Billy Field

William Bruce Field (born 20 January 1953) is an Australian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has run his own recording studio and has worked as a producer. His first solo album, Bad Habits (June 1981), reached No. 1 on the Kent Music Report. His top 20 hit singles are "Bad Habits" (April 1981, No. 4), "You Weren't in Love with Me" (July 1981, No. 1) and "True Love" (1982, No. 17).

Early life Billy Field was born in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia, on 20 January 1953. He grew up on Widgiewa Station, a large sheep and cattle property near the small Riverina town of Urana, and he worked there for various periods until his mid-20s. For secondary education, he attended Cranbrook School in Sydney.

Career Field replaced Chris Pokorny on bass guitar in a Sydney pop band, King Fox, formed in 1967. It was arranged by Tom Price and co-produced by Field and Price. It peaked at No. 1 on the Kent Music Report, and No. 4 on the Official New Zealand Music Chart. It is co-written by Field and Price and has been covered by other artists including David Lee Roth on his album Diamond Dave (July 2003), John Farnham/Anthony Warlow on Highlights from The Main Event (December 1998) and Jeff Duff.

His next single from the same album, "You Weren't in Love with Me", was released in July 1981 and appeared at No. 1 in Australia, The track was written by Field and has also been performed by Beccy Cole and Marina Prior. At the APRA Music Awards of 1982 Field won Most Performed Australasian Popular Work for that track. As singles, both the title track to the album and "You Weren't in Love With Me" were awarded gold discs in Australia for sales of over 50,000 copies. According to the Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, "[Field] was one of the most popular acts on the Australian scene" in 1981, as a "husky voiced singer/piano player".

Field's second album, Try Biology, appeared in 1982 and provided his third Australian hit single, "True Love", which reached No. 17. Her newspaper colleague, Karen Milliner, described how the single did not reflect his style, "[it] is a commercial number which obviously has succeeded, but it's the only one of its ilk on the album. Apart from two slow songs on side two, the rest of the tracks have that jazz and big-band sound which Field loves, lots of jazz piano, trumpets, trombones and sax... [his] gravel-edged throaty voice is ideally suited to jazz, and there's some great jazz piano and brass arrangements featured."

In November 1985, Field was a guest lead vocalist for Warren Daly's band (ex-Daly-Wilson Big Band). The Canberra Times Michael Foster observed, "[Daly is] expected to put a tight and exciting band of accomplished musicians on the stage, and the combination with [Field] makes the prospect even more fascinating... if Field decides to demonstrate, even beyond his undoubted ability as a composer, lyricist and singer, his skills on bass, piano, drums, guitar or woodwinds." In 1989, he issued a third album, Say Yes, on the Agape label.

2000s: renewed interest Interest in Field's music was regenerated in November 2004 after a contestant, Courtney Murphy, performed "You Weren't in Love with Me" on the TV talent show Australian Idol. One of the judges, Ian "Dicko" Dickson, indicated that he liked it but had not heard it before. Bill Motzing and Derek Williams were arrangers and orchestral conductors for the album.

In November 2003, Paradise was re-established in Gosford.

1989

Awards and nominations APRA Awards The APRA Awards are held in Australia and New Zealand by the Australasian Performing Right Association to recognise songwriting skills, sales and airplay performance by its members annually.

"You Weren't in Love with Me" Most Performed Australasian Popular Work Countdown Australian Music Awards Countdown was an Australian pop music TV series on the national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974 to 1987. It presented music awards from 1979–1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards.

Best Australian Songwriter Most Popular Male Performer Bad Habits Best Debut Album