Stevie Wright (Stephen Carlton Wright; Little Stevie), (born Dec. 20, 1947, Leeds, Yorkshire, Eng.died Dec. 27, 2015, Moruya, N.S.W., Australia), British-born Australian pop singer-songwriter who was the charismatic and physically frenetic frontman for the Easybeats (1964 69), Australias first international rock-and-roll superstars and the focal point of Easyfever, a phenomenon of fan frenzy in Australia that rivaled Beatlemania.The band dominated the national pop charts in the mid-1960s with 14 Top-40 hits, notably Friday on My Mind, which also reached music charts in North America and Europe. Wright co-wrote some of the bands other early hits, including Shes So Fine, For My Woman, and Sorry. He was nine when his family immigrated to Australia as part of the countrys assisted-migrant program. By 1960 they were living near Greater Sydneys low-income Villawood Migrant Hostel, where he formed (1964) the Easybeats with four other boys two Dutch migrants, Harry Vanda (originally Johannes Vandenberg) and Dick Diamonde (born Dingeman Van der Sluys), Scottish guitarist-songwriter George Young, and drummer Gordon (Sowy) Fleet from Liverpool, Eng. With no native Australians in the band, they felt free to introduce a unique hard-driving British-influenced sound to the local music scene. The band released several albums and toured extensively, including a 1967 tour with the Rolling Stones, before splitting up in 1969; they briefly reunited for a series of concerts in 1986. Wrights solo career featured an acclaimed performance in a 1972 Australian production of Jesus Christ Superstar and a smash hit with the three-part 11-minute song Evie (1974). However, he struggled with heroin addiction as well as mental problems triggered by a controversial treatment that incorporated medically induced coma and electroshock therapy.In 2001 Friday on My Mind was voted the best Australian song of all time by the Australasian Performing Right Association, and in 2005 the Easybeats, including Wright, were inducted into the ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) Hall of Fame. The band also was the subject of the film Friday on My Mind: The Story of the Easybeats (2009)..

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