That’s the way it’s gon’ be little Sherbert

From 1969 to 1984, Sherbet was one of Australia’s most popular bands.

Sherbet was formed in 1969 and started releasing singles in 1970 with the first single being a cover of Badfinger’s ‘Crimson Ships’.

1971 saw the release of the EP ‘Can You Feel It Baby?’ with the title song making it on to the Go-Set National Top 40 in September 1971.

The band entered the 1971 edition of Hoadley’s Battle of the Sounds and they won in New South Wales before losing the national final to a band called Fraternity whose lead singer Bon Scott found massive success later on with AC/DC.

Things started to happen for Sherbet in 1972 with the release of the album ‘Time Change… A Natural Progression’ and it reached No. 66 on the Kent Music Report plus it had it five hit singles released from it.

‘Free the People’ was one of the singles and it made it to No. 18 on the Kent Music Report and Sherbet was on its way to success.

1972 was the year the ‘classic line-up’ of Sherbet came together with the band lineup being Daryl Braithwaite (vocals),  Garth Porter (Keyboard), Alan Sandow (Drums), bassist Tony Mitchell (Bass Guitar) and Clive Shakespeare (Guitar).

1973 saw the release of the album ‘On with the Show’ which made it to No. 6 on the chart but it only had one single which was called ‘Cassandra’ and Cassandra made made it No. 5 on the Go-Set chart and No. 6 on the Kent Music Report.

1974 saw the release of Slipstream which made it to No. 3 on the chart and the album had three singles spawn from it including the song of the album title.

The press loved Sherbet having success as it meant that they could create a rivalry with another top band, Skyhooks who were also racking up the hits in Australia.

Both bands had a popular lead singer, both groups had an interesting choice of fashion, one was from New South Wales and the other was from Victoria, both groups were interested in overseas success and all of this made the perfect recipe for press encouraged rivalry.

Life… Is for Living was released in 1975 and made it to No. 3 on the chart and it had two singles, they also released the non-album single ‘Summer Love’ which made it to No. 1.

Daryl Braithwaite was voted TV Week’s King of Pop in 1975 and joined the likes of John Farnham and Jamie Redfern who were previously crowned King of Pop.

Clive Shakespeare left the band in 1976 for personal reasons and was replaced first by Gunther Gorman and then by Harvey James.

Harvey James played with bands such as Mississippi and Ariel with Mississippi later becoming Little River Band and Ariel had members of Spectrum.

Howzat was released in 1976 and it was No. 1 for two weeks, the album had two singles from it titled ‘Howzat’ and ‘Gimme’ Love’ and both of them were hits.

Sherbet tried their luck in the United States from 1976 to 1984 and they managed to get two songs in the charts with ‘Howzat’ and ‘I Have the Skill’ both reaching No. 61 in the United States.

Photoplay was the last studio album with the Sherbet name, it was also released in the United States as Magazine and the album continued the run of success in Australia as it reached No. 4 in Australia.

Sherbet changed their name to Highway in an attempt to get success in the United States but it did not improve their fortunes with the release of the album Highway 1 (aka Sherbet).

The band broke up in 1979 after their non-album release ‘Heart Get Ready’ only made it to No. 89 on the charts in Australia.
The band didn’t stay broken up for long as they were back as The Sherbs in 1980 with the exact same members as Highway.

The Sherbs had a new sound and while it didn’t work really well in Australia, it worked with some success in the United States as their album ‘The Skill’ made it on to the Billboard 200 album chart and their single ‘I Have the Skill’ made it to No. 61.

They had even more success on what is now the Mainstream Rock chart when ‘I Have the Skill’ made it to No. 14 on the chart and their song ‘We Ride Tonight’ made it to No. 22 in 1982 but the album Defying Gravity only made it to No. 202 and missed out on the Billboard 200 chart.

The Sherbs decided in 1983 to call it a day in 1984 and their farewell to Australia gave them No. 69 on the charts with ‘Tonight Will Last Forever’ with Howzat on the B Side with ‘The Party’s Over’ as the third track.

Sherbet/Highway/The Sherbs ended with an impressive record of twenty hit singles in Australia including two number ones over ten albums.

Daryl Braithwaite moved on to a solo career and scored a No. 1 album with Edge in 1988 with ‘As the Days Go By’ and ‘One Summer’ being hit singles by getting to No. 8 and No. 11 on the ARIA charts.

‘One Summer’ was an international success as it charted in the Top 5 in Norway (No. 5) and in Sweden (No. 4).

Daryl achieved musical immortality in 1990 when he recorded a cover of Ricki Lee Jones’ song ‘The Horses’ and not only did this song become a major hit but it is a song that keeps ongoing and going around Australia as you can be certain that somebody is singing it in a pub at any moment in time.

Sherbet was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1990, their induction alongside Percy Grainger was part of the third group of those inducted.

His next album ‘Higher than Hope’ was released in 1991 and it gave Daryl another hit in the United States as it reached #47 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Sherbet reunited on the last day of 1998 and they reunited again in 2001-03, 2006-07 and again in 2011 before again calling it a day.

The 2011 reunion was a sad occasion for the band as Harvey James died just weeks earlier and Clive Shakespeare was unable to attend as he was ill and would die thirteen months after Harvey James in 2012.

Daryl Braithwaite was inducted to the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2017 to go with his induction as a member of Sherbet and to this day continues with his solo career as he is about to release a new single called ‘Love Song’ and this release will no doubt create a new chapter in his long and interesting career that has taken him everywhere.