Goanna are an Australian rock band which formed in 1977 in Geelong as The Goanna Band with mainstay Shane Howard as singer-songwriter and guitarist. The group integrated social protest with popular music and reached the Top 20 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart with "Solid Rock" (1982) and "Let the Franklin Flow" (released under the name Gordon Franklin & the Wilderness Ensemble in 1983). Their debut album, Spirit of Place, peaked at No. 2 on the related albums chart. They disbanded in 1987 and briefly reformed in 1998.

History

1977–1987

Goanna was formed as an Australian folk-rock group by singer-songwriter and guitarist Shane Howard in Geelong in 1977. In September, still promoting Oceania and the newly released "Song for Africa", Howard went "walkabout", and the band was forced to cancel $20,000 worth of bookings. and was joined at the Melbourne concerts by his sister, Marcia, and Bygrave. In October, a number of Goanna's tracks featured in the Triple M Essential 2006 Countdown of songs (which was voted and chosen by the listeners) including:

  • "Solid Rock" (ranked 427 out of 2006 songs)
  • "Razor's Edge" (ranked 1232 out of 2006 songs)

Two of the Goanna Band's guitarists, Mike Biscan and Warrick Harwood, died in April 2020.

Starting in June 2022, the band returned to tour around Australia to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Spirit of Place, with band members Shane Howard, Rose Bygrave, Marcia Howard and Graham Davidge playing, amongst others.

In September 2022, Goanna performed "Solid Rock" at the 2022 AFL Grand Final. In December 2022, Goanna re-released the song with Emma Donovan and William Barton.

In June 2023, Goanna released "Takayna", their first new music in 25 years.

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|align="center"|1982

|Spirit of Place

  • Released: November 1982
  • Label: WEA <small>(600127)</small>

|align="center"|2

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  • AUS: 4× Platinum

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|align="center"|1985

|Oceania

  • Released: April 1985
  • Label: WEA <small>(251556-1)</small>

|align="center"|29

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|align="center"|1998

|Spirit Returns

  • Released: November 1998
  • Label: ABC Music/EMI <small>(724349821224)</small>

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Live albums

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;" border="1"

! Title

! Album details

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! scope="row" | Live at the Canberra Workers Club 1985

|

  • Released: 1 September 2020
  • Format: CD (limited), DD, streaming
  • Label: Big Heart, Black Box Records/ MGM Distribution

|}

Extended plays

{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center;" border="1"

! Title

! Details

|-

! scope="row" |The Goanna Band

|

  • Released: 1979
  • Label: EMI Music (PRS-2747)

|}

Singles

{|class="wikitable"

!rowspan="2"|Year

!rowspan="2"|Single

!colspan="1"|Peak chart positions

!rowspan="2"|Album

|-

!style="width:3em;font-size:75%"|AUS (Kent)

|align="center"|42

|rowspan="2"|Oceania

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|rowspan="2"|1985

|"Dangerous Dancing"

|align="center"|91

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|"Song for Africa"

|align="center"|-

|

|-

|rowspan="2"|1998

|"Sorry"

|align="center"|-

|rowspan="2"|Spirit Returns

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|"What Else is a Life"

|align="center"|-

|-

|2022

|"Solid Rock"<br><small>(re-release featuring Moss, Tasman Keith and William Barton)</small>

|align="center"|-

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|"Takayna"

|align="center"|-

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Awards and nominations

Countdown Australian Music 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 were a combination of popular-voted and peer-voted awards.

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| rowspan="3" |1982

| Spirit of Place

| Best Debut Album

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| "Solid Rock"

| Best Debut Single

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| themselves

| Best New Talent

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Environmental Music Prize

The Environmental Music Prize is a quest to find a theme song to inspire action on climate and conservation. It commenced in 2022.

!

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| 2025

| "Takayna"

| Environmental Music Prize

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References

;General

  • Note: Archived (on-line) copy has limited functionality.
  • Note: (on-line) version established at White Room Electronic Publishing Pty Ltd in 2007 and was expanded from the 2002 edition.

;Specific

  • Shane Howard website
  • ABOUT