Summary

Black and white 5" x 4" negative showing pop singer Jeff Phillips performing on stage in front of a crowd at the Melbourne Town Hall on 18 December 1968. Teenage fans are screaming and throwing streamers at him. Phillips was the support act for Normie Rowe in this concert [note the banner on the Town Hall balcony].

Phillips was born in Western Australia and was an Australian TV show host/personality and pop singer of the 1960s to the early 1990s.

This image is part of the Laurie Richards Collection at Museum Victoria comprising approximately 85,000 negatives taken by the Melbourne based Laurie Richards Studio between the 1950s -1970s. These negatives are all mostly large format [5"x 4"/ 12.5 x 10 cm], black and white images, though a significant number are in colour. The many photographic jobs that were undertaken in the course of thirty years are itemised in a set of log books, copies of which are also held by Museum Victoria.

Laurie Richards was a professional photographer who began his career as a photo-journalist, working for the Advertiser newspaper in Adelaide, and the Argus and the Herald newspapers in Melbourne. In 1953, he opened his own business and set up a photographic studio at his home at 4 Tower Avenue, Alphington, an inner suburb of Melbourne. At its peak, in the late 1960s, the Laurie Richards Studio was one of Melbourne's pre-eminent commercial photographic studios, employing twelve photographers. The Laurie Richards Studio worked mainly in advertising and public relations, and had a broad clientele which included commercial companies, government institutions and the entertainment industry.

Description of Content

Singer Jeff Phillips performing on stage in front of a crowd at the Melbourne Town Hall. Teenage fans are screaming and throwing streamers at him. Phillips was the support act for Normie Rowe in this concert [note the banner on the Town Hall balcony]. Phillips was born in Western Australia and was an Australian TV show host/personality and pop singer of the 1960s to the early 1990s.

Physical Description

Black and white 5" x 4" cellulose acetate negative

Significance

Because of the breadth of both the subject matter photographed and the diverse businesses which commissioned the work, and the excellent documentation that accompanies the collection, the Laurie Richards Collection at Museum Victoria is an invaluable record of Melbourne's commercial and industrial past and as such gives an insight into the social history of that period.

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