Roger McLachlan (born 15 January 1954) is a New Zealand bass guitarist based in Australia. He was an early bass player for

Little River Band Little River Band (LRB) are a rock band originally formed in Melbourne, Australia, in March 1975. The band achieved commercial success in both Australia and the United States. They have sold more than 30 million records; six studio albums rea ...

Early life

McLachlan was born on 15 January 1954 in the small town of Riverton, near

Invercargill Invercargill ( , mi, Waihōpai is the southernmost and westernmost city in New Zealand, and one of the southernmost cities in the world. It is the commercial centre of the Southland region. The city lies in the heart of the wide expanse of t ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. He came to Australia in 1974 to join the touring band for the stage musical ''

Godspell ''Godspell'' is a musical composed by Stephen Schwartz with book by John-Michael Tebelak. The show is structured as a series of parables, primarily based on the Gospel of Matthew, interspersed with music mostly set to lyrics from traditional hymn ...

''.

Little River Band

In 1975, McLachlan was invited to join the supergroup

, replacing the short tenure of Dave Orams. He appeared on the first two albums ''

'' and '' After Hours'', and toured extensively, making 311 appearances with the band. He was replaced by George McArdle in 1976. By 1998, all original members of Little River Band had left. Guitarist

Stephen Housden Stephen Frank Housden (born ) is an English-born Australian musician. He joined the rock group Little River Band (LRB) in 1981 on lead guitar and vocals and ceased performing with them in 2006. Previously, Housden had worked as a session musi ...

revived the band, and asked McLachlan to re-join. He remained with the band for a year, until the pressure of touring in the United States led him to depart again.

Subsequent career

McLachlan joined country-rock outfit

Stars A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...

in 1976, remaining with them into 1977. He is part of the Stars re-formed lineup of 2019.

References

1954 births Living people New Zealand bass guitarists Male bass guitarists New Zealand rock musicians Little River Band members New Zealand expatriates in Australia New Zealand male guitarists New Zealand guitarists {{NewZealand-musician-stub