Kerrie Biddell

Background

Born in Kings Cross, New South Wales, to alcoholic parents, Biddell was sent to Street Vincent"s Convent in Potts Point at a young age, soon after her father left her mother.

Education

Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Career

In 1962, Biddell suffered a collapsed lung and rheumatoid arthritis, the latter of which affected her piano playing. She decided to become a singer, and, in 1967, sang for Dusty Springfield on backing vocals. Impressed, Springfield suggested she become a lead singer.

Biddell joined the local band The Echoes, and in 1968, The Affair.

Affair guitarist Jim Kelly called Biddell "a world-class vocalist". With her voice, the group could do various musical styles, such as Aretha Franklin-type soul, Sly Stone funk, and Jimmy Webb compositions.

In 1969, the national competition Hoadley"s Battle of the Sounds added a vocal-group category to its main popular/rock category. Kelly stated that The Affair was not a vocal group, but Biddell "rehearsed us till we were".

Before disbanding, they recorded Sly and the Family Stone"s "Sing a Simple Song", which would become one of Biddell"s signature songs.

Biddell returned to Australia in 1970, where she toured with the Daly-Wilson Big Band, which performed swing music Glyde had contacts in Canada, and he and Biddell moved there. Her career as a session singer began soon after.

She was offered a three-year six-figure United States dollar contract with the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Grand Hotel and Casino, and, despite being desperate to be a star, she discovered she did not care for the business side of Vegas.

"I started to see that the amount they wanted to take away from me was too much," she stated, and moved back to Australia in 1972, enrolling in the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. In 1983, she joined the faculty of the Jazz Diploma course at the Conservatorium, where she periodically taught into her later years.

In 1992, she wrote a one-woman show, Legends, which later included June Bronhill, Lorrae Desmond, Toni Lamond, and Jeanne Little. In 2001, due to poor health, she retired from performing, but continued teaching.

On 5 September 2014, Biddell died from a stroke.

She was 67.

Achievements

• The group won the category, with its prize being a trip to London, where the group relocated in mid-1970, only to disband months later. Biddell became a solo singer, and her first album won two Australian Record awards.

Views

Quotations: "I started to see that the amount they wanted to take away from me was too much,".