Biography
The debut album ...Ish! by 1927 emerged from a blend of soft rock sounds and an improbable origin tale, establishing it as one of the decade's strongest commercial releases in Australia. Gary Frost, previously a guitarist and songwriter with Moving Pictures, caught Eric Weideman's performance of the Police hit "Roxanne" during the "Red Faces" segment on the Melbourne variety program Hey Hey It's Saturday toward the end of 1986. This prompted Frost to travel from Sydney to recruit Weideman for the collection of tracks he had been developing in his home studio, after which Frost's brother Bill took the bass role and James Barton handled drums to round out the initial group.
Throughout the following year the quartet faced rejection from every Australian label before Charles Fisher, who had previously contributed to Moving Pictures' Days of Innocence, placed them with Trafalgar Productions. Issued in December 1988 under Fisher's production, ...Ish! climbed to number one on the national charts by April 1989 and ultimately moved more than 400,000 units. The top-five single "That's When I Think of You," which also reached number 46 in the U.K., earned the band the 1988 Australian Record Industry Association award for Best Debut Single alongside the Rockmelons' Tales of the City, while the album itself received Best Debut Album honors. Former Moving Pictures keyboardist Charlie Cole came aboard for the ensuing year of live dates. Frost departed in late 1989, shifting the majority of songwriting responsibilities to Weideman.
Produced by Frost and Fisher, The Other Side failed to match the memorable choruses of ...Ish! and, after entering the Australian chart at number three, quickly dropped from view. The band's third album, titled 1927, arrived in November 1992 with minimal attention, leading to a breakup the next year. Weideman's first solo single "Nothing I Can Do" surfaced on the 1996 compilation The Very Best of...1927 as a bridge to his individual work.
Throughout the following year the quartet faced rejection from every Australian label before Charles Fisher, who had previously contributed to Moving Pictures' Days of Innocence, placed them with Trafalgar Productions. Issued in December 1988 under Fisher's production, ...Ish! climbed to number one on the national charts by April 1989 and ultimately moved more than 400,000 units. The top-five single "That's When I Think of You," which also reached number 46 in the U.K., earned the band the 1988 Australian Record Industry Association award for Best Debut Single alongside the Rockmelons' Tales of the City, while the album itself received Best Debut Album honors. Former Moving Pictures keyboardist Charlie Cole came aboard for the ensuing year of live dates. Frost departed in late 1989, shifting the majority of songwriting responsibilities to Weideman.
Produced by Frost and Fisher, The Other Side failed to match the memorable choruses of ...Ish! and, after entering the Australian chart at number three, quickly dropped from view. The band's third album, titled 1927, arrived in November 1992 with minimal attention, leading to a breakup the next year. Weideman's first solo single "Nothing I Can Do" surfaced on the 1996 compilation The Very Best of...1927 as a bridge to his individual work.
Albums
