Artist: Colin Hay
Genre(s):
Rock
Other
Discography:
Man at Work
Year: 2003
Tracks: 13
Company Of Strangers (Brown Bag Edition)
Year: 2002
Tracks: 11
Peaks and Valleys
Year: 1992
Tracks: 13
Transcendental Highway
Year:
Tracks: 12
Topanga
Year:
Tracks: 12
Going Somewhere
Year:
Tracks: 13
As the singer, guitarist, and independent ballad maker of Australia's Men at Work, Colin Hay was creditworthy for composition several of the quirkiest pop hits of the early '80s. Although he and his sometime band will forever and a day be associated with "the res publica down under," Hay earlier hailed from Scotland, where he was innate in the township of Kilwinning on June 29, 1953. Hay relocated to Australia in 1967, by which time he had begun playing guitar and vocalizing. Although the area is in all likelihood best known for spawning hard rock bands (AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, Radio Birdman, etc.), Hay sought to form a dance band that was more in line of products with the burgeoning new moving ridge style, just one that likewise embraced pop. Shortly afterward connexion up with guitarist Ron Strykert in 1978, Hay's captain plan was accomplished, as Men at Work was formed. Rounding out the band was saxophonist/flutist Greg Ham, bassist John Rees, and drummer Jerry Speiser, wHO in 1982 issued their debut full-length, Commercial enterprise as Usual. Earning rather a few comparisons to then-reigning graph kings the Police, Men at Work quickly became MTV favorites (during the station's early years). Since he was the group's chief vocalist and songwriter, Hay quickly became the focal point of the band, as such humourous videos for "WHO Can It Be Now" and "Down Under" pushed the debut album to the top of the U.S. charts -- devising Men at Work an overnight sensation. Perhaps sensing that they should strike again spell they were still fresh in people's minds, Men at Work went directly back in the studio to work on another album. Issued in 1983, Lading was some other goodly reach, just did non transportation intimately as well as its predecessor -- commercially or artistically. Taking an extended break, Hay and company did non resurface once more until 1985's Deuce Hearts, an unfocussed recording that power saw virtually half of the circle replaced. With the album's disappointing showing, Men at Work rip up shortly thereafter. Hay embarked on a solo life history, debuting in 1987 with Looking for Jack (the claim of which supposedly referred to a abbreviated bump Hay had with actor Jack Nicholson), which once more failed to meet the success of his early operate with Men at Work. Hay continued to release solo corporeal with regularity throughout the '90s, including such titles as 1990's Wayfaring Sons, 1992's Peaks & Valleys, 1994's Topanga, and 1998's Otherworldly Highway. The same tenner, Hay besides launched his possess record tag, Lazy Eye Records, and periodically acted in cult movies (which he had began doing the previous decade) and TV shows, including parts on such serial as Jag, The Larry Sanders Show, and The Mick Molloy Show, among others. Hay continues to release albums and circuit to this day, as the early twenty-first c byword the going of a pair of recordings -- a new studio album in 2001, Leaving Somewhere, and a aggregation of re-recorded Men at Work and solo tracks in 2003 (Man at Work). Hay besides toured with Ringo Starr in the summertime of 2003, as part of the early Beatles drummer's annual All Starr Band. He released Ar You Lookin' at Me? in 2007.
