Just Like The Beatles, The Easybeats Got Sick Of Playing Live To Screaming Fans

The Easybeats were arguably the biggest band coming out of Australia in the '60s and much like The Beatles, playing live was becoming a frustrating experience.

In an exclusive extract given to The Music from a new biography about founding member George Young, Friday On My Mind, author Jeff Apter highlighted the downside to the 'Easyfever' phenomenon.

"This type of chaos was taxing enough, but more crucially it was the sonic roar generated by fans at their shows that didn’t sit well with George," Apter writes.

"The Beatles were facing a similar situation; they, too, were fast growing tired of not being heard when they played live. George wanted to grow as a musician, and that wasn’t going to happen when he could just as easily mime their songs on stage.

"George said this years later when asked about Easyfever: ‘We went out and did one half-hour, nobody could hear, we could have gone out and picked our noses, it wouldn’t have made any difference.’"

The exclusive extract also mentioned one of The Easybeats' shows at Melbourne's Festival Hall; the same venue where The Beatles played a very famous show back in 1964.

Read the full extract here.

Friday on My Mind by Jeff Apter (Allen&Unwin) is out now for $29.99.