About James Reyne
James Michael Nugent Reyne OAM is an Australian musician. He achieved fame as the lead singer of Australian Crawl, and subsequently went on to a successful solo career.
Reyne was born in Lagos, Nigeria. His father, Rodney Michael Reyne, was an English-born former Royal Marine who served as aide-de-camp to the governor of the state of Victoria, Sir Dallas Brooks, and subsequently worked for British Petroleum. His paternal grandfather, Cecil Nugent Reyne, was an English rear admiral. His mother, Judith Graham, née Leask, was a teacher. His younger brother, David Reyne, was also born in Nigeria. The family moved to Victoria in late 1959, where a younger sister Elisabeth was born.
Reyne lived in Mount Eliza, Victoria, was educated at the Peninsula School and studied drama at the Victorian College of Arts. He formed a band called Spiff Rouch containing fellow locals Bill McDonough, Guy McDonough, Brad Robinson, Paul Williams, Robert Walker, Mark Hudson and Simon Binks. By early 1978, Spiff Rouch had split and Reyne formed Clutch Cargo services with Binks, Robinson, Williams and his younger brother David Reyne.
In late 1978, Clutch Cargo was renamed Australian Crawl and started to gain popularity on the pub circuit. David Reyne left to continue an acting course and was replaced by Bill McDonough. Australian Crawl made a memorable debut on the Countdown TV show. Reyne performed with both arms in plaster casts, a result of injuries sustained after being hit by a car. The band went on to sell more than one million albums in Australia in the 1980s. Their most popular songs are "Reckless", "Beautiful People", "Errol", "The Boys Light Up", "Things Don't Seem", "Oh No Not You Again" and "Downhearted". They were voted Countdown 1981 Most Popular Group, and Reyne was 1980 and 1981 Most Popular Male Performer. After the band split up in 1986, Reyne went on to a successful solo career.
While still with Australian Crawl, Reyne teamed with Lin Buckfield of Electric Pandas to release a 1985 single, "R.O.C.K." / "Under My Thumb".
In 1987, Reyne released his self titled debut solo album and started the "Rip it Up" tour. The first two singles released from the album, "Fall of Rome" and "Hammerhead", were top-10 hits in Australia, followed by the less-successful "Rip It Up" and "Heaven On a Stick". The album was re-packaged in 1988 to include a further top 10 single, "Motor's Too Fast" ), replacing "Coin in a Plate", which had appeared on the original 1987 release. "Always The Way" was released as the sixth and final single from the album, but peaked outside the top 50.
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