1979/1985 | 1986/1995 | 1996...
Greg Ham, John
Rees, Colin Hay, Jerry Speiser and Ron Strykert
The original formation for Men at Work
Formed in 1979 by
Colin Hay and Ron Strykert
as an acoustic duo, with the later joinning of Jerry Speiser playing
drums, John Rees playing bass and Greg Ham playing sax, flute and keyboard.
They signed with CBS Records and recorded their first single "Who
Can It Be" produced by the american Peter McIan, that was sent
to the american radio and reached #1. In 1981 they released their first
album, Business as Usual, bringing back their hit now named "Who
Can It Be Now?", and a new one, "Down Under", which also
was a #1 hit, putting Business as Usual as the #1 album in 1982,
just went out when Michael Jackson's Thriller reached the top.
At this year the Men toured USA opening the act for Fleetwood Mac.
They received the Grammy© as best new artist in 1983, and release
in USA their second album, Cargo, bringing such strong new hits
like "Overkill" and "It's a Mistake". They started
an world tour, passing through the US' Musical Festival that was transmitted
live for all the world. One of their shows was released in the video
Live in San Francisco, or Was It Berkeley? in 1984. At this year,
the argues started and Jerry Speiser left the band, taking John Rees
with him. Colin, Greg and
Ron were back in the studio at the Xmas for the recording of their third
album, released in 1985 named Two Hearts, now no more produced
by McIan, but for Colin and
Greg. It had some singles released but didn't get so much attention,
still it went gold. After the release of Two Hearts, Greg and
Ron also left the band, and Colin
toured with another musicians. After the tour Men at Work was over.
This was the Men at Work in 1985, from the original
just Colin Hay (middle),
after the tour for developing the album 'Two Hearts', Men at Work was
over.