BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS
Description: Band, South Australia, Australia
Known For: Recorded – “Is This A Dream” – 1966
Music Styles: Rock
Location: Nuriootpa, South Australia, Australia
BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE
The Chosen Few
An Australian band from Tanunda & Angaston in the Barossa Valley formed in 1966. The Chosen Few recorded one six-track EP “The Jokes On Us”, comprising all original numbers, in 1978. A live recording of I’ll Go Crazy from the Battle of the Sounds was issued with another track, Just A Little Bit on the Raven issued Live At Big Daddy’s Discotheque in 1986.
Members inlcuded:
Mike Siegele (vocals, keyboards)
Bob Van Amstel (lead guitar)
Dan Schubert (rhythm guitar)
Rod Schubert (bass)
Brian Fechner (drums).
Winners of the 1966 Battle of the Bands the South Australian finals.
The Australaian finals were held in Melbourne were the the group came in at 5th place.
The band “The Chosen Few” started as “The Outcasts”. They took on their new name in 1966, with a membership that included: The quintet regularly played clubs like “The Octagon” and “Big Daddy’s” in Adelaide, but never settled in the City of Churches eventually ending up in Melbourne.
Influences were The Zombies, The Animals, James Brown, Wilson Pickett & The Spencer Davis Group, which the band played many covers off.
In 1966 they competed in a Battle of the Sounds in Adelaide winning South Australian section. In the Australian finals they came 5th in 1966. Though not winning they did get a deal with the Go!! record label for a single, which was a cover of the Zombies’ “Is This a Dream,” issued at the end of the year.
A live recording of “I’ll Go Crazy” from the Battle of the Sounds was issued with another track, Just A Little Bit on the Raven issued Live At Big Daddy’s Discotheque in 1986.
Singles included
IS THIS THE DREAM – 1966
MAYBE THE RAIN WILL FALL – 1967
The Chosen Few
Origin Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia
Genres Punk rock
Years active 1978–1979, 1998–1999
Labels A Few, Buckwheat Headlock/Existential Vacuum, Au Go Go, Hate
Associated acts Deathwish, Bohdan and the Instigators
Past members
Ian Cunningham
Cal McAlpine
Iain Weaver
Bruce Friday
Bill Blanche
Jeff Hussey
The Chosen Few were an Australian punk band which formed in 1978. Three founding band mates were all from an earlier hard rock band, Deathwish: Ian John Cunningham on bass guitar (later on lead vocals), Calum “Cal” McAlpine on drums and Iain Weaver on lead vocals (died 1995). They were soon joined by Bruce Friday on lead guitar. The Chosen Few formed in the Mornington Peninsula and played a combination of covers of United States-influenced punk (MC5, Stooges) and hard driven original numbers inspired by Lobby Loyde and the Coloured Balls and The Saints.
In 1978 The Chosen Few released a six-track extended play, The Jokes on Us. It was recorded in a studio in Smith Street, Collingwood, with Baron Rolls as audio engineer. The band played regularly around the Melbourne and Adelaide punk scenes but disbanded in May 1979. They joined Bohdan X (ex-JAB) as Bohdan and the Instigators but they broke up by late 1980.
There was a short lived reunion of The Chosen Few in 1998 with a new line up: Cunningham, now on lead vocals, and McAlpine, were joined by Bill Blanche on bass guitar and Jeff Hussey on lead guitar. Two albums were released in that year: Do the Manic (Buckwheat Headlock Productions/Existential Vacuum Records, US) and A Root and a Beer (Au Go Go Records). They were followed by a double-CD album, Really Gonna Punch You Out (Hate Records, Italy), in 2001.
Above: The Chosen Few: L to R: Mike Siegele, Dean Schubert, Nipper Fechner, Bob Van Amstel and Rod Schubert.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia