Graeham Goble

Graeham Goble OAM
Background information
Birth name	Graham George Goble
Born	(1947-05-15) 15 May 1947 (age 77) Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Genres	Pop, soft rock
Occupation(s)	Musician, singer-songwriter, record producer
Instruments	Vocals acoustic guitar bass guitar electric guitar
Years active	1966–present
Labels	RCA Gamba Fable Bootleg EMI Capitol MCA Universal Origin Music
Formerly of	Little River Band Mississippi Birtles & Goble Travis Wellington Hedge
Website	graehamgoble.com

Graeham George Goble, OAM (born 15 May 1947)^[1] is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter and record producer, best known as a founding member of Australian rock group Little River Band and Birtles Shorrock Goble.

As a performer, Goble was responsible for the vocal arrangements and high harmonies on eleven studio albums and numerous Top 10 singles with LRB. As a songwriter he penned songs like "Reminiscing", "Lady", "Take It Easy on Me", "The Other Guy" and "The Night Owls", each played millions of times on radio.^[1] As a producer, Goble's credits include John Farnham's Uncovered album in 1980 and his own catalog of recordings.

Goble is a keen student of spirituality and changed his first name from Graham to Graeham as a consequence of his interest in numerology and feng shui.^[2]

Goble was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2021 Australia Day Honours "for service to the performing arts as a singer, songwriter and producer."^[3]

Goble was born in Adelaide, South Australia, and was drawn to music, in particular its harmonies, at an early age. "My early influences were bands like The Beatles, The Hollies, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Bread and I always wanted to be in a band with harmonies. ... From my very first band we had 3 part harmonies"^[4]

Goble started his music career as a drummer but quickly progressed to the banjo. "As soon as I had a stringed instrument in my hands I suddenly had all these melodies."^[2] Thereafter came the transition to guitar. A number of bands followed in quick succession: The Silence (1966–67), Travis Wellington Hedge (1968), Allison Gros (1969–71) and Drummond (1971). Each of these bands recorded singles and or albums.^[5][6]

The members of Allison Gros were recruited to record the song "Daddy Cool" but their Chipmunk version was so atypical that they recorded under the fictitious name Drummond.^[7] Drummond would provide Goble with his first Number 1 hit single with "Daddy Cool". "Daddy Cool" would remain on top of the charts for seven weeks from 6 September 1971.

The success of the hit song "Daddy Cool" brought about greater awareness of Allison Gros/Drummond and led to a recording contract with the new record label Bootleg. The band morphed yet again, this time adopting the name Mississippi. Still consisting of Goble, Russ Johnson and John Mower, the band was augmented by session musicians for the recording of their first, self-titled album.^[8]

The first single released by Mississippi would provide Goble with his first chart success as a songwriter, the song "Kings of the World" peaking within the Australian top 10.^[1] With a successful album and single behind them, Mississippi hit the road. To fill out their live sound, the band was enhanced by the addition of top musicians including Beeb Birtles (an ex-member of the band Zoot). The first appearance of the expanded Mississippi took place on 28 October 1972 at Corbould Hall, Ballarat.^[9] With various personnel changes, but always including Goble, Birtles and Pellicci, Mississippi would go on to notch up over 400 live performances in 1972–74.^[10] In 1974, Mississippi were disestablished.

The nucleus of Goble, Birtles, Pellicci, new boy Glenn Shorrock and manager Wheatley kicked off the revitalised venture. Guitarists Ric Formosa and Roger McLachlan were recruited to complete the sound of the band. The new group performed in public for the first time in March 1975, still known as Mississippi.^[11] The new name Little River Band followed soon after, taken from a road sign to the town of Little River as the band travelled to a performance in Geelong.^[12] As principal composer, vocal arranger and co-producer, and with strong interest in the band's on-stage performance and day-to-day administration, Goble would soon come to be known as the "father figure" of the band. Glenn Shorrock put it less kindly, stating that "it's like having a policeman onstage with you every night".^[11] The creative tension, competition and differing personalities within the band would also fuel its subsequent rise to international stardom. As George Martin would later remark, "That's what makes these acts what they are. It's a matter of harnessing this energy they have."^[11]

"Graham was meticulous in every detail. He drove people crazy with his fanaticism but you had to respect and admire him for his absolute perseverance and his ability to write a good song. Without such songs we had nothing. Graham wrote some classics. He is also very intelligent, as I discovered in our many late-night discussions. Through all his quirks he is a very interesting human being."^[11]

The group released five studio albums in the 1970s. In 1976, The little River Band's "It's a Long Way There" (written by Goble) became an international hit. This was followed in 1978 with "Reminiscing".

It was Goble who acted as spokesman in moving to have foundation lead vocalist Shorrock replaced by John Farnham^{[when?][citation needed]}.

