Southern Contemporary Rock Assembly or SCRA was an Australian jazz-rock group formed in mid-1971 by Sheryl Black on lead vocals, Ian Bloxsom on percussion,

Russell Dunlop Russell James Dunlop (21 October 194516 May 2009) was an Australian musician, singer-songwriter and record producer-engineer. From the late 1970s he collaborated with Bruce Brown in a production company for albums and singles by Australian perfo ...

on drums (ex-Aesop's Fable, Levi Smith's Clefs), Dave Ellis on bass guitar, Greg Foster on trombone and harmonica (ex-Heart 'n' Soul), Mickey Leyton (aka Michael Puddyfoot) on lead vocals, Jim Kelly on lead guitar (ex-Affair, Levi Smith's Clefs), Mike Kenny on trumpet (Levi Smith's Clefs), Peter Martin on guitar and vocals (ex-Little Sammy and the in People) and Don Wright on tenor sax and flute (ex-Ram Jam Big Band). In December 1971 the band issued the debut album, ''SCRA'', which Australian musicologist,

Ian McFarlane Ian McFarlane (born 1959) is an Australian music journalist, music historian and author, whose best known publication is the '' Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop'' (1999), which was updated for a second edition in 2017. As a journalist ...

, compared to their regular "brash, commercial sound" when performing live – the album was "more restrained and slickly arranged." It was produced by Allan Crawford and issued on M7 Records and provided three singles including their debut, "

C C Rider "See See Rider", also known as "C.C. Rider", "See See Rider Blues" or "Easy Rider", is a popular American 12-bar blues song that became a standard in several genres. Gertrude "Ma" Rainey was the first to record it on October 16, 1924, at Par ...

", which was a cover version of

Ma Rainey Gertrude "Ma" Rainey ( Pridgett; April 26, 1886 – December 22, 1939) was an American blues singer and influential early blues recording artist. Dubbed the "Mother of the Blues", she bridged earlier vaudeville and the authentic expression of s ...

's original. In September 1971 they performed it live-in-the-studio for

Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is the national broadcaster of Australia. It is principally funded by direct grants from the Australian Government and is administered by a government-appointed board. The ABC is a publicly-own ...

's TV programme, ''

GTK GTK (formerly GIMP ToolKit and GTK+) is a free and open-source cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs). It is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License, allowing both free and propriet ...

''. Their second single, "Roly Poly", was released in December which peaked at No. 27 on the ''

Go-Set ''Go-Set'' was the first Australian pop music newspaper, published weekly from 2 February 1966 to 24 August 1974, and was founded in Melbourne by Phillip Frazer, Peter Raphael and Tony Schauble. NOTE: This PDF is 282 pages. Widely described as ...

'' National Top 40, and No. 28 on the Australian

Kent Music Report The Kent Music Report was a weekly record chart of Australian music singles and albums which was compiled by music enthusiast David Kent from May 1974 through to January 1999. The chart was re-branded the Australian Music Report (AMR) in July ...

Singles Chart, in April of the following year. SCRA appeared at the inaugural

Sunbury Pop Festival Sunbury Pop Festival or Sunbury Rock Festival was an annual Australian rock music festival held on a private farm between Sunbury and Diggers Rest, Victoria, which was staged on the Australia Day (26 January) long weekend from 1972 to 1975. It ...

in January 1972 and provided a live version of "Roly Poly" for a double album, ''Sunbury'', by various artists on

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

HMV Sunrise Records and Entertainment, trading as HMV (for His Master's Voice), is a British music and entertainment retailer, currently operating exclusively in the United Kingdom. The first HMV-branded store was opened by the Gramophone Company ...

. John Dixon directed and produced a documentary film of the festival, ''Sunbury'' (1972), which includes footage of SCRA's version of " I Just Want to Make Love to You" with Black on lead vocals. McFarlane praised her as a "gutsy blues singer of rare talent." By April the group had relocated to the United States. Ian Saxon joined as their third lead vocalist. Also in April SCRA members appeared as the studio backing band for

Dig Richards Digby George "Dig" Richards (12 September 194017 February 1983) was an Australian rock and roll singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, musical theatre actor and television presenter, active during the late 1950s and early 1960s as lead singer wit ...

' country music album, ''Harlequin''. SCRA recorded their second album, ''The Ship Album'' (1972), at The Hit Factory in New York; and at United Sound Studios, Sydney. It was produced by Martin and issued by

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...

. McFarlane felt they had "dispensed with the lighter pop moments of the debut to concentrate on a more innovative and bluesy progressive jazz-rock sound". The group disbanded by the end of that year. Black, Dunlop, Ellis, Foster, Kelly, Kenny and Martin all did session work in subsequent years. Dunlop and Kelly both joined Mother Earth; Dunlop was later a member of Johnny Rocco Band and then

Ayers Rock Uluru (; pjt, Uluṟu ), also known as Ayers Rock ( ) and officially gazetted as UluruAyers Rock, is a large sandstone formation in the centre of Australia. It is in the southern part of the Northern Territory, southwest of Alice Springs. ...

; Bloxsom, Kelly, and Kenny were members of

Crossfire A crossfire (also known as interlocking fire) is a military term for the siting of weapons (often automatic weapons such as assault rifles or sub-machine guns) so that their arcs of fire overlap. This tactic came to prominence in World War I. ...

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

References

;General * Note: Archived n-linecopy has limited functionality. ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:Southern Contemporary Rock Assembly Australian rock music groups Musical groups established in 1971 Musical groups disestablished in 1972 1971 establishments in Australia