Do-Ré-Mi (often typeset as Do-Re-Mi or Do Re Mi) was an Australian pop rock band formed in Sydney in 1981 by Deborah Conway (lead vocals), Dorland Bray (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Helen Carter (bass, backing vocals) and Stephen Philip (guitar).[1][2][3] They were one of Australia's most respected and successful post-punk groups. Do-Ré-Mi recorded self-titledEP and[1][2]The Waiting Room for independent label Green Records[1] before signing to Virgin Records and recording their first LP, Domestic Harmony in 1985 with Gavin MacKillop producing.[1][2]Domestic Harmony achieved gold sales and contained their most played song, "Man Overboard", which was a top 5 hit single in 1985.[4][5] This song was notable for its lyrical references to penis envy and pubic hair.[6] Do-Ré-Mi's follow-up singles Idiot Grin and Warnings Moving Clockwise reached the Top 100.
Their second album, The Happiest Place in Town, produced by Martin Rushent, included the singles "Adultery", "King of Moomba" and "Haunt You", all of which reached the Australian top 100.[1][4] The band chose to take an extended break in 1988, with Conway pursuing a solo career, and ended up permanently disbanding later in the decade.[1][2]
Career
Previous bands
One of Dorland Bray's first groups was Shotgun Willie. They played several gigs in the Melbourne pub scene, mainly performing country material gathered from artists such as the relatively unknown Delbert McClinton and Willie Nelson.
Conway and Bray were both in Melbourne-based band The Benders with Neville Aresca, Les Barker, John Campbell, Daniel Solowiej and Greg Thomas.[3] Before joining The Benders, Bray had been in punk rock group the News.[2] Vocalist Conway joined The Benders in 1979 whilst still at Melbourne University. The Benders performed mostly in Melbourne and gigged around pubs playing original material (mostly written by Conway and Thomas) and Blondie and Devo covers.[7] Conway and Bray also wrote songs together.[8] In Sydney, Philip had been a guitarist for Thought Criminals[3] and was also a session musician.[1][2] Carter was a member of punk band Friction. Carter had been living with punk rocker Roger Grierson of Thought Criminals[9] (later an executive of Festival Mushroom Records).
when the boys were taking a break at rehearsal one day, I picked up the bass guitar for the first time.[10]
— Helen Carter, 2004
1981-1988: Do-Ré-Mi
Bray and Conway left Melbourne for Sydney in 1981, forming Do-Ré-Mi with Carter. In July 1982 Do-Ré-Mi recorded some tracks for a self-titled 12" EP using Philip as a session musician. Philip formally joined the band by the time of the EP's release in August 1982 on independent label Green Records. In line with the core post-1960s principle that the personal is political, the band's first recording featured a spiky-funk sound working under passionate, personal-political songs, which included the anti-cold war track "Standing on Wires".[citation needed]
Do-Ré-Mi were signed by Virgin Records after being spotted by the management of Cold Chisel and The Angels.[6] Do-Ré-Mi recorded two LP albums: Domestic Harmony (1985) and The Happiest Place in Town (1988) and seven singles for Virgin Records.[3] Both albums were recorded in London, Domestic Harmony had Gavin McKillop producing and peaked at No. 16 on the Australian albums charts;.[4]Martin Rushent produced The Happiest Place in Town.[3]
Their best known hit, "Man Overboard" originally appeared on their 1983 EP The Waiting Room.[2] They re-recorded "Man Overboard" for Domestic Harmony and the track was released as a single in May 1985. It peaked at No. 5 on the Australian singles chart.[4][6] "Man Overboard" was the 8th highest Australian song for 1985 End of Year Chart.[11]
There was a real hit-maker mentality [...] people would say 'It can't be a hit – it doesn't have a chorus [...] You're talking about pubic hair, oh my God!'[9]
Not long after their second album was released in February 1988, Do-Ré-Mi travelled to the United Kingdom to begin recording a third album. Before this was finished Virgin Records offered Conway a solo deal and Do-Ré-Mi disbanded.
Subsequent careers
Bray became a member of Ghostwriters for their first album Ghostwriters (1991). Carter and Philip wrote and performed together first with short lived Lupi and later (c. 2001) in Underfelt.[6] Philip wrote soundscapes for a number of theatre productions of Macbeth, featuring David Field at the Performance Space in Sydney, and produced for Peter Milton Walsh and Grant McLennan.
Conway has a successful solo career, winning an ARIA award for her first solo album String of Pearls in 1991 (co-writing three songs with Bray).[7] Her best known solo hit was 1991's "It's Only the Beginning" reaching No. 19.[8] Conway is still involved in musical activities with a 2007 version of Broad. Thought Criminals reformed in February 2006: see Official website.
Reunion
In 2018, Carter, Conway and Philip reformed Do Re Mi to perform at the inaugural Australian Women in Music Awards ceremony in Brisbane. Carter and Conway decided to continue with the reunion after being approached to be a part of the By The C concert series. The group, alongside new members Bridie O’Brien (guitar), Julia Day (drums) and Clio Renner (keyboards), would go on to announce a run of headlining shows for 2019.[13]
Countdown was an Australian pop music TV series on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974–1987, it presented music awards from 1979–1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards.[17][18]
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.
^ abcdefg"Do-Ré-Mi". HowlSpace – The Living History of Our Music (Ed Nimmervoll). Archived from the original on 26 July 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2014.
