Air Supply - WikiHQ

Air Supply are a soft rock duo formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1975, consisting of English singer-songwriter and guitarist Graham Russell and Australian singer Russell Hitchcock.

With record sales of 100 million worldwide, they had a succession of hits worldwide, including eight top-five hits on the US Billboard Hot 100, "Lost in Love" (1979), "All Out of Love", "Every Woman in the World" (both 1980), "The One That You Love", "Here I Am" (both 1981), "Sweet Dreams", "Even the Nights Are Better" (both 1982) and "Making Love Out of Nothing at All" (1983). In Australia, they had four top ten placements with "Love and Other Bruises" (1976), "All Out of Love", "Every Woman in the World" and "The One That You Love". Their highest charting studio album, The One That You Love (1981) reached number ten in both Australia and the US. The group, which relocated to Los Angeles in the late 1970s, has included many members, with Hitchcock and Russell at the core.

The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) inducted Air Supply into their Hall of Fame on 1 December 2013, at the annual ARIA Awards.

History

Formation and early years: 1975–1980

Air Supply's founding members met on 12 May 1975, while rehearsing for the Australian production of the musical Jesus Christ Superstar. With the show they toured Australia and New Zealand for 18 months. Russell, also English-born, had been a percussionist in United Kingdom group, Union Blues, in 1965. When the show's run finished in late 1976, Hammond departed to form a hard rock group, Cheetah, with her sister. Hammond was replaced in the group by Jeremy Paul (ex-Soffrok) who provided bass guitar and backing vocals. Russell recalled that they had been unable to promote "Love and Other Bruises" while still performing in Jesus Christ Superstar, due to contractual obligations to the show. It was first aired on weekly teen pop music TV show, Countdown in early December 1976. It remains their highest charting single in Australia. Air Supply undertook a national tour in support of their debut album with Hitchcock, Paul, Russell and Scott joined by Nigel Macara (ex–Tamam Shud, Ariel) on drums and Brenton White (Skintight) on guitar.

Their second album, The Whole Thing's Started, also produced by Dawkins, By mid-1978, only Hitchcock and Russell remained, backed by Ralph Cooper (Windchase) on drums, and former Sailor members Brian Hamilton on bass guitar and vocals and David Moyse on guitar. Hitchcock and Russell also filled-in as co-hosts when resident co-host Andy Gibb was unavailable. Gibb's attendance on the show became problematic and he was fired in 1982. The duo co-hosted the show in October 1983 (with Marilyn McCoo) and September 1985 (with Dionne Warwick). – selling 5 million copies in the US by March 1993 according to Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

"Making Love Out of Nothing at All" was their equal second biggest US hit (with "All Out of Love") at No. 2, behind their only US number-one single, "The One That You Love".

By the mid-1980s, Goh, Green and Moyse had all left, and the band's February 1985 self-titled album had Cooper, Esler-Smith, Hitchcock and Russell joined by Wally Stocker (ex-the Babys) on guitar, Don Cromwell on bass guitar, and Ken Rarick on keyboards.

1991–2000

Using previous producer, Maslin and the returning Cooper, the duo recorded The Earth Is ..., which was released in July 1991 by Giant Records/Warner Bros. Records. It contains their rendition of Badfinger's "Without You", which reached the US Adult Contemporary top 50. Other singles from the album are "Stronger Than the Night" and "Stop the Tears". The album is dedicated to Frank Esler-Smith who had died in March of that year, from pneumonia. The official fan club released The Earth Is World Tour video, which contains live footage from the band's global tour.

They followed with their twelfth studio album, The Vanishing Race, in May 1993, Although it did not chart in Australian or the US Top 100, "It's Never Too Late" was the album's second single.

They undertook another world tour in 1993 alongside Earth, Wind & Fire guitarist Dick Smith. The album was dedicated to the plight of the Native Americans, the Vanishing Race of the album's title, and sold 4 million copies. Their third album of the decade, News from Nowhere, was released in 1995. It contained the Asian hit singles "Someone", "Always", and a cover of "Unchained Melody".

The duo's popularity continued in South-east Asia, Hitchcock combined with Judith Durham (of the Seekers) and Mandawuy Yunupingu (of Yothu Yindi) for a cover version of "I Am Australian" (originally by Bruce Woodley of the Seekers and Dobe Newton of the Bushwackers), which was issued as a single in January 1997. It reached No. 17 on the ARIA singles chart. He also made an appearance in the film Believe (2007), a comedy about multi-level marketing. In 2008 based on their chart performances, they were ranked the 83rd best musical act of all time in Billboard Hot 100's 50th anniversary edition.

