Trevor Spencer (born 1947 in

Adelaide Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...

, Australia) is an Australian songwriter, record producer and drummer. He studied drums and percussion from the age of 10. By the age of 14, he was playing professionally in bands in Adelaide and Melbourne, where he met his songwriting and musical partner

Alan Tarney Alan Tarney (born 19 November 1945) is an English record producer and musician. He was born in Northside, Workington, Cumberland, but spent his teenage years in Adelaide, Australia, where he met his songwriting and musical partner Trevor Spencer ...

Career

In 1967 Trevor Spencer (born: 21 May 1947) was a founding member of

psychedelic pop Psychedelic pop (or acid pop) is pop music that contains musical characteristics associated with psychedelic music. Developing in the late 1960s, elements included " trippy" features such as fuzz guitars, tape manipulation, backwards recording, ...

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. Init ...

group

James Taylor Move James Taylor Move was a short-lived Australian/British psychedelic pop, progressive rock group from Adelaide. It was formed by Kevin Peek on guitar (ex-Hurricanes, The Twilights, John E. Broome and the Handels), Trevor Spencer on drums, Alan Tar ...

. In 1969 he moved to Ham in England and after forming his first band, Quartet, he became a studio drummer for acts such as

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...

Marvin and Farrar Marvin, Welch & Farrar ( MWF) were a 1970s British and Australian popular music group formed by Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch, both members of The Shadows – as a change of direction manoeuvre during 1970 to 1973 – and John Farrar (ex- The Stra ...

and

Olivia Newton-John Dame Olivia Newton-John (26 September 1948 – 8 August 2022) was a British-Australian singer, actress and activist. She was a four-time Grammy Award winner whose music career included 15 top-ten singles, including 5 number-one singles on the ...

. Quartet recorded one album with Decca records which remains unreleased but two singles were released on Decca: "Joseph"/"Mama where did you fail" (1970) F13072 and "Now"/"will my lady come" (1970) F12974. During the 1970s, he was a house songwriter for ATV Music London. In 1976 he was one half of

Tarney-Spencer Band Tarney/Spencer Band were a rock band formed in London in 1975 with Trevor Spencer on drums and Alan Tarney on lead guitar, bass guitar and lead vocals. Both had been in Australian bands, including James Taylor Move, prior to relocating to the U ...

along with

(ex-James Taylor Move). They signed a ten-album deal with A & M Records, but met with little success and after three album releases, the group disbanded and discontinued their contract with agreement by the record company. In 1973 he was part of

's Eurovision song contest entry in 1973 along with

John Farrar John Clifford Farrar ( ; born 8 November 1946) is an Australian music producer, songwriter, arranger, singer, and guitarist. As a musician, Farrar is a former member of several rock and roll groups including The Mustangs (1963–64), The Stra ...

and

Terry Britten Terence Ernest Britten (born July 1947) is an English-Australian singer-songwriter and record producer, who has written songs for Tina Turner, Cliff Richard, Olivia Newton-John, Status Quo and Michael Jackson amongst many others. Britten (along w ...

with six songs in which "

Power to all our friends "Power to All Our Friends" is a song by Cliff Richard which was chosen as the entry to the Eurovision Song Contest 1973, by a postal vote which was decided by BBC viewers after Richard performed six contending songs on ''A Song For Europe'', fe ...

" was chosen and came second. He then moved into record production and worked for many major labels as a freelance producer before moving to Perth. In 1986 he bought the Sh-boom studios in Perth with co-owner Gary Taylor. Soon after, Hank Marvin bought his own studio within the Sh-boom complex, The Nivram studios. During his career, Spencer has been involved in the performing, production and composing with various artists which has resulted in the sales of over 20 million records worldwide.

Selected discography

With The Tarney-Spencer Band

Albums: * 1976 ''Tarney and Spencer'' (Bradley's) * 1978 ''Three's a Crowd'' (A & M) * 1979 ''Run for Your Life'' (A & M) Singles: * 1976 I'm Your Man Rock n Roll/ (Bradley's) * 1976 If You Knew/ (Bradley's) * 1979 "

No Time to Lose "No Time to Lose" is a rock song performed by English- Australian rock group Tarney/Spencer Band from their album ''Run for Your Life'' (1979). It was originally released in March 1979 through A&M Records, with a shorter re-release in 1981, durin ...

" (A&M) * 1979 "Cathy's Clown"/"Anything I Can Do" (A&M) Notable singles: * 1979 Cliff Richard – We Don't Talk Anymore Notable albums: * 1979 Charlie Dore – ''Where to Now''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer, Trevor Australian record producers Australian songwriters Australian drummers Male drummers Living people musicians from Adelaide Australian session musicians 1947 births

Career

Selected discography

With The Tarney-Spencer Band

See also

References