Five astoundingly successful supergroups formed in the 1970s

Little River Band

Another less obvious supergroup is the Little River Band. That’s probably not the case for readers from their Australian homeland though. The reason is that the founder members were perhaps better known for their early work there rather than worldwide. The band got together in 1975 with Glenn Shorrock, Beeb Birtles, Graeham Goble, Ric Formosa, Roger McLachlan, and Derek Pellicci as the starting lineup. 

That didn’t last too long though with Formosa and McLachlan leaving the next year and being replaced by George McArdle and David Briggs. And like many bands, there were more changes as time went on. John Farnham is just one name, he stepped into the band for five years in the 1980s. There is still a Little River Band in place. They are currently touring in the US but with none of the original members remaining. 

Let’s go back to the 1970s though and those early days. It was after all the 1976 lineup of McArdle, Briggs, Shorrock, Pellicci, Birtles and Goble who reformed in 2004 to play live at their ARIA Hall of Fame induction. Of those, Goble, Pellicci and Birtles had played together in various bands, culminating in Mississippi who had a top-ten single and successful album in Australia. Shorrock had been in Australian bands Twilight and Axiom both scoring a string of top singles there too. 

At one stage the name Mississippi was mooted for their new band, but it went from that huge waterway down to Little River Band instead. With five studio albums from the 1970s collecting plenty of gold and platinum awards as the sales were notched up the band were very successful in that period. Especially once they reached out to the UK and then the US for albums and tours. Their soft rock, heavy pop, close vocals, and some great songs from those albums all helped them achieve success behind their homeland.

Continued on next slide