The History of Little River Band

1975
Graham Goble, Beeb Birtles, and Derek Pellicci were in London with Mississippi. Glenn Shorrock and Glenn Wheatley were in London at the same time. They all agreed to put a band together when they returned to Australia. The first album, "Little River Band", was recorded with Roger McLachlan on bass and Rick Formosa on lead guitar.

1976
Recorded "After Hours". First two Australian albums were compiled by Capitol Records for first US release..."Long Way There". The album broke from Jacksonville, FL where one DJ, Bill Barnett, played lots of tracks, including the title cut which went top 40. (Bill later went on to work for Capitol's A&R dept.) The band's lineup changed, McLachlan being replaced by George McArdle, and Formosa by David Briggs.

1977
World tours began, supporting the likes of Queen, Jimmy Buffett, Average White Band, Boz Scaggs, Fleetwood Mac, Foreigner, Heart, The Eagles, and more. From the album "Diamantina Cocktail", Help Is On Its Way cracked the top 20, and Happy Anniversary went top 10. Diamantina was the first gold album recorded by an Australian act.

1978
From "Sleepercatcher", produced by John Boylan (Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Brown, and Quarterflash), Lady went top 10, and Reminiscing got to #3. The album went platinum with 1.3 million sold, again a first for an Australian band.

1979
From "First Under the Wire", also produced by Boylan, Cool Change went top 10, and Lonesome Loser hit #3. This was the band's 2nd platinum album, with 1.6 million sold. McArdle left the band, subsequently replaced by Wayne Nelson. Nelson was touring with the Jim Messina band, who opened for LRB for two weeks while they were recording the live album "Backstage Pass".

1980
LRB followed up chart success and promoted the live album with a world tour and another US tour, co-headlining huge festival shows with Bob Marley, Fleetwood Mac, The Eagles, Heart, Firefall, and more

1981
From "Time Exposure", produced by Beatles producer George Martin, three songs went top 10 - Night Owls (Nelson's first lead vocal), Take It Easy on Me, and Man On Your Mind. After the album was mixed and released, David Briggs was replaced by Stephen Housden as lead guitarist.

1982
Glenn Shorrock left the band to pursue a solo career, and was replaced by John Farnham. Capitol Records decided to release "Greatest Hits" with two new tracks sung by John to introduce him to US radio. One was The Other Guy,which went top 10.

1983
From "The Net", produced by LRB and remixed by Bob Clearmountain, We Two raced into the top 20 within 3 weeks. But without tour support, it fell from the charts 3 weeks later. Driving Me Out of My Mind went top 40 later that year. Beeb Birtles decided to retire from the band at the end of the US tour.

1984
Derek Pellicci was replaced by former Cold Chisel drummer Steve Prestwich. Also joining the band that year was keyboardist David Hirschfelder. The title track from "Playing to Win" (the first album recorded by the band in the US) was released as a single to rave reviews from the rock press. This was due in large part to the production style of Spencer Proffer, former producer of Quiet Riot. Unfortunately, US radio did not warm to the sound. The single was #1 in some markets, but didn't make the top 40 on a national basis.

1986
After recording "No Reins" in Australia with English producer Richard Dodd, John Farnham decided to leave the band. The song "You're the Voice", which had been submitted to John while No Reins was being recorded, was released the next year on John's solo album and became the biggest selling single in Australian history.

1987
In the wake of Farnham's resignation and declining record sales, LRB severed ties with manager Glenn Wheatley, and with Capitol Records. Irving Azoff approached the band and offered a new 2-record deal if Shorrock would return to sing lead, and Boylan would produce the first CD.

1988
"Monsoon" was released. It featured Australian top ten hit ‘Love is a Bridge’, which received airplay in America.
LRB played at the official opening of ‘World Expo’ in Brisbane. Glenn Frey appeared on stage as special guest. The band also toured Australia with Glenn.

1989
"Get Lucky", produced by US songwriter Dennis Lambert, was released. The CD featured a song from the Karate Kid III film, "Listen To Your Heart".
LRB toured Australia and featured Christopher Cross on stage with them as special guest for some shows.

