Linda George (born 1951) is an Australian pop, jazz fusion and soul singer from the 1970s. In 1973, George performed the role of Acid Queen for the Australian stage performance of The Who's rock opera, Tommy. She won the TV Week King of Pop award for "Best New Female Artist". Her cover version of "Neither One of Us", peaked at No. 12 on the Australian Singles Chart and her 1974 single "Mama's Little Girl" reached the Top Ten. From 1972 to 1998, George also worked as a session singer and later became a music teacher. Her last CD recorded in the late 1990s will be available in 2012.
Early career
Linda George was born in 1951 in England. She emigrated with her family to Australia in 1964, where they settled in Adelaide, South Australia in the satellite town of Elizabeth. By 1968, George had already worked professionally in a duo and moved to Melbourne to find more musical experience.
She joined her first band, Nova Express, a jazz fusion group similar in repertoire to United States acts Chicago and Blood Sweat and Tears. With George as lead singer, the band included Peter Walsh on organ, Craig Forbes on drums, Ian Hellings on trumpet, Dave Clark on saxophone, the legendary jazz bass player Derek Capewell on bass guitar (after they lost their original bass player, Ray Greenhorn to the draft for Vietnam), Ken Schroder on alto and baritone saxophone, Geoff Schroder on tenor saxophone, and Ken White on guitar. A later member was Graham Morgan on drums.
Early in 1969, the band's first and only single, a cover version of "Take Another Little Piece of My Heart" (originally recorded by Erma Franklin, then Janis Joplin), was released on the EMI label imprint Columbia, the B side featured a Ken White original 'Around the block' which reached No. 28 in Melbourne. They won the Victorian state final of the 1970 Hoadley's Battle of the Sounds ahead of Zoot, though they finished behind The Flying Circus, Zoot and Autumn at the national finals in August. George left Nova Express later that year for a solo career, including performing with The Marlboro Big Band, The Barry Veith Big Band, Opus Big Band, and Brian May and the ABC Show Band on a tour of Vietnam, which included Derek Capewell on bass, Garry Hyde on drums and Melbourne musical stalwarts.
In 1971, George teamed again with Ken Schroder in his band called 'Plant'. This band featured Schroder on saxes and Steve Miller on trombone along with David Alardyce on piano and Colin Deluka on bass plus the Tasmanian drummer Eric Johnson. She worked with that band until 1973 when Ken Schroder left to travel abroad, and she joined Image Records as a solo artist.
Solo career
In 1973, Linda George signed with independent label, Image Records, and released her first solo single "Let's Fly Away" in May. In March 1973, she took the role of Acid Queen in the Australian stage production of The Who's rock opera Tommy. Her fellow cast included Daryl Braithwaite, Colleen Hewett, Billy Thorpe, Ross Wilson, Jim Keays, Doug Parkinson, Broderick Smith, Wendy Saddington, Bobby Bright and The Who's own Keith Moon (as Uncle Ernie for the Melbourne show only). It was later televised by the Seven Network and received a TV award for the year's most outstanding creative effort. For the Sydney show, Australian music commentator Ian "Molly" Meldrum replaced Moon. George won the TV Week King of Pop award for "Best New Female Artist" (1973).
The raised exposure helped promote her second single in July, her cover version of the Gladys Knight & the Pips US hit "Neither One of Us", arranged by the Australian music writer and pianist Peter Jones, which peaked at No. 12 on Go-Set National Top 40 singles chart. George's follow up single, a remake of Ruby and the Romantics 1963 hit "Our Day Will Come" with a co-production between Peter Jones music arranger and Image records, reached the Top 40 in February 1974.
Her debut LP album, Linda, appeared in August on Image Records. Session musicians were used and US record producer Jack Richardson (Alice Cooper, The Guess Who, Poco and Bob Seger) was brought to Australia by label boss, John McDonald, The first single from Linda was her biggest hit and became her signature song, "Mama's Little Girl" (previously by Dusty Springfield), which went to No. 8 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart. The second single, "Give It Love", did not reach the top 40. Linda peaked at No. 32 on the Australian Kent Music Report Albums Chart and stayed in the top 100 for five months. George won awards for "Best Female Vocalist" and "Best Female Single".