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EARLY
DAYS
Graham Greene
was born in Perth, Western Australia, and at age 4 moved with his
family to the far north-west of the state, where he grew up in the rugged
and arid West Kimberley outback.
While attending boarding school in Perth, Graham discovered the guitar
and quickly realized where his life's journey would lead. He played in
some small bands after leaving school, and found regular work as a sound
engineer before returning to playing guitar and keyboards. In his late
teens, a car accident temporarily prevented him from playing, so he took
the time off to travel back to his adopted home town in the bush, where
he could recover, and reconnect with his childhood roots.
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TURNING
PRO
Graham's return to
Perth led to more band work, where he consistently impressed with his
ever-improving guitar and vocal skills. In June 1982, he was offered
his first professional gig - a tour of Western Australia playing for New
Zealand pop & rock diva Kim Hart. This tour gave him the exposure
he needed, and, having fulfilled his tour obligations, Graham joined a
top local cover band by the name of Flash Harry. He spent five
years making a name for himself as one of the city's more talented performers.
The band made numerous television appearances, and appeared in concert
on the bill with U.S. rock star Meat Loaf at the 8,500 seat Perth
Entertainment Centre. It was during this period that Graham received his
first nominations in the West Australian Music Industry Awards 'Best Guitarist'
category, showing that he had made a place for himself among his peers.
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LOCAL
FAME
In late 1987,
Graham put together what was to become one of the biggest and best hard
rock bands to hit Perth stages. Ice Tiger played their first gig
on new years eve 87/88, and within weeks was the talk of the town, playing
to packed houses and receiving acclaim from public and industry alike.
In 1991 the band released an album, Love'n'Crime (co-produced by
Graham), which enjoyed chart success on a state and national level, and
produced two singles, both of which were local hits. Ice Tiger played
with such notables as Bon Jovi, Gregg Bissonette (David
Lee Roth Band), Canned Heat and Jimmy Barnes, as well as
headlining their own show at Perth's Burswood Superdome to approximately
10,500 fans. Sadly, the band broke up in 1992, but the album was
'posthumously' released in Europe, Scandinavia, the United Kingdom and
Japan.
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In
1993, Graham was offered a gig with a touring hard rock cover band
Rusty Cage, which was to become the original band Judgement
Day. The singer/founder of the band was Donna Andrews - who was to
(in 1996) become Donna Greene.
GOING SOLO
Late in 1994,
Graham was asked to headline the W.A. Music Awards, performing
some of the rock instrumentals he had been working on. The show was at
the prestigious His Majesty's Theatre, and the ten-piece band he
put together for the concert became the first incarnation of Graham
Greene and The Happy Sinners. Judgement Day continued to play around
Perth, before relocating across the country to Sydney in 1995.
In Sydney the band folded, and Graham took a sabbatical from live performance,
having averaged almost 300 shows a year for over a decade. Graham and
Donna were married in September 1996, and Graham kept in touch
with the music industry by managing a music store, while doing the occasional
session gig, either playing or producing. The couple continued writing,
and in 1998 Graham released his first solo recording, Blue Feathers.
The instrumental EP was in an ambient style which was new for him, and
showed his mellower side, as well as his new skills as an acoustic guitarist
and bassist. The positive response the CD received was encouragement enough
for plans to be laid for a second solo recording.
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The Greenes
returned to Perth in 1999, and Graham's second EP was released,
titled Voodoo Babies. For the first time since the 1994 Music Awards
show, Graham put together The Happy Sinners, and played some select gigs.
Positive reaction to these solo efforts convinced him to start putting
together the full-length album he had been promising himself and his fans
for so long.
While teaching guitar and bass, and performing with wife Donna as the
popular duo 2Easy, Graham remixed and remastered a collection of
17 songs. Featured for the first time on a Graham Greene solo recording
were 3 vocal tracks - Home, Eternity, and Walk On Water,
co-written with Donna.
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A
YEAR OFF
Club Voodoo
was released in June 2002, with a concert at the Amplifier Bar
in Perth. The launch gig saw Graham's best live band to date impress all
present with a stunning presentation of the new Graham Greene and The
Happy Sinners. Promotion for the album was cut short when Graham lost
the use of two left-hand fingers in early 2003 due to nerve damage
in his neck, the legacy of the teenage car accident. The majority of the
year was spent in regaining the use of the affected fingers and learning
to play again. Late in that year, he released the new-age CD Music
of the Numbers and followed up with an ambient rock album Gaia
Rising in 2004, which was also the year that Graham performed
two sell-out reunion concerts with his old band, Ice Tiger.
A
NEW DEAL
In 2005 Graham announced
a new endorsement deal with WA company Ormsby Guitars, unveiling
his new signature series guitars - the GG6 six-string and GG7
seven-string. He also started recording a new album, Leap Of Face,
which was slated for a 2006 release, and played some gigs around Perth
in classic rock covers band Fallen Angel with Donna and Ice Tiger
alumnus Don Benson. During the year he also became a section editor,
graphic artist and contributing writer for Perth music publication
Groove Magazine.
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2006/2007
- Leap Of Face (right) was released in June of 2006, and Graham took to
the stage with a new live band, promoting his new Ormsby Signature
guitars and new CD. In 2007, Graham was made a Mesa/Boogie endorsee,
becoming the first Australian artist to receive an artist page on the
Mesa/Boogie website. During this time, The Greene's became involved with
the Stop Child Executions Campaign, lending some of their music
to the cause and writing a new song - Resonance (Spirit of Man)
- dedicated to SCE.
October 2007 saw them heading east to appear at the inaugural Guitar
Heroes:Guitar Fest in Sydney, where they debuted Donna's first solo
CD, Resonance (Spirit Of Man). After a brief rest, the band toured to
Vietnam in January 2008 as Resonance Project, heading an international
concert lineup at My Dinh National Stadium to a crowd of 15,000
and a VTV1 viewing audience of some six million.
RECOGNITION
2008
- In October, Graham is recognized by the international independent music
community when he is named Best Rock Instrumental Artist at the
2008 Star Music Awards in Hollywood, USA. The win sparks
interest from internet media in a few countries, and tracks from Leap
Of Face and Resonance start to receive worldwide airplay.
A
MUSICAL PARTNERSHIP
In 2009,
Graham was introduced to the music of singer/songwriter Jac Dalton
by a mutual friend, Nana Mex of Global Thunda Network. Nana
thought it a good idea if the two made music together, they agreed, and
a musical partnership was born. The result is the new Jac Dalton album,
Icarus, featuring Graham's trademark guitar and writing skills
and Donna's unique voice on backing vocals.
The story
continues - see the Newsroom and Press/Reviews pages for current news.
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