About Peter Blakeley
Peter Blakeley is an Australian white soul/adult contemporary singer and songwriter. Blakeley was a lead singer of the Rockmelons in the mid-1980s. He launched a solo career in 1987 and had a massive hit single in Australia in 1989 with "Crying in the Chapel", which was not a remake of the 1950s song "Crying in the Chapel". In 1990, he won an ARIA award for Single of the Year with "Crying in the Chapel", the first single taken from his album Harry's Café De Wheels. The song went platinum in 1990. Ian McFarlane, rock music journalist and author of Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop (1999) wrote: "Peter Blakeley has been described by the founder of Atlantic Records Ahmet Ertegun, as 'The finest White Soul singer I have ever heard.'" == 1978–1987: Early years == Peter Blakeley's earliest breakthrough came when he was invited by Richard Clapton to accompany him on an Australian national tour in 1978. Clapton would prove to be an important mentor in the early years. By this stage, Blakeley was closely involved with Sydney's music scene, which was at that time concentrated in the inner-city suburbs of Darlinghurst and Kings Cross. Peter was involved with a number of line-ups between 1979 and 1984 including, Peter Black and The Reds (1980), The Blakeley Trio with Steve Stewart (Slime Men, Surry Hillbillies) and Denis Meagher, PM with Chris Bailey and Malcolm Green, Rat Tat Tat (1984) with Geoff Stapleton, Paul Abrahams, Jeff Raglus, Viola Dana and The Starlight Wranglers (1984) and Paris Green (1984). The next phase of Blakeley's career prior to him forming Peter Blakeley & The Resurrection, was a spell as featured vocalist with pioneer pop/electronic outfit The Rockmelons.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.