The Chevelles (Bands from Perth, Australia)

The Chevelles play power pop, with many songs including the traditional pop theme of girls and with the obvious cars reference (they were aptly named after a 60's Chevrolet aimed at the female market) with tunes full of jangly and crunchy guitars and with some great harmonies.

The Chevelles were formed in 1989 following the demise of The Stems in 1987 (due to tensions between Richard Lane and Dom Mariani) and The Freuds (who also played 60's influenced garage pop). Two members from each of these bands (Richard Lane and Gary Chambers from the Stems and Duane Smith from the The Freuds and Jeff Halley who was the manager of The Freuds and also played in the Sunstones) were in the original line up of The Chevelles.

Since that time the band have had numerous member changes, including a stint by the seemingly ever-present Martin Moon on drums.

There is an extremely extensive biography via their website, which saves me a lot of research time, so go check that out that exhaustive history.

Bizarrely enough, the Chevelles are better recognised overseas as one of Australia’s premier power pop bands, particularly in countries such as Brazil, Spain and France, although they are virtually unknown at home. Go figure?