In May 2010, Air Supply released Mumbo Jumbo, the duo's first studio album in eight years. It was recorded at Russell's home studio near Park City, Utah and at Odds on Records' state of the art facilities in Las Vegas with session musicians and an orchestra. It was produced by Russell and engineered by Sean O'Dwyer (Pink Floyd, Randy Newman and Blink-182). The first single "Dance with Me" reached number 28 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart and "Faith in Love", which peaked at number 30. The music video for "All Out of Love" is seen briefly in the 2010 Australian film, Animal Kingdom.

2011–present

thumbnail|Air Supply live performance in [[Napa, California in 2015]]

In October 2012 Air Supply were honoured by Gray Line's Ride of Fame. A double-decker tour bus was dedicated to them, which roamed the streets of New York City. On 24 October 2013 the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) announced that Air Supply were to be inducted into their Hall of Fame on 1 December 2013 at the same ceremony as the ARIA Music Awards of 2013. Air Supply were scheduled to perform in Haifa on 25 November 2016 but postponed due to fires in the region. The band gave 200 free tickets to the wives of the firemen through the Haifa Fire Department workers union.

A jukebox musical based on Air Supply's songs, All Out of Love: The Musical (October 2018), was made in the Philippines. It was created and produced by Naomi Toohey and Dale Harrison, and written by Canadian playwright Jim Millan. It starred Mig Ayesa, Rachel Alejandro, Tanya Manalang, Raymund Concepcion and Jamie Wilson. It premiered at the Newport Performing Arts Theater in Resorts World Manila. It included a new song, "I Was in Love with You", written by Russell. In 2020, Air Supply were listed at number 48 in Rolling Stone Australias list of the "50 Greatest Australian Artists of All Time".

In February 2026 their new album “A Matter of Time” was released online to fans on Facebook to download as a gift for their support. The vinyl version was made available at shows. This is in partnership with the Matter of Time tour.

Members

Credits:

Howard Sukimoto – bass guitar
Ken Francis – lead guitar
Tim Gaze – lead guitar
Bill Putt – bass guitar
Rick Mellick – keyboards
Brian Hamilton – vocals, bass guitar
David Moyse – lead guitar, backing vocals
Ralph Cooper – drums, percussion
Jamie Rogers – bass guitar
Criston Barker – bass guitar, backing vocals
David Green – bass guitar, backing vocals
Frank Esler-Smith – keyboards
Don Cromwell – bass guitar, backing vocals
Ken Rarick – keyboards
Wally Stocker – lead guitar
Robin Swensen – keyboards, backing vocals
Greg Hilfman – keyboards, backing vocals
Tim Godwin – lead guitar, backing vocals
Jimmy Haun – lead guitar
Larry Antonino – bass guitar
Michael Sherwood – keyboards, backing vocals
David Young – keyboards
Guy Allison – keyboards
Cliff Rehrig – bass guitar
Michael Thompson – lead guitar
Mark Williams – drums, backing vocals
Hans Zermuehlen – keyboards
Billy Sherwood – bass, vocals
Jed Moss – piano
Christopher Pellani – percussion, backing vocals
Jonni Lightfoot – bass
Mike Zerbe – drums
Amir Efrat – keyboards
Christian Nesmith – lead guitar
CJ Burton – drums
Tiki Pasillas – drums
Aviv Cohen – drums
Derek Frank – bass guitar
Cassie Olson - cello
Hannah Brown - cello
Aaron McLain - lead guitar, musical director

Discography

Air Supply (1976)
The Whole Thing's Started (1977)
Love & Other Bruises (1977)
Life Support (1979)
Lost in Love (1980)
The One That You Love (1981)
Now and Forever (1982)
Air Supply (1985)
Hearts in Motion (1986)
The Christmas Album (1987)
The Earth Is ... (1991)
The Vanishing Race (1993)
News from Nowhere (1995)
The Book of Love (1997)
Yours Truly (2001)
Across the Concrete Sky (2003)
Mumbo Jumbo (2010)
A Matter of Time (2026)

Awards and nominations

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of the music of Australia. They commenced in 1987. Air Supply were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2013.

Denis Handlin AM, ARIA Chairman & CEO of Sony Music Entertainment Australia & New Zealand and President, Asia said: "On behalf of the ARIA Board we are honoured to induct Air Supply into the ARIA Hall of Fame... at the 27th Annual ARIA Awards. With their many timeless songs that have crossed generations and led to ground-breaking success overseas, Air Supply are one of Australia's most unique and successful musical stories."

| 2013

| themselves

| ARIA Hall of Fame

TV Week / Countdown Awards

Countdown was an Australian pop music TV series on national broadcaster ABC-TV from 1974 to 1987, it presented music awards from 1979 to 1987, initially in conjunction with magazine TV Week. The TV Week / Countdown Awards (1979–1980) were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards and were followed by the Countdown Australian Music Awards (1981–1986).

|1980

| Themselves