Graeme Wicker had been a child star on the Tivoli circuit which travelled along the east coast from Melbourne to Brisbane. During World War II he joined The Youth Show where he worked with Joy Nicholls, Gladys Moncrieff, Jack Davey and George Wallace Sr. When Grade was 12 two things happened which put a temporary check on his singing,
''My voice broke and then my mother died'' Grade said, '
'I seemed to give up then. Mum had always been my guiding star and I just didn't know what to do. After I'd finished my Intermediate at North Newtown High I went north to work on wheat properties in QLD and western NSW. Then I decided to tour Australia with a friend. We bought an old car and set off. Somehow we only got as far as Dalby in QLD. There I joined a five-piece group called the Wal Tilston Combo and they put me on my singing feet again. I came back to Sydney in 1958 to see what I could do alone''.
Grade got the odd booking in hostels and clubs and for a year worked with the Alf Luciano Trio as a guitarist vocalist. Somebody from EMI must have seen and heard Wicker singing most probably at the exotic El Bongo club just down the road from their office in Sydney. In 1959 they signed him up to record for their HMV label. They also made him change his name to Grade because they thought Graeme wasn't a good name. ''Prettiest Babe'' reached the lower echelons of the charts. After the first single he hooked up with Tony Gaha and formed a group called The Gradians that released a couple of singles. Looking back at the diverse style of the four singles that he cut you could be forgiven for thinking that the company couldn't quite decide which material was best suited to his strong voice; big ballads like ''Over The Rainbow'' or the rock and roll of ''Prettiest Babe'', jazz-tinged numbers like ''Lulu Brown'' or the Bobby Darin style swing of ''Wild Colonial Boy''.
Though none made inroads on the Top 40 the discs gained enough exposure on radio to ensure regular appearances on TV shows like
Bandstand and in clubs. He supported Jimmie Rodgers on his tour of Australia in 1961.After 1961 Wicker went to Tonga to commission and open a resort hotel and he and his wife stayed for about eight years. On return to Australia, he continued to sing on the club circuit. Grade opened a coffee shop in Muswellbrook and he stayed there until he closed it when he retired in 2005.
SINGLES
''Over The Rainbow / Prettiest Babe''
(#95) [with The Alf Luciani Trio And The Sapphires] 1959 HMV
''Dreamin' 'Bout My Baby / Lulu Brown'' [with The Gradians With The Sapphires] 1960 HMV
''Swing Low, Sweet Chariot / Our Summer Romance'' [with The Gradians With The Sapphires] 1960 HMV
''Angelique / The Wild Colonial Boy'' 1961 HMV
References
http://top100singles.blogspot.com.au/