Cheetah

Cheetah is an Australian rock band formed in 1977 by sisters Chrissie and Lyndsay Hammond after Chrissie had worked in the second Australian stage production of Jesus Christ Superstar and with the original line-up of Air Supply. The group begins in Australia and later relocates to the UK because the local hard rock scene has few venues for regular live work.

Line-up and early work

The band centres on the Hammond sisters, who are both singers and guitarists. Lyndsay Hammond previously fronts Skintight for three years, playing soul, funk and R&B, and also tours with Australian soul singer Renee Geyer as a backing singer. Cheetah also works with a changing line-up of musicians in the UK, including English players brought in after the move. At Reading in 1982, the guitars are played by Ant Glynne and D’zal Martin. Other musicians linked to the band include bassist Mark Evans, who has played with AC/DC, and earlier Australian members Ian Miller, Ronnie Peel, Les Karski, Mike Peters and Ray Arnott.

Recordings and releases

Cheetah’s first single is a cover of the Ronettes song “Walking in the Rain” in 1978, and it becomes a major Australian hit. Other singles include “Shake It to the Right”, “Love Ain’t Easy to Come By”, “Deeper Than Love”, “Spend the Night”, “Love You to the Limit”, “Bang Bang” and “My Man”. “Deeper Than Love” does not chart in Australia but becomes successful in Germany. The group’s album Rock & Roll Women appears in 1982 and also gives them the title by which they are widely remembered. Its singles include “Spend the Night”, and the B-side “Love You to the Limit” is not on the album. The band also writes a full follow-up album, but it is never recorded.

Writing, sound and influences

Cheetah’s live reputation is built on loud, hard rock performances. The group works with producers Harry Vanda and George Young, who also shape much of the recorded material, and the band is linked to the same label and early production team as AC/DC. Lyndsay Hammond says the band starts to introduce more of its own writing into the live set later on, and that one unrecorded song from this period, “Scars of Love”, is a personal favourite. The group avoids stage effects and pyrotechnics, preferring the music and vocals to carry the show.

Live activity and split

Cheetah plays widely on the festival circuit, including Reading in 1982, and shares stages with acts such as Iron Maiden, Neil Young, Gary Moore, Scorpions, Saxon, U2, Jethro Tull and Motörhead. The group also plays festivals across Europe. During the Reading period, the band is filmed for a television special that is not broadcast in Britain after the performances are judged too sexual by the broadcaster. Cheetah splits in 1984, after the members are out of contract and the climate for heavy rock changes.

Later projects

After Cheetah, Lyndsay Hammond works under the names Word of Honour and, for the UK, The Vagabonds. Under that name, the band plays hard rock, releases one album in 1991 and tours England and Germany between 1991 and 1995. She also releases two solo albums in a singer-songwriter style with blues, roots and country influences, records a jazz project, and works on the play Red Dust Diva and a film version of the same project. Chrissie Hammond goes on to record eleven albums with Rick Wakeman and tours worldwide with him, and also plays Grizabella in Cats in the West End for four years.