Lawrence Frank Allen was born in Melbourne on 9 March 1942 to Jack and Edna Allen. On vocals and guitar Allen formed the Three Jays, in the late 1950s, with Jimmy Braggs on
piano accordion and Johnny MacGaw on drums. He followed with stints in the Lories (c. 1958) and then the Roulettes (1958–59), a long-running Melbourne revue band. and in 1962 he was lead singer and organist of a previously instrumental group, the Blue Jays. At the end of 1963, the Blue Jays became the Fabulous Blue Jays, the backing band for singer, Tony Worsley. Allen then rejoined the Roulettes. Robert Harry Bright was born in
Watford, England on 3 February 1945, and arrived in Adelaide in April 1954, via
SS Strathnaver, at age nine. His mother Elsie May Bright Jackson (1915–2001) was a domestic worker, who had divorced her husband and had sole custody of their son before emigrating. Bright moved to Melbourne and released two singles on the
W&G Records label in 1963, "Girls Never Notice Me" (with
the Strangers) and "Defeated by His Heart", before joining the Roulettes later in that year. Former vocalist of the Roulettes, Ron Blackmore became an
artist manager in the early 1960s. Allen and Bright, who performed separately as soloists, and with the Roulettes, all joined Blackmore's management company. They soon established a duo,
Laurie Allen and Bobby Bright. They became regulars on
The Go!! Show, The label was established by DYT Productions in association with their
The Go!! Show. "I Belong with You" was produced by English-born producer,
Roger Savage, who had arrived in Australia from London where he had worked with the Rolling Stones and
Dusty Springfield. Allen won an Australian Record Award for Best Composition for that song in 1965. Bobby & Laurie regularly worked with a backing band, the Rondells (previously the Lincolns and then the Silhouettes), which had an initial line-up of Bernie O'Brien on lead guitar, John Sullivan on rhythm guitar, Dennis Tucker on bass guitar and Dennis Collins on drums. In June Bobby & Laurie and the Rondells co-headlined a show with
the Easybeats at the Canberra Theatre. Later that year they supported the American singer,
P. J. Proby on his national tour. They also changed management from Blackmore to Mal Fisher. On the strength of "Hitch Hiker", the Australian Broadcasting Corporation gave them their own TV show, ''It's a Gas
– later re-branded as Dig We Must. The show was designed to attract a more sophisticated adult market, but lost the duo much of their teen appeal, which led to friction between the two artists. After recording their last album Exposaic'' (1966), the pair officially split in early 1967 after three years together. Bobby & Laurie reunited on a radio program in February 1968 and returned to the charts with their
cover version of the country music song, "
The Carroll County Accident" (1969). It was followed by "Looking Through the Eyes of Love" (1970), but they split again by late 1971. In the following years, the pair performed occasionally as Bobby & Laurie until their final Don't Let the Music Die concert on 1 June 2002 at the
Kingston City Hall. ==Solo careers==