’60s Rockstar Snowy Fleet Has Died

Gordon Henry “Snowy” Fleet, drummer for the legendary rock group The Easybeats, has died. The Australian rocker passed away in Perth, Australia on Feb. 18 at the age of 79, according to reports and a social media tribute from The Easybeats fan group Stevie: The Life and Music of Stevie Wright and the Easybeat. A cause of death was not disclosed.

“Haven’t posted here in a while and I am not happy to be doing so now.. one of the most beautiful men I have ever had the pleasure of meeting and working with has played his last paradiddle! The great Snowy Fleet has gone to join the boys for a jam session and I am devastated !! Way too young,” Stevie: The Life and Music of Stevie Wright and the Easybeat wrote on Facebook. “Thanks for everything Snow.. we will continue to play those great tunes for as long as I am on this mortal coil. Big love and hugs Maureen Fleet.”

Born in Liverpool, England in 1940, Fleet relocated with his wife and young child to Sidney in the ‘60s. Shortly after, while living at Villawood Migrant Hostel, he met the rest of the iconic rock band – with singer Stevie Wright, songwriter/guitarist George Young, lead guitarist Harry Vanda, and bassist Dick Diamonde.

“One night I found a note under my door at the migrant hostel where I was staying. ‘Come and see us’, it read and was signed by Dick,” Fleet told Everybody’s in 1966, per Alberts. “[The boys] had formed a group, playing Shadows’ style music, which in England was nowhere. They seemed good blokes. I didn’t know anyone and in a few weeks they became the only real friends I had. I gradually got them to change their style of music into the type I knew in Liverpool.”

The group formed The Easybeats in 1964 while still living at Villawood Migrant Hostel, and after starting off by playing in a hostel laundry, they singed a recording contract with the new company Albert Productions, owned by Ted Albert, per Noise 11.

The Easybeats released their first single, “For My Woman,” in 1965, and followed it shortly after with “She’s So Fine,” which reached No. 3 in Australia and shot the group to fame. The song appeared on the group’s debut album, Easy, that same year.

After recording their sophomore album It’s 2 Easy and Volume 3, the band relocated to London in 1966. It was there that they recorded what became their biggest hit, “Friday on My Mind.” Released in 1966, the song was the first Aussie song to crack the US top 20, where it reached No. 16. It also peaked at No. 6 in the UK charts.

After playing on many of the band’s other hits – including “She’s So Fine,” “Sad Lonely and Blue,” and “Wedding Ring” – Fleet left The Easybeats in 1967 to focus on his family. The musician took over his family’s construction business and also ran a rehearsal studio in the Perth suburb of Jandakot.

Following his departure, Fleet was replaced in The Easybeats by Tony Cahill. The group continued until 1969, and briefly reunited in 1986. In 2017, ABC released a miniseries about the group’s meteoric rise to fame titled Friday On My Mind, with Arthur McBain portraying Fleet.

With Fleet’s passing, Vanda is the only surviving member of The Easybeats. Cahill died in 2014, Wright in 2015, Young in 2017, and Diamonde in 2024.

Fleet is survived by survived by his wife of more than 60 years, Maureen, and their two children.