Air Supply


Air Supply are a soft rock duo formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1975, consisting of English singer-songwriter and guitarist Graham Russell and Australian singer Russell Hitchcock.
With record sales of 100 million worldwide, they had a succession of hits worldwide, including eight top-five hits on the US Billboard Hot 100, "Lost in Love", "All Out of Love", "Every Woman in the World", "The One That You Love", "Here I Am", "Sweet Dreams", "Even the Nights Are Better" and "Making Love Out of Nothing at All". In Australia, they had four top ten placements with "Love and Other Bruises", "All Out of Love", "Every Woman in the World" and "The One That You Love". Their highest charting studio album, The One That You Love reached number ten in both Australia and the US. The group, which relocated to Los Angeles in the late 1970s, has included many members, with Hitchcock and Russell at the core.
The Australian Recording Industry Association inducted Air Supply into their Hall of Fame on 1 December 2013, at the annual ARIA Awards.

History

Formation and early years: 1975–1980

Air Supply's founding members met on 12 May 1975, while rehearsing for the Australian production of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. Chrissie Hammond portrayed Mary Magdalene, while Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell were in the chorus. With the show they toured Australia and New Zealand for 18 months. In 1958, as a three-year-old, English-born Hammond had migrated to Melbourne with her family, including older sister Lyndsay Hammond, who also became a rock singer. Russell, also English-born, had been a percussionist in United Kingdom group, Union Blues, in 1965. After arriving in Australia in 1968, Russell performed solo and was later, in 1973, a member of Eli Flash with Hammond, her sister Lyndsay, Brenton White and Sam McNally later of Stylus. “Love and Other Bruises” was originally demoed by Russell, Lyndsay Hammond and Brenton White in 1974. Hitchcock left school in 1965 to work as a salesman, also joining a group, 19th Generation, on drums and vocals.
With Hammond and Hitchcock on vocals and Russell on guitar, they formed Air Supply as a harmony vocal group in Melbourne in 1975. When the show's run finished in late 1976, Hammond departed to form a hard rock group, Cheetah, with her sister. Hammond was replaced in the group by Jeremy Paul who provided bass guitar and backing vocals. Paul had joined the cast of Jesus Christ Superstar when it reached Brisbane and continued with the show to New Zealand. According to Paul, the group's name was "indicative of the sound and feeling forming the relationships within the band". The group's first single, "Love and Other Bruises", was released in October 1976 and peaked at No. 6 on the Australian Kent Music Report singles chart. Russell recalled that they had been unable to promote "Love and Other Bruises" while still performing in Jesus Christ Superstar, due to contractual obligations to the show. It was first aired on weekly teen pop music TV show, Countdown in early December 1976. It remains their highest charting single in Australia.
The group followed with their debut album, Air Supply, in December 1976, which reached No. 17 on the Kent Music Report albums chart and achieved gold accreditation for shipment of 20,000 copies. It was produced by Peter Dawkins with the line-up of Hitchcock, Paul, Russell and drummer Jeff Browne, guitarist Mark McEntee, and keyboardist Adrian Scott. Other singles were "If You Knew Me", "Empty Pages" and "Feel the Breeze", but none reached the top 40. McEntee had left Air Supply by the end of 1976 to work as a session musician. In 1980, bandmates McEntee and Paul formed Divinyls alongside Chrissy Amphlett. Air Supply undertook a national tour in support of their debut album with Hitchcock, Paul, Russell and Scott joined by Nigel Macara on drums and Brenton White on guitar. Brenton White rehearsed but did not perform with Air Supply. Later he played with Roberta Flack, Renee Geyer, Doug Parkinson and many others. In April 1977, portions of their music videos for "Empty Pages" and "Do What You Do" were screened on Countdown.
Their second album, The Whole Thing's Started, also produced by Dawkins, was released in July 1977, with White replaced on lead guitar by Rex Goh. White did not play on the album. The album provided three singles, but neither album nor singles charted in the top 40. In mid-1977, the group supported Rod Stewart during his tour of Australia, and he invited them to continue to the United States and Canada. Mid-tour they worked on their third album, Love & Other Bruises, in Los Angeles from July to August. It included re-recordings of tracks from their previous two albums, with Jimmy Horowitz producing, and was released later that year in the US on Columbia Records. At the end of 1977, Paul left and the line-up of Hitchcock, Macara, Goh and Russell, were joined by Joey Carbone on keyboards, Robin Le Mesurier on co-lead guitar and Howard Sukimoto on bass guitar. Air Supply performed in London supporting Chicago and Boz Scaggs.
Although their music had some commercial success, Russell claimed, on a 1995 DVD, that he and Hitchcock were so poor that they checked the backs of hotel sofas for change so that they could buy bread to make toast. By early 1978, the line-up was Hitchcock, Macara and Russell, with Ken Francis on guitar, Rick Mellick on keyboards and Bill Putt on bass guitar. In April of that year, Russell was considering relocating to Los Angeles: "Even though it's expensive it's the music centre of the world. In Australia you can hit yourself against a brick wall." By mid-1978, only Hitchcock and Russell remained, backed by Ralph Cooper on drums, and former Sailor members Brian Hamilton on bass guitar and vocals and David Moyse on guitar.
In April 1979, the band released Life Support, a concept album which included a picture disc on its first pressing. It was recorded at Trafalgar Studios, Sydney. The album had a five-and-a-half-minute version of "Lost in Love", written by Russell, which was released as a single and peaked at No. 13 in Australia and No.3 in New Zealand. The track caught the attention of Arista Records boss Clive Davis, who remixed the song and released it as a single in the US early the following year. The line-up for the album kept Hitchcock, Russell, Cooper, and Moyse, and added Criston Barker and Frank Esler-Smith with help from other session musicians. Esler-Smith had previously known Hitchcock and Russell from working with them in Jesus Christ Superstar.
A remixed version of "Lost in Love" was issued internationally as a single in January 1980 on Arista Records. The associated album, Lost in Love, appeared in March, which was co-produced by Robie Porter, Rick Chertoff and Charles Fisher. It contained three US top five singles, including the title track, which peaked at No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. The others were "Every Woman in the World" and "All Out of Love". The latter two singles were top 10 hits in Australia, with "All Out of Love" also reaching No. 11 on the UK singles chart and No. 17 in the Netherlands. The album had the same line-up of Barker, Cooper, Esler-Smith, Hitchcock, Moyse and Russell. It sold three million copies in the US and peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard 200. It reached No, 21 in Australia and No. 22 in New Zealand.

