Bob Hudson (singer)

Robert Hudson was born in Sydney in 1946 and grew up in Grafton.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110662689 | title = Life Style | newspaper = The Canberra Times | volume = 50 | issue = 14,197 | date = 15 October 1975 | access-date = 8 October 2018 | page = 16 | via = National Library of Australia }} Note: includes a photo of the artist. He attended Newcastle Teacher's College during the mid-1960s. He started working as a geography teacher but switched to psychiatric nursing and then general nursing. In the late 1960s he also began performing as a solo folk and comic singer. He was the lead singer in the Electric Jug Band, which played at the Star Hotel, Newcastle during the early 1970s – the site of the Star Hotel riot in September 1979.

Hudson had joined the Teen Angels by 1973 with Jean Lewis and Roy Ritchie, which performed "vintage rock'n'roll and doo wop songs." He was a member of a touring revue, Rock 'N' Roll Refugees, alongside, John J. Francis, Alan Luchetti, Margret Roadknight and Glenn Cardier.{{cite news | url = http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230397796 | title = Rock 'N' Roll Refugees | newspaper = Tharunka | volume = 19 | location = Sydney | date = 5 October 1973 | access-date = 8 October 2018 | page = 3 | via = National Library of Australia }} With fellow folk musician Graham Lowndes, he co-wrote music for plays presented by the Australian Free Theatre Group. Hudson described his musical influences as Chad Morgan, Phil Ochs and Jon Hendricks.

He teamed up with ABC musical director, record producer and songwriter Chris Neal to record an in-concert album, The Newcastle Song, in 1974. From August 1974 he was performing a concert-drama of the same name with "actors, Arthur Dignam and Jane Harders" and "jazz pianist Judy Bailey, brilliant young composer/guitarist Roy Ritchie,... rock and orchestral bass player Dave Ellis and singers Graham Lowndes, Starlee Ford and Bobbie Gledhill."{{cite news | url = http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230398701 | title = Kirk Gallery | newspaper = Tharunka | volume = 20 | issue = 17 | location = Sydney | date = 7 August 1974 | access-date = 8 October 2018 | page = 11 | via = National Library of Australia }} The title track, "The Newcastle Song" (March 1975), was trimmed down from the ten-minute album version for the single, which topped the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart for four weeks.McFarlane, [https://web.archive.org/web/20040930230907/http://www.whammo.com.au/encyclopedia.asp?articleid=925 'Bob Hudson'] entry. Archived from [http://www.whammo.com.au/encyclopedia.asp?articleid=925 the original] on 30 September 2004. Retrieved 8 October 2018.Spencer et al., (2007), "Hudson, Bob" entry.{{cite book|title=Australian Chart Book 1970–1992|last=Kent|first=David|author-link=David Kent (historian)|publisher=Australian Chart Book Ltd|location=St Ives, NSW|year=1993|isbn=0-646-11917-6}} Note: Used for Australian Singles and Albums charting from 1974 until ARIA created their own charts in mid-1988. In 1992, Kent back calculated chart positions for 1970–1974.

Hudson, with Neal, co-wrote and recorded a response song, "Rak off Normie", which was covered by Maureen Elkner and became a top ten hit for her in mid-1975.{{cite web | author1=Hudson, Bob | author2 = Neal, Chris | title = Rak off, Normie! | publication-date = 1975 | publisher = Leeds Music | url = http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/30179853 | access-date = 9 February 2017 }} At the Australian Radio Records Awards of October 1975 Hudson won Record of the Year for The Newcastle Song and the New Talent Encouragement award.{{cite news | url = http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article110662366 | title = He never let a chance go by | newspaper = The Canberra Times | volume = 50 | issue = 14,195 | date = 13 October 1975 | access-date = 8 October 2018 | page = 3 | via = National Library of Australia }} Note: Includes a photo of the artist receiving an award. Another album track, "Girls in Our Town", was a top 40 single for RoadKnight in January 1976.{{cite news | url = http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article230397846 | title = Fzomp (nee Tharunka-XL5) Interviews Boistrous Bob: Bob Hudson | newspaper = Tharunka | volume = 19 |issue=25/26 | location = Sydney | date = 8 November 1973 | access-date = 9 February 2017 | page = 23 | via = National Library of Australia }}

Other albums by Hudson are After Me Cat Left Home (1975) and Party Pieces (1980). Hudson was one of the original on-air team at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) rock radio station 2JJ (Double Jay, now Triple J) in 1975,Page 110 with portrait {{Citation | author1=Veitch, Alan | author2=Veitch, Alan | author3=Atterton, Margot | title=The Illustrated encyclopaedia of Australian showbiz | year=1984 | publication-date=1984 | publisher=Sunshine Books | edition=1st | isbn=978-0-86777-057-5 }} and later presented Music Buffs' Talk Back Show, with Glenn A. Baker, on the ABC radio station 2BL. Hudson also worked on ABC radio's international news desk.{{Citation | author1=Baker, Glenn A. | author2=Hudson, Bob | title=Bob Hudson & Glenn A. Baker present antipodean atrocities : dubious ditties, patriotic pap and enthusiastic excesses that made Australia [great] grate | publication-date=1986 | publisher=ABC Records | url=http://trove.nla.gov.au/work/18991531 | access-date=9 February 2017 }} In the 1980s he was involved in the publishing of a book about Australian language{{Citation | author1=Hudson, Bob | author2=Pickering, Larry | title=The first Australian dictionary of vulgarities & obscenities | year=1987 | publisher=David & Charles | isbn=978-0-7153-9054-2 }} Hudson completed a PhD in archaeology at the University of Sydney and conducted research on ancient Myanmar (Burma).{{Cite web|url=https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/conversations-bob-hudson/8463392|title=Bob Hudson reveals the secret temples of Myanmar|website=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |date=22 April 2017}}

====Other singles====

{{awards table}}

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|rowspan="2"| 1975{{cite magazine|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/70s/1975/CB-1975-11-29.pdf|magazine=Billboard|via=World Radio History|title=Cashbox Magazine|page=54|date=29 November 1975|access-date=12 November 2021}}

| Bob Hudson

| New Talent Award

| {{won}}

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| "The Newcastle Song”"

| Record of the Year

| {{won}}

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{{refbegin}}

;General

• {{cite encyclopedia|last=McFarlane |first=Ian |author-link=Ian McFarlane |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop |title=Whammo Homepage |url=//www.whammo.com.au/index.asp |access-date=4 January 2010 |year=1999 |publisher=Allen & Unwin |location=St Leonards, NSW |isbn=1-86508-072-1 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040405231007/http://www.whammo.com.au/index.asp |archive-date=5 April 2004 }} Note: Archived [on-line] copy has limited functionality.
• {{cite book |title=The Who's Who of Australian Rock |last=Spencer |first=Chris |author2=Zbig Nowara |author3=Paul McHenry |orig-year=1987 |year=2002 |publisher=Five Mile Press|location=Noble Park, Vic. |isbn=1-86503-891-1 }}{{cite web |url=http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/2090055 |title=Who's who of Australian rock / compiled by Chris Spencer, Zbig Nowara & Paul McHenry |work=catalogue |year=2002 |via=National Library of Australia |isbn=9781865038919 |access-date=4 January 2010}} Note: [on-line] version established at White Room Electronic Publishing Pty Ltd in 2007 and was expanded from the 2002 edition.

;Specific

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{{Reflist}}

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Category:Australian musicians

Category:Living people

Category:1946 births