James Reyne

James Michael Nugent Reyne OAM (born 19 May 1957) is an Australian musician.

He achieved fame as the lead singer of Australian Crawl, and subsequently went on to a successful solo career.

Reyne was born in Lagos, Nigeria.

His father, Rodney Michael Reyne, was an English-born former Royal Marine who served as aide-de-camp to the governor of the state of Victoria, Sir Dallas Brooks, and subsequently worked for British Petroleum.

His paternal grandfather, Cecil Nugent Reyne, was an English rear admiral.

His mother, Judith Graham, née Leask, was a teacher.

His younger brother, David Reyne, was also born in Nigeria.

The family moved to Victoria in late 1959, where a younger sister Elisabeth was born.

Reyne lived in Mount Eliza, Victoria, was educated at the Peninsula School and studied drama at the Victorian College of Arts.

He formed a band called Spiff Rouch containing fellow locals Bill McDonough, Guy McDonough, Brad Robinson, Paul Williams, Robert Walker, Mark Hudson and Simon Binks.

By early 1978, Spiff Rouch had split and Reyne formed Clutch Cargo services with Binks, Robinson, Williams and his younger brother David Reyne.

In late 1978, Clutch Cargo was renamed Australian Crawl and started to gain popularity on the pub circuit.

David Reyne left to continue an acting course and was replaced by Bill McDonough.

Australian Crawl made a memorable debut on the Countdown TV show.

Reyne performed with both arms in plaster casts, a result of injuries sustained after being hit by a car.

The band went on to sell more than one million albums in Australia in the 1980s.

Their most popular songs are "Reckless", "Beautiful People", "Errol", "The Boys Light Up", "Things Don't Seem", "Oh No Not You Again" and "Downhearted".

They were voted Countdown 1981 Most Popular Group, and Reyne was 1980 and 1981 Most Popular Male Performer.

While still with Australian Crawl, Reyne teamed with Lin Buckfield of Electric Pandas to release a 1985 single, "R.O.C.K."

/ "Under My Thumb".

After the band split up in 1986, Reyne went on to a successful solo career.

In 1987, Reyne released his self titled debut solo album and started the "Rip it Up" tour.

The first two singles released from the album, "Fall of Rome" and "Hammerhead", were top-10 hits in Australia, followed by the less-successful "Rip It Up" and "Heaven On a Stick".

The album was re-packaged in 1988 to include a further top 10 single, "Motor's Too Fast" (peaking at #6 on the ARIA chart Australian chart peaks:

His debut was followed in May 1989 by his next solo release, Hard Reyne, which featured the hits "House of Cards" (#17 ARIA Charts ) and "One More River" (#22 ARIA Charts ).

The album was produced By Simon Hussey.

The project was launched with a live televised performance on Australia's MTV program on the Nine Network and an Australian tour in late 1989.

A further two singles, "Trouble in Paradise" (Oct 1989) and "Harvest Moon" (Jan 1990), were released from the album.

In 1991, Electric Digger Dandy was released.

Mindful of the American market (where the album was released under the title of Any Day Above Ground), Electric Digger Dandy included a revamped version of the Australian Crawl hit "Reckless" as well as a cover of John Hiatt's "Stood Up", a duet with American singer-songwriter Tony Joe White.

Single releases from the album included "Slave" (#10 ARIA Charts ), "Any Day Above Ground" and "Some People".

It remains Reyne's highest-charting album in Australia, reaching No. 3 on the ARIA albums chart.

In 1992, he recorded a duet with country singer James Blundell (a cover of The Dingoes' song, Way Out West).

It hit No. 2 on the Australian charts, Reyne's highest charting solo single.

Later that year he joined former Sherbet frontman Daryl Braithwaite, Jef Scott and Simon Hussey to create the album Company of Strangers, which spawned three Australian top 50 singles: "Motor City (I Get Lost)", "Sweet Love", "Daddy's Gonna Make You a Star".

A fourth single released from the album, "Baby, You're a Rich Man", failed to enter the top 100.

October 1994 saw the release of his fourth album, on the RooArt label, The Whiff of Bedlam, recorded in Los Angeles with Stewart Levine.

The singles released from the album were "Red Light Avenue", "Day in the Sun" (Dec 1994) and "It's Only Natural" (April 1995).

Reyne and his band continued overseas to Europe, UK and South America.

Recorded live in South America, the double-album "Live in Rio" was released in April 1996.