Air Supply Biography, Photos and Posters

Air Supply

Biography

Started: 1976
City and Country of Origin: Australia
Music Background:
Awards:
Top Recordings:"Lost In Love," "All Out Of Love," "Every Woman In The World," "The One That You Love, "Here I Am (Just When I Thought I Was Over You)," "Sweet Dreams," "Even The Nights Are Better," "Making Love Out Of Nothing At All"
Air Supply Biography: Air Supply is a duo of soft rock musicians who had a succession of hits worldwide through the late 1970s and early 1980s. The duo is comprised of English guitarist and vocalist Graham Russell (born Graham Cyril Russell, June 11, 1950, Sherwood, Nottingham, England) and Australian lead vocalist Russell Hitchcock (born June 15, 1949, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia).

The duo met in May of 1975 while performing in the Australian production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice musical, Jesus Christ Superstar. Later that year, the duo, joined with Chrissie Hammond to form Air Supply as a five-man group. Hammond left the band and was replaced by Jeremy Paul in time for the group's first Australian hit single, "Love and Other Bruises." It was followed by a self-titled debut album that went gold in Australia. Singles during this period included "Empty Pages" and "Do What You Do." The group opened for Rod Stewart during his tour of Australia; he was so impressed with their performance that he invited them to be the opening act during his tour of the United States. During this tour, Jeremy Paul left the band.

As a duo, the group released the album Love and Other Bruises, which included re-recordings of many of their earlier hits. Although their music met with some success, Graham Russell on the 1995 DVD recalls that he and Hitchcock were so poor that they were reduced to checking the backs of hotel sofas for change so that they could buy bread to make toast.

In 1979, they released the concept album Life Support that included a picture disc on its first printing. The album was recorded in the tiny Trafalgar Studios in Sydney, Australia where, as Graham recalls on the 2005 DVD, he had half an inch between the end of his guitar and the studio wall. It was on this album that a five-and-a-half minute version of "Lost in Love" was introduced to Australian audiences. Written by Russell in fifteen minutes, the song caught the attention of Arista Records music mogul Clive Davis. He had the song remixed and released it as a single in the United States.

Their 1980 album, Lost in Love, which contained three U.S. Top Five singles, including the title track, plus "Every Woman In The World" and "All Out of Love," sold two million copies in the U.S. The following year they released The One That You Love and the title song was released as a single and went to number number 1 on the Billboard Singles Chart. The album also featured two other Top 10 hits, "Here I Am" and "Sweet Dreams." Their third album, 1982's Now & Forever, continued the group's popularity with the Top 10 hit, "Even The Nights Are Better" and two top 40 singles "Young Love" and "Two Less Lonely People In The World." In 1983, they released their "Greatest Hits" album with a new single called "Making Love out of Nothing At All" written by Jim Steinman. The song was one of their biggest hits ever spending three weeks at number 2 selling 5 million copies.

In 1985, they had one semi-major Billboard hit with "Just as I Am" and a couple of very minor hits. Russell and Hitchcock recorded a 1987 Christmas album before taking a break from studio recordings. During this time, Russell Hitchcock released his self-titled in 1988 which was not a big seller. However, he did have the single "Swear To Your Heart" in 1990 from the movie soundtrack for Arachnophobia which received a lot of airplay.

On August 21, 1989, using their old producer and welcoming the return of drummer Ralph Cooper, the duo decided to enter the studio again to record "The Earth Is," which was released in 1991 by Giant Records under Warner Brothers. The recording contains their hit single "Without You," along with singles for "Stronger Than the Night" (with a music video announcing that Air Supply was back) and "Stop the Tears."

In 1993, they released "The Vanishing Race" which was supported by the hit single "Goodbye" produced by David Foster, with lyrics written by a former Elvis girlfriend (David Foster's current wife) Linda Thompson--which, although not popular in the United States, was critically praised and gained a large following outside the country, especially in Asia where in many countries they would reach number number 1. This would lead to another world tour in 1993. "It's Never Too Late" was another single released from the Vanishing Race. The album itself was dedicated to the plight of the American Indians, the "Vanishing Race" of the album's title.

Their third album of the decade, News from Nowhere, was released in 1995. It contained the Asian hit singles "Someone", "Always", and a cover of "Unchained Melody," a song made famous, originally by Al Hibler and later by Bobby Hatfield of The Righteous Brothers.

Air Supply's popularity continues to soar in Southeast Asian countries, culminating in the release of Now and Forever: Greatest Hits Live, a CD and DVD recording of a live concert in Taipei, Taiwan, also in 1995, which stayed at the top of the Chinese album charts for 16 weeks.

They continued to tour heavily throughout Asia and in select venues in the U.S. The groups success in the U.S, market began to wane releasing the more adult contemporary-titled The Book of Love (1997), Yours Truly (2001), and Across the Concrete Sky (2003). In 2005 they once again released a live CD/DVD recording--also in 2005 they performed in Havana, Cuba, one of the first foreign bands invited to perform in the country. They were booked to perform two concerts, and played the first show on July 7, the day before Hurricane Dennis hit the country. In high winds their first concert had an audience of 175,000. Due to the hurricane they could not play the second show.

In 2006 they released an acoustic album, The Singer and the Song, and are gearing up for the release of their first studio album in three years, Zed. In support of the acoustic album they made their first trip to India in May 2006. December 2, 2006 saw the duo perform to a capacity crowd in Kingston, Jamaica. This was their second visit to Jamaica, having performed at the Air Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival in January 2006. They also have been seen endorsing Time–Life's Classic Soft-Rock Collection.

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