Biography of Air Supply

Air Supply is a duo of pop musicians, consisting of English guitarist/vocalist Graham Russell (b. 1 June 1950, Sherwood, Nottingham, England) and Australian lead vocalist Russell Hitchcock (b. 15 June 1949, Melbourne, Australia), who had a succession of soft-rock ballad hits in many territories through the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The duo met in May 1975 when performing in the Australian production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, Jesus Christ Superstar. Later that year, the duo, along with Chrissie Hammond, formed Air Supply as a five-man group. Hammond left the band, to be replaced by Jeremy Paul in time for the group’s first Australian hit single, “Love and Other Bruises.” This single was followed by a self-titled debut album that reached Gold status in Australia, and their second album, “The Whole Thing’s Started”. Singles during this period included “Empty Pages” and “Do What You Do”. The group were invited to open for Rod Stewart during his tour of Australia, and he was so impressed by their performance that he invited them to be the opening act during his tour of the United States. During this tour, Jeremy Paul left the band.

Eager to prove that they could still succeed as a duo, the group released the album “Love and Other Bruises”, which included re-recordings of many of their earlier hits. Although their music was met with some success, Graham Russell on the 1995 DVD recalls that he and Russell were so poor that they were reduced to checking the backs of hotel sofas for change so that they could buy bread to make toast.

Hitchcock and Russell effectively started out fresh again in 1978, and the band that was to record almost all of the hit records was formed. It featured Frank Esler-Smith (arranger and keyboardist), David Moyse and Rex Goh (guitars) and the rhythm section of David Green (bass) and Ralph Cooper (drums).

In 1979 the band released Life Support, a concept album that included a picture disc on its first printing. Produced by Charles Fisher, it was recorded in the tiny Trafalgar Studios in Sydney, where, as Graham recalls on the 2005 DVD, he had half an inch between the end of his guitar and the studio wall, it was so small. It was on this album that a five-and-a-half minute version of Lost in Love was introduced to Australian audiences. Written by Graham Russell in fifteen minutes, the song caught the attention of music mogul Clive Davis, and his record label Arista remixed the song and released it as a single in the United States.

Their 1980 album Lost In Love released their music to an American audience for the first time, and contained three US Top Five singles, including the title track, “Every Woman In The World”, and “All Out of Love” (sample). “All Out of Love” was to be the band’s only Top 40 hit in the United Kingdom, where it hit #11. It was quickly followed by three more hit albums, The One That You Love, Now and Forever, and Greatest Hits.

In 1983 they had #2 hit in the U.S. with “Making Love Out of Nothing at All”, written by Jim Steinman, and released their first live video, “Air Supply Live in Hawaii”, a video that is still available occasionally from collector’s shops or on eBay. During the mid-1980s they also had one semi-major Billboard hit with “Just as I Am” and couple of very minor Billboard “hits” with “The Power of Love”, “Lonely Is The Night”, and “One More Chance”. Russell and Hitchcock recorded a 1987 Christmas album before taking a break with studio recordings, instead touring live. During this time, Russell Hitchcock released his self-titled debut album.

On August 21, 1989 using their old Producer, Harry Maslin (The One That You Love, Now And Forever,) and famous Band Member, Ralph Cooper (Acoustic Drummer,) the duo decided to enter the studio again to record The Earth Is, which was released in 1991 by Giant Records under Warner Bros. The recording contains their hit single “Without You”, along with singles for “Stronger Than the Night” (with a music video announcing that Air Supply were back) and “Stop the Tears”. Inside the album is this note about Russell Hitchcock’s and Graham Russell’s original Musical Director of their meeting place during the “Jesus Christ Superstar” (and long time Band Member/Orchestrator)  : “This Album is Dedicated To The Memory Of Frank Esler-Smith.”

The official fan club released “The Earth Is World Tour” video, a rare collector’s item that contains live footage from the band’s tour throughout the world in support of the album.

The album was followed by The Vanishing Race in 1993, which was supported by the hit single “Goodbye”  ; produced by David Foster (Barbra Streisand, Chicago, Josh Grobin, Celine Dion) with lyrics written by Elvis Presley’s last wife, (David Foster’s current wife,) Linda Thompson–which  , although not popular in the United States, gained a large following outside the country, leading to another world tour. “It’s Never Too Late” was another single released from the album. The album itself was dedicated to the plight of the American Indians, the “vanishing race” of the album’s title.

Their third album of the decade, News from Nowhere, was released in 1995. It contained the Asian hit singles “Someone”  ;, “Always”  , and a cover of “Unchained Melody”, a song made famous by Bobby Hatfield of The Righteous Brothers fame.

It was during this period that they became popular in south-eastern Asian countries, culminating in the release of Now and Forever: Greatest Hits Live, a CD and DVD recording of a live concert in Taipei, Taiwan, also in 1995, which stayed at the top of the Chinese album charts for 16 weeks.

They continued to tour and record into the new millennium, releasing the more adult contemporary titled The Book of Love (1997) with one of Air Supply’s first dualling guitarists: Rex Goh. Yours Truly (2001), and Across the Concrete Sky (2003). In 2005 they once again released a live CD/DVD recording, It Was Thirty Years Ago Today, which was recorded at the Casino Rama in Canada.

In July 2005 they performed in Havana, Cuba, one of the first foreign bands invited to perform in the country. They were booked to perform two concerts, and played the first show on July 7th, the day before Hurricane Dennis hit the country. In high winds their first concert had an audience of 175,000. Due to the hurricane they could not play the second show. Fans staying at the same hotel as Air Supply on July 8th had to be content with Graham performing acoustically for them, as there was no electricity.

In 2006 they released an acoustic album, “The Singer and the Song”, and are gearing up for the release of their first studio album in three years, “Zed”. In support for the acoustic album they made their first trip to India in May, 2006.