Allison Durbin

Allison Ann Durbin was born in 1950 in Auckland to Owen Durbin (born c. 1912/1913) and Agnes Durbin, the second eldest of seven children.[3] She attended school at Westlake High School, and performed for four-years in a children's choir. She had became interested in singing, and has been inspired by artists like Aretha Franklin, Nina Simone and Dionne Warwick,[2] and began performing in public in her early teens.

After winning a talent contest at an Auckland ballroom, she was signed to Eldred Stebbing's Zodiac Records at the age of 14 and issued a number of singles. Her third Zodiac single, a cover of Herman's Hermits "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat", out-sold the original in New Zealand and became her first charted hit.[4] She built up a following in New Zealand, recording and fronting the Mike Perjanik Group and travelled with them to Australia in 1966 for residencies in Sydney. After nine months in Sydney she left the group to pursue a solo career, making numerous appearances on Australian TV pop and variety shows.[4]

Durbin's first single for New Zealand HMV, "I Have Loved Me a Man", (a cover version of the song by Morgana King) became a No. 1 hit in New Zealand and also a hit in Australia. The song won her a New Zealand music award, 1968 Loxene Golden Disc, and she was named New Zealand Entertainer of the Year in 1969.[4] For three years running (1969, 1970 and 1971), she won Australia's King of Pop Award for Best Female Artist, commonly called the "Queen of Pop".[5] In 1971 she recorded a duet album, Together, with Johnny Farnham, who had been voted Australia's "King of Pop" during the same years Durbin received her awards.[4]

In the late 1960s Durbin began a relationship with expatriate New Zealand record producer Howard Gable, then a senior A&R manager and in-house producer for EMI Australia. They married in 1969 and started a family.[5] During the 1970s, as her career waned, Durbin began using heroin and her marriage to Gable ended. In 1985 she publicly acknowledged her battle with drugs and sought treatment at Odyssey House, a drug rehabilitation centre, but she was struck by a car two days after leaving the centre, which left her with serious injuries, including a broken jaw.[5] After she recovered, she worked as a country music singer in the late 1980s.[6] In 1986 she married for a second time to Ray Giles.[5]

On 1 June 2007, under her married name Allison Giles, she was sentenced to 12 months' jail for cannabis trafficking. One of her co-accused, Giuseppe "Joe" Barbaro, whom she allegedly supplied with marijuana was a previously convicted drug dealer.[7]

Works cited

• Noel McGrath's Australian Encyclopedia of Rock & Pop - Rigby Publishers - 1978
• The Who's Who of Australian Rock - Chris Spencer - Moonlight Publishing

• Amplifier NZ Music
• Pop Archives Feature – "Don't Come any Closer"
• Pop Archives Feature – "Put Your Hand in the Hand"