REMEMBERING SHIRL
17 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH, WE REMEMBER SKYHOOKS’ ‘SHIRLEY’ STRACHAN IN AN EXTRACT FROM NEW IDEA’S OZ ROCK LEGENDS
Straight male musicians, wearing lipstick, jewellery and colourful flares? In the early ’70s that was completely outrageous.
So when Skyhooks emerged on the Australian rock scene, fans had never seen anything like them. But as the flamboyant Melbourne band strutted across the stage on music show Countdown, the national was mesmerised.
For the first year, the band wasn’t especially popular, and were even booed off stage. But all that changed when Shirley Strachan joined the group in March 1974.
A 22-year-old carpenter who loved surfing, he got his nickname because his curly bleached hair reminded mates of Shirley Temple. With his charisma and distinctive high voice, Shirl bought star quality to the band.
Rock historian Ian Mcfarlane says Shirley, ‘was a natural frontman: young and gifted... with a sweet, yet powerful, voice and androgynous good looks’.
The band continued to wow Australia, but suffered when Red [Symons] left in 1977 and then Shirley quit in 1978. The band officially broke up in 1980.
Red went on to success in TV and radio, as did Shirley who hosted kid’s series Shirl’s Neighbourhood and then became a presenter on home reno show Our House.
Tragically, in August 29, 2001, Graeme ‘Shirley’ Strachan died after losing control of his helicopter and crashing into Queensland’s Mount Archer. He was 49. The band’s manager, Michael Gudinski says Skyhooks will be remembered for being ‘so extremely different... They just came from nowhere and had such incredible impact because of their uniqueness.’