1981–1990

Air Supply's sixth studio album, The One That You Love, was produced by Harry Maslin with the title track issued as a single in April. It is the group's only No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The album provided two more US top five hits, "Here I Am " and "Sweet Dreams". A fourth single, "I'll Never Get Enough of You", a cover version of Samantha Sang's song, was released in Japan in 1981 and achieved top ten status there. During recording, Barker left and was replaced by David Green on bass guitar, while early member Goh returned on guitar.
From 1981 Air Supply regularly appeared on US music show, Solid Gold. Hitchcock and Russell also filled-in as co-hosts when resident co-host Andy Gibb was unavailable. Gibb's attendance on the show became problematic and he was fired in 1982. The duo co-hosted the show in October 1983 and September 1985.
Their seventh studio album Now and Forever, was released in June 1982 with the line-up of Cooper, Esler-Smith, Goh, Green, Hitchcock, Moyse and Russell; it was produced by Maslin, again. It continued the group's popularity in the US with top 5 hit "Even the Nights Are Better" and two top 40 singles, "Young Love" and "Two Less Lonely People in the World". On the Australian singles chart, "Even the Nights Are Better" reached the top 40 and is the group's last single to do so. It also peaked in the top 40 in New Zealand.
They released their first compilation album, Greatest Hits, in August 1983, which included a new single, "Making Love Out of Nothing at All", written by Jim Steinman. The album reached number one in Australia, number two in New Zealand, and number seven on the US Billboard 200 – selling 5 million copies in the US by March 1993 according to Recording Industry Association of America.
"Making Love Out of Nothing at All" was their equal second biggest US hit at No. 2, behind their only US number-one single, "The One That You Love". The band also released their first live video album, Air Supply Live in Hawaii in 1983. Their song "I Can Wait Forever", which was co-written by Russell with David Foster and Jay Graydon, was featured in a scene of the film, Ghostbusters, and was included on its soundtrack album in the same month.
By the mid-1980s, Goh, Green and Moyse had all left, and the band's February 1985 self-titled album had Cooper, Esler-Smith, Hitchcock and Russell joined by Wally Stocker on guitar, Don Cromwell on bass guitar, and Ken Rarick on keyboards. This album included their last top 20 Billboard hit with their rendition of Rob Hegel's 1982 single, "Just as I Am", which was also their last charting single in Australia. They released a cover version of Jennifer Rush's "The Power of Love" in July, which reached No. 21 in New Zealand, and they had a minor US hit with "Lonely Is the Night" from the album Hearts in Motion – their last US charting studio album on the Billboard 200.
Russell and Hitchcock recorded a 1987 Christmas Album, containing the holiday single "The Eyes of a Child", before taking a break as a band. During this time, Hitchcock released a solo self-titled album in 1988 which was not a big seller. However, his single "Swear to Your Heart" – from the soundtrack album for the film Arachnophobia – received significant airplay and reached the top ten on the US Adult Contemporary chart.