Harry Vanda

Career

Vanda's family migrated to Australia from the Netherlands in 1963, and settled in Sydney. Vanda, who had been a guitarist with the Hague-based band The Starfighters, came to fame in 1964–65 as the lead guitarist of the popular Australian group The Easybeats. In the same year he met rhythm guitarist George Young in a Sydney migrants' hostel. In 2007, Australian Musician selected this meeting as the most significant event in Australian pop and rock music history.

In 1966, Vanda replaced Stevie Wright as George Young's songwriting partner. Thus began a successful and enduring writing and producing partnership with Young; together they penned many of The Easybeats' later recordings, including their major international hit, "Friday On My Mind".

After The Easybeats disbanded in 1970, Vanda & Young moved to the UK and continued their writing and performing partnership.

In 1973, Vanda and Young returned to Australia and took over as the house producers for leading independent record production company, Albert Productions, and publisher J. Albert & Son. From 1974 onwards they enjoyed huge success in Australia and elsewhere, writing and producing hits for a number of popular Australian groups and solo singers, including John Paul Young, Cheetah, Stevie Wright, Ted Mulry, Rose Tattoo, The Angels, William Shakespeare, Mark Williams and, most notably, AC/DC. AC/DC included George Young's brothers, guitarists Angus and Malcolm Young. Vanda & Young produced landmark albums such as Let There Be Rock, Powerage, If You Want Blood You've Got It, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, High Voltage/TNT, amongst others.By the late 1990s, Vanda and Young had left their longtime partnership with Albert Productions, and they both retired from the music industry. However, in 2005, Harry Vanda started Flashpoint Music in Surry Hills with his producer/engineer son, Daniel Vandenberg, setting up one of Australia's premier private studios. First son John married a Dutch woman,Esther Oesterholt and has got two grandchildren in the Netherlands,Mariska and Christian van den Berg.The studio has produced bands such as The Wrights and 'British India

They also had major international success with their own studio-only project Flash and the Pan, achieving many hits round the world over a 15-year period, particularly in Europe where they had many chart topping records. Grace Jones had a hit with a cover of their Flash and the Pan song "Walking in the Rain".

Instruments

Vanda used a 1964 Hofner Verithin 1574 with Bigsby tremolo and 511 pickups, before switching in 1965 to a Gibson 345. In The Easybeats, Vanda also often played a cherry-red Maton 12-string electric guitar, which he donated to the collection of Powerhouse Museum in Sydney in 1999. In addition, Vanda owned the red Gretsch Jet Firebird double cutaway guitar that was given to George Young's younger brother Malcolm. This guitar, nicknamed "The Beast", saw numerous modifications and was Malcolm Young's primary guitar throughout his career in AC/DC.

Honours

In 1988 he was inducted, along with George Young, into the inaugural class of the ARIA Hall of Fame.

Selected list of songs written by Vanda and Young