Betty McQuade - Tongue Tied

Growling vocal delivery with excellent guitar and saxophone breaks.

1941 - 2011

Born on 26th August 1941 in Paisley, Scotland. Betty’s family moved to Brisbane Australia in 1949. During her school years there was virtually no music scene in Brisbane so she regularly travelled to Sydney to enter talent quests. When she left school she took an office job in a manufacturing company. Wanting to pursue a singing and recording career she relocated to Melbourne in 1960. Her arrival couldn't have been planned any better as top local group The Thunderbirds were looking for a replacement vocalist for Judy Cannon who had recently quit to pursue a singing career in Sydney.

Betty's vocal style impressed the group and she began working with them on the local dance circuit. By mid-1961 her popularity had grown to the point where Astor Records signed her to a recording contract. Her debut single, a cover of American John D. Loudermilk's song ‘Midnight Bus’, was released and spent twelve weeks in the local charts, peaking at number six in December. This led to regular appearances on a number of television pop shows. She cut two unsuccessful singles for the Astor label prior to joining another popular local group, The Premiers.

Betty continued to perform at local dances and became one of the first artists to appear regularly on Channel O's television pop show The Go!! Show. After her fourth single for Astor also failed to chart she moved to the ‘GO!!’ Label in September 1965. Her only two singles for ‘GO!!’ were re-releases of her first two singles for Astor and sold only moderately. In 1967 she released her last single on the W&G label before moving back to Brisbane and calling it quits in 1968. An EP was released in 1981 and during the mid-Eighties she performed on a series of rock 'n' roll revival concerts staged in Melbourne.
Betty passed away on 26^th December 2011 after a long illness.  

Thanks to http://first-decade-of-rock.com/ for the above information.