Russell Dunlop

Russell James Dunlop (21 October 1945 – 16 May 2009) was an Australian musician, singer-songwriter and record producer-engineer.

Russell James Dunlop, was born in 1945 in Paddington, New South Wales.

His father, Hector Dunlop, was an engineer and his mother was Patricia.

The couple had another son, Barry, and both were educated at Bourke Street Primary and Narwee Boys' High School.

After leaving secondary school Dunlop worked as a tiler's labourer and then in a pharmaceutical factory.

Dunlop began playing in bands as a drummer at 16.

As a musician he was a member of various groups such as Aesop's Fables (1968–70), Levi Smith's Clefs (1971), Southern Contemporary Rock Assembly (SCRA) (1971–72) and Ayers Rock (1976).

In 1968 Aesop's Fables formed as a pop vocal group with Dunlop on drums, Sheryl Blake on lead vocals, Jimmy Doyle on guitar (ex-Telstars), Michael Lawler on bass guitar and Gary Moberly on organ (ex-Ramrods, later worked with Bee Gees).

The group performed cover versions, including The 5th Dimension, before working on originals.

Dunlop also worked as a session drummer and vocalist.

In 1969 Aesop's Fables entered the annual Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds competition and won the New South Wales final, at the national final they finished second behind Doug Parkinson in Focus.

However this version of the group separated without recording any material.

From the late 1970s he collaborated with Bruce Brown in a production company for albums and singles by Australian performers including Mental As Anything, The Reels and Machinations.

In February 1970 Dunlop and Moberley formed a new line-up, initially called The New Aesop's Fables, with Owen Booth on bass guitar, Brenda Glover on lead vocals (ex-Jet Set) and Brian Holloway on guitar (ex-The Dream, Image).

Holloway quit two months later and was replaced by Melbourne-based guitarist, Les Stacpool.

The band moved to Melbourne in mid-year, where Charlie Tumahai replaced Booth on bass guitar.

Dunlop met Judi Johnston and they married three months later.

Aesop's Fables had disbanded by October 1970.

In 1970 Dunlop moved back to Sydney and was a member of another pop-rock group, Levi Smith's Clefs.

It was fronted by Barrie "The Bear" McAskill on lead vocals and had a varied line-up including Jim Kelly on guitar (ex-Affair) and Mike Kenny on trumpet.

The group held a year-long residency at The Chequers night club, Sydney.

They issued two singles, "Live Like a Man" (September 1970) and "Gonna Get a Seizure" (April 1971) and followed with an extended play, Best of Whisky a Go Go.

The group's only single, "Little Yellow Pills", was issued posthumously in February 1971 as the first single on the Generation Records label.

The A-side was a cover of a track by British singer, Jackie Lomax, and its B-side, "Sandman", was written by Stacpool.

Dunlop, Kelly and Kenny formed a jazz-rock group, Southern Contemporary Rock Assembly (SCRA), in mid-1971 together with Sheryl Black on lead vocals, Ian Bloxsom on percussion, Dave Ellis on bass guitar, Greg Foster on trombone and harmonica (ex-Heart 'n' Soul), Micky Leyton on vocals, Peter Martin on guitar and vocals (ex-Little Sammy and the In People) and Don Wright on tenor sax and flute (ex-Ram Jam Big Band).

In December they issued their debut album, SCRA, which Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, compared to their regular "brash, commercial sound" – he found the album was "more restrained and slickly arranged".

It provided a single, "Roly Poly", which peaked at No. 28 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart in April of the following year.

SCRA appeared at the inaugural Sunbury Pop Festival in January 1972 and provided a live version of "Roly Poly" for a double album, Sunbury.

By April the group had relocated to the United States.

Also in April Dunlop and fellow SCRA members appeared as the studio backing band for Dig Richards' album, Harlequin.

SCRA recorded their second album, The Ship Album (1972), at The Hit Factory in New York; and at United Sound Studios, Sydney.

McFarlane felt they had "dispensed with the lighter pop moments of the debut to concentrate on a more innovative and bluesy progressive jazz-rock sound".

The group disbanded by the end of that year.

During 1973 Dunlop provided drums on several tracks for the debut album, Prussian Blue, by singer-songwriter, Richard Clapton.

In 1973, Dunlop and Kelly joined Mother Earth, a jazz-rock group, which had Harry Brus on bass guitar, Renée Geyer as lead singer (ex-Sun) and Mark Punch on guitar and vocals (ex-Nine Stage Horizon).

In 1973 Rory O'Donoghue (of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's TV comedy series, The Aunty Jack Show) on lead guitar and lead vocals formed a band, Cool Bananas, which Dunlop joined alongside Stein Bottington on bass guitar, Wayne Findlay on keyboards and Don Reid on flute and saxophone.

Cool Bananas issued a single, "Been and Gone", in October.

They followed with a novelty hit single, "Farewell Aunty Jack" (December 1973), which peaked at No. 1 for three weeks in the following year.

In February 1974, Dunlop and Punch founded the Johnny Rocco Band as a jazz-funk group, with Tony Buchanan on saxophone (ex-Thunderbirds, Daly-Wilson Big Band) and Tim Partridge on bass guitar (ex-Clockwork Oringe, King Harvest, Island, Mighty Kong).

McFarlane declared that they were "one of the first Australian bands to incorporate funk and soul into the pub-rock forum".