Lost or Forgotten Oldie of the Day: 1983 Little River Band – The Other Guy

1983 Little River Band – The Other Guy

The Australian band finally reached the US Hot 100 in 1977, and followed that with their biggest hit in the US, Reminiscing, which reached #3 on the Hot 100 in 1978.

The group had several hit records a year while constantly replacing many of the members. Guitarist David Briggs left the group in 1981, and lead vocalist Glenn Shorrock left in 1982. John Farnham joined the group and took over singing lead vocals, and Stephen Housden became the new lead guitar player.

The first single featuring John and Stephen came in 1983 with the release of The Other Guy. The single peaked at #11 on the US Hot 100 and #6 on the Adult Contemporary chart in early 1983.

Two more singles followed that year, but the sales dropped and the group never reached the US top forty again.

The group tried changing its style from soft rock to something more progressive. In 1985, they also changed their name to LRB. The combination of a new name and a different music style didn’t help at all. They even performed their new single Playing To Win on the Solid Gold television show, but the single only reached #60 on the Hot 100. It was little consolation that the record reached #15 on the Mainstream Rock chart.

John left the group in 1986, and it essentially disbanded for a year or two. Glenn rejoined the group in 1987 and various lineups of the group recorded a few more albums.

According to Stephen, in 1988, the current lineup formed a parent company to control the name and trademark for the Little River Band. They set up ownership split equally between the five remaining members. By 1997, all the other members of the group had left and Stephen became the sole owner of the company. Stephen formed a touring group that used the Little River Band’s name.

In 1982, original members Glenn, Beeb Birtles, and Graeham Goble began touring as The Original Little River Band and The Voices of Little River Band. Stephen successfully sued them to stop their use of the band’s name.

The original members later sued to stop the touring band from using their original music and likenesses to advertise their shows, and Stephen responded by having the touring band re-record the original hits.

The group currently appearing as the Little River Band has no original members from the group and doesn’t even have a single person from Australia. One musician responsible for their hits in 1976-1978 reasonably refers to that group as a “tribute band.”

Glenn scheduled a performance for March 2020 but had to delay the event because of the covid-19 virus outbreak.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_River_Band

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