Hunters & Collectors

The 'classic' Hunters and Collectors line up (for the last ten years together):. Berlin, King of Ragtime: Scott Joplin and His Era (ISBN 0195101081) — the most authoritative book on Joplin's life.
. Edward A. Their breakthrough commercial success was the album Human Frailty which featured the single "Throw Your Arms Around Me". It is still performed occasionally. However, the record, regular airplay on the radio station JJJ (then Sydney-based) and video play on Countdown and other music video shows, and especially their consistent live performances brought Hunters & Collectors a strong and devoted following on the Australian pub scene. In 1974 Kenneth MacMillan created a ballet for the Royal Ballet, Elite Syncopations, based on tunes by Joplin, Max Morath and others.

It featured the single "The Slab", which was an underground success (mainly thanks to the support of radio station Triple J), but didn't make any inroads on the commercial music scene, possibly because of the masturbatory subtext of the lyrics. Marvin Hamlisch's adaptation of the Joplin song "The Entertainer" reached number 3 on the Billboard magazine Hot 100 music chart in 1974, and a much wider and deeper interest in ragtime in general and Joplin in particular was created. The first album featuring the new line up was The Jaws of Life (1984). The second ragtime revival was prompted by the release of the movie The Sting in 1973, which despite being set in the 1930s still anachronistically featured a Joplin soundtrack and introduced new generations to his music. This line up also featured keyboards and a three-piece horn section. This was the period during which Hunters & Collectors enjoyed their greatest success. The first was in the early 1950s when ragtime was regarded as a happy nostalgic music of a more innocent time. In 1984 they briefly disbanded but reformed later in the year without Lubran. After Joplin's death ragtime music experienced two bursts of popularity.

The band was signed to White Label, part of Mushroom Records. Their first single was "Talking to a Stranger" which was accompanied by an influential music video directed by Richard Lowenstein, who went on to make many successful videos for INXS and the features 'Strikebound' (1984) and 'Dogs In Space'(1987) (which starred INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence). Before this, his only posthumously published piece had been "Reflection Rag", put together by Stark in 1917 from fragments of Joplin melodies in Stark's archives. Seymour is also the older brother of bassist Nick Seymour of Crowded House and in the mid-1980s he was romantically involved for a time with Do Re Mi (band) lead singer Deborah Conway. It had not been published in sheet-music form in Joplin's lifetime. As lead singer, guitarist and principal songwriter, Seymour was the lynchpin of the group, and Archer and Falconer are widely regarded as one of the best rhythm sections ever to emerge from the Australian rock scene. There was, however, an important find in 1971 — a piano-roll copy of the lost "Silver Swan Rag," cut sometime around 1914. Tosti-Gueira was later replaced by Martin Lubran, then Barry Palmer. After Sweatman's death in 1961 the papers were last known to go into storage during a legal battle among Sweatman's heirs; their current location is not known, nor even if they still exist.

The first version of the band was: Mark Seymour (guitar & vocals); John Archer (bass); Doug Falconer (drums); Geoff Crosby (keyboards); Greg Perano (percussion); Ray Tosti-Gueira (guitar); and Robert Miles (who would stay with the band throughout their career, usually being credited with "live sound" and "art direction/design"). However these were unfortunately few, since Joplin's music had come to be considered passé. The band took its name from the track "Hunters & Collectors", on the German band Can's album Landed. Sweatman took care of these papers and generously shared access to them to those who enquired. The sound was in the vein of Remain in Light, the Talking Heads album of 1980. Joplin's musical papers, including unpublished manuscripts, were willed to Joplin's friend and the executor of his will, musician and composer Wilber Sweatman. The original band was influenced by the Krautrock genre and the productions of Conny Plank and featured strong percussive influences, coupled with noise guitar and driving bass lines. Michael's Cemetery in the Astoria section of Queens.

