KEITH LAMB

Keith Lamb was born in Norwich on 9th January 1952. Related to Gilbert Charles Lamb who founded Lamb Signs, Norwich in 1935. Emigrated to Australia in 1970 forming Hush one of Australia's most famous bands of the seventies glam era.

Band timeline:

Legal Movement

The Kace

Sleepytalk

Mister Toad

Hush (Australia)

Excert Lamb's Tail from ABC TV Australia - 10th May 1997

This is the amazing riches to rags story of Keith Lamb, whose hugely successful glam rock band, ‘Hush’, was a household name in the seventies. With their outrageous platform shoes, satin flares and flowing scarves, ‘Hush’ were favourites on Countdown with hits like ‘Boney Moroney’ and ‘Glad All Over’. Keith also collaborated with Status Quo on several of their hit singles.But when Hush broke up, Keith’s career went into a decline. He eventually ended up destitute and alone, wandering the streets of country Victoria.At that point, in a remarkable coincidence, a woman called Louise Howland re-entered his life. As a teenage rock fan in country Victoria, she met Keith Lamb and ‘Hush’ at the height of their success. She was given tickets to one of their concerts and was struck by Lamb’s charisma on stage.Eight years later she was working as a psychiatric nurse in Melbourne. A neglected, hungry and dazed man was admitted to the hospital. Louise was shocked to realise that this wreck of a man was in fact Keith Lamb. He had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.Louise befriended Keith and got him out of hospital and back into the community. He has made a substantial recovery and is hoping to get back into the recording studio.In one of many strange twists in a story that is both bizarre and sad, Louise describes how a Melbourne police psychiatrist first made the decision to commit Lamb to a mental hospital.

“Keith thought that Status Quo owed him royalties for songs he’d written which in fact they did, only they didn’t know how to contact him. So he wrote out a cheque for four million dollars and deposited it in a bank in Melbourne. Sometime later he tried to withdraw two hundred dollars and the police were called.“The strange thing was that the police psychiatrist thought Keith was deluded because he claimed to have thirteen gold records. And of course that wasn’t a delusion, it was perfectly true!”

The story includes classic archival footage from the ABC’s A Big Country which, during the seventies, captured the fan frenzy surrounding ‘Hush’ as part of a story about their roadies.The guest presenter for the story is Alan Lancaster, Sydney-based founding member of the rock group, Status Quo. As Lancaster says in his introduction “the life of a rock star is pretty crazy. You live in a vacuum, cut off from the rest of the world. You learn to deal with success, to enjoy it, to need it... but you’re never prepared for failure”.