The Cockroaches
| The Cockroaches | |
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| Background information | |
| Origin | Sydney, Australia |
| Genres | Pub rock, pop rock, rock & roll, R&B |
| Years active | 1979–1994, 2014 |
| Labels | Refugee, EMI, Phantom, Powderworks, Possum, Festival, Regular, Roach |
| Associated acts | The Wiggles, The Field Brothers |
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The Cockroaches are an Australian pub rock group active throughout the 1980s. The band was founded in 1979 by the Field brothers−Paul (lead vocals), John (rhythm guitar, vocals), and Anthony Field (lead guitar, vocals)−and Tony Henry on drums and Joseph Hallion on saxophone. They were joined in 1981 by Jeff Fatt on keyboards. In 1986 they signed with an independent label, Regular Records, which issued their first three albums, including The Cockroaches (March 1987), which peaked at No. 9 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart; it sold 70,000 copies and was certified platinum by their label. The album spawned the single "She's the One", which became the band's biggest hit when it peaked at No. 7 on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart in April 1987. In 1988, The Daily Telegraph declared The Cockroaches, who played over 300 gigs a year, the "Hardest Working Rock'n'Roll Band" in the country.
The Cockroaches released their third album, Positive, in June 1991 and left their label by the end of that year. In March 1994 they issued their fourth album, St. Patrick's Day 10am, on their own Roach Records. Australian musicologist Glenn A. Baker described their sound as "rangy, loose-limbed, good-natured, energetic, self-effacing, intuitive, harmonic, melodic, enduring, soused and fiercely frantic".
In September 1988, the band were promoting their second album, Fingertips, when Paul's infant daughter died of SIDS. Although devastated, the group continued with a lower profile, and Anthony left to resume his university studies yet returned periodically to record their later studio albums. Early in 1991 Anthony and Fatt founded a children's music group, The Wiggles. The Cockroaches alumni served as musical and performing support for the new group; John wrote much of their music, Paul became their manager, and Henry performed with them. The Wiggles used many of The Cockroaches' business practices and reworked some of their songs into the children's music genre.
Members of The Cockroaches have pursued other music careers with John and Paul forming The Field Brothers, John forming his own band called the John Field Band and writing plays and musicals, and Henry being a session musician. A compilation album, Hey Let's Go – The Best of the Cockroaches was released by Festival Records in 1999, and they were due to stage two reunion shows in June 2014, to mark the release of Hey Let's Go, a greatest hits album.
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