Best Adult Contemporary Album at the 2005 ceremony.

McLennan died of a heart attack in 2006 at the age of 48.