Celebrity Featured: Joe Camilleri
Artist: Avril Thomas
About Joe Camilleri
Born in Malta, May 21 1948, legendary Australian singer, songwriter and saxaphonist Joe Camelleri began his music career playing blues and R&B, and in the late 1960s he was a member of Adderly Smith Blues Band but according to Australian rock historian Ed Nimmervoll Camilleri was sacked for sounding too much like Mick Jagger and for upstaging the other band members.
Camilleri gained national prominence in Australia in the late 1970s as lead singer, songwriter and saxophonist in Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons, formed in 1975. Members included Camilleri, Jeff Burstin, Wayne Burt, John Power, Gary Young, Tony Faehse and later multi-media personality Wilbur Wilde on sax. Incorporating influences from blues, R&B, soul, punk, New Wave and reggae, the group achieved considerable commercial and critical success in Australia.
After the demise of the Falcons in 1983, Joe achieved his greatest success with another long-running group The Black Sorrows- an informal semi-acoustic band playing blues, R&B and zydeco. The group developed a strong fan following and wide critical acclaim. The Black Sorrows were acknowledged as one of the best and hardest working live bands in Australia. They released a string of commerically successful and critically acclaimed albums in the 1980s and 1990s including A Place In The World, Dear Children and Better Times - all spawning chart-topping singles "Harley and Rose, "Never Let Me Go", "Chained To The Wheel" and "Better Times" which went on the become Australian classics.
His most recent project is the 2005 album Limestone, a collaboration with Bomba's Nicky Bomba.