She completed Form Three and won a talent quest at a school fete – the prize was a one-week engagement at Lorne on the Victorian surf coast.
[2] At the age of 14, Randell started working for celebrity hairdresser Lillian Frank on a trial basis and promptly asked for annual holidays to fulfil her singing gig.
"[2]At the Lorne Life Saving Club she sang with a band, The Spinning Wheels, and met a surfie-roadie and university student, Ian "Molly" Meldrum, with whom she formed a lifelong friendship.
During the shoot, The Flies lead singer, Ronnie Burns sang with his guitar and Frank suggested her young apprentice should sing along.
For Randell's 15th birthday on 14 December 1964, West held a party in Malvern and invited local radio DJs including Stan Rofe.
[2] Randell left school and was signed to EMI in 1965, her first single "I'll Come Running Over" (cover of a Lulu song) was released in February on its HMV label and became a No.
[7] Randell signed a new contract with CBS Records to release two further singles "Heart" and "Goin' Out of My Head" which both became Top 20 hits in Melbourne.
[3][6] Randell worked the dance scene and discothèques, usually backed by The Spinning Wheels, with her trendsetting clothes and mod style carefully orchestrated by manager, West.
I was told she had a good voice ... She's got a look that we try to make all the kids follow—whatever it happens to be: bell-bottom pants, backless dresses, striped tops—she's started quite a few fashion trends in Melbourne.Randell was marketed as Australia's Miss Mod and became the most popular female performer in the mid-1960s.
[1][8] Teen magazine, Go-Set, had separate columns written by Meldrum and Rofe, it also ran a pop poll, with Randell voted 'Most Popular Female Vocal' in October 1966.
[12] Epic Records also released it in the US, Randell shot a colour video for "Ciao Baby" which is believed to be the first by an Australian artist.
Abe Hoch later became head of Swan Song Records and they moved to London in 1976 where Randell had further health problems related to her methamphetamine addiction and prescriptions by doctors.
[3][13] Randell worked for Seymour Stein of Sire Records as his personal assistant in New York during the late 1980s, living close to her son Jamieson.
[4] Jamieson Hoch, 35, died of a brain haemorrhage on 24 July 2007 only weeks after he joined mourners at St Kilda beach where he spoke about his mother and scattered her ashes in the water.