Hoadley’s Battle of the Sounds

Between 1966 and 1972, Bands from across Australia competed for the right to represent their state in the Grand Final of the Hoadley’s Battle of the Sounds competition.

Hoadley’s were the sponsors of the competition and the company was well known for the Violet Crumble.

The winners received a prize of a full return passage to England on the Sitmar cruise line plus two booked concerts in London and a thousand dollars in prize money, the prize later on was $2000, a trip to L.A plus money to record.

The Twilights were the first winners of the competition defeating The Other Ends and Choas & Co and the band had Glenn Shorrock as lead singer and the bands membership included lead guitarist Terry Britten who won a Grammy in 1985 for co-writing Tina Turner’s ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It’.

The Groop won in 1967 and the band featured the talents of Brian Cadd who would later work with Glenn Shorrock from the Twilights in the band Axiom as well as having a successful solo career.

The band itself had ten charting singles out of the eleven they released, only their first one ‘Mojo’ did not chart.

The Groove won in 1968 beating Masters Apprentices with Doug Parkinson in Focus coming in third.

The Groove had six charting singles including the Top 10 hit ‘Soothe Me’ which was released in their year of triumph.

Second place band The Masters Apprentices went on to have a five album and a twelve charting singles career that got them into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1998, one of those charting singles ‘Elevator Driver’ was written by The Groop’s Brian Cadd and Max Ross.

1969 was won by Doug Parkinson in Focus and they beat Aesops Fables and The Valentines in the main Grand Final, the Valentines lead singer at the time was Bon Scott.

Doug Parkinson in Focus had two No. 5 hits with ‘Dear Prudence’ and ‘Without You/Hair’ plus other charting successes.

The 1969 edition was also notable for having a ‘Vocal Group Grand Final’ which was won by The Affair and second place in that contest was Travis Wellington Hedge whose membership included Graeham Goble who was later on a major part of Little River Band.

The Flying Circus won in 1970 and they had defeated Zoot, Zoot of course had Darryl Cotton, Beeb Birtles and Rick Springfield in their ranks, The Flying Cirus had three Top 30 hits in Australia before moving on to Canada and scoring two hits there.

1971’s contest was won by Fraternity and they beat Sherbet and the group Jeff St John and Copperwine, Fraternity’s lead singer was Bon Scott who had previously finished in third place in 1969 with The Valentines and he later on ended up at AC/DC where he enjoyed international success.

The last contest was held in 1972 with rising band Sherbet being triumphant over Jeff St John and Copperwine with Headband finishing in third.

Sherbet of course went on to have great success with songs like ‘Howzat’ and ‘Summer Love’, Sherbet even had songs chart on Billboard’s Hot 100 which was then a rare feat for Australian bands and solo artists.

Jeff St John had the honour of performing the Australian National Anthem at the Opening Ceremony of the 2000 Paralympic Games, he had also performed the song ‘The Challenge’ at the ceremony.

ABC show GTK recorded the 1971 final and in a nine minute clip, you can see Fraternity, Sherbet and John St John and Copperwine performing their songs plus see Fraternity being announced the winner.

It is amazing how many members of different bands came together later on, who would of thought that Brian Cadd and Glenn Shorrock would later on be in Axiom or Beeb Birtles, Graeham Goble and Glenn Shorrock would be part of Little River Band by 1975 and there’s The Groop’s Brian Cadd and Max Ross writing ‘Elevator Driver’ for The Masters Apprentices.

Hoadley’s Battle of the Sounds may of only lasted a short time but it had introduced a lot of talented bands to Australians such as The Twilights, Sherbet, Zoot, The Groop, The Valentines, Fraternity and many more ensuring that it had an impact far beyond its years.