Dinosaurdays - Sebastian Hardie

Sydney's Sebastian Hardie were one of Australia's best (and first) symphonic/progressive outfits. Evolving out of Sebastian Hardie Blues Band in 1966, they became the resident band at "The Bowl" disco, where they played a mixture of blues, soul and R'n B. After a number of initial changes, the band's line-up was comprised of Mario Millo on guitars and vocals (he replaced original member John English, who left in 1971 to play Judas Iscariot in Jesus Christ Superstar), brothers Alex and Peter Plavsic on drums and bass respectively, and Toivo Pilt on keyboards. Their Focus, Camel, Genesis and Yes influences were very apparent on their brilliant debut album, "Four Moments", which was released through Polydor Records in 1974. This unbelievable album, demonstrating sterling performances from each individual member, and in particular from Millo, is a must for any lover of symphonic/progressive rock music and is certainly one of the finest albums of the genre ever recorded. The album quite rightly reached number 12 on the charts and remained there for 22 weeks. Our featured album, released in 1976, was performed by the same line-up. Although musically equally as good, the album wasn't as well received as its predecessor. When Sebastian Hardie split after "Windchase" was released, Millo and Pilt formed "Windchase" (the band!) with drummer Doug Bligh and bassist Duncan McGuire. This short lived outfit, also very good, released one album "Symphinity", in 1977 (We featured a track from this album a while back. You can read up on the band elsewhere in these pages). Moving well into the future, right up to 1994 in fact, Sebastian Hardie reformed for the Progfest held in Los Angeles that year. Millo, Pilt and the two Plavsics were back together, sounding as if they'd never been apart! It's not known if they've recorded any new studio material, but this live set was captured in its entirety on CD and released as "Sebastian Hardie - Live in L.A." on Musea Records in 1999. Brilliant stuff and well worth adding to the collection, as are "Four Moments" and "Windchase", both of which are freely available on CD.

(If you have more info on this band, please e-mail us)