Skip to content
EntityQ831111· pop 36· linked from 546 articles

Men at Work

Sign in to save

Australian rock band

Key facts

Origin
Melbourne , Victoria , Australia
Genres
New wave pop rock reggae rock
Years active
1979–1986 1996–2002 2019–present, (occasional reunions until 2012)
Labels
Columbia Epic
Members
Colin Hay
Past members
Greg Ham Jerry Speiser Ron Strykert John Rees

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Official website
www.menatwork.com.au
Image
Men At Work 1983.jpg
Show 4 more facts
inception
1978-00-00
start of work period
1979-00-00
name
Men at Work
Commons category
Men at Work (musical group)
Sources (4)

via Wikidata · CC0

~20 min read

Article

Men at Work are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1979. They were best known for breakthrough hits such as "Down Under", "Who Can It Be Now?", "Be Good Johnny", "Overkill", "It's a Mistake", and "High Wire". Its founding member and frontman is Colin Hay, who performs on lead vocals and guitar. After playing as an acoustic duo with Ron Strykert from 1978 to 1979, Hay formed the group with Strykert playing bass guitar with Jerry Speiser on drums. They were soon joined by Greg Ham on flute, saxophone and keyboards, and John Rees on bass guitar, with Strykert switching back to lead guitar. The group was managed by Russell Depeller, a friend of Hay, whom he met at La Trobe University. This line-up achieved national and international success during the early to mid-1980s.

In January 1983, they were the first Australian artists to have a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single on the United States Billboard charts: Business as Usual (released on 9 November 1981) and "Down Under" (1981), respectively. With the same works, they achieved the distinction of a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single on the Australian, New Zealand, and United Kingdom charts. Their second album Cargo (2 May 1983) was No. 1 in Australia, No. 2 in New Zealand, No. 3 in the US, and No. 8 in the UK. Their third album Two Hearts (3 April 1985) reached the top 20 in Australia and top 50 in the US.

Connections

Categories