By sheer weight of hits, Air Supply had opened up the US market to a different sound coming out of Oz: something way less ballsy than AC/DC, more intimate than Midnight Oil. Crowed House, who raided the American charts with the heartfelt ballad “Don’t Dream Its Over” in 1987, and Savage Garden, who went large several years later, may not have connected as strongly Statewide without Air Supply.

“Lost in Love” was a hit in waiting, the song was nestled at the number two spot on the Billboard charts, with only Blondie’s ‘Call Me‘ blocking it from pole position. As it turned-out, Air Supply had timing on their side, in the wake of solid gold stars like the Carpenters and Australia’s own Olivia Newton-John, a market had opened up for tender, carefully constructed love songs, which Russell, who regarded the Beatles as his creative touchstone, had no shortage of.

In October 1980, ‘All Out of Love‘ peaked at number four, overtaking Olivia Newton-John’s ‘Magic‘ on the way to the top five. Russell, who was no fool; understood the power of a simple, well-written pop song. Perhaps, over time, he’d veer close to Hallmark-ish sentiments, with the unequivocal sound that these short, sharp, powerful love songs so eloquently portrayed.

In Australia as well as the US, Air Supply’s music was everywhere in the early 1980s. Though it wasn’t strictly Australian and American audiences that were soaking it up. In 1981, as a part of their ‘anywhere/anytime’ policy, Air Supply accepted an offer to tour South East Asia. The trip would open up a whole new world for them, one that they still rule more than 30 years down the line. Unlike most of the other Australian acts from this golden age, Air Supply knew that one day their American juggernaut would slow down, and duly spread their music beyond the States. It proved to be one of the more astute moves they ever made. ‘We didn’t even know where Taiwan was when we were offered the chance to go there,’ Russell laughed. ‘We were young, we were on top of the world, so we said, “Yeah, let’s go.” Our sound was very much what they wanted at a time when Asia culturally wanted to start opening up to the west, ‘he added. ‘Had it been any heavier, they wouldn’t have allowed us inside.’

“Lost in Love” most commonly refers to the iconic soft rock song and album by the duo Air Supply, released in 1980, which became a massive international hit, but the phrase also describes a deep, consuming emotional state of romantic infatuation, often used in songs, books, or as a business name, like Lost In Love Photography for wedding photography

When their greatest hits album was released, Arista splashed out on an Air Supply billboard on Sunset Strip, the same billboard the guys had seen from their room at the Riot House when they first arrived some six years earlier. But this was a billboard with a difference, as Russell explained.

‘At the bottom, in big writing, it showed the number of albums sold. Every week it’d be crossed out and a new number put up there, adding several hundred thousand more. In the end it was six million or something – right up there on Sunset.’

When it comes to love songs Air Supply had sealed the fate for more love songs to come. Air Supply’s reign in the late 70s/early 80s, had many bands and artists carry the torch for big love songs! like Foreigner, ‘Celine Dion‘, Whitney Houston, ‘Bryan Adams‘, ‘Sade‘, ‘Little River Band and 90s acts like ‘Sixpence None the Richer‘, with artists like Leon Bridges continuing romantic themes more recently, showcasing diverse styles from soft rock to pop ballads.