Men at Work is an Australian rock band founded in 1979 and gaining recognition in 1982-1984. The musical style of the group combined elements of a new wave and reggae . Men at Work remains the only Australian group whose singles took first place in the United States and the UK , and, until 2011, the only Australian group that won a Grammy (1983).
| Men at work | |
|---|---|
| basic information | |
| Genres | pop rock new wave reggae rock |
| Years | 1979 - 1986 1996 - 2002 (periodical performances until 2012) 2019 - our days |
| A country |  Australia |
| Where from | |
| Language of songs | English |
| Label | Columbia |
| Structure | Colin Hay |
| Former the participants | See Men at Work Lineups |
Content
- 1 History
- 2 Composition
- 3 Discography
- 4 notes
- 5 Links
History
The group's founder, Colin Hay (born in Scotland in 1953), moved to Australia as a teenager in 1967, and since 1978 has performed with Ron Strykert. By 1979, the full line-up of the band performing at the Cricketers Arms Melbourne hotel had formed. The first single in Australia was released in 1980. The following year, the musicians signed with Columbia Records ; In August 1981, Men At Work “spun” in the homeland and in New Zealand , and with the release of the first big album, Business as Usual , released in the USA in mid-1982 - in the USA and Europe. Business as Usual was No. 1 in US Billboard Magazine sales for 12 weeks (November 1982 - February 1983). The song Down Under , in addition to commercial success, was chosen as the unofficial anthem of the Australian team at the 1983 America's Cup.
Second album, Cargo , released in June 1983, was equally impressive, although it could not repeat the result of Business as Usual, getting on the 3rd place on the album chart of the American magazine Billboard ( Business as Usual headed the chart). Gradually the members of the group dispersed; in 1984, Hay, Ham and Strykert recorded their third album, Two Hearts , which turned out to be a failure (Two Hearts came out when the radio was still playing songs from the first two albums). The 1984 USA concert tour had to be canceled due to a lack of public interest. In 1986, the group finally fell apart.
Colin Hay continued his solo career, releasing four albums in 1988-1994, which did not reach the heights in English-speaking countries, but sold well in South America, where, for inexplicable reasons, the group was not forgotten. In 1996, Hay and Ham, united under the old name, played a successful concert tour of the continent, releasing a concert album Brazil 96 (1997; sold in Europe under the name Brazil ). In 2000, participants gathered again to speak at the closing of the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney and toured until 2002. On April 19, 2012, Greg Ham was found dead in his home from a clear heart attack [1] .
In June 2019, Colin Hay toured Europe with a group of session musicians from Los Angeles called Men at Work, despite the fact that the group had no other original members [2] .
Composition
Discography
- 1982 - Business as Usual
- 1983 - Cargo
- 1985 - Two Hearts
Notes
- ↑ Pena, Shirley Remembering Greg Ham: 1953–2012 . examiner.com (April 19, 2014). Date of treatment July 22, 2014. Archived July 22, 2014.
- ↑ Colin Hay to return to Men At Work in 2019 . noise11.com. Date of treatment November 14, 2018.