Noel Parlane


Country music singer Noel Parlane was diagnosed with mesothelioma in February 2015, just months after finishing what he considered to be the best album of his career. It was released in New Zealand in April, but Parlane passed away two months later.

Based in Brisbane since 2000, Parlane had collapsed after a gig and it was revealed he was suffering from the deadly cancer associated with exposure to asbestos. It was thought he had been exposed to fibres while working for a tyre company as a teenager in Dunedin.

Noel Parlane and Patsy Riggir on TV during the 1980s
Noel Parlane on stage in Brisbane during the 2000s
Noel Parlane’s debut album, released on Music World in 1979
Noel Parlane’s final album, Everybody’s Here, released in New Zealand on Ode, just two months before he passed away
Stepping Out: Noel Parlane’s final RCA LP, Stepping Out, released in 1987
Noel Parlane’s first album for RCA, Drinking Them Beers, released in 1984
This reissue of Noel Parlane’s third Music World LP, Old Time Country Music, was released on the Music World offshoot Golden Editions; it had already been certified gold in New Zealand
Noel Parlane (right) and his old mate pedal steel guitarist Paddy Long during the recording of Everybody’s Here in Brisbane in 2014
Let’s Sing A Country Song, released on RCA in 1986
Noel Parlane on the TVNZ show That’s Country in the 1980s
Noel Parlane, Ray Columbus, Diana Trask and Phil Darkins in full flight on That’s Country in the 1980s
Photo credit: Gary Sammons collection
Noel Parlane in 2014
No Limits, released in Australia in 2005
Noel Parlane’s final Music World LP, Country Love, which was certified gold in New Zealand
RCA boss Barry Forrester, Noel Parlane and producer Gary Daverne around the time of the release of Drinking Them Beers in 1984
Photo credit: Gary Daverne collection
Labels:

Music World


RCA


Spectrum


EMI


Kiwi


Ode


LBS Music

Trivia:

Noel Parlane’s early-70s band The Sundowners recorded 'The Wahine Song’ with lyrics written by Parlane’s aunt, who had been on the Wahine ferry when it ran aground in April 1968, killing 52 people. A second single – ‘All I Want’ b/w ‘Nobody Cares’ – was produced by Robert Penty and released on his own Penty Productions.

Noel Parlane's gold-selling Music World release Old Time Country Music was his sole entry in the official NZ album chart top 20, peaking at No.9 in May 1981.

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