A Friend's Tribute To Laurie Allen

Bonnie's Tribute

Apart from posting articles here, I am quite active at some forums too. Discussion forums are a fast growing community of friends who participate in all sorts of interests. People from all over the world take part in these discussions and make friends with others. I have one such friend from Australia who is also a very active and goes by the name lilaclady. She is a great music fan and help promote bands like "The Muster", "The Warren Keats Band", etc, etc. and a real good friend too!

She has put together a great site in the memory of Laurie Allen. For those who are not aware of him, Laurie Allen was part of the first wave of Australian rock, starting out in 1959 as lead guitarist with Malcolm Arthur and Knights.

She's made these pages using word and has done a wonderful job creating this Tribute pages for a special friend who passed away even though a web designer offered to do one for her for free. She said that she wanted her pages to be from the bottom of her heart and wanted to put her whole soul into it, which quite evident. You will agree once you visit her pages.

Laurie Allen

Laurie Allen was a veteran of the earliest days of rock & roll in Melbourne. His professional career started as lead guitarist of Malcolm Arthur & The Knights , one of Melbourne's earliest rock & roll bands.

After leaving the Knights in '62 he joined The Blue Jays as singer/organist. Laurie stayed with them until the end of 1963, when they became part of Ivan Dayman's Sunshine organisation. Shortly after that, in 1964, they became the "Fabulous Blue Jays", the backing band for singer Tony Worsley. Laurie then joined The Roulettes , a long-running Melbourne revue band whose roster had included brothers Ron Blackmore and Phil Blackmore, Graham Trottman and Bob Arrowsmith.

You can read more about his early life here.

"I'd like to have him write a song for me" - Roger Miller

Bobby Bright and Laurie Allen have a unique place in Australian music history. When the Beatles and Rolling Stones generation of English popular music changed world music overnight, Bobby and Laurie were amongst the first Australians to ride the new wave and, through a quirk of fate, they themselves changed Australian music overnight with their first single, “I Belong With You”.

Read Laurie's career diary here.

By the time Laurie joined the Roulettes, Ron Blackmore had moved into management and had assembled a stable of singers and groups who worked the booming dance circuit in Melbourne. It was here that Laurie first teamed up with singer Bobby Bright. Bobby had made his start as a solo singer in Adelaide, working for Dayman, and then moved to Melbourne to do some shows for them there. He also released two singles on the W&G label in 1963. When Bobby and Laurie left The Roulettes in 1964, Blackmore became their manager. Each initially struck out on his own, performing separate solo spots in one show backed by Melbourne instrumental band The Hearse men , which included a young Mike Brady in its first lineup. Gradually they merged their acts into one and "Bobby & Laurie" was born. Bobby & Laurie was one of the first Melbourne acts to adopt the new 'longhaired' image pioneered by The Beatles and the Stones, and they rapidly became a popular local attraction.

Their sometimes stormy relationship deteriorated during the later half of 1966. They made their final TV performance together on New Years' Eve, and in February 1967 they officially split, after recording their last album "Exposaic" , which was almost exclusively country in style, except for the psychedelic nugget "Every Second Day". After the split, Laurie put together a soul revue along the lines of the popular Stax and Motown acts; originally called Dice, it was later renamed The Laurie Allen Revue, and its members included ex-Rondells Barry Rogers, Gary Young, Wayne Duncan, guitarist Phil Manning and backing singers Glenys and Colleen Hewett.

In early 1969 there was a reconciliation between the two singers, beginning with Laurie's appearance on Bobby's radio show in February. In September they announced that they would reunite, leaving their pop career behind them and performing straight country & western. They released several singles, including "Carroll County Accident" (RCA, December 1969) and "Through The Eyes Of Love" (Fable, Dec. 1970), but they split again in mid-1971.

Bobby & Laurie have reunited in the 90s and still work together playing rock dances and the rock & roll revival circuit. An album released In 1998 titled "Turning Point" showed the years had not changed the magic of this team's vocal magnificence showcasing the seldom heard but brilliant Laurie Allen arrangement of "Fields Of Athenry.

In 2000 Laurie made yet another one of his many musical discoveries when he uncovered Melb guitarist producer Warren Keats teaming with Rondells guitarist Bernie O'Brien, the trio known as L.B.W recorded 6 Albums, Sadly, Laurie will not see the release of 5 of these albums including the long awaited solo album "One Last Round" which Laurie described as his best solo work. The story ended tragically on June 13, 2002 with Laurie Allen's untimely death from a heart attack.

Australian Country Music reels from this great loss

Rock & Roll in Australia just wont be the same

One of their legends has passed

Lawrence Frank Allen & his groovy guitar are no more

But his music lives forever In their hearts

• Laurie Allen - The Site
  For all of my friend's efforts her pages have since been archived by the National Gallery Of Australia for its content.

Kindly visit the site and leave the comments here or at Lilaclady

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