Pierre Baroni

Pierre Baroni (30 October 1955 – 9 March 2021) was an Australian radio broadcaster, artist, and musician.

Career Pierre Baroni was born in Kew, Victoria in 1955, and grew up in Glenroy. He was a member of Melbourne pub band Carmine in the mid-1970s who were described by Ian "Molly" Meldrum as "one of the future top bands of Australia" on his Countdown tv program. After the band broke up, Baroni formed Power by Beat! (P.X.B.) in 1977, who released one EP in 1978.

In late 1980, Baroni joined New Wave band The Aliens, During this time he began DJing his collection of 60s vinyl records at a Monday night called Shout, run by Rob Furst, owner of Beat Magazine, before joining his brother Dean Baroni in a new band Filed of Knives, who then became The Pony. and he created artwork for albums such as Archie Roach’s Charcoal Lane, and others for Tina Arena and Jimmy Barnes. He then began presenting his own program Soulgroove’66 in 2003, sourcing records from his own collection of around 5,000 soul, funk and R&B singles.

In March 2021 he died from cancer, The theme song to Soulgroove’66 by Renée Geyer was released on vinyl as a tribute to Baroni following the news of his death. The recording featured Geyer and Baroni with organist Jake Mason, drummer Danny Farrugia, and bass player Yuri Pavlinov as the fictional band The New Cobras.

Pierre Baroni was inducted posthumously into Music Victoria’s Hall of Fame at the 2021 Music Victoria Awards, with tributes from Jimmy Barnes and Archie Roach.