Born in Lagos, Nigeria to English parents James migrated to Australia in the early 60's where he grew up on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. Leaving law school to study drama, James' musical career initially took hold in the 1980's when he formed Australian Crawl. With his prolific songwriting and unique vocal style James led Australian Crawl to the top of the Australian music scene. The band’s popularity skyrocketed with all of their albums achieving Top 5 status, and the band winning Countdown Music/Video awards, Best Band and James for Best Male Vocal for three consecutive years. James also won Best Song for “Reckless”.
The band broke up in 1986 after assuring themselves a place in Australian music history. Following time in the US and Europe, James returned to Australia to release his first solo album “James Reyne” (1987), which went triple platinum and included three top ten singles: “Fall of Rome”, “Hammerhead” and “Motor’s Too Fast”. After his successful “Rip It Up” national tour he supported Tina Turner’s Australian tour in 1988. In the following years James released two more solo albums: “Hard Reyne” (recorded in London in 1989) and “Electric Digger Dandy” (1991). He then again ventured overseas, moving to Los Angeles to work and record with renowned producer Stewart Levine, returning in 1995 with the critically acclaimed album “The Whiff Of Bedlam”.
In 1992 James collaborated with James Blundell to release the hit single “Way Out West” which went No. 1 on the Australian chart. He also features on the very successful ensemble album “Company Of Strangers” (1992) which he recorded with Daryl Braithwaite, Jeff Scott and Simon Hussey. Amongst his credits are acting roles on stage and screen: David Atkins' production of “Little Shop Of Horrors”, the “Return to Eden” tele-movie (1983) and "State Coroner" television series (1985). Concert highlights include Sir George Martin’s “All You Need Is Beatles” 1998 Australian tour with Human Nature, Tommy Emmanuel and Glenn Shorrock and John Farnham’s 1999 “Can’t Believe He’s 50” concert tour with Farnham, Human Nature and Kate Ceberano. In just over twenty years as a recording artist James has sold over one million albums as a solo performer and almost another 2 million with Australian Crawl, including 31 hit singles. “Design for Living”, his most recent album, was released in 1999 and he is currently working on his next solo project.
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