Australian Rock Of Ages: Number 20 – Laurie Arthur

February 8, 2026

The Life and Time Stories of Australian Musicians, Performance Artists and those who commenced their contributed to the Australian Music industry from the 1950’s through to the 1970’s.

Australian Rock of Ages is a series of interviews conducted with artists, entrepreneurs, managers. Those who promoted and contributed to the Australian Music Industry. All were born in Australia or settled in Australia during the halcyon years of the late 1950’s through to the late 1970’s.

We present a different story each month.

This program features the 4-part story of Laurie Arthur.

Laurie Arthur was born in Melbourne on August 10th 1942

australian rock of ages: laurie arthur — Laurie Arthur is the early years of his career – [CLICK to enlarge]

Laurie formed the iconic Australian group the Strangers in the early 1960’s. He then formed the Mixtures in the mid 1960’s and continued on as a musician of note for many decades.

As a child Laurie suffered from a medical affliction that affected his ability to hold his neck up straight. This resulted in terrible tormenting at primary school.

However it was during this time his father encouraged the young Laurie to build things. Electronic devices are among the first devices Laurie built. These included crystal sets before he moved onto valve radios. All of this achieved at the age of 9!

Then at 10, he contracted polio. The story of his polio testing and then his treatment is a story that would be considered as brutal today.

Yet again he overcomes this debilitating condition. As part of his recovery he became heavily involved in physical activities. This resulted in him become a sports champion at secondary school. All this was prior to moving into an extraordinary career in the Australian music scene.

This is the second part of the story of Laurie Allen.

We learn a lot more about Laurie’s love and commitment for music.

His story includes how he built his first bass guitar. This resulted in him becoming the bass player in a well known group of the 1950’s – The Planets.

Along with The Thunderbirds they were a top Melbourne group in that cross-over from the 1950’s to the 1960’s.

But Laurie had bigger ideas than simply being a bass player in someone else’s group. He went on in the early 1960’s to form and play lead guitar in the brilliant group – The Strangers.

australian rock of ages: laurie arthur - part 2 — The early Strangers – Left to right: Peter Robinson, Fred Wieland, Laurie Arthur and Graeme “Garth” Thompson [bottom] – CLICK to enlarge

Laurie became totally dedicated to making The Strangers the best band they could be. He is now the group leader and the group’s Manager.

The Strangers dominate the music scene. They command fees from dance promoters that other groups could only dream of.

australian rock of ages: the strangers — The Strangers original line-up included Peter Robinson (bass), Graeme (‘Garth’) Thompson (drums), Laurie Arthur (lead guitar) and Fred Wieland (rhythm guitar) – [CLICK to enlarge]

Laurie was also the leader of another group from the 1960’s – The Laurie Arthur Four.

australian rock of ages: laurie arthur in the laurie arthur four — Another of Laurie’s groups – The Laurie Arthur Four backing Terry Dean: circa 1965. Laurie 3rd from the right – [CLICK to enlarge]

In Part 3 we learn how a session backing Colin Cook resulted in The Strangers getting their first recording contract.

This made them the house-group, for the W&G label.

It also resulted in them backing many artists including Colin Cook and Merv Benton to name a few, on their recordings.

australian rock of ages: colin cook and the strangers — Colin Cook and The Strangers – [CLICK to enlarge]

Yet music tastes was changing in Australia in the mid 1960’s with the advent of the British music invasion.

However The Strangers took it all in their stride and their popularity just kept rising. Laurie talks about one gig where they blew a big band literally off the stage at a private gig.

We also learn about the inability of some of the members of The Strangers to tour overseas.

So Laurie makes the decision to leave the group that he formed and loved.

But, the future for him was bright as circumstances lead him to form yet another iconic group – The Mixtures.

He has a critical role. Laurie plays guitar and manages the group with great success.

Then there is the fourth and final program in the story of 76-year-old Laurie Arthur.

Always looking for the best musicians Laurie formed an ad-hoc group consisting of some of Melbourne’s best musicians. He did this to fill a need a in a Melbourne venue that provided lunchtime shows.

Because the group was made up of members of other groups, it took the name, The Mixtures.

The Mixtures: Mick Flynn; Buddy England; Laurie Arthur & Don Lieber – [CLICK to enlarge]

With Laurie driving the group, he gradually put together a permanent line-up of the Mixtures. This line-up went on to record several singles.

To assist The Mixtures to progress he stops playing and takes over full-time management of the group.

The Mixtures are on the verge of greatness. Under Laurie’s management, the group records some iconic tracks. Most well known of these being, “The Pushbike Song” and “In the Summertime”.

During our talk Laurie also shares his thoughts on the state of the Australian music scene. He is highly critical of the way music is taught these days.

Laurie also shares his guitar playing method with us, the listeners. This is achieved by talking about his technique and also by demonstrating it on guitar.