Australian Crawl

Sirocco is the second album from Australian rock band Australian Crawl. It was released in July 1981 and on 3 August, it topped the Australian charts where it remained for six weeks, the band’s first of two albums to hit #1. It was released a year after their successful debut The Boys Light Up which had reached #4. The album was recorded in March-April 1981 in Sydney, New South Wales and produced by Peter Dawkins (Air Supply, Billy Thorpe, Dragon, John Farnham).

Sirocco spent eight months in the Top 20 and was their most successful album. 1981 Australian End of Year Album Charts has Sirocco at #2 behind Double Fantasy by John Lennon and ahead of AC/DC’s Back in Black making it the best charting album by an Australian act.

The album was named after Australian born actor Errol Flynn’s yacht and included the second single from the album, a lyrical biography, called “Errol”. Sirocco was the Crawl’s first US and European release.

Drummer Bill McDonough’s younger brother Guy McDonough (co-lead vocals, rhythm guitar) had joined as their sixth member. Guy had already co-written tracks for their first album and now wrote or co-wrote five of Sirocco’s eleven tracks including all three singles; he also provided lead vocals: “Errol” and “Oh No Not You Again”. “Errol” was voted their third most popular song by listeners of Triple M in 2007. The other single from the album was “Things Don’t Seem” which reached #11 and was their fifth most popular song in the 2007 poll.

Sean Higgins was a band mate with the McDonough brothers in an earlier band, The Flatheads, and had co-written “Downhearted” for Boys Light Up; Higgins co-wrote “Things Don’t Seem” for Sirocco. At about this time guitarist Brad Robinson was married to actress Kerry Armstrong, later an Australian Film Institute Award winner, and they co-wrote “Easy On Your Own”, which was also the B-side to “Errol”.

Track listing

1. “Things Don’t Seem” (Guy McDonough, Sean Higgins) – 3:57
2. “Unpublished Critics” (James Reyne, Paul Williams) – 5:14
3. “Love (Beats Me Up)” (Reyne) – 4:35
4. “Oh No Not You Again” (G McDonough) – 5:08
5. “Lakeside” (Reyne) – 4:49
6. “Trusting You” (William “Bill” McDonough, G McDonough) – 3:09
7. “Errol” (Reyne, G McDonough) – 3:30
8. “Can I Be Sure” (Simon Binks) – 3:37
9. “Easy On Your Own” (Binks, Brad Robinson, Kerry Armstrong) – 3:48
10. “Love Boys” (W McDonough) – 3:41
11. “Resort Girls” (G McDonough) – 4:36