Air Supply are a
soft
rock duo who had a succession of hits worldwide through the
late 1970s and early 1980s.
It consists of British guitarist
and vocalist Graham Russell (born Graham Cyril Russell, 11
June 1950, Sherwood, Nottingham
, England
, UK
) and
Australian lead vocalist Russell Hitchcock (born Russell Charles
Hitchcock, 15 June 1949, Melbourne
, Victoria
, Australia), plus various
accompanying musicians and singers as they hire from time-to-time
to augment their sounds.
History
Formation
The pair of Hitchcock and Russell met in May 1975 while performing
in the Australian production of the
Andrew Lloyd Webber/
Tim Rice musical production,
Jesus Christ Superstar. Later
that year, the duo, along with
Chrissie
Hammond and two others, formed "Air Supply" as a five-man
group. Hammond left the band and was replaced by Jeremy Paul in
time for the group's first Australian hit single, "Love and Other
Bruises." It was followed by a
debut
album that reached
gold in
Australia, which featured keyboardist/arranger Adrian Scott,
drummer Jeff Browne, and guitarist
Mark
McEntee. Singles during this period included "Empty Pages" and
"Do What You Do".
The group was invited to open for Rod Stewart during his tour of Australia; he was
so impressed with their performance that he invited them to be the
opening act during his tour of the United
States
.
During this tour, Jeremy Paul left the band. (He later played with
the original lineup of the
Divinyls, led by
Chrissie Amphlett and Mark McEntee.)
Eager to prove that they could succeed as a duo, Air Supply
released the album
Love
& Other Bruises, which included re-recordings of many
of their earlier hits. Although their music met with some success,
Russell on the 1995
DVD recalls that he and
Hitchcock were so poor that they were reduced to checking the backs
of hotel sofas for change so that they could buy bread to make
toast.
Hitchcock and Russell started out fresh again in 1978, and the band
that was to record almost all of the hit records was formed. It
featured
Frank Esler-Smith
(arranger and
keyboardist), David Moyse,
and
Rex Goh (
guitars)
as well as the rhythm section of David Green (bass) and Ralph
Cooper (
drums).
In 1979, the band released
Life
Support, a
concept album that
included a picture disc on its first printing.
Produced by Charles
Fisher, it was recorded in the tiny Trafalgar Studios in Sydney, Australia
where, as
Graham recalls on the 2005 DVD, he had half an inch between the end
of his guitar and the studio wall. It was on this album that
a five-and-a-half minute version of "
Lost in Love" was introduced
to Australian audiences. Written by Russell in fifteen minutes, the
song caught the attention of music mogul
Clive Davis, and his record label,
Arista, remixed the song and released it as a
single in the United States.
1980s
Their 1980 album,
Lost in
Love, contained three U.S. Top Five singles, including the
title track (a U.S.
#3), plus "
Every Woman in the
World" (#5) and "
All Out of
Love" (#2). The album sold two million copies in the U.S. The
following year they released
The One That You Love,
and the
title song was
released as a single and went number #1 on the
Billboard Hot 100. It also featured two
other Top 10 hits, "
Here I
Am " and "
Sweet
Dreams".
A fourth single "I'll Never Get Enough",
co-written by Jeanne Napoli, Gary
Portnoy and Judy Quay, was released in Japan
and achieved
Top 10 status. Their third album, in 1982,
Now And Forever,
continued the group's popularity with the Top 10 hit, "
Even the Nights Are Better" and
two top 40 singles "
Young
Love" and "
Two
Less Lonely People In The World". In 1983, they released their
"Greatest Hits" album with a new single called "
Making Love out of Nothing at
All" written by
Jim Steinman. The
song was one of their biggest hits ever spending three weeks at
number 2, and the album eventually sold 5 million copies.
In 1984, their song "I Can Wait Forever" was included in a scene in
the blockbuster movie
Ghostbusters, and was included on the
soundtrack album.
Air Supply released their first live video,
Air Supply Live in
Hawaii. In 1985, they had one semi-major Billboard hit with
"
Just As I Am" and a
couple of minor hits. Russell and Hitchcock recorded a 1987
Christmas album before taking a break from
studio recordings. During this time, Russell Hitchcock released his
self-titled album in 1988 which was not a big seller. However, he
did have the single "
Swear To Your
Heart" in 1990 from the movie soundtrack for
Arachnophobia which received
significant airplay.
1990s
On August 21, 1989, using their old producer and welcoming the
return of drummer Ralph Cooper, the duo decided to enter the studio
again to record
The Earth Is, which was released in 1991
by
Giant Records under
Warner Brothers. The recording
contains their hit single "Without You," along with singles for
"Stronger Than the Night" (with a music video announcing that Air
Supply was back) and "Stop the Tears." Inside the album is a note
about Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell's original Musical
Director of their meeting place during
Jesus Christ Superstar (and long
time Band Member/Orchestrator): "This Album is Dedicated to the
Memory of Frank Esler-Smith."
The official fan club released
The Earth Is World Tour
video, a rare collector's item that contains live footage from the
band's global tour in support of the album.
The album was followed by
The Vanishing Race in 1993,
which was supported by the hit single "Goodbye" produced by
David Foster, with lyrics by
Linda Thompson--which, although not
popular in the United States, was critically praised and gained a
large following outside the country, especially in Asia where in
many countries they would reach number #1. This would lead to
another world tour in 1993. "It's Never Too Late" was another
single released from the
Vanishing Race. The album itself
was dedicated to the plight of the
American Indians, the
"Vanishing Race" of the album's title.
