The Party Boys | |
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Origin | Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
Genres | |
Years active | 1982 | –1992 , 1999, 2011
Labels | |
Associated acts | |
Past members | See "Members" |
The Party Boys are an Australian rock supergroup with a floating membership commencing in 1982. Created by Mondo Rock's bass guitarist, Paul Christie as a part-time venture for professional musicians with downtime from their other projects, the group had temporary members from acts such as Status Quo, The Angels, Sherbet, Skyhooks, Rose Tattoo, The Choirboys, Australian Crawl, Divinyls, Models, Dragon and Swanee plus international stars including Joe Walsh, Eric Burdon, Alan Lancaster and Graham Bonnet. In March 1983 their debut album, Live at Several 21sts, peaked at No. 9 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart. In June 1987 they had a number-one hit on the related Singles Chart with a cover version of John Kongos' hit, "He's Gonna Step On You Again". It also peaked at No. 10 on the New Zealand Singles Chart.
Paul Christie is the bass guitarist for Australian rock group Mondo Rock, he left the band in 1982 rejoining in 2003. He put together the first line-up of The Party Boys in Sydney with guitarists Kevin Borich (ex-The La De Das, Kevin Borich Express), Harvey James (Mississippi, Ariel, Sherbet), and drummer Graham "Buzz" Bidstrup, who had recently left The Angels.Australian Crawl vocalist James Reyne was in Sydney shooting the TV mini-series Return to Eden and agreed to play some shows between filming. The band did a short run of shows performing cover songs chosen by various members. Recordings made of these gigs became the basis for the group's album Live at Several 21sts. When Reyne's filming schedule was over, he returned to his work with Australian Crawl in Melbourne and left the band. In March 1983, the album reached No. 9 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart and spawned the single, "Bitch" – a cover of The Rolling Stones' album track from 1971's Sticky Fingers. Christie, Borich and James were encouraged to continue with the project.