MILESAGO - Industry

RON TREMAINE
Artist manager and promoter

Ron Tremaine was an Adelaide artist manager, promoter, hotelier and restauranteur in the 1960s and 1970s.

Ca. 1963, Tremaine founded a local teen magazine called Young Modern and a record label offshoot, also called Young Modern. Among the recordings was a version of the Bobby Russell / Buzz Cason song Tennessee Stomp, performed by The Four Tones with The Penny Rockets (Young Modern YM-SP 001) (backed by a cover of Barry Mann's Momma - Poppa. The Penny Rockets were regarded as a major rock'n'roll band in Adelaide at the time, but like many of their peers, their roots were in jazz and big band music.

In 1964 Ron, along with Bob Francis and promoter and art collector Kym Bonython, was instrumental in bringing The Beatles to Adelaide as part of their Australian tour. In June 2004 Ron and Bob were guest speakers at the 40th anniversary Australian Beatles Festival, speaking about their experiences in promoting the tour.

Ron promoted dances in Adelaide in the mid-60s and it this is how he met singer Bev Harrell, who at that time was still at school and often appeared as a guest vocalist with local bands like Levi Smith's Clefs and The Vibrants. Ron became her first manager and helped her to become established, but they evidently parted ways around 1967, when her then boyfriend Daryl Sambell became her manager. It was Bev's performance at a dance in Cohuna in country Victoria in April 1967 that led Sambell to meet his best-known client, John Farnham.

In the early '70s, Ron ran the "Old Lion Hotel" in North Adelaide and during this time he booked the Mount Lofty Rangers for a regular Sunday gig there. Among the performers who regularly sat in with the group at this time were Bon Scott (Spektors, Valentines, Fraternity, AC/DC), Chris Bailey (The Angels), Glenn Shorrock (Twilights) and Robyn Archer. It was while playing with the Rangers that Scott had his near-fatal motorbike accident.

After many years as a hotelier and restauranteur in Adelaide, Ron relocated to Alice Springs, where he runs Bojangles restaurant.

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REFERENCES / LINKS

Noel McGrath
Australian Encyclopedia of Rock
(Outback Press, 1978)

Winestate Magazine
http://www.winestate.com.au/magazine/article.asp?articleno=29

Spectropop Discussion Archives http://www.creativepitch.com/archive/digest/d691.htm

Australian Beatles Festival
http://www.beatlesfestival.com.au/program.asp

'Highway To Hell' AC/DC site
Peter Head interview
http://www.buoy.com/~bonfire/interviews.html

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