ONE of the most popular Aussie bands on the 1980s, Eurogliders will headline the entertainment at this year’s Shoalhaven River Festival.
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The fifth annual festival will be held on October 28-29.
Songs like Heaven, We Will Together, Can't Wait To See You, Absolutely and The City of Soul became the songs of a young Australian generation and piloted Eurogliders to rock stardom.
The Eurogliders story begins in 1981, in Perth, Australia……the most isolated city in the world.
Within a decade of forming, Eurogliders had recorded four albums, enjoyed a multitude of chart topping singles and been awarded a swag of awards from around the globe, for both music and video.
But Eurogliders truly began as a love story between a songwriter and a singer, both of whom had their own bands.
Today, some 25 years later, the relationship between that singer and that songwriter may have changed but the love of performing and their long enduring friendship continues every night on stage.
Let’s go back a bit – Grace Knight and Bernie Lynch met in Perth. Grace was lead singer for a band named Lumiere; and Bernie, lead singer for Living Single.
They met, fell in love and Grace took over the lead singing role for Living Single.
They changed their name to Eurogliders and suddenly everything changed……..their lives would never be the same.
The songs that Bernie wrote now took on a life of their own in Grace’s hands.
Crowds doubled, then tripled. Recordings were made, played on radio and record companies arrived with cheque books in hand, ready to sign the act.
With Grace Knight, the 'manic ballerina', and Bernie Lynch on vocals and guitar, their performances were a rallying cry of anthems that audiences sung along with till their lungs were bursting.
Life was a long dizzying ride to the top of the charts and 10 top 10 charting singles and albums were the result.
Over the next decade Eurogliders traveled the world, charting in countries like Japan and America.
Heaven was a top five hit on the Billboard USA charts and the band won numerous Countdown and MTV awards.
A darling of MTV, Eurogliders performed live on MTV's New Year’s Eve party in New York, broadcast to more than 65 million people.
Grace and Bernie have continued, in the years after the 80s, to engage people in their lives.........Grace forged an entirely new and separate career, acting in the award winning TV mini-series Come in Spinner and recording many award winning jazz albums, going on to be considered to be one of the foremost singers in Australia.
In addition to collecting an ARIA award in 1993 for the Platinum certified album, Come In Spinner, she’s one of only a handful of people to be nominated for ARIA awards in three separate decades.
Bernie continued writing music for theatre and forged, with Collette Dinnigan, a fashion empire that continues to win awards.
But the much needed break from Eurogliders would not last long.
An album of entirely new songs was released in 2006, a national tour performed and it was obvious that the magic was still there.
In 2015, Eurogliders released a new CD, Don't Eat The Daisies, comprised of both new songs and re-workings of some of the classic hits, including We Will Together and Heaven.
The new songs talk of love, of rebirth and of finding one’s sense of self - nothing’s changed really, has it?
2016 saw the release of Fragile, Grace’s latest solo project comprising 12 new songs penned by Bernie.
And in a departure from jazz, Fragile consists of blues, soul and even folk tracks.
Eurogliders will headline what will be a big night of entertainment on Saturday, October 28 at this year’s River Festival at the newly positioned riverside entertainment zone.
A host of local talent will also be on show during the evening.