Bill Armstrong AM has been a leading light in the Australian music industry for over 60 years. Born in Melbourne in 1929, at the dawn of the electric recording era, Armstrong got his start in the industry wiring amplifiers at Steanes Sound Systems in West Melbourne in 1948. The following year his father bought him a locally made Pyrox wire recorder which Armstrong used to make a recording of the 4th Annual Jazz Convention at Prahran Town Hall.
Emboldened by these experiments, Armstrong began producing direct-to-air and recorded music programs for radio and boldly launched his own record label to promote jazz artists such as Smacka Fitzgibbon and Graeme Bell. This was followed by work at W&G Records where he established the disc-cutting room in 1956 and then as manager of Telefil sound recording and film studios in St Kilda.
In 1965, he opened Armstrong Studios in a converted terrace house at 100 Albert Road, South Melbourne. Initially just one small studio, Armstrong recorded radio jingles and voice-overs alongside pop tunes by The Easybeats, John Farnham, and The Strangers. It was here healso installed the first eight-track recorder anywhere outside the United States. As the business expanded, Armstrong Studios moved to more spacious accommodation at a former butter factory located on 180 Banks Street, South Melbourne where countless careers were launched including those of Daddy Cool, Skyhooks, Spectrum, The Sports, Models and Little River Band. Under Armstrong’s direction, he became the largest studio complex in the southern hemisphere.
In 1979, Armstrong returned to radio as managing director of one of Melbourne’s first FM stations, EON-FM (now 3MMM) and during the 1980s, he helped to establish multicultural radio in Sydney and Melbourne. After six years in radio, his unwavering passion for music led him back behind the mixing board. Today, he continues to produce new and remastered recordings under the banner The Bill Armstrong Collection through Bilarm Music and Swaggie Records.
Armstrong’s contribution to the music industry has been recognised and celebrated with multiple awards including the ARIA Special Achievement Award, the APRA Ted Albert Award for Outstanding Services to Australian Music, and the NFSA Cochrane-Smith Award for Sound Heritage in 2011. Armstrong was made a Member of the Order of Australia and inducted into The Age Music Victoria Hall of Fame in 2015.
Interviewer: Brian Nankervis
Location: Bilarm Music, Port Melbourne, 2017
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As part of our commitment to capturing and sharing great Australian music stories, the Australian Music Vault asked some of the country’s most influential trailblazers and unsung heroes to open up about their lives in music.
3 окт 2024
