BIOGRAPHY

WENDY SADDINGTON

Wendy Saddington was one of the first Australian female rock singers in the country back in the late 1960s. As a child, her mother introduced her to the greats of the time (and today), such as Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, Bessie Smith and Miriam Makeba, among others. Other female singers of the period such as Etta James, Odetta, Nina Simone and of course Janis Joplin, were also a major influence on Wendy - not to mention the Mississippi delta blues and the soul music of the American Stax, Atlantic and Motown labels. In late 1967, at 18 years of age, Wendy left blues band The Revolution to join Adelaide psychedelic rock group James Taylor Move. James Taylor Move were active from 1967 to 1968, and included the following line-up: Wendy Saddington (vocals), Kevin Peek (guitar), Trevor Spencer (drums), and Alan Tarney (bass). Virtually all members of James Taylor Move went on to bigger and better things. Wendy left the band before any recordings were to be made.

In December 1968, Wendy joined Perth band, The Beaten Tracks, after leaving James Taylor Move. The Beaten Tracks as this time consisted of Warren Morgan (piano, vocals), Phil Manning (guitar, vocals), and Murray Wilkins (bass). The group changed their name to Chain soon after Wendy joined the group - the name being suggested by Wendy, as she was a fan of Aretha Franklin soul classic "Chain Of Fools". Chain would later go on to become one of Australia's most enduring blues bands. All up, Wendy spent around 18 months touring with Chain from December 1968 to May 1969. Warren Morgan (David N. Pepperell’s interview for Go-Set Magazine © Go-Set): "Wendy Saddington immediately called the band Chain, which incidentally was her idea. The line-up of the band then was Murray Wilkinson on bass (very good player, still playing in Perth), Adrian Follington on drums (now playing with Bitch in England), myself and Phil Manning. The name Chain came about because Wendy said she'd always wanted to call a band Chain. It was and is a good name - I liked it because it was one word... 'Chain'. After Wendy joined the whole thing started to show some promise - we went to Sydney shortly afterwards and there was a lot of interest shown - of course Wendy was very well known. We toured Adelaide and we were really enthusiastic but then it gradually began to wane - it died quickly. I don't know why exactly - I suppose a lot did depend on Wendy and she left - she's never held a band together for very long - and when a person leaves there's a lead-up to it where the enthusiasm starts to go. Remember we were a very green bunch of guys and we had ideas. I don't know if they were right or wrong. Our bass player was a very exact sort of guy and he wanted to practice every day and that didn't suit Wendy - she sort of fell out with us. But she never fell out with Phil and I. Our band did last longer than James Taylor Move and that apparently was some kind of record! and it was all a good thing really - we learnt a lot and we got a band off the ground called Chain."

Paul Culnane (© 2007, Paul Culnane) - www.milesago.com/: "On such cuts as the funky opener, Nina Simone's "Backlash Blues", and her heartfelt reading of Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues", Saddington continually astonishes with her sensual soul power. Another notable inclusion is Wendy's introspective and idiosyncratic reading of John Lennon's "Tomorrow Never Knows" (which Wendy introduces as a George Harrison composition!) Other highlights include "Five People Said I Was Crazy " (which, with its wild Ross East guitar solo, Barry Kelly's electric piano flourishes and Wendy's monumental banshee wail, certainly lives up to its title). The closing tour-de-force "Blues In A" completely satisfies the listener as a consummate combination of the music of one of Australia's premier all-purpose prog-blues bands of the time, with definitely one of our most unique and mesmerizing blues-soul vocalists." Wendy left Copperwine a month later in February.

After leaving Chain in May 1969, Wendy made a guest appearance on the short-lived ABC-TV program Fusions, backed by Sydney-based progressive band Tully - who were part of an innovative 'in concert' series that week on the show. Towards the end of that year, Wendy also began writing a regular column for Australian music magazine Go-Set (see page/section on this site), giving advice on love and relationships in a regular feature titled "Dear Wendy". Go-Set incidentally was the first Official Australian rock music magazine, published from early February 1966 until August 1974. Death of Go-Set - it would have been about Aug/Sep 1974. The last go-set was 24 Aug 74. Go-Set ran from 66-74. Also around this time in 1969, Wendy was apparently turned down for a role in the Australian stage show of Harry M. Miller's HAIR. The following year in March 1970, Wendy joined musician Jeff St. John's highly acclaimed and well-established group, Copperwine, just after the release of the group's Joint Effort album. Copperwine's line-up consisted of the following musicians: Wendy Saddington (lead vocals), Jeff St John (lead vocals), Harry Brus (bass), Ross East (guitar, vocals), Peter Figures (drums), and Barry Kelly (keyboards, vocals). With St. John temporarily away from the band, Wendy fronted Copperwine for their acclaimed performance at the Wallacia Festival on the central-coast of New South Wales. A live recording of the event, Wendy Saddington & The Copperwine Live, was released on Festival's new progressive subsidiary Infinity during '71, showcasing Copperwine's sympathetic backing sensibilities for Wendy's distinctive vocals.

The following year in 1972, Wendy continued to perform in and around Melbourne at venues like the renowned Thumpin' Tum. It was around this time that her performance style began to take on a much more theatrical bent, and she adopted a totally new stage persona, complete with costumes and whiteface 'pierrot' makeup. She also put together a new backing band called Teardrop. They were regulars at the TF Much Ballroom and the Much More Ballroom in Melbourne; a recent photo exhibition in Sydney featuring rock snaps by "Jaques L'Affrique" (David Porter) included several terrific shots of Wendy in full flight on the TF Much stage.

