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Ray Arnott

Australian musician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 28, 2026
Entity authorityQ7297142
Source-derived summary

Ray Arnott is an Australian rock drummer and singer-songwriter. He was a member of Spectrum (1970–1973), which had a number one hit with "I'll Be Gone". He played drums for The Dingoes in the 1970s and Cold Chisel in 1980s.

Biography

Ray grew up in Brisbane and played with Glenn Wheatley (of the Masters Apprentices) in the Vacant Lot, and with Chelsea Set. Ray moved to Melbourne with the Chelsea Set in 1966. He left that band to join the Browns, who were the backing band for Vergil Brothers, Johnny Farnham, Colleen Hewett, Wendy Saddington, and Olivia Newton-John. Ray did a stint with Matt Taylor in the band Genesis and Gulliver Smith in Company Caine. In late 1970 he replaced original drummer Mark Kennedy in the Australian progressive rock group Spectrum and remained with them until they split in early 1973. He sang backing and lead vocals with the band, as well as drumming, and he contributed several songs to their repertoire.

Arnott left Spectrum to join Mighty Kong, a new band formed by ex-Daddy Cool members Ross Wilson and Ross Hannaford, but the new group was very short-lived and broke up soon after recording its only LP in late 1973.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Ray Arnott” as australian musician. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1970, 1973, 1966—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Arnott, Australian and musician can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as australian musician. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7297142. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1970, 1973 and 1966.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Ray Arnott”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Ray Arnott primary sources, Ray Arnott archive and Arnott research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Ray Arnott”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Ray Arnott” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.