Wak Album Covers

‘Love Me, Love My Dog’ was the Wak’s first album and was released in 1980 as a direct result of the band’s appearance on Jacki MacDonald’s TV Show. It was produced by the ubiquitous John Stainton and only 6000 copies were pressed.

The next album, ‘New Horizons’, was released in January 1983 through EMI and recorded by Gary McDonald and Laurie Stone at Starsound Studios. Original material was written by Craig Donaldson and Tim Schumacher, of Denver, Colorado. Their Los Angeles publisher, Dan Friedman, assigned the songs to Wickety Wak® during the 1981 Music Expo in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The album peaked at No 4 in the charts and remained in the listings for 19 weeks; the single from the album, ‘Moonlight Marvel’ achieved No 12. The album was released in the USSR, Canada and Norway.

‘Second Helpings’ was arranged and recorded by Geoff Wilkes and released in 1985. Two tracks were re-recorded as dance mixes and released in Canada – with Wickety Wak® named as Hott Waxx. But the project came to an untimely end with the sudden death of record company executive Paul Clinch.

Geoff Wilkes was called on again to record the Wak’s fourth album, ‘Wak About Australia’, which was released in 1988 through CBS. With more than 20,000 copies sold, this was the Wak’s most successful record. It was also made into a TV special by the Seven Network.

2007 was a great year for the Wak and in response to the sellout shows, 2 new recordings were released. ‘Live at Twin towns’ was recorded at the final shows in November 2007.This new material was featured on a DVD issue. A CD recording ‘Live at Rumours ‘ was recorded at Rumours Nightclub in Toowoomba.

So Whats new for the guys? A  40th anniversary cd set called ‘FORTY YEARS YOUNG’  was released in 2015 as a limited  edition set sold at the shows …This was restored from countless hours of analogue recordings restored and digitized over a 14 month period by the bands personal archivist John Power .   

A twin DVD set was also released in 2015 and compiled by our archivist JOHN POWER from original broadcast master tapes featuring all of Waks Works tv specials and lots of rare highlights from the early years.