Burlesque Review
Burlesque Review was a Sydney based band active around 1975. Information about them is a little hard to come by but fortunately I was recently contacted by their vocalist Stewart MacFarlane who had some information, photo’s and even an audio track. Here’s what he had to say:
“The song I am sending is titled ‘Eternity’. It was recorded at Atlantic Studios, Sydney, in early 1975. (Members of The Atlantics ran that studio.)
The band is BURLESQUE REVIEW.
This was a 4 piece band, drums, bass, guitar and myself on vocals.
I will have to dig up the names of the members and send these and a couple of photos to you (in the next few days).
Burlesque Review was based in the Western suburbs of Sydney. I moved to Sydney from Adelaide on January 1 1975. I joined Burlesque Review, possibly in March 1975.
The guitarist John (I’ll need to find his last name) was the main songwriter.
We rehearsed a lot but only played about three gigs around Sydney.
Our claim to fame was that we entered a recording competition that was being held on the new TV show, Countdown. Countdown had just started and was being made in Sydney in 1975. Molly was not involved at that point.
We won third place and appeared on Countdown. I think the winner was PANTHER a band similar to Santana.
ETERNITY was the B side of our never released single. The song that got onto Countdown was TOWERING INFERNO. (I will find that and send it to you also.)The band was not stable because of personality clashes, possibly because I was a ring in and the others were more of a unit.
We broke up in about July 1975.
I had the opportunity to go to NYC in August 1975 and attend art school there. I did that.
I also formed a band in NYC and released an album.
I will tell you about that later; meantime here is ETERNITY…”
A little while I received a second installment from Stewart:
“Here are 3 photos of Burlesque Review (what a silly name)
The songwriter is the guitarist with the beard. His name is John Moyston. Can’t remember the other names.
Our stage clothes were unfortunate but a reflection of that time.
The photos from the live gig were from the hotel in Darlinghurst, on Oxford Street that is on the left side of the street heading up away from the city just before Taylor square. Can’t remember it’s name.”
The venue may have been French’s?
It wasn’t French’s. I used to go there fairly often in 1975. I remember seeing Richard Clapton.
The venue where we played is a pub just before Taylor Square.
If it was right on the corner then it was probably the Oxford Funhouse where Radio Birdman played?