Millions of people know the songs: Love Is In The Air; Hello, How Are You? and, of course, Friday On My Mind, recently voted "Best Australian Pop Song Ever". They were written by Harry Vanda, who was born in The Hague as Johannes Vandenberg. As a 17-year-old he emigrated to Australia along with his family. He became world famous with his band of émigrés, The Easybeats.
In fact, Harry (b.1947) did not want to emigrate at all. "I was having a good time in The Hague. I had a band, The Starfighters, and we were doing quite well. Then suddenly, at the age of 17, I found myself in Australia. Quite a shock since I didn't speak the language and I knew nobody, it was just me and my guitar.
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We ended up in Villawood Migrant Hostel, a centre for immigrants in the middle of nowhere. I went looking for a job and found work as a cleaner."
Beatle Village
"In the camp I soon got to know another Dutch boy, bassist Dick van der Sluis, and together with a couple of other guys we formed a band. At first there were about 40 of us, everyone wanted to join in. Eventually we slimmed down to a five-piece; Dick and I, Stevie Wright, George Young and our drummer Snowy Fleet."
The group found a club in Sydney where they got residency. "That was because of a Dutch bouncer at Beatle Village, he was happy for Dutch guys to come and play some music. We began on Thursday evenings and soon progressed to Fridays and Saturdays. The word got out and we became quite popular," Harry adds modestly.
Competition from ELO
The group's popularity soon began to reach hysterical levels, with every gig full of screaming girls. In the time of Beatlemania in Europe and America, "Easyfever" soon spread across Australia. "If I think back it was all really intense! But we were so young, we never really stopped to think."
Because there were only so many gigs in thinly populated Australia, The Easybeats decided to try their luck in England.
"We arrived in London in 1966. One of the first concerts I saw was by The Move, a band which later evolved into the Electric Light Orchestra, ELO. I thought: better go back to cleaning, boy, the competition here is huge."
Tudutudutudu
No one in London was interested in The Easybeats. "Probably in Europe they just thought: if it's from Australia it can't be much good. So we had to come up with something that was "unstoppable". Our producer Shel Talmy, who was really good - he had worked with The Kinks and The Who - rejected everything we wrote. He would say: 'Yeah, that's good but not good enough.'
"One evening somewhere we heard a Canadian group, The Swingle Singers, doing something strange in a song. It went tudutudutudu, which made us all laugh. In the train back from the gig, we were imitating them and suddenly it sounded good. They became the first notes of Friday On My Mind."
Flower power
A period of countless gigs in Europe and America followed. They even supported The Rolling Stones. They had more big hits, including Hello, How Are You? "Friday got us a lot of work, but it began to run out when flower power came along." Harry Vanda has to laugh: "Suddenly it was all peace, brother' and 'love you' and that wasn't our style, we couldn't join in."
The band had also gotten into financial difficulties because of bad management. "I had to keep working to pay off our debts and, together with George Young, I stayed on in London for a couple of years. In 1973 we went back to Australia to start a production company with our Australian producer Ted Albert."
Flash & The Pan
The duo Harry Vanda and George Young continued to be successful in Australia. As writers and producers for Stevie Wright, John Paul Young (for whom they wrote the international hit Love Is In The Air) and AC/DC they had hit after hit.
"We were writing so much, we could hardly get rid of the songs. Then, on the advice of Ted Albert himself, we formed a new band Flash & The Pan and that did pretty well too."
In 1977 their hit Hey, St Peter was riding high in the charts and as late as 1983 they had another hit with Waiting On a Train.
Music industry
Harry Vanda is undeniably proud about what he has done for the Australian music industry, but he remains very modest. "You need a lot of luck," he says. So does he think Australia is now on the map as far as music goes?
"A lot of people only know about INXS. So it's still difficult, even though there's a lot of good stuff. Don't forget, Australia is a long way away and it only has slightly more inhabitants than the Netherlands. If you want to be famous, you can't stay in Australia, you have to go to America or Europe. In that respect, it's difficult for Australian bands to break through."
Luck
These days, Vanda and his two sons run their own production company in the hip Surry Hills district of Sydney.
'We have a coupe of good artistes, so we'll see how it works out. I've just recorded another album with John Paul Young, that'll be released this year. Another big hit like Friday On My Mind? You're always hoping for it, but you do have to have luck."