Russell Morris & Band

w/ Mike Elrington

The Flying Saucer welcomes back one of Australia’s finest blues musician’s, RUSSELL MORRIS. Russell and his band will be performing songs from his ARIA award winning album ‘Sharks Mouth’, his most recent album ‘Van Diemen’s Land’ as well as a number of hits throughout his vast musical career. Supporting Russell on the night will be Abbey Stone. Be sure to reserve your tickets TODAY as it will sell quickly!

Morris’ career started in September 1966 with the formation of the Melbourne group Somebody’s Image, which rose to prominence with a local hit version of the Joe South song ‘Hush’. Morris was convinced to leave Somebody’s Image for a solo career. His manager/producer, local music identity Ian Meldrum, spent unprecedented hours and money to create a seven-minute production extravaganza around a song called ‘The Real Thing’. Once the result was released to shocked radio programmers who had never been asked to play such a long Australian single before, it was up to Morris’ personality, singing, and performing talents to make the record work. It reached Australia’s number one spot in June 1969. Without any promotional support from Morris, ‘The Real Thing’ reached number one in Chicago, Houston, and New York. The second single — ‘Part Three Into Paper Walls’ (‘The Real Thing’ revisited) and ‘The Girl That I Love’ (a pop ballad more indicative of what was to come) — became a double-sided number one hit, the first time an Australian artist had scored consecutive number ones with their first two singles.