Air Supply

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Air Supply
Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock of Air Supply, 2006
Graham Russell and Russell Hitchcock of Air Supply, 2006
Background information
Origin Flag of AustraliaMelbourne, Australia
Genre(s) Soft rock
Years active 1976 - Present
Label(s) Arista, BMG, Giant, EMI, Flashback
Website AirSupply-Online.com
Members
Russell Hitchcock
Graham Russell
Former members
Chrissie Hammond
Jeremy Paul
Frank Esler-Smith
David Moyse
Rex Goh
David Green
Ralph Cooper

Air Supply is a soft rock duo who had a succession of hits worldwide through the late 1970s and early 1980s. It consists of British guitarist and vocalist Graham Russell (born Graham Cyril Russell, 11 June 1950, Sherwood, Nottingham, England, UK)[1] and Australian lead vocalist Russell Hitchcock (born Russell Charles Hitchcock, 15 June 1949, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia).

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Formation

The two met in May 1975 while performing in the Australian production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical, Jesus Christ Superstar. Later that year, the duo, along with Chrissie Hammond and two others, formed Air Supply as a five-man group. Hammond left the band and was replaced by Jeremy Paul in time for the group's first Australian hit single, "Love and Other Bruises." It was followed by a self titled debut album that reached gold in Australia, which featured keyboardist/arranger Adrian Scott, drummer Jeff Browne, and guitarist Mark McEntee. Singles during this period included "Empty Pages" and "Do What You Do." The group was invited to open for Rod Stewart during his tour of Australia; he was so impressed with their performance that he invited them to be the opening act during his tour of the United States. During this tour, Jeremy Paul left the band. (He later played with the original lineup of the Divinyls, led by Chrissie Amphlett and Mark McEntee.)

Eager to prove that they could still succeed as a duo, the group released the album Love & Other Bruises, which included re-recordings of many of their earlier hits. Although their music met with some success, Graham Russell on the 1995 DVD recalls that he and Hitchcock were so poor that they were reduced to checking the backs of hotel sofas for change so that they could buy bread to make toast.

Hitchcock and Russell started out fresh again in 1978, and the band that was to record almost all of the hit records was formed. It featured Frank Esler-Smith (arranger and keyboardist), David Moyse, and Rex Goh (guitars) as well as the rhythm section of David Green (bass) and Ralph Cooper (drums).

In 1979, the band released Life Support, a concept album that included a picture disc on its first printing. Produced by Charles Fisher, it was recorded in the tiny Trafalgar Studios in Sydney, Australia where, as Graham recalls on the 2005 DVD, he had half an inch between the end of his guitar and the studio wall. It was on this album that a five-and-a-half minute version of "Lost in Love" was introduced to Australian audiences. Written by Russell in fifteen minutes, the song caught the attention of music mogul Clive Davis, and his record label, Arista, remixed the song and released it as a single in the United States.

[edit] 1980s

Their 1980 album, Lost in Love, contained three U.S. Top Five singles, including the title track (a U.S. #3), plus "Every Woman In The World" (#5) and "All Out of Love" (#2) (sample). The album sold two million copies in the U.S. The following year they released The One That You Love, and the title song was released as a single and went number #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also featured two other Top 10 hits, "Here I Am (Just When I Thought I Was Over You)" and "Sweet Dreams". A fourth single "I'll Never Get Enough", co-written by Jeanne Napoli, Gary Portnoy and Judy Quay, was released in Japan and achieved Top 10 status. Their third album, in 1982, Now And Forever, continued the group's popularity with the Top 10 hit, "Even The Nights Are Better" and two top 40 singles "Young Love" and "Two Less Lonely People In The World". In 1983, they released their "Greatest Hits" album with a new single called "Making Love out of Nothing at All" written by Jim Steinman. The song was one of their biggest hits ever spending three weeks at number 2, and the album eventually sold 5 million copies.

In 1984, their song "I Can Wait Forever" was included (although barely audible) in a scene in the blockbuster movie Ghostbusters, and was included on the soundtrack album.

Air Supply released their first live video, Air Supply Live in Hawaii. In 1985, they had one semi-major Billboard hit with "Just As I Am" and a couple of minor hits. Russell and Hitchcock recorded a 1987 Christmas album before taking a break from studio recordings. During this time, Russell Hitchcock released his self-titled album in 1988 which was not a big seller. However, he did have the single "Swear To Your Heart" in 1990 from the movie soundtrack for Arachnophobia which received significant airplay.

[edit] 1990s

On August 21, 1989, using their old producer and welcoming the return of drummer Ralph Cooper, the duo decided to enter the studio again to record The Earth Is, which was released in 1991 by Giant Records under Warner Brothers. The recording contains their hit single "Without You," along with singles for "Stronger Than the Night" (with a music video announcing that Air Supply was back) and "Stop the Tears." Inside the album is a note about Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell's original Musical Director of their meeting place during Jesus Christ Superstar (and long time Band Member/Orchestrator): "This Album is Dedicated to the Memory of Frank Esler-Smith."

The official fan club released The Earth Is World Tour video, a rare collector's item that contains live footage from the band's global tour in support of the album.

