Easybeats part 2 continues to pull viewers for ABC

Part 2 of the two-part Easybeats mini-series Friday On My Mind proved another ratings winner for ABC-TV.

Last night’s episode pulled 446,000 overnight metro viewers, in a night dominated by the cricket and newsprogramming.

Friday On My Mind was the 10th most watched show of the night – and the biggest rater of all non-sports and non-news and current affairs offerings.

The second instalment was distinctly downbeat in mood in comparison to the first, as the band arrived in London to conquer the world and found it hard going.

The simplistic rock songs that gave them chart toppers in Australia seemed out-dated in swinging London’s music scene, which was going through a period of intense creativity.

Their record company United Artists had demanded that their Australian record producer Ted Albert be replaced by American Shel Talmy who had made hits for The Who and The Kinks.

But Talmy was not interested in any of the new songs they were writing. Not helping the situation was that 19-year old singer Steve Wright was too busy womanising and partying to bother with Easybeats affairs.

The band were also put on a 10-quid a week budget by their manager, while their drummer quit to return to his wife and baby daughter and they got hit with a $60,000 tax bill.

‘Friday On My Mind’ changed their fortunes and they became the toast of Europe and the United States.

But they couldn’t follow it up with another hit, and by the end of the ‘sixties, they’d called it quits and drifted back to Australia.

In the final scene the band are handed their final royalties cheques by their manager. This amounted to just $832. 25.

Everyone drifts off, while Harry Vanda and George Young plan to return to Europe to become a songwriting and production hit factory.

They become a massive force writing or producing hits for AC/DC, Stevie Wright, John Paul Young and Cheetah among others and signing The Angels and Rose Tattoo to the Alberts label.

The duo made Alberts the most successful independent label in the early ‘70s.

At one point, 25% of the content on ABC-TV show Countdown was made up of Albert acts. Host “Molly” Meldrum would later admit that if not for Alberts, Countdown would have ended within six months of launching.