Lorraine May Chapman (3 October 194231 January 1992), professionally known as Laurel Lea, was an Australian popular singer of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Lea appeared regularly on TV series, ''

Bandstand A bandstand (sometimes music kiosk) is a circular, semicircular or polygonal structure set in a park, garden, pier, or indoor space, designed to accommodate musical bands performing concerts. A simple construction, it both creates an orname ...

'', ''

Six O'Clock Rock ''Six O'Clock Rock'' was an Australian rock and roll television show broadcast on ABC from 28 February 1959 to 1962 at 6 p.m. on Saturdays. Program synopsis Inspired by the BBC program '' 6.5 Special'', it had a similar format to its rival ...

'' and ''Saturday Date''. In 1974 and 1975 she toured throughout Australia with contemporaries

Johnny O'Keefe John Michael O'Keefe (19 January 1935 – 6 October 1978) was an Australian rock and roll singer whose career began in the 1950s. Some of his hits include " Wild One" (1958), " Shout!" and "She's My Baby". In his twenty-year career, O'Keefe rel ...

Johnny Devlin John Lockett Devlin (born 11 May 1938) is a New Zealand singer, songwriter and rock musician, who has been compared to Elvis Presley. His cover of Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" in 1958 went to number one in the New Zealand charts with s ...

Lonnie Lee Lonnie Lee is the stage name of David Laurence Rix (born 18 September 1940), an Australian singer, who has fronted Lonnie Lee and the Leeman and Lonnie Lee and the Leedons. He is a pioneer of Australian rockabilly music and has worked in the ind ...

and Barry Stanton. On 31 January 1992 Lea died of

leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

Biography

Laurel Lea was born as Lorraine May Chapman. She was raised in

Armidale, New South Wales Armidale is a city in the Northern Tablelands, New South Wales, Australia. Armidale had a population of 24,504 as of June 2018. Estimated resident population, 30 June 2018. It is the administrative centre for the Northern Tablelands region. It ...

by Con Lianos and was known as Lorraine Lianos. Con and his wife ran a travelling performance troupe and Laurel joined them from the age of 15. Her younger brother Doug (born ca. 1946) performed as a drummer, Little Rock Billy in the early 1960s. *edit via her son Mark in 2022.... Doug was not her bother, he was a dear friend and was nicknamed her "brother". In 1958 Lea signed with

Leedon Records Leedon Records was an Australian record label active from 1958 to 1969. It was founded by American Australian entrepreneur Lee Gordon in early 1958. Establishment and early releases In Australian in the 1950s and early 1960s, locally distribut ...

and was promoted by its founder, United States-born Lee Gordon. At the end of 1960, Lea broke her jaw in a fall and was unable to sing for six months. She regularly appeared on TV series ''

'', ''Saturday Date'' and ''

''. Lea was inspired by

Brigitte Bardot Brigitte Anne-Marie Bardot ( ; ; born 28 September 1934), often referred to by her initials B.B., is a former French actress, singer and model. Famous for portraying sexually emancipated characters with hedonistic lifestyles, she was one of the ...

, "I used to copy her mannerisms, and the way she opened her eyes and looked up like this". In October 1963 an audience of 40,000 attended a

2UW KIIS 1065 (call sign: 2WFM) is a commercial broadcasting, commercial FM radio station in Sydney, Australia, on a frequency of 106.5 MHz. KIIS 1065 is one of the flagship stations on Australian Radio Network, ARN's KIIS Network. The station's ...

concert with the roster including Lea,

Bee Gees The Bee Gees were a musical group formed in 1958 by brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb. The trio were especially successful in popular music in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers in the disco music era in ...

Col Joye Colin Frederick Jacobsen (born 13 April 1937), better known by his stage name Col Joye, is an Australian pioneer rock singer-songwriter, musician and entrepreneur with a career spanning some sixty years. Joye was the first Australian rock and r ...

and

Judy Stone Judith Anne Stone AM (born 1 January 1942) is an Australian pop and country music singer. For much of the 1960s she was a regular performer on the music variety ''Bandstand'', Stone's top 20 singles on the national charts are "I'll Step ...

. Note: This source spells her last name as Lee. Lea recorded several singles, but had limited chart success. In 1974 and 1975, she joined her contemporaries

, Barry Stanton,

Jade Hurley John Anthony Patrick Hurley OAM (born 17 June 1943), who performs as Jade Hurley, is an Australian country music singer-songwriter and pianist. Hurley's hit singles are "How I Lied" (1965), "Down in the Riverina" (1974) and "Another Saturday N ...

and Tony Brady in the Good Old Days of Rock 'n' Roll Tour which travelled throughout Australia. Lea returned to the updated ''Bandstand ‘76'' show now hosted by Daryl Somers for a one off live performance. She also had a band in the 1980s called Chockarock.

Personal life

In 1960 or 1961 she married fellow ''Bandstand'' singer Kevin Todd (born ca. 1943), and the couple had a son Mark (born ca. 1962). The pair often performed duets and by December 1963 had signed with

CBS Records CBS Records may refer to: * CBS Records or CBS/Sony, former name of Sony Music, a global record company * CBS Records International, label for Columbia Records recordings released outside North America from 1962 to 1990 * CBS Records (2006), founde ...

. By November 1975, Lea had been married and divorced twice, " hehas finished with two husbands and has a son of 13". Laurel Lea died of

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

on 31 January 1992 in

Camperdown, New South Wales Camperdown is an inner western suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Camperdown is located 4 kilometres south-west of the Sydney central business district and is part of the Inner West region. Camperdown lies across the ...

, aged 49.

Legacy

From 12 October 2003, ABC-TV series, '' Love Is in the Air'', was a five-part documentary on Australian pop music with "Episode 2: She's Leaving Home" describing female pop stars and how many travelled overseas to try to further their careers, Lea was described, " complished television regulars like Laurel Lea had the look, the sound and the talent". The program featured two of her tracks, "Alfie" and "Tomorrow".

Discography

;Singles * "I'll Save the Last Dance" (December 1960) * "Bermuda" (1962) * "Treasure of Your Love" / "What I Don't Know Won't Hurt Me" (CBS BA-221104, 1964) * "I Shall Take My Leave" / "You're Closer to Me" (Parlophone A-8807 1969) TELEVISION

Notes

References

Laurel LeaLaurel Lee, Central Coast Leagues Club, Gosford 1978Bravenet Web Services

Reading

External links

Laurel Lea
photo, ca. 1966 held by

State Library of Victoria State Library Victoria (SLV) is the state library of Victoria, Australia. Located in Melbourne, it was established in 1854 as the Melbourne Public Library, making it Australia's oldest public library and one of the first free libraries in the ...

via National Library of Australia. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lea, Laurel 1942 births 1992 deaths Deaths from leukemia Deaths from cancer in New South Wales Australian women pop singers CBS Records artists 20th-century Australian women singers