Deborah Conway
Conway attended Lauriston Girls' School and then University of Melbourne, modelling and singing her way through.
Bands
The Benders
Conway joined The Benders in 1979 whilst still at University. Other members included: Dorland Bray, Neville Aresca, Les Barker, John Campbell, Daniel Solowiej and Greg Thomas. They performed mostly in Melbourne and gigged around pubs playing original material (mostly written by Conway and Thomas) and Blondie and Devo covers. Conway also wrote songs with Bray.Do-Ré-Mi
Do-Ré-Mi (1981–1988) included Conway, Bray, Helen Carter and Stephen Philip. They recorded two albums: Domestic Harmony (1985) and The Happiest Place in Town (1988) and a batch of singles. Their best performed hit, "Man Overboard", became the 8th highest positioned Australian song for 1985 End of Year Chart.They disbanded not long after their second album was released.
In 1986 she then performed with The Rock Party a charity project initiated by The National Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NCADA), which included many Australasian musicians such as Neil Finn (Crowded House), Reg Mombassa (Mental As Anything), Eddie Rayner, Tim Finn, Nick Seymour (Crowded House), Paul Hester (Crowded House), Geoff Stapleton (GANGgajang), Robbie James (GANGgajang), Mary Azzopardi (Rockmelons), Andrew Barnum (The Vitabeats), Lissa Barnum, Michael Barclay, Peter Blakely, Mark Callaghan (GANGAjang), Jenny Morris, Danny De Costa, Greg Herbert (The Promise), Spencer P Jones, Sean Kelly (The Models), John Kennedy, Paul Kelly, Martin Plaza (Mental as Anything), Robert Susz (Dynamic Hepnotics) and Rick Swinn (The Venetians). The Rock Party released a 12" single "Everything To Live For", which was produced by Joe Wissert, Phil Rigger and Phil Beazley.
Conway had lived with Paul Hester (Deckchairs Overboard, Split Enz, Crowded House) in the early 1980s and was his partner before he left for LA in 1985.
Drawcards
Briefly existing group from 1990 with Conway, Vika and Linda, Stephen Cummings, Dror Erez, Tim Finn, Ross Hannaford, Peter Jones, Shane O'Mara and Chris Wilson.Rose Amongst Thorns
Formed by half of Drawcards, this 1990–1991 band had Conway, Hester, Erez, Jones and Wilson.Actor and Model
When Do-Ré-Mi were working in England in 1988, Conway became involved in Pete Townshend's project The Iron Man. Shortly afterwards she recorded an album of dance music in Los Angeles. This album was never released except for a solo single "Feel Like Makin' Love" (1990).In 1991, Conway played Juno in Peter Greenaway's Prospero's Books, singing a setting of William Shakespeare's masque from The Tempest to music by Michael Nyman.
Conway played the role of "Julie", in an Australian teenage road movie called Running on Empty, which was released in 1982. Conway also had roles in Mallacoota Stampede (1979), Hard Knocks (1980), The Coca-Cola Kid (1985) and appeared as herself in Diana and Me (1997). Conway had modelled in ads including for Bluegrass jeans (while still at University) and Crunchie.
Conway supplied vocals for actor Tracy Mann's singing in the ABC TV series Sweet and Sour (1984) including the hit title song. Two soundtrack albums and three singles from the series were credited to The Takeaways (and Various Artists). Conway sang lead vocals on half the songs and backing vocals on almost all the rest.
During the mid-1980s, Conway was romantically linked with Hunters and Collectors lead singer Mark Seymour.
In 1996 a portrait of Conway as Medusa, painted by Rosemary Valadon, was a finalist in the Archibald Prize. The prize is awarded for the "best portrait painting preferentially of some man or woman distinguished in Art, Letters, Science or Politics".
