Quick Facts
Biography
Greg Champion is an Australian songwriter, guitarist, radio personality and athlete.
Born in Benalla, Victoria, Champion is most recognised for his work as part of the Coodabeen Champions as a songwriter and guitarist. Greg often appears on the program writing songs about both Aussies rules football and cricket. He is an avid Australian rules football fan, supporting the Adelaide Crows and since the 1980s has penned many tunes on the Australian game. Of these, the most famous is "That's the Thing About Football", which has gone down as a classic Australian rules song, and has been used on Seven Network's Australian Football League coverage.
Greg Champion grew up in Hectorville, which is a small but significant part of the City of Campbelltown, a suburb of the South Australian capital, Adelaide.
Beginning in 1983, Champion has appeared on ABC Local Radio as part of the Coodabeens team, singing parodies of popular songs and relating them to Australian rules footballers. 2012 sees the 32nd year of Coobabeens' broadcasting.
Champs (Greg Champion) has written hundreds of songs (many serious, many humorous) and is a multi-awarded country/folk singer, who after being discovered in the Catacombs (a legendary Adelaide folk club of the 1970s), went on to form the band Tidewater before launching a successful solo career.
Champion's highest selling album is the 1996 released Aussie Christmas with Bucko & Champs with Australian country music star Colin Buchanan. Under the moniker Bucko & Champs, their duet "Aussie Jingle Bells" is a favourite at Christmas time. In 1998, a sequel to "Aussie Christmas with Bucko & Champs" was released featuring 25 Christmas-themed songs. In 2006, his song "Been there, done that" rocketed to No. 4 on the Country Music Chart having been released that year as part of The Shack Tapes. In 2009, Greg released his Strayana CD which is proving popular as it epitomises his "half country, half folk, half comedy" approach to music.
In 2010, Champs was awarded Victorian Male Vocalist in the Victorian Country Music Awards for his meaningful song “this was my town (Marysville)”.
In 2011, Champs released a well regarded CD At This Stage, a collection of fan favourite songs 2002–2010, which included the first release (on a CD) of the absolute classic "(Listening to the) Earthbeat" written and first performed in 1995. The release included his "best of" CD 1990–2001.
In 2012, just prior to heading off to his 22nd Tamworth Country Music Festival, he surprised many with his Emergence CD which had a wide range of musical styles of 11 original songs.
Discography
Albums
- Tidewater: Wild Horse Plains EMS [1976]
- The Fabulaires: Apolcaypso – Rough Diamond/Astor [1980]
- The Young Homebuyers - Rough Diamond/Astor [1982]
- Greg Champion (Self-titled) - ABC/EMI (1990)
- Greg Champion & The Coodabeen Champions, live in studio 320 - ABC/EMI[1991]
- Champs - ABC/EMI(1992)
- That's What I Like About Football - Massive (1994)
- That's What I Like About Football Vol II - Massive (1995)
- Everybody Loves to watch the Cricket - Massive (1995)
- Aussie Christmas with Bucko & Champs - Massive [1996]
- Football is a Funny Game - Massive [1996]
- Australian Music - Massive (1997)
- Aussie Christmas with Bucko & Champs Vol II [1998]
- Stand Back Australia - Warner [2000]
- Greg Champion & The Coodabeens, 20th anniversary album[2000]
- Shady Tree - Independent (2002)
- Best Of GC - Independent [2003]
- North & South - ABC (2004)
- Greg Champion Special Edition - ABC/Universal [2005]
- Cricket's on the Radio - ABC/Universal(2005)
- The Shack Tapes - Independent (2006)
- Footy Songs '98-'07 - Independent [2007]
- Strayana - Compass Bros (2009)
- Fifty Fave Footy Ditties - Independent [2010]
- At This Stage - Independent [2011]
- Aussie Christmas w. Bucko & Champs, bonus bumper edition-Indep.[2011]
- Thirty Years of Footy Songs - Independent [2012]
- Emergence - Independent [2012]
- A Whole Different Story - Independent [2013]
- Thirty Years of Footy Songs Vol II - Independent [2013]
- All The Fun Ones - Independent [2015]
- Gather My Fishing Lines - Independent [2016]
