From Australia's Mornington Peninsula, Deathwish played from 1976-1977 before evolving into The Chosen Few. 

 

The band began performing OZ Classics and harder edged 60s rock tracks, before experiencing Radio Birdman live and modelling their musical development on Birdman to some extent. This culminated in Deathwish being invited to support Birdman at the legendary Oxford Funhouse in mid 1977, which due to internal politics (within Deathwish) never eventuated and the band broke up.

 

Deathwish reformed briefly in September 1977 with more of a punk sound (think Iggy, Birdman, Sex Pistols, Ramones) before evolving to The Chosen Few in January 1978 when Iain Weaver joined to fill the long-problematic lead singer position.

 

The Chosen Few released a 6-track EP called ‘The Jokes on Us’, along with a number of albums. The band continued, as in the Deathwish days, to play a combination of covers of US punk rock tracks by bands like The Stooges and MC5, and harder-edged originals reminiscent of local bands like The Saints and Lobby Lloyde and the Coloured Balls.

 

The Chosen Few didn’t last long and disbanded in 1979, with a short-lived reunion in 1998 for a year or so.

 

The recordings The Chosen Few, and Deathwish, have left us with have not been available digitally previously and offer clues as to the potential contained within had the band been able to stay together.