Vale Mick Hadley

Brisbane rock'n'roll icon Mick Hadley passed away in a Gold Coast hospital on Friday night at the age of 69 after a battle with cancer.

A passionate performer and supporter of Brisbane music, Hadley was performing up until last month, when he played a show raising funds for cancer research, close to 40 years since he first graced a Brisbane stage.

Hadley first arrived in Brisbane in 1963 from England and it didn't take him long to get a start in the local music scene.

“I had been in the stable at the birth of British Rhythm and Blues and my mission was to spread the word,” Hadley wrote in a lengthy bio that appears on his Facebook page.

He joined The Impacts, a band who had initially played Cliff Richard & The Shadows covers, but after a couple of members left to pursue other interests in early 1964, the band enlisted a guitarist by the name of Barry Lyde – aka Lobby Loyde – and changed their name to the Purple Hearts, perhaps Hadley's most notable contribution to Australian rock'n'roll.

The band formed in Brisbane but moved to Melbourne in 1966 where they found a small amount of commercial success with their song Early In The Morning

That song appears on the forthcoming Down Under Nuggets: Original Australian Artyfacts 1965-67 compilation put together by Warner Music's David Laing. Laing had the following comments to make about Hadley's influence.

“Mick Hadley was one of the greats of the Australian R&B scene in the '60s – the scene we now celebrate as our original garage-rock scene. Mick was more hardcore than most though – as you'd expect from a former bandmate of Lobby Loyde's. He never stopped playing and he never softened or smoothed out his music. He was also certainly the only artist from the '60s to have the currency in the late '70s to appear in Clinton Walker's 'Inner City Sound' study of Australia's punk and post-punk scene – at that point Mick was playing in a band called the Shakers alongside the rhythms section of the Survivors (including later day Radio Birdman bassplayer Jim Dickson), as well as future Helmet guitarist Peter Mengede! The Shakers sole recording Rescue Me is great pub R&B to rival the Count Bishops and Dr Feelgood.  Mick's great gruff voice was truly authentic and Australian rock has lost another unsung hero.”

-          David Laing

One of the members of The Shakers was Peter Mengede, who went on to be the guitarist for heavy rock bands Helmet and Handsome. He spent some of his early days working with Hadley and had this to say about his old friend and bandmate.

“Mick was one of the most gracious gentlemen I've ever met. From my days apprenticing on Purple Hearts tunes with Mick Hadley, Bruce Anton, and Jim Dickson in the Shakers in 1980 through Mick's performance at the Gold Coast Homeless Connect in August this year, between oncology appointments, Mick was the complete performer whose love of R'n'B remained a constant and ripened with age while other's changed styles chasing after trends. Mick not only made a great fist of it for over 50 years, he did it in Brisbane, which is a feat few people can match.”

-          Peter Mengede

Iain McIntyre, along with Ian Marks, compiled what is considered by many to be the definitive book about the Australian music scene of the 1960s, Wild About You. He had the following comments about Hadley's passion for performance.

“The Purple Hearts were on the front line of rip-roaring, high-energy Aussie R&B in the 1960s. Mick Hadley's vocals were a key ingredient in the band's arsenal and judging from clips of the band's appearance on the Go! Show Mick had the required moves as well. Seeing the band's reunion 5 or 6 years ago it was inspiring to see that he still had his mojo working well into 60s.”

-          Iain McIntyre

Ace Records' Alec Palao has been involved with a large number of reissues and compilations of classic rock over the years and he told theMusic.com.au that he rated Hadley and the Purple Hearts as truly world class.

“This Pom was always had a huge predilection for Antipodean '60s rock. However, in common with many non-Oz fans of mod/R&B, I consider the Purple Hearts one of the very best exponents of the genre - from any locale you might care to mention. The transcendent combination of Hadley and Loyde, along with a crack rhythm section and some choice interpretations of US soul, blues and trad material, made them a world-class outfit - even if they remained Australia's secret. Never met Mick myself, but I consider him one of the best - rest in peace, squire.”

- Alec Palao (US-based archivist/reissue producer, and compiler of the Big Beat CD compilation Of Hopes & Dreams & Tombstones, which featured the Purple Hearts on its cover)

One of the bands Hadley played with in recent years, The Midnight Blues Band, left this tribute on their website over the weekend.

“Very sad news, last night at Robina hospital our mate Mick Hadley lost his battle with cancer,” the statement reads. “Mick passed away peacefully thankfully, but leaves a huge hole in our hearts. We had all played in various bands with Mick over the past 30 years, and we'll miss his talent his friendship and his pure talent. Mick was our lead singer, our friend and our inspiration. Our hearts go out to Mick's wife Lyn and Mick's family at this time. Keep on rockin' Mick, there's a blues legend in heaven tonight.”

-          The Midnight Blues Band

Here's a clip of Hadley fronting the Purple Hearts at one of their 2006 reunion shows.

And here is Hadley at the end of his last ever show, last month at Brisbane's Tempo Hotel in a show raising funds for cancer research.