Mike Brady (musician)

Michael Brady (born 28 February 1948) is an Australian musician, most commonly associated with the Australian rules football anthems "Up There Cazaly", referring to 1910s St Kilda and 1920s South Melbourne player Roy Cazaly, and "One Day in September", which were released by The Two-Man Band. Both songs have become synonymous with Australian rules football and are traditionally sung on AFL Grand Final day in September.

Biography 1948–1977: Early life and early releases Brady was born in England in 1948 and migrated to Australia in the 1950s with his family aboard the Strathnaver. His first job was at the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation factory in Port Melbourne, Victoria, as a sheet metal worker.Brady gets up there into the honours | The Australian 10 June 2013. Retrieved 11 June 2013 He started performing when he was 15 and he was one-third of the 1960s pop act MPD Ltd (which stood for Mike, Pete [Watson] and Danny [Finley]) which had hits in Australia including "Little Boy Sad" and "Lonely Boy". The band toured Australia and the U.K. Brady also toured Vietnam entertaining troops, with a different band which included Wayne Duncan, Gary Howard and country brother and sister act Ricki and Tammy.

After the breakup of MPD Ltd., Brady released two singles which reached the Australian top 50 and sang backing vocals for Renée Geyer's second album It's a Man's Man's World. In the mid-1970s, Brady started his own record company called "Full Moon Records" and a publishing company called "Remix Publishing".

1978–1980: Two-Man Band & "Up There Cazaly"

In 1978, The Mojo Singers had reached the top of the Australian charts with the single "C'mon Aussie C'mon" which had been written to promote World Series Cricket, shown on Channel Nine. Seven Network reached out to Brady to write a jingle for the Victorian Football League (VFL), which Brady wrote "Up There Cazaly", referencing footballer Roy Cazaly. He worked with Pete Sullivan on recording the jingle.

The popularity of the jingle led to the release of the song in July 1979 credited to The Two-Man Band and it reached #1 on the Australian charts in September 1979 and was the most popular single recorded by an Australian artist that year. The song became the highest selling Australian single ever with sales of over 240,000 as of October 1979 and 260,000 as of the end of 1980.

The Two-Man Band released a further three top 100 singles in 1980 and 1981.

1981–present: Continued success In July 1981, Brady released, Mike Brady Presents: The Songs of Football's Greatest, an album referencing numerous VFL players. the album peaked at number 44 on the ARIA Charts.

In 1982 Brady wrote "You're Here to Win" as the theme song for the 1982 Commonwealth Games.

Brady has continued to work in advertising, writing jingles such as "Dodo, Dodo, internet that flies" for Dodo Internet and "Lucky you're with AAMI"."Settling the score" by Denis Brown, Melbourne Age 16 June 2005

In 1987, Brady recorded versions of all of the VFL team's theme songs for an album in 1987. Brady also co-wrote and produced another popular AFL (Australian Football League) jingle, "That's What I Like About Football", sung by Greg Champion.

In 2003, "Up There Cazaly" was reworked as "Up There Australia" to show support for Australian troops in the War of Iraq in 2003.

In addition to his jingle writing and performing, Brady spent 17 years at Melbourne radio station 3AW, where he hosted Mike to Midnight on Saturday nights from 6pm to midnight during the non‑football season. The program was axed in September 2019 as the station shifted in a new direction. During his time at 3AW, he also occasionally filled in on other programs, including Nightline.Mike Brady: Profile | 3AW website. Retrieved 11 June 2013

Brady is also the chairman of Cogmetrix, a predictive people analytics company that uses cognitive neuroscience software for talent management; recruitment, productivity and organisational development.

Brady has for a number of years sung the Australian national anthem before the start of the Puffing Billy Great Train Race in Belgrave."Racing Billy leaves thousands puffing" by Caroline Zielinski, The Age 5 May 2013

Community and charity work Brady is a board member on the Prostate Cancer Foundation Australia Victorian Board and has performed at many men's health events.Jingle writer takes charity seriously | The Age 10 June 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2013 He has been a board director of Variety Victoria and is a Life Member of the organisation.Variety Life Members | Variety Victoria. Retrieved 10 June 2013

Brady is a patron of the Bali Children Foundation and the Australian Huntington's Disease Association (Vic), and is involved with the Bluearth Foundation, Melbourne Legacy and the Yooralla Society. He is also an Australia Day ambassador.

Discography Studio albums + List of albums, with selected details and chart positions Title Album details Peak chart positions AUS Invisible Man Released: 1979 Label: Full Moon (FML 1001) — Mike Brady Presents: The Songs of Football's Greatest Released: July 1981 Label: Full Moon (FML 12003) 44 Country to Country Released: 17 July 2007 Label: Bradyworks (BW01) — Bloodlines (The Australian Irish Story) Released: 19 October 2014 Label: Full Moon (FMRBLOO1) —

Extended plays + List of EPs, with selected details Title EP details Up There Mike Brady Released: 1982 Label: Full Moon Records (BIG 1)

Singles + List of singles, with selected chart positions Year Title Peak chartpositions Album AUS 1970 "Finger Poppin'" / "Big White Bird" 76 rowspan="4" "Sympathy" 42 1971 "Oh Lord, Why Lord" 50 1972 "Hello Mum" — 1981 "The Cube" / "The Headless Horsemen" — 1982 "You're Here to Win" 49 1988 "We'll Be There" — 1995 "The Diggers Legacy (How Could We Forget)" — rowspan="7" 1998 "Courage in Their Eyes" — 1999 "Up There Cazaly '99" (with Haley White) 78 2014 "Up There Cazaly" (re-release) — 2017 "Come My Children" — 2018 "This Place" — 2019 "When I Was Young" —

Mike Brady (musician)

Bron en licentie