They were noted for songs such as "Throw Your Arms Around Me", "Talking To A Stranger" and "Say Goodbye" and were renowned as one of the best live acts of their day. He was buried in St. Hunters & Collectors were an Australian rock band, formed in Melbourne in 1980. His death did not make the headlines for two reasons: ragtime was quickly losing ground to jazz and the United States would enter World War I within days. Ray Tosti-Gueira - guitar, backing vocals (1981-1982). Joplin died there on April 1, 1917. Greg Perano - percussion (1981-1983). In mid-January 1917 Joplin was hospitalized at Manhattan State Hospital in New York City, and friends recounted that he would have bursts of lucidity in which he would jot down lines of music hurriedly before relapsing.

Chris Malherbe - trumpet (1981-1982). However, the irregularities are just as likely due to the primitive technology used to record the rolls. Andy Lynn - trumpet (1981-1982). It has been claimed that the uneven nature of some of Joplin's piano rolls, such as one of the recordings of the Maple Leaf Rag mentioned above, documented the extent of Joplin's physical deterioration due to syphilis. Martin Lubran - guitar (1982-1983). A surviving copy of the 'Pleasant Moments' roll has not yet been discovered. Geoff Crosby - keyboards, artwork (1981-1985). These are the only records of his playing we have, and are interesting for the embellishments added by Joplin to his performances.

Nigel Crocker - trombone (1981-1982). Despite this, he recorded six piano rolls that year — Maple Leaf Rag (for Connorized and Uni-Record labels), Something Doing, Magnetic Rag, Ole Miss Rag, and Pleasant Moments (all for Connorized). Michael Waters - trombone, keyboards, finance (1981-1998). He suffered later from dementia, paranoia, paralysis and other symptoms. Jeremy Smith - French horn, guitars, keyboards, programming, backing vocals (1981-1998). Joplin wanted to experiment further with compositions like Treemonisha, but by 1916 he was suffering from the effects of terminal syphilis. Mark Seymour - lead vocal, lyrics, guitar (1981-1998). The score to an earlier ragtime opera by Joplin, A Guest of Honor, is lost.

Barry Palmer - lead guitar (1988-1998). It was performed only once during his lifetime, in 1915. Robert Miles - live sound/mixing, art/design (1981-1998). Joplin continued to experiment with other musical forms as well; after moving to New York City, Joplin attempted an ambitious ragtime opera, Treemonisha, which he produced himself at great personal expense. Jack Howard - trumpet, keyboards, backing vocals (1981-1998). After some months of faltering, Joplin continued writing and publishing, and in those days before recorded music was a best-selling composer based on sales of sheet music. Doug Falconer - drums, percussion, programming, backing vocals (1981-1998). The first work copyrighted after Freddie's death, Bethena (1905), is a very sad, musically complex ragtime waltz.

John Archer - bass guitar, P.A., backing vocals (1981-1998). Perhaps his dearest love, Freddie Alexander, died at age twenty just two months after they married, of complications resulting from a cold. Natural Selection (CD, 2CD, DVD) (Liberation BLUE034.5, 13 October 2003). Joplin had several marriages. Collected Works (CD, video) (White Label TVD93338, 19 November 1990). Maple Leaf Rag boosted Joplin to the top of the list of ragtime performers and moved ragtime into prominence as a musical form. Under One Roof (live) (White Label MUSH33176.2, 11 November 1998). It has been estimated that Joplin made $360 per year on this piece in his lifetime.

In Large Rooms And Lounges (White Label D98017, 27 November 1995). Joplin received a one-cent royalty for each copy and ten free copies for his own use. Living .. In 1899, Joplin sold his most famous piece, Maple Leaf Rag to John Stark & Son, a Sedalia, Missouri, music publisher. The Way To Go Out (CD, video, DVD) (White Label L27148, 6 May 1985). The other five were two songs (mentioned previously), two marches, and a waltz. Living Daylight (April 1987). Of the six, only Original Rags is a ragtime piece.