Men at Work are an Australian rock band formed in Melbourne in 1979. They were best known for breakthrough hits such as "Down Under", "Who Can It Be Now?", "Be Good Johnny", "Overkill", "It's a Mistake", and "High Wire". Its founding member and frontman is Colin Hay, who performs on lead vocals and guitar. After playing as an acoustic duo with Ron Strykert from 1978 to 1979, Hay formed the group with Strykert playing bass guitar with Jerry Speiser on drums. They were soon joined by Greg Ham on flute, saxophone and keyboards, and John Rees on bass guitar, with Strykert switching back to lead guitar. The group was managed by Russell Depeller, a friend of Hay, whom he met at La Trobe University. This line-up achieved national and international success during the early to mid-1980s.

In January 1983, they were the first Australian artists to have a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single on the United States Billboard charts: Business as Usual (released on 9 November 1981) and "Down Under" (1981), respectively. With the same works, they achieved the distinction of a simultaneous No. 1 album and No. 1 single on the Australian, New Zealand, and United Kingdom charts. Their second album Cargo (2 May 1983) was No. 1 in Australia, No. 2 in New Zealand, No. 3 in the US, and No. 8 in the UK. Their third album Two Hearts (3 April 1985) reached the top 20 in Australia and top 50 in the US.

They won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1983, they were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 1994, and they have sold over 30 million albums worldwide. In May 2001, "Down Under" was listed at No. 4 on the APRA Top 30 Australian songs and Business as Usual appeared in the book 100 Best Australian Albums (October 2010).

In 1984, Speiser and Rees were asked to leave the group, leaving Hay, Ham, and Strykert as a trio, accompanied by session musicians. During the recording of the Two Hearts album, Strykert decided to leave. Soon after the 1985 release of Two Hearts, Ham left also, leaving Hay as the sole remaining member. Hay elected to work as a solo artist shortly thereafter in early 1986, and the Men at Work name was retired.

From 1996 until 2002, Hay and Ham revived the name and toured the world as Men at Work (accompanied by new group members). On 19 April 2012, Ham was found dead at his home from an apparent heart attack.

In 2019, Hay once again revived the Men at Work moniker and began touring with a new lineup.

History

Origins

The nucleus of Men at Work formed in Melbourne around June 1979 with Colin Hay on lead vocals and guitar, Ron Strykert on bass guitar, and Jerry Speiser on drums. They were soon joined by Greg Ham on flute, sax and keyboards, and then John Rees on bass guitar, with Strykert switching to lead guitar.

International success – Business as Usual and Cargo (1981–1983)

Early in 1981 Men at Work signed with CBS Records, the Australian branch of CBS Records International, (which became Sony Music) on the recommendation of Peter Karpin, the label's A&R person. Speiser opined, "Russell was good for hustling gigs in Melbourne and Sydney but once the band became international and multi-million, the sheep farmer from Warrnambool had no idea." Studio musicians included Jeremy Alsop on bass guitar (ex-Ram Band, Pyramid, Broderick Smith Band); and Mark Kennedy on drums (Spectrum, Ayers Rock, Marcia Hines Band). Ham left during the band's time touring behind the album.

One of their European tours for mid-2000 was cancelled and the group had disbanded once again by 2002, although Hay and Ham periodically reunited Men at Work with guest musicians (including an appearance in February 2009, when they performed "Down Under" as a duo at the Australia Unites Victorian Bushfire Appeal Telethon).

In February 2010, Larrikin Music Publishing won a case against Hay and Strykert, their record label (Sony BMG Music Entertainment) and music publishing company (EMI Songs Australia), arising from the uncredited appropriation of "Kookaburra", originally written in 1932 by Marion Sinclair, and for which Larrikin owned the publishing rights, as the flute line in the Men at Work song "Down Under". In early 2009 the Australian music-themed TV quiz, Spicks and Specks, had posed a question which suggested that "Down Under" contained elements of "Kookaburra".

Larrikin, then headed by Norman Lurie, filed suit after Larrikin was sold to another company and had demanded between 40% and 60% of the previous six years of earnings from the song. In February 2010, the judge ruled that "Down Under" did contain a flute riff based on "Kookaburra" but stipulated that neither was it necessarily the hook nor a substantial part of the hit song (Hay and Strykert had written the track years before the flute riff was added by Ham). In July 2010, a judge ruled that Larrikin should be paid 5% of past (since 2002) and future profits. Ham took the verdict particularly hard, feeling responsible for having performed the flute riff at the centre of the lawsuit and worried that he would only be remembered for copying someone else's music, resulting in depression and anxiety. Ham's body was found in his Carlton North home on 19 April 2012 after he suffered a fatal heart attack at the age of 58.

In 2021 Australian producer Christian 'Luude' Benson (from the Tasmanian tech house dance duo Choomba) remixed "Down Under" as a drum and bass track, which became popular online. Hay re-recorded the vocal for the track's official release, now credited to Luude featuring Colin Hay, with the record charting at number 32 on the UK Singles chart on 7 January 2022 and at number 48 in Australia (on the ARIA Top 50 Singles for the week of 10 January 2022).

Other projects

Hay maintained a solo career and has played with Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band in 2003, 2008 and ongoing since 2018. Strykert relocated to Hobart in 2009 from Los Angeles, and continued to play music and released his first solo album, Paradise, in September that year. He expressed resentment towards Hay, mainly over royalties, but was also arrested for an alleged death threat. Ham remained musically active and played saxophone with the Melbourne-based group The Nudist Funk Orchestra until his death. Rees was a music teacher in Melbourne and also played the violin and bass guitar for the band Beggs 2 Differ. Speiser played drums for the band The Afterburner.

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 Australian music. They commenced in 1987. Men at Work were inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1994.

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| rowspan="5" |1981

| "Down Under"

| Best Australian Single

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| Business as Usual

| Best Debut Album

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| "Who Can It Be Now?"

| Best Debut Single

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| rowspan="2" | Themselves

| Best New Talent

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| Most Popular Group

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| rowspan="3" | 1982

| Colin Hay (Men at Work)

| Best Songwriter

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| rowspan="2" | Themselves

| Most Popular Group

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| Most Outstanding Achievement

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| rowspan="3" | 1983

| Cargo

| Best Australian Album

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| rowspan="2" | Themselves

| Most Outstanding Achievement

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| Most Popular Group

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Grammy Awards

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| 1983

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