BASSIST FINDS LIFE GOES ON, EVEN WITHOUT BAND

Last summer, the Little River Band, Australia’s most successful rock export since the Easybeats, broke up in frustration over diminishing record sales and radio airplay.

After scoring more than a dozen Top 40 hits in the late 1970s and early ‘80s with such melodic pop ditties as “Reminiscing,” “Lonesome Loser,” and “Take it Easy on Me,” the band’s fortunes nose-dived with the 1983 departure of original lead singer Glenn Shorrock.

When two successive albums failed to yield a single hit, the remaining members of the Little River Band finally decided to throw in their amplifiers in July 1986.

Wayne Nelson, the Aussie sextet’s bassist and only American, didn’t see much point in licking his wounds.

“Sure, it was depressing,” said Nelson, 37, who has lived in Rancho Penasquitos since 1981, the year after he joined the Little River Band.

“But the suffering artist routine holds very little romance for me,” he added. “If you have a talent, then you should use it.”

So for the last year, Nelson-- who sang lead on “The Night Owls,” the Little River Band’s second-biggest hit--has been using his talent to sing and record commercial jingles for banks, shopping malls and radio and television stations across the country.

“It’s a matter of survival,” Nelson said. “You do what you have to do, especially when you have a family to support.

“I could very easily have been selfish. I could have sold everything I owned, moved into a one-room shack in Pacific Beach, and looked out over the ocean while I wrote my own music.

“But I care too much about my family (he is married and has two children) I don’t believe you should starve for your art form. That’s crazy. I’ve had people tell me I shouldn’t be doing jingles, but that’s easy to say when you’ve got a fat checkbook and a nice plateful of food on your table.

“If you don’t, and if you have a talent, then you should use that talent to earn a living in any way you can.”

So Nelson’s still singing for his supper, only in a different way.

Besides, he reasons, when the Little River Band broke up, he didn’t have too many options.

“San Diego isn’t well known for promoting original music, and I wasn’t about to go down and sing ‘Proud Mary’ at the Bahia,” he said. “I couldn’t afford to sit back and take things easy, either.

“It’s a misconception that bands get rich off their names, unless they have hit albums that sell hundreds of thousands of units.”

The Little River Band’s last album, 1986’s “No Reigns,” sold less than 10,000 copies, Nelson said, “and when you divide the pie seven ways--between the six band members and our manager--I ended up with maybe $1,600.”

“Then you have to subtract the expenses, mostly for touring,” he added. “Every time we came to the United States, we had to spend upwards of $150,000 in air fare and freight just to get the band and the crew over here.

“American bands don’t have that expense. But since the Little River Band was from Australia, our touring costs were substantially higher than average.

“So no, I’m not a millionaire. Millionaire isn’t even in my vocabulary. I’m not saying I’m a pauper, but I do have to work for my living.”

Originally a rhythm-and-blues musician from Chicago, Nelson moved to Los Angeles in the middle 1970s and spent several years touring with Jim Messina.

In late 1979, the Little River Band’s bassist left to join a Christian retreat in the midst of the band’s American tour, on which Messina was the opening act. Nelson was asked to fill in, and by the following spring he had become a permanent member.

“I joined at the height of the band’s popularity,” Nelson said. “One of the highlights came when we played five sold-out shows in a row at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles.

“No other band had ever done that before. That made us very proud, especially since we did this in Los Angeles, the center of the music industry, where the people can see anything and get anything.

“And what made us even more proud was that we never had to sell out. The entire time the Little River Band was on top, we were able to play the kind of music we wanted to play.”

Today, Nelson is still holding out hope that the Little River Band will eventually regroup.

“There’s a management firm in Los Angeles that wants to get us back with our original lead singer, but to be honest, everything’s up in the air,” he said.

“If we do get back together, that’s fine. But if we don’t, hey--life goes on.”