The Zorros were an Australian rock band, formed in 1979,
comprising Nic Chancellor on lead vocals, Darren Smith on lead guitar, Alex Zammit on bass guitar and Greg Pedley on drums.
Biography
The Zorros were formed in
Brunswick as a
punk rock band by Nic Chancellor on lead vocals, Greg Pedley on drums, Darren Smith on lead guitar and Alex Zammit on bass guitar. They played their first gig at the Champion Hotel,
Fitzroy Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to:
People As a given name
*Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name:
**FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855)
** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...
in January 1980. Nic Chancellor was previously a roadie for 1970s punk band, the News, and a doorman at Bernhardt's Nite Club. Darren Smith played in the Proles.
[Spencer et al, (2007]
Zorros
entry. Retrieved 7 April 2010. Andrea Jones of ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' felt that the group members were "very cynical about the softening of the new music. They are adamant that it will be rapidly followed by a resurgence in aggression and when that happens, The Zorros will be the front runners."
Chancellor told her that "We get more of a kick out of playing. Hopefully we'll be round long enough to make a record. But it's a big thrill to play for an audience. It'd be an even bigger thrill to play and make money"
The Zorros were popular in the Melbourne music scene of the early 1980s, playing at numerous local venues such as the
Crystal Ballroom,
Bombay Rock
The Bombay Rock is a rock music venue located on Sydney Road, Brunswick, Victoria, Australia, which originally ran from 1977 until it was destroyed by a fire in 1991. The venue had previously been located in Bourke Street in the city under the ...
, Brunswick and
The Esplanade, St Kilda. In October 1981 released a 7" single on
Au Go Go Records, "Too Young",
written by Chancellor.
It was mixed and produced by
Tony Cohen
Anthony Lawrence Cohen (4 June 19572 August 2017) was an Australian music record producer and sound engineer. He worked with Nick Cave's groups the Birthday Party, and then the Bad Seeds from 1979 to 2001. In mid-1986 he had followed Cave t ...
(
The Birthday Party),
which went to number 3 on the Melbourne
3RRR charts.
[ NOTE: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1974 until ]ARIA
In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...
created their own charts
A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tab ...
in mid-1988. In 1992, Kent back calculated chart positions for 1970–1974.
![1985-ZORROS-PICADILLY HOTEL - KINGSCROSS](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/1985-ZORROS-PICADILLY_HOTEL_-_KINGSCROSS.jpg)
In 1988 they released a self-titled, eight-track,
EP via Funnel Web Records and Dreamtime Software on a
music cassette
The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Otten ...
.
They played at the final live performances at the Crystal Ballroom on 31 October 1987 and played at inner city venues such as Prince of Wales and the Esplanade until 1994. Evolving from Melbourne's
indie rock scene, The Zorros played with other bands such as
INXS
INXS (a word play, phonetic play on "in excess") were an Australian Rock music, rock band, formed as The Farriss Brothers in 1977 in Sydney, New South Wales. The band's founding members were bassist Garry Gary Beers, main composer and keyboar ...
,
Rose Tattoo
Rose Tattoo are an Australian rock and roll band, now led by Angry Anderson, which formed in Sydney in 1976. Their sound is hard rock mixed with blues rock influences, with songs including "Bad Boy for Love", "Rock 'n' Roll Outlaw", "Nice Bo ...
, 21 Faces, Z Cars, Marching Girls and La Femme. They played original independent music for 16 years with over 500 performances and over 500 songs written by Darren and Nic.
Members
* Nic Chancellor – lead vocals, bass guitar
(1980–94)
* Greg Pedley – drums
(1980–81)
* Darren Smith – guitar
(1980–94)
* Alex Zammit – bass guitar
(1980–81, 1987–94)
* Craig Russell – bass guitar
(1981)
* Phil Bryant – drums
(1982)
* Scott Ferris – bass guitar
(1982–83)
* Christine Paris: Bass Guitar 1983-1984
* Tim Dexter: Bass Guitar 1984-1985
* Mark Fleming: Drums 1984-1985
* Gary Williamson – drums
(1982–83)
* Daniel Smith – drums
(1983–94)
Discography
* "Too Young"/"Let Me Love You" –
Au Go Go Records (ANDA 016) (October 1981)
* ''Zorros'' (EP) – Funnel Web Records
(KRC204), Dreamtime Software (1988)
References
External links
"Zorros – Brunswick to Belfast Melbourne to Mexico""Zorros Videos""The Zorros"at acidplanet.com
Inner City Sound
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zorros, The
Victoria (state) musical groups
Musical groups established in 1979