1990
Graham Goble retired from the band. Tony Sciuto (Keyboards/guitar and vocals) and Peter Beckett (Guitar and vocals) came on board. Peter had previously been a member of ‘Player’ and wrote their chart topping hit song ‘Baby Come Back’. LRB played shows in Australia featuring Warren Zevon on stage with them as special guest.
Curb Records saw value in both "Monsoon" and "Get Lucky", and created a compilation CD titled "Worldwide Love", the title track, written by Peter, Tony and Derek Pellicci, being used for fundraising for The World Food Bank..

1991
EMI released the "Classics" CD, another sampling of LRB's hits.
The band tours the USA for the first time in 5 years. Also tours Germany, Switzerland and Australia.

1992
The touring line-up of LRB recorded a live CD in Los Angeles. Called "Live Classics", it also featured two new songs. EMI also released this CD.

1995
Rhino Records released "Reminiscing", a 2-CD box set to commemorate the band's 20th anniversary.

1996
EMI Records dug into the vaults of outtakes and cast-off tracks to compile the "Too Late to Load" CD, a collection of rarities from the band's 20 year recording history. Glenn Shorrock and Wayne Nelson left the band. Shorrock was replaced by Steve Wade, Nelson by New Zealander Hal Tupia.

1997
Derek Pellicci left the line-up, leaving Stephen Housden as the last remaining member of the band.

1998
Housden decided to continue touring with an all-Australian lineup, including Wade, original bassist Roger McLachlan, drummer Kevin Murphy, guitarist Paul Gildea, and Adrian Scott on keyboards. In true LRB fashion, two members of this lineup retired after one US tour...McLachlan and Scott.

1999
Wayne Nelson rejoined the touring band, along with new keyboardist and sax player Glenn Reither. This six-piece band began plans to make LRB's first new CD in over a decade. But the lineup changes weren't over yet...Wade and Gildea departed before going into the studio.

2000
Australian guitarist and singer Greg Hind joined just days before LRB went into the studio to record "Where We Started From". Wayne Nelson produced the CD, which features lead vocals from himself, Hind and Murphy. There are 9 new tracks written or co-written by the band, plus new versions of the hits Night Owls and Cool Change.

2001
"Where We Started From" was licensed by Copyright.net to be released in the US and Canada on Scream Records, and by JVC for release in Japan. The band toured the US for 4 months to support and promote the CD.

2002
The Live CD "One Night In Mississippi" was recorded on tour and released on in July 2002 as the US Tour continued. "The Definitive Collection" CD is released in Australia and New Zealand. It features many of the hits from the EMI years with various incarnations of the band. In September 2002 it reached No1 on the New Zealand charts.

2003
The Test of Time studio CD is released. Tracks include "Should I Go" and "There's a Bus Leaving". The band toured the US to support and promote the CD.

2004
Little River Band was honored with an induction into the Australian Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The six band members from the late '70s dubbed "the classic lineup"...Beeb Birtles, David Briggs, Graham Goble, George McArdle, Derek Pellicci, and Glenn Shorrock...reunited to perform Help Is On Its Way at the ARIA Awards Show.

2005
Nashville musicians Billy Thomas and Chris Marion came on board to play drums and keys, respectively. During the course of the touring year, their addition to the lineup cemented changes to a lot of the arrangements in the live set.

2006
Began recording new CD of the new arrangements. Re-arranged was released in June, 2006. Stephen Housden also decided to take some time off from the touring schedule. His replacement is Rich Herring, who has brought yet another fresh dimension to the guitar section of the band. Shortly after the completion of Rearranged, LRB was approached by Sony Records to record a live CD to add to their series called "Standing Room Only". It includes 10 of LRB's top ten hits, all recorded at shows in June, 2006.

2007
Due to a serious injury to his shoulder, Billy Thomas was forced to retire from the LRB tour. His replacement is Mel Watts, a veteran session and road drummer. More to come...