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Chrissie Hammond, Russell Hitchcock and Graham Russell met in May 1975 while performing in the Australian production of the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical, Jesus Christ Superstar.

With Hammond and Hitchcock on vocals and Russell on guitar, they formed a harmony vocal group in Melbourne, while the show was still playing.

Hammond left the vocal group to form Cheetah and was replaced by Jeremy Paul ( ex-Soffrok and later Divinyls ) on bass guitar and vocals in 1976.

Together, Hitchcock, Russell and Paul formed Air Supply.

The group's first single, " Love and Other Bruises ", peaked at No. 6 on the Australian Kent Music Report Singles Chart in January 1977.

It was followed by Air Supply, their debut album, in December, which reached No. 17 on the Kent Music Report Albums Chart and achieved gold in Australia.

The album was produced by Peter Dawkins ( Spectrum, Ross Ryan ) with Air Supply line-up as Hitchcock, Paul, Russell and drummer Jeff Browne, guitarist Mark McEntee and keyboardist, arranger Adrian Scott.

Other singles were " If You Knew Me ", " Empty Pages " and " Feel the Breeze " but none reached the Top 40.

A national tour followed with Hitchcock, Paul, Russell and Scott joined by Nigel Macara ( ex-Tamam Shud, Ariel ) on drums and Brenton White ( Skintight ) on guitar.