In 1973, Wendy co-wrote (with Warren 'Pig' Morgan) the track "Mothers & Fathers" for Billy Thorpe and Warren 'Pig' Morgan's Thumpin Pig and Puffin' Billy (Downunda) LP. In March that year, she joined the cast of an Australian version of Pete Townshend and The Who's rock opera Tommy, playing the role of 'The Nurse' alongside the likes of Daryl Braithwaite, Billy Thorpe, Broderick Smith and even Keith Moon. The Australian Tommy rock opera only played two arena shows, though both remain legendary performances. From '73 up to the late 70's, Wendy continued performing sporadically during this period working with various outfits such as the Blues Assembly, Jeff Duff, Shango, and later in the US, she worked for a short while with the legendary Jeff Crozier. From the late '70's through to the early 80's, Wendy disappeared from the music scene, after becoming a follower of the teachings of Prabhupada and subsequently joining the Hare Krishna movement in 1978. She has remained committed to this philosophy ever since.

In 1983, Wendy put together the first incarnation of 'The Wendy Saddington Band', with the musicians: Bobby Gebert (keyboards), Harvey James (guitar), Billy Rylands (bass) and Chris Sweeney (drums). Three years later in 1986, Wendy put together an impressive new line-up of The Wendy Saddington Band, this time featuring Mick Liber (guitar), Angelica Booth (bass), Des "Animal" McKenna (drums) and Rose Bygrave (organ). The style of the '86-87 group has been described as "reggae hip-hop funk 'n' soul, with Wendy at her 1987 best". The band recorded an as yet unreleased album at Eric Newton Recording studio (aka ENREC Studios, run and owned by Elf Newton), but unfortunately someone at the studio subsequently lost the master tape. The band later burned a surviving cassette dub onto CD, but by that time Wendy apparently had "grown out of it and didn't want to release it cause it wasn't good enough". The unreleased ENREC recordings also feature a 16-year-old named Javier Fredes (of Ray Pereira's Bongo Fury) on congas and timbales, and the Flying Emus on accordion, fiddles and harmonicas. Des McKenna (May 2008 email): "I named her (Wendy) 'the witch of pitch' - its sort of a special name for a magic girl. Great great singer; thrills me!! I don't think she wanted the ENREC recordings released cos they ruff as guts and the band had 'had a few'. On the ENREC recordings are also 16-year-old Javier Fedis on Congas timbales - he plays with Ray Pereiras bongo fury -, and on accordion fiddles and harmonicas are 'the Flying Emus'. Titles were in no particular order: 3 Minutes to Midnight (aka Nuclear Midnight), Grinding Wheel (aka Vile Society), Hypocrite Heaven, Billy Jean, Stand By Me, Aint That Peculiar, I Who Have Nothing, and Blues-Mother of Sin. We did each song once with Wendy wailing like a live gig. Then she sang some overdubs in unison with her self, then me and Javier did some extra congas and timbales then all off down to the pub for a vegetarian counter lunch while the flying emus did some harps accordions and fiddles. We did it all in 3 hours at 10am on a Sunday instead of mass. September? 1986. It was Tamworth country music festival week. By 5 pm Elf had mixed it shelved it and lost it!!! The whole day and the drive from melbun in my HQ wagon cost about 380bux!!! hahaha. I don't think anyone can remix em (the ENREC recordings), they are left in a box under the shelf, gone wet and rusty and then we put them to CD from someone's tired old MONO Cassette, but who nose? They released some Charlie Parker and Hendrix like that and lots of the old jazz n blues… We got a right to sing the blooos."

Since 2000, Wendy has played shows at various different venues, including: The Continental Cafe, The Mercury Lounge, The Basement in Sydney, and the East Coast Blues and Roots Festival, among others. She also performed some shows with her old band Chain. Two years later in 2002, it was announced that Festival Records were finally going to release Wendy and Copperwine's much sought-after Wendy Saddington & The Copperwine Live album on CD for the first time (remastered with bonus tracks) as part of Festival Record's 50th anniversary re-release program. In the end however, the project was scrapped due to a rapid decline in the company's fortunes, which ultimately led to the cancellation of such re-releases - though advance copies to exist.  Warner Music Australia now owns the Festival Records catalogue, and currently some old Festival recordings have been re-released on CD. In March 2003, Wendy recorded three new cover songs ("Live The Life", "Prisoner Of Love", and "Down So Long") for Full House Records Women 'n Blues Live CD. Three years later in August 2006, Wendy took part in a rock ‘n’ roll benefit gig for Australian rock legend Lobby Lloyd, who was at the time battling lung cancer. The Masters Apprentices, Painters and Dockers, Chain, Rose Tattoo, The Aztecs, Spectrum and The Wild Cherries, Russell Morris, Ian Rilen, and Brian Cadd also paid tribute to Lobby on the night. Wendy's most recent show was in September 2007, where she played two nights at Brisbane's The Polish Club with Mick Hadley and the Atomic Boogie Band (Glen Muirhead, Kevin Howard, Keith Megsom and Craig Claxton). As of 2008, Wendy is still living in Melbourne where she dedicates her time to the Hare Krishna's, where she is now as Gandharvika - "the one who sings" (in Sanskrit).

- This biography was written with various books, internet and magazine articles as reference, mainly Paul Culnane's excellent original Wendy Saddington article (© 2007, Paul Culnane) contributed to the must-see www.milesago.com/ website, and Go-Set magazine. If I have overlooked anyone else's work referenced here, please let me know. All quotes/text where featured in this biography section remain the work of both the writers and the books or magazines in which they originally appeared. Please overlook the typos, grammatical errors and downright ineptness of my writing in this biography section and elsewhere on this site - 7devonapes.