Ritchie Yorke, Aus music journalist & author, dies at 73

Image: Ritchie York (left) with John Lennon

One of Australia’s first international rock journalists, Ritchie Yorke, has died in a Brisbane hospital from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He was 73.

In a career spanning 55 years, Yorke counted John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Van Morrison and Led Zeppelin among his close friends, and was one of the very few media personnel allowed into their inner sanctums.

He wrote books on all of them, while Robert Plant said of the Torke, “He was one of us.”

Yorke will be remembered not just as someone who championed the groundbreaking rock music acts he loved, but also as a peace activist, broadcaster and author – all of which he tackled with great passion.

He began as a journalist in Brisbane in the early ‘60s and did a stint on radio before being fired for playing 12-year-old “Little” Stevie Wonder’s Fingerprint Pt 2 eight times in a row after station management told him they didn’t want to promote black music.

He moved to London during its Swinging era and scored a job as Promotions Manager for Island Records. One of the acts, Spencer Davis, (I’m A Man, Keep on Running) wrote the foreword of his first book Lowdown on the English Pop Scene.

In 1967, turning down an offer to manage Steve Winwood’s new band Traffic, Yorke moved to Toronto, Canada, where he was based for 18 years. He was Canadian correspondent for Billboard and Rolling Stone and a critic for a number of newspapers.

During this time, he helped organise Lennon and Ono’s famous Montreal bed-in as well as their peace initiatives like the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival concert.

He recounted these particular times in his 2015 book, Christ You Know It Ain’t Easy: John & Yoko’s Battle for World Peace.

“I was intimately involved with Lennon in the amazing launch of the campaign, convinced as we were about the power of music to change the world,” he said.

“Lennon’s powerful appeal for peace with the current bombing, fighting and killing in the Middle East is as needed today as it was during the Vietnam war.”

He remained close friends with the couple through the years, with Ono sending a video message for Yorke’s 70th birthday celebrations in Brisbane.

During his Canadian sojourn, Yorke helped legislate a game-changing local radio quota for Canadian artists, wrote a book on the Canadian scene titled Axes, Chops & Hot Licks, and was lauded Canadian Journalist of the Year at the Juno Awards.

Yorke returned to Australia in 1986, working for two years on ABC Radio, and served as senior music writer for Brisbane’s Sunday Mail until 2007.

Rather than a funeral, his family is organising a celebration to be held at the Old Museum in Brisbane at a date that is yet to be decided.