Q:Facts: - years active: 1961 -- 1975 - past members: laurie fred weiland john farrar terry walker john cosgrove bill pyman arthur jim sifonious peter robinson graeme -lrb- garth -rrb- thompson - origin: melbourne , victoria , australia - genre: rock - name: the strangers - background: group_or_band Based on these bullet points, write a short biography describing the life of the strangers -lrb- australian band -rrb- .
A:
the strangers was an australian band based in melbourne , that existed from 1961 to 1975 .the band started out playing instrumental songs in a style similar to the shadows , with influences from cliff richard .the original line-up included peter robinson -lrb- bass -rrb- , graeme -lrb- ' garth ' -rrb- thompson -lrb- drums -rrb- , laurie arthur -lrb- lead guitar -rrb- and fred weiland -lrb- rhythm guitar -rrb- .robinson had previously played with the thunderbirds , and went on to replace athol guy in the seekers from the late 70s .in 1966 the strangers became the resident backing band on the melbourne based teenage television pop program '' the go !!show '' , in which they appeared each week from 1964 to 1967 .after '' the go !!show '' ended , they became the resident vocal group on hsv-7 's '' sunnyside up '' program .in all , the band appeared on television at least once a week for nine years straight .at the end of 1962 they signed with ron tudor 's w&g records , after working as the studio band for artists including the seekers , frankie davidson , johnny chester , merv benton , little gulliver and the children , pat farrar and joy lemmon .in 1964 they supported colin cook and released an lp called '' colin cook and the strangers '' .the first charting record in the stranger 's own name was '' cry of the wild goose '' -lrb- an instrumental by terry gilkyson -rrb- / '' leavin ' town '' , which was released in january 1963 and reached number 12 on the melbourne charts .this was followed by three original instrumentals , '' torlido '' , '' the outcast '' and '' undertow '' , which were released in 1963 , two of which reached the top 40 .other singles included '' happy without you '' -lrb- kenny laguna , shelley pinz , 1968 -rrb- , '' melanie makes me smile '' -lrb- tony macaulay , barry mason , 1970 -rrb- , '' looking through the eyes of a beautiful girl '' -lrb- 1970 -rrb- , '' if you got ta make a fool of somebody '' -lrb- rudy clark , 1965 -rrb- and '' western union '' -lrb- mike rabon ,...