Conway performed a work called Dreaming Transportation: Voice Portraits of the First Women of White Settlement at Port Jackson scripted and directed by Andrée Greenwell. The performance premiered at the Sydney Festival in 2003 and in 2004 was staged again at the Sydney Opera House. Performing with Conway were Susan Prior, Christine Douglas, Amie McKenna and Jeannie Van de Velde and musicians, Hope Csuturos (violin), James Nightingale (clarinet, saxophone), Jane Williams (cello), Kim Poole (guitar/mandolin), Denise Papaluca (piano), Mardi Chillingworth (double bass) and Jared Underwood (percussion). The work was inspired by a series of poems by Jordie Albiston.
Solo and company
Conway's solo output included following an album release by touring with some of her session musicians, typically in groups called 'Deborah Conway and ...'Mothers of Pearl
In 1991 Conway released her first solo album, the folky String of Pearls, which won 1992 ARIA award for Best Female Artist. Singles from this album include "It's Only The Beginning" (reached #19, August 1991), "Under my Skin" and "Release Me". Conway and session musicians formed Deborah Conway and The Mothers of Pearl with Willy Zygier, Alan Harding, Peter Jones and Bill McDonald. Conway and Zygier became partners and have written and performed much of Conway's subsequent material.Teaming up with partner Zygier, Conway released her second album Bitch Epic in 1993. The cover (above right) depicts Conway covered in chocolate about to eat a slice of cake thereby illustrating the concept of Gluttony. A live set of songs were added to form 1994's Epic Theatre.
Ultrasound
After making the experimental Ultrasound album (1995) (credited to Ultrasound with Conway, Zygier, McDonald and Paul Hester) Conway went to live in England with Zygier and their newborn daughter Syd. They returned to Australia in 1997 with a new album My Third Husband, a dark and brooding album.City of Women
In 2000 Conway released her fourth record, Exquisite Stereo, with the band Deborah Conway and the City of Women (Conway, Zygier, Cameron Reynolds, Edmond Ammendola and Dave Williams latter two are members of Augie March). This was much more of a rock record than previous releases.Patsy Clones
Following Exquisite Stereo, Conway played the lead in the Australian production of Always... Patsy Cline and recorded an album of 10 Patsy Cline songs, called PC (2001). Deborah Conway and the Patsy Clones included Conway, Gerry Hale, Reynolds and Zygier.Conway and Zygier
Summertown, her fifth album of her own music, was released in 2004 and has a 1960s folk-pop sound to it. Conway and Zygier produced this album and supported sales by appearing in fan's homes. They have plans to release a new album in 2008.Broad and more
Since 2005, Conway has collaborated with different females to tour Australia. Sara Storer, Katie Noonan, Ruby Hunter, Conway and Clare Bowditch were Broad 2005 They performed their own and each other's songs. Melinda Schneider, Mia Dyson, Kate Miller-Heidke, Conway and Ella Hooper were Broad 2006 Broad 2007 consisted of: Anne McCue, Sally Seltmann, Conway, Jade Macrae and Abbe May. The 2008 line up includes Laura Jean, Elana Stone, Liz Stringer, Dianna Corcoran and Conway.Brisbane band george recorded Do-Ré-Mi's hit single "Man Overboard" with Conway on their 2004 EP Still Real. Noonan from george also performed with Conway in Broad 2005. In 2005, Conway provided vocals for Man Bites God's single "Bride of the Dragon" from their album The Popular Alternative, the associated video is anime based.
Discography
- "Feel Like Makin' Love" 1990 (single release)
- String Of Pearls 1991 toured by Deborah Conway and The Mothers of Pearl
- Bitch Epic 1993
- Epic Theatre 1994 (contains all of Bitch Epic and additional live versions of songs)
- Ultrasound 1995 by band Ultrasound: Conway, Zygier, McDonald and Hester
- My Third Husband 1997
- Happy New Year 1999
- Exquisite Stereo 2000 toured by Deborah Conway and City of Women
- PC 2001 performed by Deborah Conway and the Patsy Clones
- Only The Bones 2002 aka Definitive Collection 2004
- Summertown 2004 by Deborah Conway and Willy Zygier
References
External links
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Last updated on Wednesday September 24, 2008 at 19:10:49 PDT (GMT -0700)
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