JULIAN LAXTON BAND (SA)

Laxton went to Rooseveldt High School (presumably the one in Johannesburg) and Damelin College. When Julian was a youngster, the American Country singer Merle Travis would visit South Africa and stayed with the Laxton family. This inspired Julian to pick up a guitar. He played in a number of different bands before becoming part of the folk trio Mel, Mel & Julian alongside Mel Green and Mel Miller. From there he would move on to heavier things, becoming a member of bands Freedom’s Children and Hawk. The Julian Laxton Band’s first record appears to be 1972’s ‘Sabre Dance’, but then they don’t seem to have done anything further until 1976 when they released the album ‘Celebrate’. Rabbitt’s Trevor Rabin and Neil Cloud would play on the album. Other members of the band, but whom I can’t verify if they played on the tracks listed below were Kevin Kruger and Cedric Sampson. The Stockley Sisters would do backing vocals on ‘Fooled Around And Fell in Love’.

Date of entry	Song	Peak (weeks at 1)	Weeks
02-Jul-1976	Celebrate The Rain	10	8
14-Jan-1977	Blue Water	7	8
17-Mar-1978	Fooled Around And Fell In Love	13	8
		Total hits	3
		Total weeks	24

Biggest climber awards	1
Star rater climbs	2
Biggest fallers	1
Weeks with oldest in the charts	0
Longest run in the charts (weeks)	8
Weeks with more than 1 in the charts	0
Biggest gap between hits (weeks)	53
Top 30 points ranking	425
Top 20 points ranking	=538
Top 30 points	401
Top 20 points	161

Of the acts seeing 3 or more hits, The Julian Laxton Band was the only one who saw all their hits spend the same number of weeks in the charts.

Laxton also had songwriting credits on the following Margaret Singana song:

Date of entry	Song	Peak (weeks at 1)	Weeks
21-Dec-1986	We Are Growing	26	6
		Total hits	1
		Total weeks	6

He would also have production credits on his 3 hits above and the Margaret Singana one. In addition he produced the following:

Song	Act	Peak (weeks at 1)	Weeks
Charlie	Rabbitt	9	7
Getting’ Thru To You	Rabbitt	15	5
Takin’ Me Back	Sweet Chocolate	9	9
Better The Devil You Know	Stingray	4	12
		Total hits	4
		Total weeks	33

Laxton would also play guitar on the following hit by Gentle People:

Date of entry	Song	Peak (weeks at 1)	Weeks
31-Dec-1971	It’s Summertime Again	20	1
		Total hits	1
		Total weeks	1

Total chart involvement:

Number of hits	9
Weeks	64

It is debatable whether Rabin and Cloud were members of The Julian Laxton Band or acting as ‘session musicians’. If you wish to include the 2 Rabbit hits that Laxton didn’t produce and Rabin’s solo hit, then the involvement would be 12 hits and 89 weeks.