According to Goble, "that lineup [Goble, Nelson, Housden, Farnham, Prestwich and Hirschfelder] was the most talented LRB lineup that I had ever played in."^[13] "The live performances were so inspiring that I enjoyed playing live as much as recording. I count myself privileged to have experienced playing and singing with this line-up."^[4] Additionally Goble summed up the LRB experience saying "There's been six bands from Australia that have made an impact in America. How incredible was our destiny to be one of the very few out of all these incredible bands. Think about the thousands of acts that tried – it's an extraordinary achievement."^[13]

In 1978, After the successful release of The LRB's First Under the Wire, Beeb Birtles and Graeham Goble had composed so many songs that had not been used by LRB and were very keen to be put out as a duo and released The Last Romance. LRB members David Briggs, George McArdle and Derek Pellicci joined the two in the studio, together with other session musicians."^[14]

"If The Last Romance album had been successful, I expect that Beeb and I would have left Little River Band and recorded as a duo, e.g. Hall & Oates. Our record company (Capitol) were concerned about this possibility and so our album received little support. It was a great experience to record The Last Romance and it remains one of my favorite recordings."^[4]

In 1980, Australian singer John Farnham chose Goble to produce his 1980 album Uncovered. Aside from production and vocal arrangement, Goble also wrote or co-wrote nine of the ten songs on the album.^[15]

In 1990, Goble released his debut solo album, Broken Voices, for which he was composer, producer, vocal arranger, harmony vocalist and acoustic guitarist.^[16]

This was followed in 1993 with Nautilus and in 1995 with Stop. In 1998, The New Nautilus was released - it's a limited edition album and a re-package of Nautilus with a slightly altered track listing.^[17]

A chance meeting between Goble and Glenn Shorrock in 2001 (and a subsequent telephone call to Beeb Birtles) would lead to these three original members of LRB reforming as a group and released a live album Full Circle, which was certified gold in Australia.^[18]

In 2006, Goble released The Days Ahead, in 2008, Let It Rain, which musicologist Ed Nimmervoll said "Ultimately Graeham Goble's album Let It Rain is the journey of a lifetime. Listening to it takes us on an exceptional journey of our own."^[19] Of the eleven tracks on Let It Rain, two have been heard previously (albeit in different contexts). "Heart & Soul" appeared on the Birtles Shorrock Goble live DVD Full Circle while "Let It Rain" had been performed at the Farmhand Concert for Drought Relief in 2002.^[20][21]

Goble has been seriously writing songs since he was 16:

"I still write my songs the same way as when I first began. Usually an idea comes while I'm playing my acoustic guitar, but songs often come to me at any time of the day when I'm not playing my guitar. I sometimes dream complete compositions." Graham Goble (1997)^[4]

"I hear everything at once – melody, lyrics, it just comes in. There's a feeling that comes over me and I know that there's a song trying to come through. It's sort of like I'm taken over or someone's trying to contact me; I really believe very much that I'm in some ways channeling this thing. Because when I write a song it's always done very quickly, completed in 20 minutes or maybe half an hour. I never labour anything, or very rarely. The only labouring I've ever done in songwriting might be when I've completed a work, a song, and there might be a couple of lyrics I don't like, so sometimes I might sit with those and really put some brain power in how to fix up the lines. But for the most part it comes to me, it comes in and I can hear the whole thing finished with harmonies and everything." Graeham Goble (2001)^[2]

Graeham Goble has spent much of his adult life in the study of spirituality and related concepts:

"I believe very much in Spiritual Realms. I've undertaken a lot of Spiritual study – not religious study, but Spiritual study. There's a big difference. I believe in Guardian Angels and Higher Realms. My studies have taught me that when we sleep our soul leaves our body and has interaction with the Spiritual Realms. I've moved through lots of different beliefs and arrived at Rudolf Steiner."^[22]

Goble currently lives in a suburb of Melbourne, Australia. "I think the quality of what I'm doing is very high and the songs are very meaningful because I've lived a lot now. I've written from the point of view of somebody who's been through the mill and come out the other side."^[23]

The Australasian Performing Right Association gave Gold Awards to the best songs in Australia from 1982 to 1990.

The ARIA Hall of Fame is to honour the growing number of legendary performers, producers, songwriters and others who have influenced music culture in Australia.

The Australian Songwriters Hall of Fame was established in 2004 to honour the lifetime achievements of some of Australia's greatest songwriters.^[24]

Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), the performing rights organisation, awards a special citation of achievement for songs played more than one million times on US radio and television. Goble has won five such awards:^[25]

The Mo Awards, (technically The Australian Entertainment Mo Awards), are annual Australian entertainment industry awards. They recognise achievements in live entertainment in Australia.^[26]

The South Australian Music Awards are an annual two-week celebration of live music, celebrating musical achievements of South Australia.

• Graeham Goble's website
• Online Museum
• Graeham Goble's Facebook profile
• Five-part video interview at undercover.com.au (2008)
• Video of song Someone's Taken Our History (2006)
• Article in The Age newspaper (2005)
• Graeham Goble: Composer Profile by Debbie Kruger (2001)
• Web interview by Frankie Aue (1997)
• Graeham Goble Interview at NAMM Oral History Collection (2020)