Peter Dawkins, the Australian-based, New Zealand born legendary producer, died on Thursday, July 3 at age 68 after a fall.
Peter Dawkins’ name graced albums by Air Supply, Matt Finish, Dragon and Australian Crawl. He was one of Australia’s most successful music producers until struck by illness.
Dawkins had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease in the late 80s and stopped working a few years later. He shut his studio in the mid-90s.
Peter suffered a bad fall at his Ulladulla home and suffered a severe cerebral haemorrhage. He was rushed by helicopter to St George Hospital, but died before they reached the hospital.
Peter’s early work included John Farnham ‘Don’t You Know Its Magic’ (no 12) and ‘Rock Me Baby’ (no 8), both hits in 1972. He worked with Mike Rudd through Spectrum, Indelible Mertceps and Ariel and produced ‘Wings Of An Eagle’, a Top 10 hit for Russell Morris in 1972. ’I Am Pegasus’, the no. 1 hit for Ross Ryan in 1973, was also a Dawkins production.
In the 1970s Dawkins joined CBS Records as in-house producer and delivered Dragon’s ‘This Time’, ‘Are You Old Enough’ and ‘April Sun In Cuba’. He also produced ‘Computer Games’ for Mi-Sex. ‘Love and Other Bruises’ for Air Supply, ‘How Do You Talk To Boys’ for Sharon O’Neill and ‘Short Note’ for Matt Finish during his CBS tenure.
At EMI Peter Dawkins gave Australian Crawl at no. 1 hit album with ‘Sirroco’ in 1981 featuring the hits ‘Errol’, ‘Things Don’t Seem’ and ‘Oh No Not You Again’. He also launched the career of Pseudo Echo with ‘Listening’ in 1980.
In 2006, the Peter Dawkins tribute album For Petes Sake was released.
For Pete’s Sake Tracklisting with notes from Peter Dawkins
1. Johnny Farnham – Rock Me Baby
“Given to me by publisher John Bromell and released in seven days from go to woah!”
2. Russell Morris – The Wings Of An Eagle “Beautiful string arrangement by Richard Batchings”
3. John Farnham – Don’t You Know It’s Magic “Magic – Of course it was with borrowed guitar from Elton John (you guess)”
4. John Farnham – Everything Is Out of Season “Great song but some wrong lyrics, sung in too high a key.”
5. The Ormsby Borthers – You Don’t Own Me “Richard Lush’s introduction to the Sydney scene. Great Mike Perjanik arrangement.”
6. Slim Dusty – The Lights On The Hill
“Great country grunge”
7. Ross Ryan – I Am Pegasus
“Sometimes I am.”
8. Dragon – This Time
“Great band, great introduction.”
9. Air Supply – Love And Other Bruises
“Air Supply and the guys had a great start with this track.”
10. Dragon – Get That Jive
“More of the hit making with slowed down guitars.”
11. Dragon – April Sun In Cuba
“My favourite for an inspired lyric.”
12. Billy Thorpe – It’s Almost Summer
“Not so loud Mr Thorpe!”
13. Dragon – Are You Old Enough
“An inspired lyric or just another tale of on the road antics?”
14. Mi-Sex – But You Don’t Care
“A great song from Misex.”
15. Mi-Sex – Computer Games
“Another great song and perhaps one of the decade’s great ones (70’s)”
16. Matt Finish – Short Note
“… and this is the song of the 80s”
17. Australian Crawl – Things Don’t Seem “Always will be the ‘Ban singer dong singer song’ to me.”
18. Australian Crawl – Lakeside
“Great finish for radio.”
19. Australian Crawl – Errol
“Guy always was ‘just like Errol’.”
20. Pseudo Echo – Listening (Edit)
“A great song; a great band.”
21. Glenn Shorrock & Friends – Understand “A highly polished and professional recording that could belong to any decade.”
