Chain

Chain has counted more than forty musicians among its members across more than three decades as one of Australia’s leading blues outfits.
The ensemble took shape in 1968 from the remaining players of Perth’s Beaten Tracks; singer Wendy Saddington supplied the name Chain, borrowed from the soul classic “Chain of Fools.” After her departure the group delivered “Show Me Home” in 1969, among the country’s earliest progressive-blues singles. Shortly afterward the band trimmed its title to Chain.

In June 1970 the musicians recorded the landmark live set Live Chain at Caesar’s Palace discotheque and, together with Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, Carson, and the Adderley Smith Blues Band, stood at the forefront of the Australian blues movement. A fresh contract with Infinity, Festival’s blues subsidiary, yielded the single “Black and Blue,” which reached number ten nationally in May 1971. The classic album Toward the Blues climbed to number six later that year and is widely regarded as one of Australia’s greatest blues records; its follow-up single, “Judgement,” confirmed Chain’s position as the nation’s premier progressive-blues act. Chain Live Again appeared in October 1972, and the band performed at the first Sunbury Festival in January 1972.

In 1973 Chain signed with the fledgling Mushroom label and released Two of a Kind. The group’s ever-shifting lineup disbanded in 1974, after which Mushroom issued the retrospective History of Chain. Interest remained high six years later, leading to an appearance at the Mushroom Evolution Concert in January 1982, staged to mark the label’s tenth anniversary. Permanent reformation followed in 1983, producing Child of the Street in October 1985. Australian Rhythm and Blues arrived in April 1988 and Blue Metal in May 1990. Several alumni toured Australia in 1991 as Blues Power, while Matt Taylor led a separate Matt Taylor’s Chain that issued Walls 2 McGoo (Trouble in the Wind) in 1992. The original Chain mounted another national tour in 1995.