The album was followed by The Vanishing Race in 1993, which was supported by the hit single "Goodbye" produced by David Foster, (Barbra Streisand, the rock band Chicago, Josh Groban, and Celine Dion), with lyrics written by a former girlfriend of Elvis Presley (David Foster's current wife) Linda Thompson--which, although not popular in the United States, was critically praised and gained a large following outside the country, especially in Asia where in many countries they would reach number #1. This would lead to another world tour in 1993. "It's Never Too Late" was another single released from the Vanishing Race. The album itself was dedicated to the plight of the American Indians, the "Vanishing Race" of the album's title.

Their third album of the decade, News from Nowhere, was released in 1995. It contained the Asian hit singles "Someone", "Always", and a cover of "Unchained Melody", a song made famous by Bobby Hatfield of The Righteous Brothers.

Their popularity continued to soar in Southeast Asian countries, culminating in the release of Now and Forever: Greatest Hits Live, a CD and DVD recording of a live concert in Taipei, Taiwan, also in 1995, which stayed at the top of the Chinese album charts for 16 weeks.

[edit] 2000s

They continued to tour heavily throughout Asia and in select venues in the U.S. as well as record into the new millennium, releasing the more adult contemporary-titled The Book of Love (1997), Yours Truly (2001), and Across the Concrete Sky (2003). In 2005 they once again released a live CD/DVD recording; also in 2005 they performed in Havana, Cuba, becoming one of the first foreign bands invited to perform in the country. They were booked to perform two concerts, and played the first show on July 7, the day before Hurricane Dennis hit the country. In high winds their first concert had an audience of 175,000. Due to the hurricane they could not play the second show. Fans staying at the same hotel as Air Supply on July 8 had to be content with Graham performing acoustically for them, as there was no electricity.

Their songs were featured in Mr. and Mrs. Smith and The Wedding Date.

In 2006 they released an acoustic album, The Singer and the Song, and are gearing up for the release of their first studio album in three years, Zed. In support of the acoustic album they made their first trip to India in May 2006. December 2, 2006 saw the duo perform to a capacity crowd in Kingston, Jamaica. This was their second visit to Jamaica, having performed at the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival in January 2006. They also have been seen endorsing Time–Life's Classic Soft-Rock Collection. In 2007, Graham Russell released his first adult contemporary solo album called The Future.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] Singles

Year Song U.S. Hot 100 U.S. A.C. UK singles Album
1980 "Lost In Love" 3 1 - Lost In Love
"All Out of Love" 2 5 11
"Every Woman in the World" 5 2 -
1981 "The One That You Love" 1 2 - The One That You Love
"Here I Am (Just When I Thought I Was Over You)" 5 1 -
1982 "Sweet Dreams" 5 4 -
"Even The Nights Are Better" 5 1 44 Now And Forever
1983 "Young Love" 38 13 -
"Two Less Lonely People in the World" 38 4 -
"Making Love out of Nothing at All" 2 2 80 Greatest Hits
1985 "Just As I Am" 19 3 - Air Supply
"The Power of Love (You Are My Lady)" 68 13 -
1986 "Lonely Is the Night" 76 12 - Hearts in Motion
1991 "Without You" - 48 - The Earth Is...
1993 "Goodbye" 86 35 66 The Vanishing Race
1995 "Someone" - 60 - News From Nowhere

[edit] Recordings by others

[edit] Videos

The Names of the Videos Air Supply had made are:

  • Love And Other bruises (1976)
  • Bring Out The Magic (1977)
  • Lost in Love (1980)
  • All Out Of Love (1980)
  • Every Woman In The World (1980)
  • Even The Nights Are Better (1981)
  • Young Love (1981)
  • Here I Am (1982)
  • Keeping The Love Alive (1982)
  • The One That You Love (1982)
  • Making Love Out Of Nothing At All (1983)
  • Just As I Am (1985)
  • The Power Of Love (1985)
  • Lonely Is The Night (1986)
  • One More Chance (1986)
  • Stronger Than The Night (1991)
  • Without You (1991)
  • Stop The Tears (1991)
  • It's Never Too Late (1993)
  • Goodbye (1993)
  • Someone (1995)
  • Unchained Melody (1995)
  • Always (1995)
  • Strong Strong Wind (1997)
  • You Are the Reason (2001)

[edit] Trivia

  • Air Supply's 1982 single "Even The Nights Are Better" holds a dubious, albeit unofficial, chart record in the United States. After peaking at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in September of 1982, the song fell to #6, and then from #6 all the way to #42, making it the song to take the second-biggest single-week drop out of the Top 40 ("Abracadabra" by The Steve Miller Band fell from #10 to #48 around the same time) during the "classic" era of the American Top 40. [1] No "recurrent rule" (a practice later adopted to eliminate older hits from the countdown even though they still technically qualified for the Top 40) was in place at that time, making such a big drop in the charts quite a rare occurrence. Although this is not an official record, AT40 host Casey Kasem announced it as such a few years later when answering a fan's chart trivia question on his show. Kasem had also announced that Hitchcock held the note for over twenty seconds at the end of "All out of Love" a record at the time for a top 40 song.
  • Air Supply Vocalist Graham Russell recently made an appearance in Believe, a comedy about Multi-Level Marketing.

[edit] References

[edit] External links