Normie Rowe And The Playboys. "It Ain't Necessarily So" c/w "Gonna Leave This Town," Sunshine (AU) QK-951 (rel. 4/1965)

 

Here's a record unheard by most Americans-or anyone outside of Australia. The continent had a thriving rock, pop and beat scene with most performers' fame confined to its boundaries. A few, like The Bee Gees and The Easybeats, broke through to a global audience; most were big fish in a small pond and fine with that level of fame.

Born in Melbourne in 1947, Norman Rowe's is a typical rock 'n' roll origin story: charmed by music early in life, he sang in a church choir and did local talent shows, where he won top honors at a 1959 Christmas showcase. He favored the less frenzied end of rock 'n' roll and formed a rock group while in high school. He continued his work as a choral singer and was made soloist at school recitals.

A local disc jockey, Stan Rofe, emceed a concert where Rowe sang and was impressed. He suggested a pop music career might do well for the lad. With the onset of the British beat groups, who infiltrated Australia well in advance of their American assault, local teens were eager for homegrown talent. Rowe performed in teen clubs, and soon joined up with Shadows-style instrumental band The Playboys; they remained a thing into 1967.

Enough local momentum built that a recording contract was offered with Festival Records, who owned and distributed several labels, including Sunshine, an imprint begun in 1964. Rofe suggested a George and Ira Gershwin Broadway classic, "It Ain't Necessarily So," which presaged the sound of such beat-group staples as "Love Potion No. 9" and "You're No Good." Liverpool band Ian & The Zodiacs recorded it in 1963; Joe Meek-produced beat group The Honeycombs made it a highlight of their spectacular first album in '64.

It was an ideal fit for Rowe's voice and a strong debut song. The Playboys borrow a percussion motif from The Honeycombs' rendition: a sound like a loose toggle switch being waggled; it punctuates every measure, though muted in comparison to the Joe Meek production. This group's version is straightforward, with an expected key change at a dramatic moment and a sweet string-bending solo by Playboys plucker Bill Billings.

This dramatic song was ideal beat-group fodder, and went Top 10 all over the country-except in Sydney, whose radio network, controlled by the Catholic Church, frowned upon the song's much-discussed 'sacrilegious' lyrics, which people have whined about since the song's debut in 1935 in the musical Porgy and Bess. Silly Sydney!

Beat group B-sides are the sacred realm of group originals. Playboy John Cartwright's "Gonna Leave This Town" sounds quite like a Honeycombs record, minus Joe Meek's weird studio tricks. A futuristic electric organ kicks it off, then disappears as a rough-and-ready beat-group backing supports Rowe's double-tracked lead vocal.

Guitarist Billings does himself well with some Glen Campbell-esque runs and string bends. The astro-organ returns late in the record. Pleasant enough doings, with a touch of audio chaos at the coda.

Rowe and The Playboys had hit after hit in Australia. He decided to follow the feats of The Bee Gees and Easybeats and get a foothold in the UK pop scene. He spent 10 months in England from 1966 to late '67. He toured and made some studio recordings with a new Playboys; those sides were fed to the Australian market where he continued to have effortless hits, including a chart-topper with late 1966's "Ooh-La-La."

He and The Playboys briefly toured the US in 1967 as a supporting act for Roy Orbison, among others. All of the sudden, that fall, his pop career ended. He was drafted for military service. He did a two-year tour of Vietnam, and returned to Australia a scorned man. Anti-war sentiments were high in Australia, and Rowe was condemned, challenged and criticized for years. In 1991, he attacked a TV interviewer who made a cruel dig at Rowe's military past.

No longer a pop idol, Rowe went into mainstream pop, where he continued to perform and record with success. His role on an Aussie soap opera Sons & Daughters was well-liked, as was his Jean Valjean in an acclaimed stage production of Les Misérables.

In later years, Rowe alleged that he'd been drafted as a political move by the Aussie prime minister Harold Holt to lure other youths into the service. Only a pawn in the game!

Normie Rowe is still with us and was performing well into the 2010s. His current activities aren't known; perhaps he's retired.

Tomorrow: a three-day tour of teenage rock 'n' roll from the hinterlands. Up first are the fantastic Carl Thomas and The Firetones, on a super-rare 1959 single from the hole-in-the-wall O Gee label. I own one of the few known copies of this powerful twin-spin!

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