Glenn Shorrock
With a career spanning over 60 years, Glenn Shorrock is one of the elder statesmen of Australian contemporary show business.
Born in England, Glenn migrated at the age of 10 to Adelaide in the mid-1950s. A self-confessed child of rock n roll, he began singing in 1962 with a vocal group called the Twilights. By 1965, the Twilights became a six piece beat group based in Melbourne scoring hits with Needle in a Haystack, What’s Wrong with the Way I Live? Cathy Come Home and Young Girl, before disbanding in 1969.
Axiom with Brian Cadd followed shortly thereafter, with hits including Arkansas Grass and Little Ray of Sunshine. Soon after, in 1970 Axiom disbanded whilst in London. Glenn chose to remain in London as a session singer and songwriter working with other ex-pats and Europeans in a twelve-piece rock orchestra named Esperanto.
Late 1974, Glenn returned to Melbourne to help form Little River Band as lead singer. Managed by long-time friend, Glenn Wheatley, Little River Band cracked the lucrative United States market in 1976, and began a string of eight Top Ten Hits in the U.S.A. and around the world. The band has sold in excess of 30 million albums, often being credited for opening the door for many Australian acts on the international circuit. In 1995, Glenn fronted Little River Band during their 20th year anniversary, three and a half-month tour of the United States. His songwriting credits include the international hits Help is on its Way, Emma, Home on Monday (co-writer Beeb Birtles), Long Jumping Jeweler, Shut Down Turn Off, My Own Way Home (co-writer Brian Cadd) and Cool Change.
Glenn’s credentials extend to all fields of show business, notably in theatre and cabaret where he starred in Evita, The Rocky Horror Show, One for the Money, Go Cat Go and Two Up. A career highlight was producing and performing alongside Sir George Martin in the highly acclaimed production All You Need Is Beatles (1998). He performed the role of Johnny Casino in the smash hit Grease: The Arena Spectacular!, which played to full houses across Australia and in Auckland; co-starred in British Rock Symphony with Eric Burdon and Thelma Houston, performing the hits of the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones and The Who; and toured Australia with the successful Long Way to the Top concert series with Axiom and Twilights.
2002 re-introduced Glenn, Graeham Goble and Beeb Birtles on stage as Birtles Shorrock Goble performing the famous classics with which Little River Band captured the world and produced the Full Circle DVD, a live concert recording of them performing at the Forum Theatre in Melbourne.
Glenn also regularly performs on behalf of various charities and continues as an ambassador for Variety. As a testament to his enduring talent, he has been twice inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame first in 1991 in his own right and again with The Little River Band in 2004.
On 9 September, 2016 Glenn released his first album in many years, ‘Rise Again’ through Social Family Records. A collection of songs composed by himself and a few friends.
In 2018 Glenn published his auto biography ‘Now Where Was I?” through New Holland Publishers. A beautifully presented hard back that contains many personal and professional photographs from Glenn’s life.
Glenn released his most recent album in March 2019 ‘Glenn Shorrock Sings Little River Band’ (through Social Family Records) which features ten of LRB’s greatest hits, brilliantly re-imagined by Shorrock and produced and recorded live in studio by Steve Balbi along with an outstanding array of musicians who joined Shorrock to record the album.
On 10th December, 2021 Glenn’s 1982 solo album ‘Villain of the Peace’ was re-released by Universal Music on all streaming platforms. The album features an incredible all-star line-up backing Glenn, it’s a who’s who of 80’s rock.
Glenn has also starred alongside veteran actors, Maggie Blinco and Belinda Giblin in an Australian movie ‘A Stitch In Time’, written, directed and produced by Sasha Hadden. The movie was released in Event and independent cinemas across Australia in February 2022 an received excellent reviews by the critics.
Glenn continues to be a much-loved Australian entertainment icon, and is regularly invited to perform at major events and venues across Australia.
“I have been blessed with a long and successful career and I'm doing some of my best work right at the moment” says Glenn.