Artist

The Angels

Graham Bidstrup (aka Buzz Throckman) joined The Angels soon after the release of the bands first single “Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again” in mid 1976. Staying until early 1981, he recorded the first four albums with the band, The Angels (1977), Face to Face (1978), No Exit (1979) and Dark Room (1980) and toured USA and Europe several times before leaving to pursue a career in music production for bands and films, audio engineering and session work. The Angels became one of the most successful live bands of the Australian “Pub Rock” era through their relentless touring schedule and a constant musical output.  The band was also given unlimited time at Alberts studios and encouraged to produce their own albums with engineer Mark Opitz. Three of the Angels albums in this era went platinum, two reaching the top ten. In 1979, Buzz co-wrote and co-produced the Angels first top ten single, “No Secrets” with singer Doc Neeson. There was a short lived and turbulent reunion of the original band in 2008 that was captured in the documentary “No Way Get Fucked Fuck Off”. Sadly both Doc and bass player Chris Bailey have died.             RIP Doc and CB

GANGgajang

Buzz was a founding member of GANGgajang. The band emerged in 1984 with Chris Bailey (his band mate from The Angels) on bass guitar, Mark Callaghan from The Riptides, (a band Buzz had previously produced) and his wife Kayellen Bee. They wrote songs and performed on the platinum selling soundtrack to the ABC TV series Sweet and Sour, for which Buzz was an Associate Music Director. With the addition of Geoffrey Stapleton on keyboards and Robert James lead guitar in 1985 the line up was complete and GANGgajang have now released four albums including the platinum selling self titled album which includes the now iconic song “Sounds of Then (This is Australia)“. Buzz was also the music director for the Quiksilver cult surf film, Mad Wax, that featured GANGgajang’s music exclusively. GANGgajang were subsequently voted “No 1 band in the World” by the World Professional Surfers’ Association 1988/89. GANGgajang are still very much active in both live performance and recording and celebrated their 30th anniversary in 2015. In 2016 the band released a digital remastered version of their debut album including two new tracks “Circles in the sand” co-written by Buzz and Geoffrey Stapleton and “Im not waiting around. GANGgajang continues to tour and make music and is still a big part of Buzz’s life.

The Party Boys

Buzz was a founding member of The Party Boys, an all-star covers band in 1982 featuring guitar wizards Kevin Borich and Harvey James ( Sherbert), Paul Christie ( Mondo Rock) on bass, and singer James Reyne (Australian Crawl).  It was a fun project where everyone picked their favourite few songs, rehearsed a couple of times and played a few gigs.The first album, Live at Several 21st’s, was recorded at the bands 7th live performance and achieved gold sales.  Their second album, Greatest Hits of Other People, featured singer Richard Clapton and Rose Tattoo guitarist Robin Riley in place of James and Harvey. The last recording Buzz made with the Party Boys was in 1983 on “No Song Too Sacred”, which featured Shirley Strachan on lead vocals.

 

The Stetsons

In 1987, Buzz assembled a country supergroup consisting of Reg Mombassa, Peter O’Doherty and Martin Plaza from Mental as Anything, Ian Simpson of The Flying Emus and several other high profile singers and musicians. These included Fiddle player Wayne Goodwin, Pedal Steel guitarist Mark Moffatt and Tamworth Golden guitar winner James Blundell and all the members of GANGgajang. The Stetsons released their self titled album in 1987 and only performed a few selected shows. A second album  The Stetsons ’97, was released in that same year featuring even more guests including Doobie Brothers guitarist Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Piano player Rick Melick, singer and guitarist Dave Steel, violinist Marcus Holden and Tamworth Golden guitar winner Kevin Bennett from the Flood.

The Dynosaurs

Buzz Bidstrup from The Angels, Mark Evans from AC/DC and Mark Gable from The Choirboys have all shared a musical experience with Alberts Records and legendary producers Harry Vanda and George Young.  The “Alberts” sound, a cornerstone of Aussie Rock was being forged when Buzz first met Mark Evans in 1976 as The Angels and AC/DC shared Alberts King St recording studios many times.  Buzz and Mark are a rock solid rhythm section with a serious pedigree. Together with guitarist Les Gock from 70’s chart toppers Hush and Mark Gable on lead vocals they are The Dynosaurs.  They play songs from a unique rock catalogue that they all contributed to with their respective bands.

Live and later studio work

Beginning his “professional” career as a 14 year old in Fahrenheit 451 (a very popular band of the time), Buzz also played with several other Adelaide bands over the next 8 years including Red Angel Panic, Gotham City, Pegasus and Taxi. After leaving The Angels in 1981, he worked on television and movie soundtracks including Heatwave, Starstruck and Greetings from Wollongong and produced many young emerging bands of the time including The Riptides, The Honeymoon and The Numbers. He was an actors coach and appeared on the soundtrack for the film Starstuck with The Swingers. He co-wrote and produced two albums for country band The Stetsons, recorded a live album as drummer for Riptides and has played with many live and recording artists including Jimmy Little, Swanee, Paul Kelly, Broderick Smith,  Catfish and “The Suave Fucks”, Richard Clapton, Dave Steel Band and Jimmy Barnes Band, Australian Crawl and Mondo Rock.

 

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