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Thirsty Merc are an Australian pop rock band formed in 2002 by Rai Thistlethwayte (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Phil Stack (bass guitar), Karl Robertson (drums), and Matthew Baker (guitar). In 2004 Baker was replaced by Sean Carey who was, in turn, replaced by Matt Smith in 2010. Thirsty Merc have released one extended play, ''First Work'' (September 2003), and four studio albums: ''Thirsty Merc'' (August 2004), ''Slideshows'' (April 2007), ''Mousetrap Heart'' (June 2010) and ''Shifting Gears'' (September 2015). The band have sold over 200,000 albums, toured extensively around Australia, and received national radio airplay for their tracks. In June 2005 ''Billboard''s Christie Eliezer felt their debut album showed "eclectic rock-, classical- and jazz-influenced pop () appealed to Australian radio programmers". The work reached the top 20 on the ARIA Albums Chart and was certified platinum by ARIA for shipment of 70,000 units by the end of 2005. ''Slideshows'' peaked at No. 4 in Australia – their highest position. It reached No. 38 on the New Zealand Albums Chart, however ''Thirsty Merc'' had attained No. 29 in that market. The group were nominated for four ARIA Awards in 2005 and the Thistlethwayte-written track, "20 Good Reasons", was nominated for Song of the Year at the APRA Music Awards of 2008. From 2006, their song "In the Summertime" was the opening theme for the Australian TV reality show, ''Bondi Rescue''. ==History== Three of the founding members of Thirsty Merc – Matthew Baker, Karl Robertson, and Phil Stack – had played together in various bands in Dubbo, a regional New South Wales city. In 1996 Drown was formed with Baker on guitar, Robertson on drums, Peter Jamieson on vocals, and Stack on bass guitar. By 1998 Baker, Jamieson and Stack had split to form Twenty Two and then moved to Sydney. In 2002, Baker and Stack returned to Dubbo where Rai Thistlethwayte, from Sydney, as lead singer (later also on guitar and keyboards) and Stack worked as a live jazz duo and session musicians.〔 They were joined by Baker and Robertson, and formed a pop rock band, initially called Thirsty; soon after they moved to Sydney and were renamed, Thirsty Merc.〔〔〔 The band's name came from Thistlethwayte's old Mercedes Benz, which was a gas-guzzler. In October 2006 Thistlethwayte described his jazz and R&B background to MusicFix and the band's sound as "rock Sinatra" where "()he outlook, I guess, is about being a young person in today's society ... being an Australian in an American-ised, Britain-ised kind of world, where you're trying to stay true to yourself". Baker added "We contrived to make it not contrived ... Rai was all for originality in his own vision and so were we". A car accident on 22 September 2015 at Streatham, Victoria during a Thirsty Merc tour killed the band's stage manager and injured drummer Mick Skelton.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Australian band Thirsty Merc crew member killed in car crash )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 Thirsty Merc drummer Mick Skelton wakes from coma after fatal crash )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Thirsty Merc」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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