Redgum

Redgum were an Australian folk and political music group formed in Adelaide in 1975 by singer-songwriters John Schumann and Michael Atkinson on guitars/vocals, and Verity Truman on flute/vocals; they were later joined by Hugh McDonald on fiddle and Chris Timms on violin.

Redgum was formed in 1975 when three students at Flinders University, John Schumann, Michael Atkinson and Verity Truman collaborated for a musical assessment piece for their Politics and Art course.

On the first album, If You Don't Fight You Lose (1978) Redgum showed it was one of the few Australian bands prepared to tackle domestic politics and culture.

Initially a part-time band, performing weekends and school holidays (two members were teachers), it was only after they released their second album, Virgin Ground (late 1980), to strong sales and critical acclaim, that the group became full-time and started touring nationally.

[2] The group's success continued to grow with the release of their next three albums, Virgin Ground, Brown Rice and Kerosine (1981) and the EP Cut to the Quick (September 1982), and they weathered several line-up changes including the addition of a didgeridoo and the replacement of Timms in May 1982 with Hugh McDonald, among others.

The band released their next LP, Frontline (June 1984) with its single "I've Been to Bali Too", and started touring folk venues in the UK and Europe with some success.

[1] After leaving the band, Schumann released two solo albums before pursuing a brief political career, standing for the South Australian seat of Mayo in the 1998 Federal election and losing by a small margin.

Schumann returned to recording in 2005 with the Vagabond Crew (which included fellow Redgum member Hugh McDonald) and new albums were released in 2005 and 2008.

In 2005, Redgum was again brought to attention through the recording of an acoustic / hip hop cover of "I Was Only 19" by Australian group The Herd with Schumann providing some vocals.

The song received high rotation on popular national radio station Triple J. Michael Spicer is currently teaching MIDI, Synthesis & Composition in Singapore Polytechnic.