The Pogs or "Poggies" as they are sometimes referred to, were an Australian

beat music Beat music, British beat, or Merseybeat is a British popular music genre that developed, particularly in and around Liverpool, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The genre melded influences from American rock and roll, rhythm and blues, skiffl ...

group who were active from 1965 to 1967. They comprised

Rory O'Donoghue Rory O'Donoghue (13 May 194913 December 2017) was an Australian actor, composer and musician, best known for playing the character "Thin Arthur" in the 1970s ABC Television sketch comedy series ''The Aunty Jack Show'', and for playing the guita ...

(vocals, lead guitar), Rocco Bellantonio (rhythm guitar), Nino Bellantonio (bass guitar) and Paul Brownlow (drums). The band was popular on the wealthy North Shore party circuit in Sydney and also played university architecture

revues A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own durin ...

. It was at one of these revues that they met songwriter producer Peter Best who helped score the band a recording deal with

Festival Records Festival Records (later known as Festival Mushroom Records) was an Australian recording and publishing company founded in Sydney, Australia, in 1952 and operated until 2005. Festival was a wholly owned subsidiary of News Limited from 1961 to ...

subsidiary label

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 distrib ...

. They recorded their debut single, Claret and Tears b/w Heidi, in mid-1966. Both sides were composed and produced by Best (as were the A and B sides of all four of the band's singles). None of the band's four singles made the charts however, and in 1967 they were dropped by Leedon. The Pogs did make one further curio however - "Aboriginal Referendum Jingle (Vote Yes for Aborigines)" a tune in support of the "Yes" vote for the 1967 Australian referendum, also penned by Best. In 1967, the Pogs recruited organist Graeme Thompson and lost bassist Nino (who went on to further his architectural career). Thompson was then drafted into the Australian Army and was replaced by Bruce Hadden. Drummer Paul Brownlow also left to concentrate on his electrical business and he was replaced by Greg "Max" MacManus. The band also changed their name to Oak Apple Day (sometimes spelled Oakapple Day) and went into a more psychedelic rock direction, influenced by bands such as

The Doors The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, guitarist Robby Krieger, and drummer John Densmore. They were among the most controversial and influential rock acts ...

. Oak Apple Day continued performing in university revues, even touring with them professionally, and it was there that Rory O'Donoghue first collaborated with future

Aunty Jack ''The Aunty Jack Show'' was a Logie Award-winning Australian television comedy series that ran from 1972 to 1973. Produced by and broadcast on ABC-TV, the series attained an instant cult status that persists to the present day. The lead chara ...

Show co-star

Grahame Bond Grahame John Bond AM (born 21 November 1943) is an Australian actor, writer, director, musician and composer, known primarily for his role as Aunty Jack. Early career Bond began his career in entertainment at University of Sydney in the 1960s ...

. Oak Apple Day made one single, with the

Philips Records Philips Records is a record label founded by the Dutch electronics company Philips. It was founded as Philips Phonographische Industrie in 1950. In 1946, Philips acquired the company which pressed records for British Decca's Dutch outlet in ...

label in 1969 - a cover of the

Traffic Traffic comprises pedestrians, vehicles, ridden or herded animals, trains, and other conveyances that use public ways (roads) for travel and transportation. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffi ...

song "No Name, No Face", No Number backed with an original number by Rocco Bellantonio (though credited to Laurie Baker on the single label) named Oceans of Fire. An intense, organ driven psychedelic, almost early

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. In ...

track with a particularly fine vocal performance by Rory O'Donoghue. O'Donoghue was also booked as a session singer for a single entitled "Moonshot" (released in July 1969, obviously to coincide with the

Apollo 11 Apollo 11 (July 16–24, 1969) was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module ''Eagle'' on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, ...

moon-landing), which was a crazy, fun, psychedelic workout replete with spacey sound effects and corny control tower instructions ("All systems A-OK!"... "Trajectory A-OK!"). The single was written by the duo Bannerman-Stokes on the

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

label under the name Oak Apple Day with The Deadly Pair and it has distinction of being one of the first 45rpm singles in Australia to be issued in stereo. Stereo singles would not become commonplace in Australia until 1971. Oak Apple Day broke up in 1970 and Rory went on to play jazz before joining The If who performed The Who’s rock opera ''

Tommy Tommy may refer to: People * Tommy (given name) * Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for a common soldier in the British Army Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Tommy'' (1931 film), a Soviet drama film * ''Tommy'' (1975 fil ...

'' at the Elizabethan Theatre in Sydney. He also worked on the musical '' Jesus Christ Superstar'' before once again hooking up with Grahame Bond to play “Thin Arthur” in the hit ABC TV comedy ''

''. Running for two series in the early 1970s the show produced a couple of singles and an album including compositions from Peter Best.

Discography

The Pogs: * "Claret and Tears" / "Heidi" (Leedon LK-1372), June 1966 * "Now That It’s Over" / "Hey Miss Thompson" (Leedon LK-1494), October 1966 * "I’ll Never Love Again" / "The Pogs' Theme" (Leedon LK-1566), January 1967 * "Scenes From an Affair" / "Goodnight, But Not Goodbye" (Leedon LK-1838), August 1967 * "Oak Apple Day" (with the Deadly Pair): * "Moonshot"/ "Let’s Do it on the Moon" (RCA 101864), July 1969 Oak Apple Day: * "No Face, No Name, No Number" / "Oceans of Fire" (Philips BF-449), September 1969 All eight sides of the Pogs' singles (plus the Aboriginal Referendum jingle) are included on the compilation CD ''I Want, Need, Love You!: Garage-Beat Nuggets from the Festival Vaults'' (Playback Records: PBCD-001, 2016)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pogs, The Musical groups established in 1965 Australian pop music groups Musical groups from Sydney Beat groups