The Loved Ones

Of all the Australian rock groups of the '60s, there's none that lives on as brightly in the memories of those who saw them or heard them as the Loved Ones. They had "it," that unquantifiable quality that transcends the fashions of the day, that "something" that's more than a great record or two, or frequent memorable live performances that grow larger than reality in people's memories. You can still hear "it" in some of their earliest records, still see "it" on the little video evidence left behind. The Loved Ones were exciting. When the British group quake hit in the globe in the mid-'60s, most of the new bands inspired to start up started from scratch, made up of musicians who had only just picked up their instruments, more driven by their ambition to do it than their ability to do it. That's where the Loved Ones, like England's Animals or America's Paul Butterfield Blues Band, were different and unique. These were experienced musicians. They came from that time space between '50s rock and '60s rock when youth descended into jazz clubs, listenened to the blues, and watched it spawn folk music. They were already seasoned musicians. When the Rolling Stones came out of the London jazz scene playing their version of the blues, the Melbourne musicians who became the Loved Ones understood not just its excitement value, but how it was done. The Loved Ones were formed in 1965 by three members of the Red Onions Jazz Band (Gerry Humphries, Ian Clyne, and Kim Lynch) and two members of Wild Cherries (Rob Lovett and Gavin Anderson), a jazz group at that time which later also turned to rock. Singer Gerry Humphries seems to have been the instigator, already an agitator for change and adventure, ruffling feathers inside the Red Onions. A Red Onions session was turned into the first...