| MILESAGO: Australasian Music & Popular Culture 1964-1975 | Obituaries |
ALAN "OLLY" OLOMAN
Australian musician, songwriter and audio engineer Alan "Olly" Oloman died in Sydney on 9 August after a long illness.
Alan started his
music career as the singer and lead guitarist with legendary
Lithgow
band The
Black
Diamonds
and wrote most of their material. The band
had a large set-list that consisted almost entirely of
originals, but sadly only three tracks were ever commercially recorded
-- the two
sides of their classic debut single "See The Way" / "I Want, Need Love
You" (Festival, 1966) and the A-side of their second single "Not This
Time" (Festival, 1967). They were reported to be the first pop band
from country NSW to score a recording contract without having relocated
to Sydney first.
The Black Diamonds played extensively around the NSW central west, and
they were hailed by The Easybeats as the best
support act they ever worked with. They eventually relocated to Sydney
in the
late
Sixties, where their next recording was a version of "The Lion Sleeps
Tonight", released
under the pseudonym Love Machine. After a name change to Tymepiece,
the group released three singles and one superb self-titled
progressive album
(Infinity, 1971) before splitting up.
Alan
subsequently joined a later lineup of The
Executives as
bassist. He spent many years at EMI's Studio
301 in
Sydney working on film, TV and radio projects under studio manager
Martin Benge, who
went on to head Abbey Rd Studios in London. Alan played in the
groups Ayre and Stax in the 1980s and set up his own studio in his
hometown of Lithgow.