Dick Diamonde (born Dingeman van der Sluijs), founding member and bass player of Australia’s legendary rock band The Easybeats, has died at age 76.
Dick was born in The Netherlands in 1947. His parents migrated to Australia when Dick was four and lived in the Sydney suburb of Villawood at the migrant hostel.
It was at the Villawood Migrant Hostel that the five Easybeats met. Johannes van den Berg (Harry Vanda), also from The Netherlands became lead guitarist. George Young from Scotland was on guitar, Stevie Wright (from the UK) was lead singer and Snowy Fleet (also an English migrant) was on drums.
The Easybeats had 15 Top 40 hits in Australia starting with ‘For My Woman’ (no 33, 1966) and through to ‘St Louis’ (no 21, 1969).
The Easybeats had two number one hits in Australia with ‘Sorry’ and ‘Friday on My Mind’.
‘Friday on My Mind’ also reached no 6 in the UK and no 16 in the USA making The Easybeats the first Australian rock band to have a hit in the USA and UK. Folk/Pop group The Seekers had done in 1964 and 1965 four times with ‘I’ll Never Find Another You’, ‘A World Of Our Own’, ‘Morningtown Ride’ and ‘The Carnival is Over’ and again in 1966 with ‘Georgy Girl’.
Diamonde played on all six albums by The Easybeats released from 1965 to 1970. The band disbanded in October 1969.They reformed for an Australian tour in 1986. In 2005 The Easybeats were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame.
Harry Vanda and Snowy Fleet are the only two surviving members of the band. Stevie Wright died in 2015; George Young died in 2017.
George is the brother of Angus and Malcolm Young of AC/DC. Harry Vanda and George Young produced the first six AC/DC albums from ‘High Voltage (1975) to ‘Powerage’ (1978). George returned in 2000 to produce the ‘Stiff Upper Lip’ album.
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