Coloured Balls - Ball Power 1973

A product of the working-class area of the western suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, the Coloured Balls had a ready-made, predominantly male audience. This comprised fans of the cult movie A Clockwork Orange, who also adopted the aggressive ‘skinhead’ style of closely-shaven heads and thick boots and braces. The band reflected this in their music and image. Led by Lobby Loyde (b. John Baslington Lyde, 18 May 1941, Longreach, Queensland, Australia, d. 21 April 2007, Box Hill, Melbourne, Victoria, USA), a product of the R&B/rock scene of the 60s (the Wild Cherries, Purple Hearts, the Aztecs), the Coloured Balls originally comprised Andrew Fordham (guitar/vocals), Trevor Young (drums), and Janis Miglans (bass). They covered Chuck Berry songs and wrote others around this rock ‘n’ roll rhythm complete with Loyde’s lead guitar work, all played at an eardrum-shattering volume. The band had success mainly in Melbourne; it was short-lived (1972-74) and waned as fashions invariably do, with other members including Ian ‘Bobsy’ Millar (guitar/vocals) and Peter White (drums). Loyde went solo, then relocated to the UK, released an album of guitar experimentation, learned to produce, and, following his return, produced underground and alternative bands. AMG.

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Lobby LLoyde, Coloured Balls, Billy Thorpe & Leo de Castro - Summer Jam 1973

Summer Jam was recorded at the second annual Sunbury Festival, at 3.30am on a barmy summer’s night in January 1973. By that time Coloured Balls had established an identity as one of the best bands on the Melbourne rock scene. The redoubtable Lobby Loyde (who died in 2007) was already a 10-year veteran of high esteem, having come up through the ranks of The Purple Hearts, The Wild Cherries and Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs. He’d formed Coloured Balls in March 1972, essentially as a reaction against all that was staid in local pop music. The Balls’ combination of seething, hard driving, loud rock music and proto-punk attitude had already marked out their stall as a force of barely restrained energy and motivation. Taking the Sunbury stage at such an ungodly hour proved no hindrance to the Balls, with the whole jam captured by location recording engineer John French from TCS Sound Studios. Fellow legends Billy Thorpe and Leo de Castro joined the band for ragged versions of blues rock staples ‘Help Me’ / ‘Rock Me Baby’ and ‘Going Down’. 

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