|
|
|
|
| Author |
|
|
Just a big kid really...
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Gippsland Gourmet Country, Australia
Posts: 1,233
|
Billy Thorpe dead at 60
The great Billy Thorpe (Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs) died at 2.30am this morning Sydney (Aus) time after being rushed to hosptial by ambulance. He is said to have suffered a heart attack and could not be revived.
This guy shaped Aussie music like no other - he was an icon and was still performing to sellout shows. We saw him when he opened for Deep Purple a couple of years ago - everyone agreed we'd had our money's worth 10 times over even before the Purple hit the stage. I can't even believe he was 60! He was fit and fabulous and still had that amazing charisma both on stage and off....he's left a hole in the music industry that can't be filled...and I for one am going to miss him. |
||
02-27-2007, 01:06 PM
|
|
|
Semper drive!
|
DAMN!!! Billy was fantastic!!!
For those who've never heard of him... Randy
__________________
84 944 - Alpine White 86 Carrera Targa - Guards Red - My Pelican Gallery - (Gone, but never forgotten  )One Marine's View Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum |
||
|
02-27-2007, 01:28 PM
|
|
|
Just a big kid really...
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Gippsland Gourmet Country, Australia
Posts: 1,233
|
Amazing that Billy Thorpe was still organizing benefit concerts for the likes of Lobby Lloyd (another great Aussie muso) who is dying of cancer...and now Billy is gone.
The radio stations here in Melbourne are all playing tributes, old interviews, loads of songs (yey!)....and there is already talk of a "goodbye Billy" concert. That's one I will not miss, no matter what. At the Sunbury Music Festival (1972 I think) Deep Purple was the BIG act...promoted as the loudest band in the world; that is until the Aztecs took the stage and blew them away. Rumour is The Purple were truly *****ty about that.... When they played at Melbourne Town Hall, they were given permission to use the massive pipe organ; as long as they didn't crank it up and use the full range. Well, this was the era of LOUD so they cranked it up all right and cracked the foundations of the Melbourne Town Hall in the process (I have a live recording - it's on the 3 CD set 'Lock Up Your Mothers' which my 14yo son won't give back to me!). Last edited by lisa_spyder; 02-27-2007 at 01:41 PM.. |
||
|
02-27-2007, 01:31 PM
|
|
|
Registered
|
Before I clicked on the video above, I was going to write, "is this Billy Thorpe" of "Children of the Sun" fame?"... I guess so.
__________________
Mike 1976 Euro 911 3.2 w/10.3 compression & SSIs 22/29 torsions, 22/22 adjustable sways, Carrera brakes |
||
|
02-27-2007, 01:52 PM
|
|
|
Registered
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: Linn County, Oregon
Posts: 48,514
|
Oz lost an artist...Lisa, sorry to hear this.
__________________
"Now, to put a water-cooled engine in the rear and to have a radiator in the front, that's not very intelligent." -Ferry Porsche (PANO, Oct. '73) (I, Paul D. have loved this quote since 1973. It will remain as long as I post here.) |
||
|
02-27-2007, 03:14 PM
|
|
|
Just a big kid really...
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Gippsland Gourmet Country, Australia
Posts: 1,233
|
Paul,
Thorpie was a musical genius - Children of The Sun was probably the biggest album in the States for him, but he did so much more...and was working on an amazing project to record in the Palace in Algiers with the 72 piece Morrocan orchestra. This was soon to happen... He played some of his "Algier" stuff at the Deep Purple concert. There were 5 of us together and we all turned and looked at each other wide-eyed; it was so different to hear Thorpie do acoustic stuff and the piece he played (and sang) was complex, original and extraordinarily beautiful. Such a shame this album won't be completed. He was an 'adopted Melbourne boy' and the unofficial Melbourne anthem is definitely "Most People I Know Think That I'm Crazy" - nothing gets a crowd going down here like that one! |
||
|
02-27-2007, 06:52 PM
|
|
|
1986 Porsche Carerra Targa 3.2
1976 Porsche 911
