Dudes History

The national success of Th' Dudes came about through a combination of genuine talent and clever marketing and, at the height of their popularity, the group acted and demanded to be treated like stars.

Peter Urlich, Dave Dobbyn and Ian Morris were all school friends at Sacred Heart College and on leaving school they all shared the dream of entering the world of rock'n'roll. In 1974/1975 Urlich and Morris formed a band called Chillum with Glendowie College boys Andrew Bayliss, Glenn Owen and Bruce Murdoch. Having no success they disbanded in 1975. Urlich, Morris and another SHC old boy, Peter Coleman, stayed together and, after several false starts, finally convinced Dobbyn to join them. They recruited Bruce Hambling on drums and called themselves Th' Dudes, the name coming from Tony Benyon's "Lone Groover" cartoon character in New Musical Express. The Lone Groover was a hip, masked bandido who spoke in apostrophes and called everyone "dude" way before surf culture claimed the term.

Th' Dudes began rehearsing in the summer of 1975/76 and made their debut at Crofts nightclub. Later that year they won the annual Battle of the Bands competition and gradually built up a reputation as THE hard-rocking band for your club social or school ball.

In December the band appeared at a one-day festival at Waikino. Headlining acts included the Country Flyers, Rockinghorse, and Ragnarok. Also present were the up-and-coming Hello Sailor. The Dudes were so impressed with them that they became fanatical fans and even started modelling themselves on them. What they liked was the way Hello Sailor came across as being cocky, self-assured, dripping with talent, and with just the right touch of decadence.

By 1977 there was enough interest in Th' Dudes for Kevin Lane to offer them the job of replacing Street Talk as regulars at the Windsor Castle, Auckland's primo rock venue. Th' Dudes had been greatly influenced by the blues style of Street Talk, even covering one or two of their songs.

Lez White replaced Peter Coleman on bass in the middle of 1978. At that stage they were playing regularly at all the key Auckland venues: the Windsor Castle, the Globe, the Gluepot and the Island Of Real. They became one of the Island Of Real's most popular bands and in July 1978, its owner, Charley Gray became their manager. He told the band, "if you want to be treated like stars, you have to behave like stars".

When Hello Sailor left for the USA in August 1978, Gray was determined to make the Dudesthe number one group around. Their insistence on star treatment was getting bizarre. When they played support to Peter Frampton at Western Springs in November, even though they were not paid much, they spent more than their fee backstage and had better facilities than the star of the show!

A record contract was negotiated with Eldred Stebbing and in the beginning of 1979 came their debut single, "Be Mine Tonight", written and sung by Dave Dobbyn, backed with "That Look In Your Eyes". The entire year was taken up with a gruelling touring schedule. It was a life style fit for stars, full of booze, drugs and groupies. They made a controversial move on Anzac Day, when at the last minute they pulled out of a concert at the Wellington Opera House, claiming the sound system wasn't up to standard. The two support acts, Rough Justice and the Wide Mouthed Frogs, didn't see a problem and carried on.

Their debut album "Right First Time" was released in June 1979. To promote it, the group took to the road with a recently imported Cerwin-Vega sound system, in order to show how it should be done. To handle all the gear, they had the largest full-time road crew in the country. This was certainly doing it in style.

The ANZ Bank sponsored a series of "lunchtime concerts" at high schools throughout the country. This brought Th' Dudes' sound right to the fans they wanted to reach, and audience reaction was wild.

In November they were in Australia doing a support tour for English group the Members, when the annual National Music Awards were held Auckland. Being the stars they were, they were flown to Auckland on the Friday afternoon and were returned to Brisbane the following morning. At the awards they picked up two prizes, Top Group and Single Of The Year for "Be Mine Tonight".

Two further singles were released during 1979: "Right First Time"/"Tonight Again" and "Walking In Light"/"Bad Boy Billy". Australia even had a taste, with "Bad Boy Billy" and "Walking In Light" both being released on the Big Mouth label, with "Stop Crying" and "On Sunday" being on the flipsides respectively.

In January 1980 the Sweetwaters Festival was held, and Th' Dudes were given the prime slot just before headlining act Elvis Costello and the Attractions. It was the best performance of their career, and although they were attacked by a small section of the crowd, they certainly won over the vast majority of the audience.

As they debated the band's future, Th' Dudes kept performing for the next three months with a smaller sound system and road crew, but the end was near. The tour with the Members had shown them that Australia was the logical next step, but the idea of slogging round the dingy Aussie traps as relative unknowns did not appeal to Morris, and he announced that he was leaving in May 1980. The farewell performance - featuring a nude Ian Morris - was at Mainstreet to a fanatical crowd.

Although they had officially disbanded, they went back into the recording studio to complete their second album, "Where Are The Boys?", which was released in July 1980, along with the single "Bliss"/"On The Rox".