Biography
Bernie Hayes is the name of two different artists, an Australian singer/songwriter and an African-American radio pioneer and soul artist.
1. Bernie Hayes is an Australian singer/songwriter who has released two albums as a solo artist and written songs for other Australian artists notably "You Made Me Hard" which was the third single from the The Whitlams Love This City album.
Hayes was born and raised in Canberra and was a member of a musical family (including brothers Pat Hayes of Stella One Eleven and formerly of the Falling Joys, Justin Hayes of Whopping Big Naughty and the late Anthony Hayes (aka Stevie Plunder) of The Whitlams and The Plunderers fame). He began playing around the wine bars of Canberra at age 15, and among his first bands was Secret Seven. Hayes later relocated to Sydney along with a number of other Canberra musicians, including his borthers.
He first came to public prominence when he joined Club Hoy in 1990. He played on that bands Thursday's Fortune album released in 1991 which enjoyed a positive critical response and minor chart success. Grant McLennan of The Go-Betweens produced the bands first single "Da Da Da Da/Green and Blue". Club Hoy later played on of McLennan's solo albums. After the break-up of Club Hoy, Hayes and Julia Richardson of Club Hoy formed a new group called the Troublemakers. However the Troublemakers failed to enjoy much success.
Hayes is perhaps best known among fans, however, as a member of the Shouties with brothers Anthony and Pat and drummer Pete Velzen. The band held a Sunday afternoon residency at the Sandringham Hotel in Newtown, Sydney through the 1980s until 1996, playing a mix of covers and original songs. The Shouties released two albums, Colossus and Indelible.
In 1996, Hayes' younger brother Anthony, of The Whitlams, committed suicide. Bernie Hayes played guitar on The Whitlams Eternal Nightcap released later in 1997.
Hayes released his first solo album Every Tuesday, Sometimes Sunday in late 1999. The album was acoustic-based and included material that he had written since the beginning of his musical career. The album featured several singles in "Mission in Life", "Matchbox Cars and Marbles" and "Your Boyfriend's Back in Town" with "Mission in Life" receiving airplay on Triple J. The Whitlams recorded a track from the album "You Made Me Hard" on their 1999 Love This City album. It was released as the third single from the album in 2001 with Hayes present in the studio for the recording of the single.
After the release of his solo album, Hayes put together a band, the Bernie Hayes Quartet, featuring John Encarnio, Bill Gibson and Jess Ciampa. He played with his band and solo on the ABC Television program Love is a Four Letter Word in 2001. He released his second album Domestic Departures in 2003 with the band. Genevieve Maynard and Pete O'Doherty of Mental As Anything produced the album while Nic Dalton, formerly of The Lemonheads produced the first single "Your Green Light".
More recently, Hayes has worked with Bow Campbell of Front End Loader and Brendan Gallagher of Karma County as the Dead Marines.
He is currently working on a third album with the Bernie Hayes Quartet, and playing a regular Wednesday night residency gig at the Rose of Australia Hotel in Erskineville, Sydney.
2. Bernie Hayes is an African-American radio pioneer, professor, disc-jockey and recording artist. He arrived in St. Louis from KSOL in San Francisco, becoming a disc jockey at KATZ, playing soul in the afternoons and jazz at night. He was the host of the first radio talk show for black audiences here and later parlayed his knowledge of the community into a prestigious job as the first African-American to be appointed news director at KWMU, the market’s major NPR affiliate.
Hayes also worked as a producer and recording artist for Volt, a subsidiary of the soul music label, Stax Records. In 1989, Hayes began an independent record label, Mission Park, which released a 45 RPM single, "In My Eyes," sung by his wife, Uvee, and produced by a renown local rhythm and blues artist, Oliver Sain. He shared his knowledge of the business by teaching media courses at Webster University. In addition to over 45 years working in various media, Hayes labored tirelessly to preserve the history of Black radio and its personalities, especially those in the St. Louis area.
Discography
Volt 4032 : Tribute To A Black Woman Pt. I / Pt. II
Volt 4047 : Cool Strut Pt. I / Pt. II
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