James Reyne
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James Reyne (born James Michael Nugent Reyne on 19 May 1957 in Nigeria) is a popular Australian singer/songwriter. Born in Nigeria then moving to the Australian state of Victoria with his Australian mother and English father, he went on to study drama at the Victorian College of Arts.
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[edit] Australian Crawl
In 1978, he formed Australian Crawl with Simon Binks. Australian Crawl made one of the most memorable debuts on the popular music television program of the day Countdown, for the fact that James performed with both arms in a plaster cast, a result of injuries sustained after being hit by a car. The band went on to sell more than 1 million albums in Australia in the 1980s, creating several memorable songs that still resonate within Australian culture and on Australian radio today (perhaps most notably "Errol", "Boys Light Up", "Downhearted", "Oh No Not You Again", "Unpublished Critics" and "Reckless"). After the band split up in 1986, James went on to a very successful solo career.
[edit] Solo career
In 1987, Reyne released his self titled debut solo album. After subsequently releasing the hit single "Motors Too Fast", the album was re-packaged with "Motors Too Fast" replacing the song "Coin in A Plate" which had appeared on the original version. His debut was followed, in 1989, by his next solo release Hard Reyne which featured the hits "House of Cards" and "One More River". In 1991 Electric Digger Dandy was released. Mindful of the American market (where the album was released under the title of "Any Day Above Ground"), Electric Digger Dandy included a re-vamped version of the Australian Crawl hit "Reckless" as well as a cover of John Hiatt's "Stood Up". Singles off that album included "Slave", "Any Day Above Ground" and "Some People". In 1992 he recorded a duet with country singer James Blundell (a cover of the The Dingoes song, Way Out West). It hit #2 on the Australian charts - still James' biggest solo single. Later that year he joined former Sherbet frontman Daryl Braithwaite, Jeff Scott and Simon Hussey to create the album Company of Strangers - an album that spawned four Top 100 singles. All three of these releases went platinum multiple times and contained several top 10 hits. 1994 saw the release of James' critically acclaimed fourth album - The Whiff Of Bedlam, recorded in Los Angeles with Stewart Levine and including the single "Red Light Avenue".
In 1999, he was one of many guest performers on John Farnham's "I Can't Believe He's 50 Tour". His duet with Farnham, "Don't You Know It's Magic", can be heard on John Farnham's "Live At The Regent Theatre" album.
[edit] 2000s/Today
There was a few years' break between studio albums for Reyne until 1999 when he released Design For Living. In 2004 he released Speedboats for Breakfast which included the single "Bug". Most recently Reyne has released the album ...And The Horse You Rode In On in 2005, which contained reworkings of some of his and Australian Crawl's most well-known and songs acoustically.
In late 2004, Australian dance producers Smash 'n' Grab remixed Australian Crawl's "Reckless", and Reyne has a dance hit with the song "She Don't Like That".
Reyne currently co-hosts Dig, a music show on ABC2 and made an appearance on The Footy Show in Melbourne in 2006.
[edit] Acting career
Reyne has remained a constant in the Australian music scene. Mixing music with acting, he appeared in the TV drama Return to Eden as well as several other productions. He also played Tina Turner's manager in the 1993 bio-movie about Tina's life What's Love Got To Do With It.
Reyne is the older brother of 80s musician, television presenter and actor David Reyne.
