Original Lineup Promo Photo
‘Curiosity Killed The Cat’ Promo Photo
Little River Band Form
Beeb Birtles: “Little River Band formed in 1975 with this line-up.
Left to right: Glenn Shorrock, Derek Pellicci, Graeham Goble, Beeb Birtles, Ric Formosa and Roger McLachlan. Photo courtesy of Roger McLachlan.”
Mississippi At Sunbury
Charlie Tumahai, Harvey James and Derek Pellicci at Sunbury.
Photo courtesy of Philip Morris.
26/1/1974
Charlie Tumahai Joins Mississippi
L To R: Derek Pellicci, Charlie Tumahai, Beeb Birtles, Harvey James and Graeham Goble.
Photo courtesy of Philip Morris.
André Santos Joins Mississippi
To take care of their drifting fortunes towards the end of 1973, Mississippi took in a manager that immediately moved towards taking the group out of the Bootleg record label, despite the fact that the Mississippi album had been released by Fantasy in America and was gaining good reviews. Their manager also thought the group’s image was lacking, and he encouraged them to replace both Colin Deluca and John Mower with one new man – Maori singer/bass player Andre Santos. He proved impossible to work with, and was immediately replaced by another, more experience Maori performer, Charlie Tumahai.
The brief period in Mississippi when André Santos was the bass player before Charlie Tumahai joined the band. L To R: Derek Pellicci, Harvey James, Graeham Goble, André Santos and Beeb Birtles.
Photo courtesy of Philip Morris.
Esperanto Rock Orchestra Press Kit
Harvey James Joins Mississippi
Mississippi became even more of a rock band when Russ Johnson left and was replaced ultimately by the crisp guitar lines of Harvey James – of later Ariel and Sherbet fame. Harvey’s knife-edge solos had an immediate impact on the group’s sound. Beeb started developing the dual guitar ideas used so effectively later in Little River Band.
Russ Johnson quit Mississippi to join Greg Quill’s Country Radio and Harvey James joined the band. Colin Deluca, Harvey James, Beeb Birtles, Derek Pellicci, John Mower and Graeham Goble. Harvey’s first gig in Mississippi was on 11/3/1973 at the La Trobe Valley Festival in Rosedale, Victoria.
Mississippi First Full Lineup
L To R: Russ Johnson, Graeham Goble, Derek Pellicci, Beeb Birtles, John Mower and Colin Deluca.
The promotion surrounding the whole Bootleg release of three albums – Mississippi’s, Brian Cadd’s, and one by an Adelaide singer/songwriter Stephen Foster – was just the right launching pad for a find single like “Kings Of The World”. It reached the national Top-10. With a hit record on their hands, Mississippi realised they had to find some musicians to complete the group. There was no use performing as just a trio.
Graeham Goble: “The only bass player I could think of was Beeb Birtles”, said Graeham. He called the top booking agency and asked the voice answering the phone whether he knew how to find the former Zoot bass player. It was Beeb himself on the other end. After the breakup of the Frieze duo, he had decided to keep himself busy by working at the agency.
Beeb Birtles: “I had to tell Graeham that I didn’t play bass anymore. I’d been playing guitar with Frieze, and I really didn’t want to go back to bass. But, I told him I’d like to have a listen to the album anyway. I loved the songs so much, I wanted to be part of that music. We had a sing and Graeham’s voice and mine sounded so good together. Graeham made a stand with the others about having me in the group”.
Mississippi
Allison Gros changed its name to Mississippi, it was a means to aid any international thrust the band might take.
Graeham Goble: “That was sort of naivety… we were just called Allison Gros at that point and Ron Tudor (of Fable records) said that he thought that, if we were going for a world situation, we should have more of a worldly name – a name everybody would know. So it just came out of a meeting and we didn’t think much of it and just took it.”