Glenn Shorrock - 60 Years Of Music

With a career spanning over 60 years, Glenn Shorrock is one of the elder statesmen of Australian contemporary show business. Born in England, Glenn migrated at the age of 10 to Adelaide in the mid-1950s. 

A self-confessed child of rock n’ roll, he began singing in 1962 with a vocal group called the Twilights. By 1965, the Twilights became a six-piece beat group based in Melbourne, scoring hits with Needle in a Haystack, What’s Wrong with the Way I Live?, Cathy Come Home, and Young Girl, before disbanding in 1969.Axiom, with Brian Cadd, followed shortly thereafter, with hits including Arkansas Grass and Little Ray of Sunshine. 

In 1970, Axiom disbanded while in London. Glenn chose to remain in London as a session singer and songwriter, working with other ex-pats and Europeans in a twelve-piece rock orchestra named Esperanto.In late 1974, Glenn returned to Melbourne to help form Little River Band as lead singer. Managed by long-time friend Glenn Wheatley, Little River Band cracked the lucrative United States market in 1976 and began a string of eight Top Ten hits in the U.S.A. and around the world. 

The band has sold in excess of 30 million albums, often being credited for opening the door for many Australian acts on the international circuit. In 1995, Glenn fronted Little River Band during their 20th-anniversary, three-and-a-half-month tour of the United States.His songwriting credits include the international hits Help is on its Way, Emma, Home on Monday (co-written with Beeb Birtles), Long Jumping Jeweler, Shut Down Turn Off, My Own Way Home (co-written with Brian Cadd), and Cool Change.Glenn’s credentials extend to all fields of show business, notably in theatre and cabaret, where he starred in Evita, The Rocky Horror Show, One for the Money, Go Cat Go, and Two Up. 

A career highlight was producing and performing alongside Sir George Martin in the highly acclaimed production All You Need Is Beatles (1998). He performed the role of Johnny Casino in the smash hit Grease: The Arena Spectacular!, which played to full houses across Australia and in Auckland; co-starred in British Rock Symphony with Eric Burdon and Thelma Houston, performing the hits of the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, and The Who; and toured Australia with the successful Long Way to the Top concert series with Axiom and Twilights.In 2002, Glenn rejoined Graeham Goble and Beeb Birtles on stage as Birtles Shorrock Goble, performing the famous classics with which Little River Band captured the world. They also produced the Full Circle DVD, a live concert recording of their performance at the Forum Theatre in Melbourne.Glenn also regularly performs on behalf of various charities and continues as an ambassador for Variety. As a testament to his enduring talent, he has been inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame twice: first in 1991 in his own right and again with Little River Band in 2004.