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Trevor Lucas

Australian Countdown, September 1983

The singer/musician/performer is the obvious focus of attention for those who listen to, buy, and enjoy rock music. Generally good looking, well dressed, charming and witty, the 'rock star' occupies the spotlight often to the complete exclusion of a great many other talented individuals who work very much Behind The Scenes - the producer, songwriter, arranger, engineer, manager, video clip director, costume designer, and session musician/singer among them.

To provide a complete and honest picture of the entire rock spectrum, we intend each month to highlight an important music figure or job. This issue we will spend some time with one of Australia's most prominent hit record producers.

In 1983, Trevor Lucas' notoriety centres upon his production of two number one Australian hits - Goanna's Solid Rock and Redgum's I Was Only 19. However, to document his extraordinary career we must go back more than two decades to the folk music boom of the very early sixties which was housed within tiny coffee shops in cities from New York to London to Melbourne.

It was in the latter metropolis that young folksinger Trevor Lucas emerged, paying due homage to Woody Guthrie, Peter Seeger and, in time, Bob Dylan. A contemporary of Gary Shearston, Trevor in time outgrew the parochial folk circuit and in 1963 headed off to England for a six month visit. He ended up staying there for almost 16 years!

Like Shearston, who cracked the international charts in 1974 with I Get a Kick Out of You, Trevor achieved considerable success in Britain. In 1966 he formed the traditional folk group Eclection and this set the pattern for his future activities. Eclection became Fotheringay and introduced Trevor into the area of record production. He was so taken with the craft that he was taken on by Island Records Studio as a tape operator, swiftly moving through the ranks to engineer and producer. One night at a Fairport Convention concert he was struck by the audience's reaction to a vintage rock'n'roll medley encore and hit upon the recording concept of The Bunch - a 'jam' album featuring prominent folk rockers. The album created a sensation and Trevor was asked to join Fairport Convention, which he did, for almost five years. At this time he was married to famous British singer Sandy Denny, also a member of the group, for whom he produced a number of solo albums.

Trevor abandoned his adopted homeland in 1978 following an appalling tragedy. Sandy, shortly after the birth of a child, died of a brain hemorrhage. A shaken Trevor Lucas came home to Australia to re-start his life, falling head first into the film industry. At this point it is best to let him take up the story himself: “Money for film making dried up so I thought about moving back into record producing, which I'd given up when I joined the Fairports.

“I ran into Dobe Newton of the Bushwackers one day and ended up producing two of their albums - Dance and Faces in the Street. Not long after, I went down to the Station Hotel in Melbourne to see Goanna, and was so impressed I told them I wanted to produce them whenever they got a record deal. In December 1981 I got a call out of the blue saying that I had four months to finish an album. It wasn't hard to do that because the partnership worked extremely well. Goanna needed somebody who understood this country and the feeling it generates. They demanded a lot but they gave a lot as well and we related to each other. The song Solid Rock is the sort of classic that you don't get very often as a producer. I considered it an honour to be able to work with them on it.

“The situation with Redgum was different. I had never seen them perform and in fact I only met John Schumann on the day we went into the studio to record, having only heard the demo of I Was Only 19 the day before. John is very suspicious of producers and we spent a bit of time sizing each other up. I was absolutely honest with him from the start and we got on great.

“The reason that Solid Rock and I Was Only 19 became number one hits was because they were both truly great songs. I could relate to their honesty, to their passion. They gave hope to a lot of people, including myself, and they dealt with issues that I personally care about. I couldn't have produced them otherwise; I mean I couldn't make a record about the National Front.”

Following his double Grand Slam, Trevor is in hot demand. His next project is to record the reformed Flaming Hands and then Le Club Foote - proving that his talents are not restricted to one specific form of music. Later in the year he will also be working on the new Redgum LP. Whatever project he tackles, there is little doubt that it will be a substantial success. After all, you don't work in a business for twenty years without picking up a few tricks!

COUNTDOWN - THE MAGAZINE