Thread: Billy Thorpe dead at 60

Thorpe was born in England but emigrated with his family to Brisbane in the 1950s.

He moved to Sydney in 1963 and recorded his first song the next year with his band Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs.

They went on to perform at sellout venues across Australia and had a string of hits in the 60s and 70s, including Some People I Know.

His music career spanned five decades and he also wrote two autobiographies. Music journalist and historian Glenn A Baker said Thorpe was an Australian rock icon who shaped Australia's pub music scene.
"It seems impossible to comprehend," Baker told ABC radio.

The music journalist was to accompany Thorpe to Morocco, where Thorpe was working on a recording project.

"Thorpe was just always involved in something," he said.

"He had so much music in him and there was just such an extraordinary sort of appetite for what he was doing.

"Thorpe came up in that crop of '60s teen idols but there was a greater dimension to him.

"After he was a teen idol he went to Melbourne for a few years ... he completely re-orientated himself and then turned Australian rock on its ear with a thunderous, pulverising music.

"The Aztecs become a byword for what was really the origins of Australian pub rock.

"It's the one form of music we've done better and more convincingly than any other - this sort of loud, roaring, howling, ferocious, pub-based bluesy rock and roll - and Thorpe was that incredibly powerful voice.

"There was something that was just primal about Thorpe's blood-curdling roar. There was nobody like him on the stage."

Former Billy Thorpe and The Aztecs manager Michael Browning said his friend was a genius.

Mr Browning, who went on to manage AC/DC, said Thorpe created what became known as the pub music scene, and was "king" in Melbourne.

"He was amazing. I remember standing on the side on the stage at the Myer Music Bowl in front of 200,000 people and watching Billy work the crowd," he told Channel 7.

"I don't think there has ever been anyone in Australia that has been able to work the crowd like Billy Thorpe.

"He was just amazing, an actual genius as a showman."
Members of the Australian music industry say they are devastated by Thorpe's sudden death.
"He woke at 1am feeling terrible. Shortly after that he had a massive heart attack, the paramedics were called to the house, they worked very hard in hospital," Thorpe's manager Michael Chugg said on Channel 9.

"In the next 24 hours, the family will make a statement with details of funeral services and everything."

Chugg said he was devastated by Thorpe's death. He said Thorpe had just finished recording a new album and had just finished an acoustic tour.

"His tour manager Norm Sweeney told me that yesterday that everybody around him was blown away by how happy he was and how great the future was looking and for this to happen is just a terrible tragedy," he said.

Thorpe is survived by his wife Lynne, and daughters Rusty and Lauren.

Rocker Normie Rowe said Thorpe was the cornerstone of the Australian music industry and inspired him in his own career.

Rowe, who started his career as a teenage rock sensation in the 1960s, said Thorpe emulated the 1950s bands who started the rock and roll movement in Australia.

"And then all of a sudden here comes Thorpe in the mould of some of the English artists in many ways but certainly with his own rubber stamp on it," he said on ABC radio.

He said he was saddened to hear of Thorpe's death, saying if the performer was going to go in any way, "he'd do it loud".

"I guess in just so many ways he was not just a part of the Australian music scene but he was a cornerstone," Rowe said.

Former Midnight Oil frontman Peter Garrett said Thorpe was a great contributor to the music industry and provided inspiration to many bands.

The federal Labor MP said he was shocked to hear of his death.

Mr Garrett said Thorpe would be sorely missed and he felt for both his family and the fans.

"The thing about Thorpie and the Aztecs ... was that they were loud and proud and very Aussie and when they played at Sunbury (music festival) they got up as a bunch of Aussie blokes and just really did it full frontal," he said on Channel 9.

"I think his transition from sort of a pop singer and pop idol really to a full blown, absolutely in your face rocker, was something incredible to see and provided I think a lot of inspiration for many, many bands."

Mr Garrett said Thorpe had the ability to communicate with an audience and was a fine musician and artist.

"I think it's a terrible loss," he said.

Howard tribute
Prime Minister John Howard says he's saddened at the death of rock legend Billy Thorpe, a giant of the Australian music industry.

Mr Howard said Thorpe started his music career as a Brisbane teen idol but would be best remembered as a towering figure of Australian rock and roll.

"He earned his great success with The Aztecs and shot to national prominence in the 1970s with a string of brash albums and songs and powerful performances at the Sunbury Music Festival,'' he said in a statement.

"Billy Thorpe was an accomplished guitarist with an unmistakable voice.

"Perhaps though his fans will remember him for one thing above all else, the ear-splitting volume of his concerts.''
Mr Howard said Thorpe was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Hall of Fame in 1991.

"On behalf of Janette and myself and the Australian government, I extend my deepest sympathies to Billy's family, friends and fans,'' he said.
AAP