Steve And The Board - Rosalyn (1965)

(Jimmy Duncan - Bill Farley)
 Australia
#18 Brisbane

Single on Everybody’s  November 1965, B-side of The Giggle-Eyed Goo! The tracks were then released on the same company’s Spin label February 1966 with the A- and B-sides reversed.

The Giggle-Eyed Goo!, an original song, was probably the better-known side (#4 Melbourne #34 Brisbane #44 Perth | #31 Australia).

Steve And The Board was formed in 1965, led by Cincinnati-born Steve Kipner (b. 1950), produced by his father Nat (1924-2009) who was A&R man and a major producer at Spin Records where he was responsible for the Bee Gees’ later Australian singles.

During World War II Nat Kipner had been stationed with the US Army Air Corps in Brisbane, Australia, where he married local woman Alma Moore. The family returned to live in Brisbane in the early 1950s when Steve was a youngster.

Notes on personnel and associates

Steve Kipner
After Steve And The Board, Steve Kipner was in a number of bands in Australia, Britain and the US, notably Tin Tin, formed with Australian Steve Groves and later joined by others including Geoff Bridgford [Discogs] from The Board and John Vallins [Wikipedia].

Groves’s composition Toast And Marmalade For Tea, produced in Britain by Maurice Gibb, was an international hit for Tin Tin in 1971.

As a writer, Steve Kipner’s work includes Olivia Newton-John’s hit Physical, a US #1 in 1981, but see Wikipedia’s Category:Songs written by Steve Kipner for more. See also the Songwriter Universe article (2003) on Steve’s successes in the US as writer and producer.

Colin Petersen
Steve & The Board’s original drummer Colin Petersen (1946-2024) was a former child actor known for the title role in Smiley (1956). In late 1966 he left for the UK where he joined The Bee Gees, a band he had already drummed for in recording sessions back in Australia. [Film Ink tribute]

Carl Groszmann
Board guitarist Carl Keats (Carl Groszmann) co-wrote the band’s most successful song The Giggle-Eyed Goo! with Nat Kipner. He later wrote Status Quo’s Down The Dustpipe (1970, #12 UK) and joined Tin Tin on rhythm guitar in time for their second album (1971). In 1976 Ringo Starr charted #26 USA with Groszmann’s composition A Dose Of Rock’n’Roll. [Wikipedia entry]

Steve And The Board’s moderately charting song I Call My Woman Hinges ‘Cause She’s Something To Adore was another Nat Kipner–Carl Groszmann/Keats composition (1966, #25 Melbourne | #55 Australia).

Geoff Bridgford
Bridgford was Colin Petersen’s replacement in The Board. Rosalyn was released before his arrival, but he is worth noting here for his later membership of The Groove, Tin Tin and The Bee Gees. [Official site, archived}

John Vallins
Songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Vallins was not in Steve And The Board, but he also joined Tin Tin with Steve Kipner and Steve Groves, and before that he had been in The Kinetics with Steve Groves. With Nat Kipner, he co-wrote the Johhny Mathis and Deniece Williams hit Too Much, Too Little Too Late (1978 #1 USA). [Official site, archived}

Selected sources: 1. “Steve And The Board” in Ian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of Australian Rock & Pop (1999), pp.607-608 [digitised copy]. 2. Steve And The Board/Steve Kipner at Milesago; 3. Collection of Terry Stacey. 4. Steve Kipner at Songwriter Universe, and Category:Songs written by Steve Kipner at Wikipedia. 5. Nat Kipner page from Australians at War [archived page]. 6. Other sources are linked in the text.

Essential reading: Stephen Vagg’s The Brief Movie Stardom of Colin (Smiley) Petersen at Film Ink is a detailed tribute that goes into Petersen’s acting and musical careers as well as the history of the Smiley films.