Graham Bidstrup

Graham "Buzz" Bidstrup (born 30 August 1952) is an Australian musician, songwriter, music producer and artist manager. He has been a member of The Angels, The Party Boys and Gang Gajang. He has managed Jimmy Little, Nathan Cavaleri and Diana Ah Naid. He was the CEO of the Jimmy Little Foundation from 2005 - 2015 and is the founder and Managing Director of Uncle Jimmy Thumbs Up Ltd.^[1]

Biography[]

The Angels[]

Graham Bidstrup (aka Buzz Throckman) joined The Angels soon after the release of their first single "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again". Staying until 1981, he recorded the four albums with the band, The Angels (1977), Face to Face (1978), No Exit (1979) and Dark Room (1980) before leaving to pursue a career in music production for films including Heatwave, Starstruck and many for young bands of the time including The Riptides, The Honeymoon and The Numbers. Three of the Angels albums went platinum, two reaching the top ten. In 1980, Bidstrup co-wrote and co-produced the Angels top ten single, "No Secrets" with singer Doc Neeson.

Gang Gajang[]

Bidstrup was a founding member of Gang Gajang. The band emerged in 1984 with Chris Bailey (bandmate from The Angels) on bass guitar, Mark Callaghan from The Riptides, (a band Bidstrup had previously produced) and Kayellen Bee. They wrote songs and performed on the platinum selling soundtrack to the ABC TV series Sweet and Sour, for which Bidstrup was an Associate Music Director. With the addition of Geoffrey Stapleton on keyboards and Robert James on lead guitar in 1985 the line up was complete and Gang Gajang have now released four albums including the platinum selling self titled album which includes the now iconic song "Sounds of Then (This is Australia)". Bidstrup was the music director for the Quiksilver cult surf film, Mad Wax, that featured Gang Gajang's music exclusively. Gang Gajang were subsequently voted "No 1 band in the World" by the World Professional Surfers’ Association 1988/89. Gang Gajang are still very much active in both live performance and recording and celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2015.

The Party Boys[]

Bidstrup was a founding member of The Party Boys, an all-star covers band in 1982 featuring Kevin Borich, Paul Christie, Harvey James and James Reyne. Their first live album, Live at Several 21st's, achieved gold sales, and their second album, Greatest Hits of Other People, featured singer Richard Clapton and Robin Riley in place of Harvey and Reyne. The last recording Bidstrup made with the Party Boys was in 1983 on "No Song Too Sacred", which featured Shirley Strachan on lead vocals.

Other live work[]

Bidstrup began his professional career as a 15 year old in Fahrenheit 451(band). He also played with several other Adelaide bands over the next 8 years including Red Angel Panic, Gotham City, Pegasus and Taxi. He recorded a soundtrack for the film Starstuck with The Swingers, co-wrote and produced two albums for country band The Stetsons, recorded a live album as drummer for Riptides and has played live with many artists including Catfish, The Suave Fucks, Richard Clapton, and Jimmy Barnes Band,^[2] Australian Crawl and Mondo Rock.

Studio work[]

Bidstrup learned his early engineering and production skills under the mentorship of Harry Vanda and George Young at Alberts Records, and then with young engineer Mark Opitz, who co-produced two Angels albums Face to Face and No Exit. To date he has produced or co-produced over 50 albums by artists such as Riptides, The Party Boys, Gang Gajang, The Stetsons, Dave Steel, James Blundell, The Sunnyboys, Nathan Cavaleri, Diana Ah Naid and Jimmy Little and Leah Purcell. He has played as a session musician on albums by artists such as Swanee, Mondo Rock, Richard Clapton, Broderick Smith, Australian Crawl, Dave Steel, James Blundell, Nathan Cavaleri, , and Jimmy Barnes

References[]

• McFarlane, Ian, Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop (Sydney, Allen & Unwin, 1999) ISBN 1-86508-072-1

External links[]

• Graham 'Buzz' Bidstrup homepage
• GANGgajang: Official Website