LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

The story of Mike Furber's tragically brief tenure in the music business reads like a typical cautionary tale. Furber, born in London in 1948, emigrated along with his family to Australia in the '50s. A chance meeting in 1965 with two members of the fledgling garage band, The Bowery Boys, resulted in Furber joining the group as singer. At this point, the band was definitely a single entity, but when they were spotted by impresario Ivan Dayman and subsequently signed to his burgeoning Sunshine Records label, the emphasis shifted to Furber, who Dayman intended to launch as a solo act. Although Furber had a limited vocal range, Dayman saw his "little boy lost" teen-girl appeal and so the group became Mike FurberAnd The Bowery Boys. Just A P o o r B o y (the band's first and only album), achieved modest chart success but brought the unwanted attention of the music press. T h ree more singles followed until, at Dayman's behest, Furber p a rted company with the highly-talented Bowery Boys to pursue a solo c a re e r, which, despite the patronage of Barry Gibb, failed to materialise. In October ' 6 7 , F u r b e r released what many believed to be his finest single, Bring Yo u r Love Back Home, but the record-buying public failed to concur, and the single disappeared without trace, an occurrence which prompted the first of many nervous breakdowns. Asingle penned by the Easybeats' H a r ry Vanda followed, along with a few recordings for E M I - C o l u m b i a which were never released. And that was almost that. Furber's care e r stumbled along for a few more years, but following his sacking from the stage musical Nuclear, he lapsed into a n o t h e r bout of depression, finally hanging himself in Sydney on 10 May 1973. The iro n y of this sorry little saga is that The Bowery Boys themselves were an extremely tight and accomplished band which, had it not been overshadowed by Furber, would undoubtedly have gone on to gre a t e r things, as this superb album amply attests.
Track listing: 1. Just A Poor Boy 2. That's When Happiness Began 3. You Stole My Love 4. Diddy Wah Diddy 5. Mercy, Mercy 6. If You Need Me 7. Love Talk 8. Stop 9. You're Back Again 10. Take This Hammer 11. It's Gonna Work Out Fine 12. Mailman Bring Me No More Blues