Gavin Wood's Podcast

Richard Clapton began his recording career in 1974. Australia was still in the vice-like grip of the cultural cringe. He plunged into the “deep water” and legends like Skyhooks and Paul Kelly, Cold Chisel, INXS, Midnight Oil, and hundreds of others, followed in his wake.

Clapton’s songs are still omnipresent on the radio to this day, his records charting the political landscape of the nation and the turbulent lives of two generations.

Clapton grew up in Sydney in the 1960s before hopping a plane for London, and then later to Germany, where he wrote a first album, Prussian Blue (1973) which was one of the first major Australian “singer-songwriter” albums.

Fast track to 1975, Clapton had the critics on side but his label at the time, Festival Records, insisted on a hit single. However, it was the song they picked as a B-side called “Girls On the Avenue” that reached #1 on the national charts and put Clapton at the top of his class. Like Americans Jackson Browne and Bruce Springsteen, Richard Clapton developed a sound based on melodic rock while his lyrics were poetic musings on his state of mind or the state of the nation.

In 1980 he released the searing Dark Spaces, an indictment on the meanness and mendacity that would blow through the 1980s.  Ten years after his first release, Richard Clapton was a tribal elder to whom younger artists like Jimmy Barnes, INXS and Cold Chisel turned as a mentor.

INXS asked Clapton to produce their second album, Underneath the Colours, and they became firm friends. They, and Cold Chisel, returned the favour on Clapton’s The Great Escape album with INXS drummer Jon Farriss going on to produce The Glory Road album.  Few records of that time captured the roller coaster ride of the late 1980s as well as Glory Road.

These albums brought Clapton’s melodic gifts and his love of electric rock & roll into lockstep.

In the 1990s Richard continued to write and record and tour and his 1990s songs reflect a hard-won maturity. Indeed, Richard counts 2003’s Diamond Mine as amongst his best albums – and the critics unanimously agreed.

In 1999 Richard Clapton was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.

In 2014, his first memoir “The Best Years of Our Lives” was published by Allen and Unwin. The book connected with people of all generations because it was not only a story of Clapton’s journey, but it also documented the story of the lives of thousands of fans who had travelled the same road. Young people – fascinated by how it was “back in the day” also became a new generation of fans. The book continues to flourish through “word of mouth”, resonating with so many people in so many ways

Richard Clapton has never been rich. He has never had the pleasure of passing through life in a luxurious rock star bubble. In a career that now spans over 40 years he has battled everything from bad managers and capricious record companies to debt, taxes, personal tragedy and a thousand room service dinners. The fact that he’s come through it all with his sanity intact surprises all who know and love him.

David Sean Gleeson, (born 3 June 1968) is the lead singer of Australian hard rock group The Screaming Jets. He was born in Newcastle, New South Wales .  . Gleeson formed his first rock band, Aspect, in 1985, with school pal, Grant Walmsley.

In January 1989 Gleeson on lead vocals and Walmsley on guitar, were joined by Brad Heaney on drums, Richard Lara on guitar and Paul Woseen on bass guitar, to form The Screaming Jets as a hard rock band in Newcastle. Within twelve months they had performed more than 280 live shows, they established a reputation for being one of the best young live bands in Australia, winning the praises and support slots of The Angels, The Choirboys and The Radiators.

By late 1989, The Screaming Jets had won youth radio station Triple J's National Band Competition. They signed a recording deal with the leading independent label rooArt. The Screaming Jets moved from their hometown Newcastle to Sydney's notorious Kings Cross district in early 1990, and recorded their debut album All For One in mostly midnight to dawn sessions at a local studio, after playing live shows seven nights a week.

In 2006, Gleeson appeared as the vocal coach for actress Kate Fischer in the televised celebrity singing competition It Takes Two. He returned to the show in 2007 and partnered with TV presenter, Julia Zemiro.

In early 2011 Gleeson was offered a radio show with the Triple M network. By mid-year he was hosting two shows, Access All Areas and Rock of Ages, interviewing artists including Jimmy Barnes and Don McLean, and giving an inside view of the music industry. Late that year Gleeson recorded an album, Take It to the Streets (31 August 2012), with his childhood idols, The Angels, as their new lead singer, and they completed a national tour.

On 19 June 2016 at the Governor Hindmarsh - Adelaide, Dave Gleeson was inducted into The South Australian Music Hall Of Fame, alongside The Angels.

On 31 January 2022 he returned to Australian rock radio station Triple M filling the 7-10pm nightly slot with his new show Triple M nights with Dave Gleeson broadcasting across Australia from Triple M Adelaide studio.