Max Merritt & The…(Tullamarine Airport)

In the early 1970s David Porter was a contributing photographer for some of the most influential Australian Rock music and underground publications (Go-Set, Daily/Planet, Rolling Stone (Australian Edition), The Digger. Porter was based in Melbourne, his subject the zeitgeist of its Rock/Pop music, underground theatre, and Counterculture scenes, sometimes working as ‘David Porter’, sometimes ‘Jacques L’Affrique’, sometimes ‘Jack Africa’. In 1973 he left Melbourne, stopped working in commercial photography, and pursued a teaching career.

MAX MERRITT AND THE METEORS (1956-1976)
Formed New Zealand. Merritt (vocals, guitar), Ross Clancy (saxophone), Ian Glass (bass), Peter Patene (piano), Pete Snowden (drums). Moved to Australia in 1964. New line-up included ‘Stewie’ Speer (drums), Bob Bertles (saxophone), John Harrison (bass). Australian hit single ‘Western Union Man’ (1969). Relocated the UK (1970). Returned Australia to headline Sunbury ’72. Upstaged by Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs. Australian success with the single ‘Slipping Away’ (1975).

Max Merritt (b.1941 d.2020). New Zealand-born singer-songwriter, guitarist. Fine interpreter of R&B and soul. Rose to prominence in New Zealand in 1958, relocated to Australia 1964. Did much to popularise R&B and rock in New Zealand/Australia. After band split Merritt moved to Los Angeles, where he found employment as a film set carpenter, and toured Australia occasionally. Inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame 2008, New Zealand Music Hall of Fame 2020.