Ted Mulry

Ted Mulry was born in Oldham, Lancashire and first came to the attention of the music industry when he sent a demo of some of his own compositions to Albert Productions in Sydney. The company persuaded him to become a recording artist and he soon rose to fame as a solo singer/songwriter with his own composition, the pop ballad "Julia", which made the Australian charts in 1970. He followed that with "Falling in Love Again", a song by The Easybeats songwriting team Vanda & Young, which was a major hit in 1971.

Mulry was a prolific songwriter, and a number of bands and artists, including John Farnham and Alison MacCallum, recorded his songs. Most notably, rock band Sherbet had a hit with his song, "You're All Woman". He travelled to England in 1972 and recorded a single there under the name Steve Ryder but returned to Australia soon after. During his time as a solo artist he released two albums, Falling in Love Again and I Won't Look Back.

After getting tired of being backed by different backing bands, in 1972 he switched from acoustic guitar to bass and formed his own band, Ted Mulry Gang, with guitarist Les Hall & drummer Herman Kovac. The band signed a recording deal with Albert Productions in 1974 and released their first album Here We Are. When that album didn't do as well as expected, the record company wanted Mulry to go back to singing solo.[2] Ronnie Clayton told them to stick to it and brought in second guitarist Gary Dixon to complete the foursome.[2] With his own band behind him he adopted a more hard rocking style.

Their first major hit, and the biggest of their career was the 1975 single "Jump in My Car" which spent 6 weeks at number one on the Australian singles charts in 1976. It was the second single released from the Here We Are album produced by Ted Albert at Albert's Studios. Over the next few years they achieved a string of hit singles including a rocked up version of the old jazz song, "Darktown Strutters' Ball", "Crazy", "Jamaica Rum" and "My Little Girl". Many of TMG's songs, including "Jump in My Car", were co-written with guitarist Les Hall. By late 1980 their chart success had ended but they remained popular performers on the Australian pub circuit. In 1989, after some time apart, the Ted Mulry gang reformed, releasing the album "Re-Union" for Albert, on Sony. This release also marked the first release of the Ted Mulry Gang to compact disc. Other CD reissues followed in the early 1990s.

In 1998, Ted now back to a soloist career, released a CD called This Time featuring songs co-written by himself and his brother Steve Mulry. In early 2001 Ted Mulry announced that he had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Gimme Ted, a series of tribute concert's organised shortly before his death, brought together an assortment of Australian rock acts of his era to pay tribute to him. These included a reunion of his band Ted Mulry Gang with his brother Steve Mulry standing in for him as lead vocalist. Steve now fronts the rock band Black Label[3] and performs at many venues, around New South Wales and Victoria, often supporting bands such as The Angels.

Mulry died of brain cancer on 1 September 2001 in Sydney, a day before his 54th birthday[4]

In January 2006, Actor David Hasselhoff recorded a version of Mulry's hit "Jump in My Car" whilst in Australia. Hasselhoff's version was subsequently released in the UK and went to No. 3 in the UK Singles Chart there in October. It also went No. 24 in Ireland.

• The Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop – Ian McFarlane – Allen & Unwin, Sydney – 1999, ISBN 9781864487688

• Ted's Official Facebook Page
• Ted Mulry Gang Feature – Pop Archives Site