Peter Blakeley

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Peter Blakeley is an Australian White Soul/Adult-Contemporary singer and songwriter.

Blakeley was a lead singer for The Rockmelons in the mid-1980s. He launched a solo career in 1987 and had a massive hit single in Australia in 1990 with "Crying in the Chapel", which was not a remake of the 1950s song "Crying in the Chapel". In 1990 he won an ARIA award for Single of the year with "Crying in the Chapel", the first single taken from his album "Harry's Cafe De Wheels".

Contents

[edit] Early Years

One of Peter Blakeley's first breaks came when he was invited by Richard Clapton to accompany him on an Australian national tour in 1979, Clapton would prove to be an important mentor in the early years. By this stage, Blakeley was closely involved with Sydney's music scene, which was at that time concentrated in the inner-city suburbs of Darlinghurst and Kings Cross.

Peter was involved with a number of line-ups between 1979-1984 including, Peter Black and The Reds (1980), PM w/ Chris Bailey and Malcolm Green, Rat Tat Tat (1984) w/ Chris Bailey, Jeff Raglus, and Geoff Stapleton, Viola Dana and The Starlight Wranglers (1984) and Paris Green (1984).

The next phase of Blakeley's career prior to him forming Peter Blakeley & The Resurrection, was a spell as featured vocalist with pioneer pop/electronic outfit The Rockmelons. Peter can be heard on the early single 'Sweat It Out' released on the Truetone Records label in 1985. Around this time, Peter also began performing with Wendy Matthews an affliation which would continue all the way through the decade until the completion of 'Harry's Cafe De Wheels' in 1989.

Peter Blakeley's commercial profile began to rise with the formation of Peter Blakeley & The Resurrection in 1986, this line-up included Wendy Matthews, Mark Punch, Hughie Benjamin, Paul Abraham and Peter Kekel. With this line-up, Blakeley supported a number of international touring acts including Eric Clapton, the majority of the material presented in his live set at this stage was later recorded and released on the 1987 mini-album 'Vicious'. Two singles were released during 1986, 'Must Be Chemical' and 'Ain't That Peculiar'.

'Must Be Chemical' and another song, 'When I Was A Little Boy' were included on the soundtrack for the stage musical 'Illusion" which was released towards the end of 1986 by ABC music. 'Illusion' was commissioned by the Adelaide Festival of Arts and featured words from noted Australian author Peter Carey arranged to music by composer Martin Armiger. The single 'Must Be Chemical' b/w 'When I Was A Little Boy' was Blakeley's debut solo release for the True Tone label.

'Vicious' was produced by the renowned Ricky Fartarr, best known for his work with The Monitors and The Beach Boys and released through the Truetone Records label. Two singles lifted from this record, 'Caterina' and 'Bye Bye Baby' received support from commercial radio as did the album track 'Cattletrain', this album was later re-packaged for the American market as 'The Truetone Sessions' by Capitol Records in 1988.

[edit] Commercial Success

Peter Blakeley moved to Los Angeles in 1988 to sign with Capitol Records in the US. The first US release was 'The Truetone Sessions' in 1988 on Capitol Records. In 1989 he released the album 'Harry's Cafe De Wheel's, which was executive produced by Peter Asher.

Artists involved with the album included Linda Ronstadt, Siedah Garrett, Wendy Matthews and Andrew Gold, in addition to legendary session musicians such as Jeff Porcaro, Jim Keltner and Larry Klein. The lead single 'Crying in the Chapel' was produced by Stewart Levine who worked extensively with Simply Red. 'Harry's Cafe De Wheel's' spawned a total of four singles including, 'Crying in the Chapel', 'Quicksand', "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face", and 'You Never Heard It From Me'. The album was well received and highly successful, especially in Australia and Europe.

Towards the end of 1989 Blakeley contributed vocals to some of the tracks on Cher's 'Heart of Stone' album, this release was also produced by Peter Asher and featured musical contributions from a number of people involved in the recording of the 'Harry's Cafe De Wheels' album including, Andrew Gold, Frank Wolf, and Waddy Wachtel.

In 1990 he worked briefly with the Australian group Absent Friends which featured Wendy Matthews as lead vocalist, Blakeley provided the backing vocal and harmony on the song 'I Don't Want To Be With Nobody But You' which peaked at number 4 in the Australian charts in May of that year, he was also instrumental in the bands arrangement and selection of the song. The single was the most successful song released by the Absent Friends and was lifted from the album 'Here's Looking Up Your Address'.

Between 1990 and 1991, Blakeley embarked on two world tours which took in the US, UK, Australia and Western Europe to promote the release of the 'Harry's Cafe De Wheels' record. By this stage the single 'Crying in the Chapel' had charted on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts in the US and received significant radio support across Europe.

Subsequent singles released from the album also charted in Australia.

Blakeley's follow up record 'The Pale Horse' was released in 1993 by Giant/Warner in America. The album represented a different musical direction for Blakeley and incorporated stronger elements of Funk and Blues than 'Harry's Cafe De Wheel's whilst still retaining a distinctive Soul sound. The album was recorded at the Paisley Park Studios in the US owned by Prince and included members of the New Power Generation on some of the tracks. The record was produced by Jeff Aldrich, David Z and Andrew Gold, David Z at that time had recently had major chart success with his production of The Fine Young Cannibals song 'She Drives Me Crazy'.

One of the songs from the album 'Be Thankfull For What You've Got' was used in the opening sequence of the film The Taking of Beverly Hills, the two singles released from the album were 'I've Been Lonely' and 'Gods Little Elvis'.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Singles

  • Sweat It Out, (Single, w/ The Rockmelons, Truetone Records, 1985)
  • Must Be Chemical, Single w/ The Resurrection, Truetone Records, 1986)
  • Ain't That Peculiar, Single w/ The Resurrection, Truetone Records, 1986)
  • Caterina, Truetone Records, 1987)
  • Bye Bye Baby, Truetone Records, 1987)
  • Cattletrain, Capitol Records, 1988)
  • Crying In The Chapel, Capitol Records, 1989)
  • The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Capitol Records, 1990)
  • Quicksand, Capitol Records, 1990)
  • You Never Heard It From Me, Capitol Records, 1990)
  • I've Been Lonely, Giant Records, 1993)
  • God's Little Elvis, Giant Records, 1994)

[edit] Soundtracks

[edit] Awards

  • ARIA Award for Single Of The Year, 'Crying in the Chapel' (1990)
  • APRA Award for Most Performed Australasian Popular Work, 'Crying in the Chapel' (1990)

[edit] References