Alison MacCallum

Alison McCallum is an Australian rock singer who had a number od successful records in the late 1960's and 1970's and whos voice and face became well know during the 1972 Australian federal election campaign.

Introduction - It's Time

In 1972 Alison McCallum's voice and face became a familiar household presence across Australia through her appearance on the Australian Labor Party's TV commercial singing "It's Time" during Gough Whitlam's historic Federal election campaign. With her fiery, soulful vocals, matched by her fiery red hair, she went on to have a number of hits most notably the driving, Harry Vanda/George Young penned single "Superman" which made Top 10 charts all over Australia in 1972. Notwithstanding this, and having put out three vinyl albums including a Best of compilation, Alison McCallum, would have to be Australia's most forgotten successful female vocalist. Since the advent of CD's, of her solo tracks, only two have been released on compilation CDs. Such is the lack of interest shown by some of Australia's record companies in it's rock/pop musical heritage that not even the historic "Its Time" (which Alison put out as a single) has come out on CD.

The 1972 Labour party campaign was Australia's first "modern" election campaign, targeted to give the party a "young" image attractive to the baby boomers. For many of them this was there first election as voters since turning 21 (the minimum voting age in Australia was not lowered to 18 until March 1973). As such, Alison McCallum's face and voice singing the catchy gospel influenced "It's Time", juxtaposed with scenes of then future Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, cleverly presented that image.

Early Career

Alison McCallum's pop/rock music career when, at the age of 16, she joined the Big Apple Union, a soul, blues and Tamla Motown influenced band gigging around Sydney's inner city/Oxford Street area in 1967. This band seems to have evolved into Dr Kandy's Third Eye, where she shared lead vocal chores with the enigmatic Gulliver Smith. The combination of Smith's Dylanesque vocals and McCallum's soulful voice made an interesting contrast. Considered to be an "underground" band they were one of the first to use strobe lighting and smoke to create a psychedelic atmosphere at their gigs. In June 1969 she joined the 7 piece blue eyed soul band , This Hallelujah Chorus, once again doing shared lead vocals in the lineup with a male vocalist, Ed Mayne. This Hallelujah Chorus played the clubs of Sydney's Kings Cross, a scene much frequented in that time by American servicemen on R and R from Vietnam. It was also during 1969 she recorded a version of The Bee Gees song "To Love Somebody" with Tully for the ABC-TV show Fusions, however this was not be released commercially until 1979 on the Alberts compilation "Alberts Archives".

At the end of 1970 she joined Freshwater, a progressive band, who prior to her joining had achieved a certain level of notoriety with their controversial single "Satan", a song about the horrific US Sharon Tate murders. Originally sharing lead vocals with the powerful male vocals of Ian Johnson, by September 1971 she was sole lead vocalist. In November 1971, saw the release of her first recorded release with her lead vocals on the bands final single, the rocky "I Ain't Got The Time", a track that saw some success on the Sydney charts. With the demise of Freshwater in November 1971 she briefly joined Ray Brown's band One Ton Gypsy before going solo in early 1972.

Superman

In April 1972 her first solo single "Superman" was released on RCA and this was an immediate success going to No.12 on the Australian national charts. This single was flipped with a Ted Mulry composition "Take Me Back". She followed this up with her first album called "Fresh Water", a title chosen presumably to focus in on her success with her former band of that name. This album was produced by the well known (The Yardbirds, T-Rex) UK producer Simon Napier-Bell and included a mix of rock, jazz and blues material. This album was later re-released under a different title "Anyway Way You Want Me". Following this the Pat Alton produced and co-written single, "It's Time" was released. In 1973 she travelled to Europe to perform and whilst there showcased "Superman" at the 8th MIDEM International Music Trade Fair at Cannes. She released a further 3 singles on RCA, including a version of the Rotary Connection song "Teach Me How To Fly" which had previously been a hit by Jeff St John in 1970. None of these singles were successful. In October 1974 she got together with fellow sister vocalists Bobbi Marchini and Janice Slater to put out a single as The Hooter Sisters, "To Know Him Is To Love Him".

Excuse Me

In 1975 she signed a new record deal with Albert Productions and this resulted in her second and final hit single "Excuse Me", a track which managed to clinge to the bottom of the Top 30 for am amazing 42 weeks.. This was followed by an album of the same name, "Excuse Me" which included two Vanda/Young songs and a version of the Flying Burrito Brothers song "Hot Burrito". Two more last singles, albeit unsuccessful, followed this. In the late 1970's she concentrated on session work such as doing backing vocals on John Robinson's "Pity for the Victim" album and with artists such as Billy Thorpe and Jeff St John. Since that time she has not been heard of publicly although her single "Superman " and a "Best Of" compilation under the same name were somewhat cynically re-released in 1979 to cash in on the success of the then successful Superman movie.