GANGgajang are an Australian pop rock band formed in Sydney in 1984. The group was founded by Riptides frontman Mark “Cal” Callaghan, bassist Chris Bailey, and drummer Graham “Buzz” Bidstrup, both of whom played in The Angels. After recruiting keyboardist Geoffrey Stapleton and lead guitarist Robbie James, they made their debut in 1984 with the single “Gimme Some Loving,” which broke into the Top 40 on the Australian Singles chart. Their eponymous studio debut saw the light in November 1985 and reached Number 35 on the ARIA Charts, quickly obtaining platinum certification after selling over 120,000 copies. Included in the album was the Top 40 hit “Sounds of Then (This Is Australia),” which became one of their most recognizable songs after being featured in a Coca-Cola ad ten years after its release. Their second album gangAGAIN arrived in 1987 through True Tone Records/Polygram Records, after which the band members went on to pursue different solo projects while continuing to perform together sporadically. GANGgajang returned with a third studio full-length titled Lingo in 1994, followed by Oceans and Deserts in 2002. The band kept touring well into the 2010s and cultivated a large fanbase in their native Australia, Scandinavia, and Brazil. In 2013, founding member Chris Bailey died of throat cancer at the age of 62.
