Colin James Hay (born 29 June 1953) is a Scottish-Australian musician, singer, songwriter, and actor. He came to prominence as the lead vocalist and the sole continuous member of the band Men at Work, and later as a solo artist. Hay's music has been used frequently by actor and director Zach Braff in his work, which helped a career rebirth in the mid-2000s.[1] Hay has also been a member of Ringo Starr's Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.
Colin James Hay was born on 29 June 1953 in Saltcoats, a town on the west coast of North Ayrshire, Scotland to James and Isabela Hay.[3] In 1967, when he was 14, the Hays emigrated to Melbourne in Australia.[4][3] His parents owned a small music shop; his father, a piano tuner, had been a stage singer and dancer in Glasgow.[5][6]
The band released their debut studio album, Business as Usual, in 1981, which was followed by Cargo (1983) and Two Hearts (1985) before breaking up in January 1986.
Following the break-up of Men at Work in 1986, Hay released his debut single "Hold Me" in January 1987. The song peaked at number 40 on the Kent Music Report. His debut studio album, Looking for Jack was released in January 1987 and peaked at number 58.
Hay relocated to Los Angeles in 1989.[10] He settled in the Topanga region of the city and has resided in the United States since. In January 2016, he became a US citizen.[11]
In March 1990, Hay released "Into My Life", the lead single from his second studio album, Wayfaring Sons, which was released in April 1990. Neither single nor album reached the ARIA top 100.[12] The album was credited to the Colin Hay Band, which consisted of Gerry Hale, Paul Gadsby and Robert Dillon.[3]
In 1992, Hay released the acoustic album Peaks & Valleys. The album featured Hay's sister, Carol on vocals.[3]
In 1994, Hay established his own recording label, Lazy Eye Records,[14] and released his fourth studio album, Topanga.
In 1996, Hay reunited with Men at Work and toured South America, which led to the live Men at Work album, Brazil.[7]
In October 1998, Hay released his fifth studio album, Transcendental Highway and in 1999 recorded and released the song "Misty Bay" with his girlfriend, Cecilia Noël.[3]
In 2002, Hay released his seventh studio album Company of Strangers and the video album Live at the Continental recorded in 2000.[3]
In July 2003, Hay released his eighth studio album, Man @ Work, re-recording some Men at Work hits and his solo songs,[3] including a reimagined version of "Down Under" recorded with Hay's wife, Cecilia Noël, described as "more carnivale than outback".[16] Hay toured North America with former Beatles Ringo Starr, as a member of his Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.[3]
In 2004, Hay launched his one-man show named Man at Work, a mixture of songs and stories.[3]
2005–2020: Continued success
In 2006 Hay provided his voice for one of the characters in the computer-animated film The Wild.[3]
In May 2009, Hay performed at the Artist for the Arts Foundation benefit at Barnum Hall, Santa Monica High School, Santa Monica, California. Performing alongside Curt Smith of Tears for Fears, Fee Waybill of the Tubes, Venice, and over 70 members of the Santa Monica High School Orchestra and Girls Choir, the benefit helped to provide funds for the continuation of music education in public schools.[citation needed]
In May 2011, Hay released his eleventh studio album Gathering Mercury.[3] In 2011, Hay commented on his early solo career, stating, "After Men at Work, for the better part of a decade, I was stumbling around being unfocused. It was pre-internet; I really had to try to find my audiences by going out on tour. Men at Work really didn't build a foundational audience. We came in as a pop band with enormous radio success; once that goes away and the band breaks up the audience tends to go away with it. You're left with what you want to make of it. When you start out doing those tours, you start again [and] you tend not to attract a very big number of people. I'd play to a hundred people or sometimes less".[18]
In December 2013, Hay announced on his website that he was done touring "for the time being" and would spend 2014 writing and recording.[19]
In February 2015, Hay released his twelfth studio album, Next Year People.[20] The album was preceded by the single "Trying to Get to You".[21]
On 27 January 2017, he released the first single, "A Thousand Million Reasons", from his thirteenth studio album Fierce Mercy, released in March 2017. Fierce Mercy debuted at number 44 on the ARIA chart, becoming his second solo chart entry in Australia. The album was promoted with his segments on Julia Zemiro's Home Delivery and Sunday Night.[23]
Also in 2017, Hay released his first audiobook, Aesop's Fables with Colin Hay, published by Devault-Graves Digital Editions, for which he narrated 24 of Aesop's Fables written by author Tom Graves.
In late 2021, Australian producer Christian "Luude" Benson (from the Tasmanian electronic dance music duo Choomba)[25][26][27] remixed Men at Work's "Down Under" as a drum and bass track, with Hay re-recording the vocal for the track's release on the Sweat It Out[28][29] record label.[30] "Down Under" by Luude featuring Colin Hay[31] charted at number 32 on the UK Singles chart on 7 January 2022[32] and at number 48 in Australia (ARIA Top 50 Singles for
week of 10 January 2022).[33]
Hay's fifteenth studio album, Now and the Evermore, was released on 18 March 2022.[34][35]
Personal life
Hay is married to singer Cecilia Noël,[36] who often provides backing vocals at his shows. Noël has also helped with production on Hay's solo studio albums. Hay said of his ninth solo studio album, Are You Lookin' at Me? (2007) that "She was really crucial. She was a really great sounding board for me. She's a really good producer in the sense that she's very musical and has a great sense of song structure and so forth. So she was great to bounce ideas off. And she sang on nearly all the songs. So she was really a great part of this record".[37] Hay and Noël live in Topanga Canyon in the Los Angeles area.[38]
On 13 February 2009, former Men at Work band member Ron Strykert was arrested for allegedly making death threats against Hay.[39][40]
Hay became an American citizen in 2016. He also has a residence in St Kilda, Melbourne.
Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music[44]
awarded
ARIA Music Awards
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987. Men at Work were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1994.[45][13]
Countdown was an Australian pop music TV series on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974 to 1987, it presented music awards from 1979 to 1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards.[48]
Colin Hay/Colin Hay Band: Holmgren, Magnus; Warnqvist, Stefan. "Colin Hay". passagen.se. Australian Rock Database (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 30 September 2013. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
Men at Work (1979–1986, 1995–present): Holmgren, Magnus; Warnqvist, Stefan. "Men at Work". passagen.se. Australian Rock Database (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 27 September 2013. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
^"Colin Hay with Patrolled by Radar". Missoula Independent. 2 August 2010. Retrieved 19 May 2011. when Colin Hay—formerly of the group Men at Work—plays the Wilma Theatre with Patrolled by Radar
