Marcus Hook Roll Band wasn't a long-lived band, nor did they get much attention when they were active between the years of 1972 and 1974. Nevertheless, the studio-based group occupies an important place in Australian rock & roll history because this creation of famed producers
Harry Vanda and George Young also featured George's brothers
Malcolm and
Angus Young, who would go on to form
AC/DC after the dissolution of
Marcus Hook Roll Band. Musically,
MHRB didn't sound much like
AC/DC at all. There were echoes of
the Easybeats,
Vanda/Young's big '60s success, but they were closer to the fizzy bubblegum of
the Sweet, only with heavier guitars. That was all evident on their lone album,
Tales of Old Grand Daddy, which appeared in Australia in 1973 and was succeeded by several singles. None of the recordings were a hit and soon the project came to an end, with
Vanda/Young pursuing a very successful production career highlighted by the early
AC/DC records.
Tales of Old Grand Daddy got its first wide international release in an expanded edition in 2014 via a CD that also contained the non-LP singles. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine