Sixty years ago this week, Harry Vanda was in a world gone mad. As the Easybeats promoted their 1965 debut album Easy and its breakthrough hit She’s So Fine , hordes of girls were staking out their homes. Fans were climbing on taxis ferrying the band from stage to hotels.

Late Australian rock pioneer Lobby Loyde had a story about Vanda and his pint-sized bandmate George Young rescuing him from a knife-wielding Queenslander affronted by the length of his hair. Young headbutted the guy. Vanda leaned over him and said, “Don’t get up”.

Sitting peacefully in the producer’s chair in his Sydney recording studio, the 79-year-old pop maestro smiles. “Oh, the Easybeats,” he says. “I find it difficult to think about the Easybeats. I mean, I’m the last one left. They’re all dead! It’s not good.”

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