Their third album of the decade,
News from Nowhere, was
released in 1995. It contained the
Asian hit
singles "Someone", "Always", and a cover of "
Unchained Melody", a song made famous by
The Righteous Brothers.
Their
popularity continued to soar in Southeast
Asian countries, culminating in the release of Now and
Forever: Greatest Hits Live, a CD and DVD recording of a live
concert in Taipei
, Taiwan
, also in
1995, which stayed at the top of the Taiwanese album charts for 16
weeks.
2000s
Air Supply at the Subic Convention
Center, Philippines on June 12, 2008.
Russell Hitchcock of Air Supply at the
Max Pavilion in Singapore, June 19, 2009.
They continued to tour heavily throughout Asia and in select venues
in the U.S. as well as record into the new millennium, releasing
the more
adult
contemporary-titled
The Book of Love (1997),
Yours
Truly (2001), and
Across the Concrete Sky (2003).
In 2005
they once again released a live CD/DVD recording; also in 2005 they performed in Havana
, Cuba
, becoming
one of the first foreign bands invited to perform in the
country. They were booked to perform two concerts, and
played the first show on July 7, the day before
Hurricane Dennis hit the country. In high
winds their first concert had an audience of 175,000. Due to the
hurricane they could not play the second show. Fans staying at the
same hotel as Air Supply on July 8 had to be content with Graham
performing acoustically for them, as there was no
electricity.
Their songs were featured in
Mr.
and Mrs. Smith and
The
Wedding Date.
In 2006 they released an acoustic album,
The Singer and the
Song, and are gearing up for the release of their first studio
album in three years,
Zed.
In support of the acoustic album they made
their first trip to India
in May
2006. December 2, 2006 saw the duo perform to a
capacity crowd in Kingston,
Jamaica
. This was their second visit to Jamaica,
having performed at the
Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues
Festival in January 2006. They also have been seen endorsing
Time–Life's Classic Soft-Rock
Collection. In 2007, Graham Russell released his first adult
contemporary solo album called
The Future.
Russell recently made an appearance in
Believe, a comedy about
Multi-Level Marketing.
In 2008, Air Supply was named as the number 83 best musical act of
all time in the Billboard Hot 100's 50 year anniversary edition.
This was based purely on their performance on the charts.
They appeared on the December 19, 2008, edition of
Don't Forget
the Lyrics.
A new album is scheduled for early 2010.
Discography
Albums
Singles
Recordings by others
- In 1980, shortly after the original version of "Lost In Love"
was released, Demis Roussos included
it as a duet with Florence Warner on
his hit album Man of the World.
- In 1987, the American singer Laura
Branigan covered the song "The Power of Love", a Jennifer Rush original, and that recording
went to #26 on the Billboard Hot
100 in the United States.
- In 1994, Celine Dion recorded "The Power of Love" for her album
À l'Olympia.
- In 1997, "Boyband OTT" recorded "All Out Of Love" and peaked at
#11 in the British chart, the same peak position as the
original.
- In
1998, Air Supply's hit single "Lost In Love" was recorded by the
New Zealand
dance/pop
musical group Deep Obsession.
It reached #1 in New Zealand, which was a higher position than Air
Supply's original in that country.
- In 1999, "Lost in Love" was remixed by the Grammy Award-winning
producer Brian Rawling and released
internationally on Deep Obsession's debut album "Infinity".
- In 2003, the R&B group "Jagged
Edge" recorded the Air Supply single "All Out of Love".
- In 2004, punk rock band "Bad
Religion" referenced "Without You" in their song "The Empire
Strikes First", singing the chorus with the word 'with' rather than
'without'.
- In 2005, Carrie Underwood sang
"Making Love Out Of
Nothing At All" during the fourth season of American Idol.
- In 2005, Air Supply's single "Goodbye" was recorded on Janice Wei's album "My Love".
- In 2006, Westlife, the internationally
popular Irish vocal pop group, recorded "All Out of Love", a duet with Delta Goodrem in that band's album, The
Love Album, which debuted at #1 in the British charts. Another
version of the song was covered by Philippine actor Dennis Trillo.
- In 2006, the English singer Declan
Galbraith recorded "All Out of
Love" on his album, Thank You
- In 2007, actor John Barrowman
recorded "All Out of Love" on his
album, Another
Side.
- In 2008, the keyboardist Carrigan Chantz recorded "Late Again"
on his self-titled debut.
- In 2009, the YouTube performer Natalie Tran sang along to various Air Supply
songs in one of her videos.
Music videos
| Year |
Title |
| 1976 |
"Love and Other Bruises" |
| 1977 |
"Bring Out the Magic" |
| 1980 |
"Lost in Love" |
| "All Out Of Love" |
| "Every Woman in the World" |
| 1981 |
"Even the Nights Are Better" |
| "Young Love" |
| 1982 |
"Here I Am (Just When I Thought I Was Over You)" |
| "Keeping the Love Alive |
| "The One That You Love" |
| 1983 |
"Making Love Out Of Nothing At All" |
| 1985 |
"Just As I Am" |
| "The Power Of Love" |
| 1986 |
"Lonely is the Night" |
| "One More Chance" |
| 1991 |
"Stronger Than the Night" |
| "Without You" |
| "Stop the Tears" |
| 1993 |
"It's Never Too Late" |
| "Goodbye" |
| 1995 |
"Someone" |
| "Unchained Melody" |
| "Always" |
| 1997 |
"Strong Strong Wind" |
| 2001 |
"You Are the Reason" |
|
References
- Graham Russell NNDB
External links
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