Th' Dudes are a New Zealand rock band that was formed in the late 1970s in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. Hits include "Walking in Light", "Right First Time", " Be Mine Tonight" and "Bliss".

History

1975–1980

The band was formed by Morris, Urlich, Coleman and Dobbyn, students at Sacred Heart College in Auckland. The band name derived from the "Lone Groover" comic strip in the English music paper, ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

''. The band's sound was heavily influenced by the British scene, especially

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known professionally as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer-songwriter and actor. A leading figure in the music industry, he is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the ...

and

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, rhythmically d ...

, and later by the Punk and New Wave sounds of

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of ...

Elvis Costello Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...

Nick Lowe Nicholas Drain Lowe (born 24 March 1949) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer. A noted figure in power pop and New wave music, new wave,Roxy Music Roxy Music are an English rock band formed in 1970 by Bryan Ferry—who became the band's lead vocalist and principal songwriter—and bassist Graham Simpson. The other longtime members are Phil Manzanera (guitar), Andy Mackay (saxophone ...

The Stranglers The Stranglers are an English rock band who emerged via the punk rock scene. Scoring 23 UK top 40 singles and 19 UK top 40 albums to date in a career spanning five decades, the Stranglers are one of the longest-surviving bands to have origin ...

and

The Clash The Clash were an English rock band formed in London in 1976 who were key players in the original wave of British punk rock. Billed as "The Only Band That Matters", they also contributed to the and new wave movements that emerged in the wa ...

. Starting off as a covers band that played surf clubs and private parties, Th' Dudes quickly earned a reputation as an energetic and skilful outfit featuring dual guitar work from Dobbyn and Morris, a tight no-nonsense rhythm section (Peter Coleman on bass, later replaced by Lez White, and drummer Bruce Hambling) and charismatic vocalist Urlich. Slowly the repertoire featured more originals and their status rose to the point where Th' Dudes were acclaimed NZ Group of the Year in 1979. The group disbanded in 1980.

1990s-present

The mid-1990s saw a resurgence of interest in Th' Dudes in New Zealand, when "classic hits" and "classic rock" radio became more prevalent, and the compositional, performance and production qualities of the band's records endured. ''Bliss: 20 Essential New Zealand Classics'' and other compilations showcased New Zealand

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...

acts which epitomized the Kiwi rock genre. Th' Dudes', "

Bliss BLISS is a system programming language developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) by W. A. Wulf, D. B. Russell, and A. N. Habermann around 1970. It was perhaps the best known system language until C debuted a few years later. Since then, C b ...

", attained particular popularity and has since established itself as New Zealand's unofficial national drinking song. In October 2006, Th' Dudes embarked on a tour of New Zealand as part of

Radio Hauraki Radio Hauraki is a New Zealand rock music station that started in 1966. It was the first private commercial radio station of the modern broadcasting era in New Zealand and operated illegally until 1970 to break the monopoly held by the state-o ...

's 40th anniversary celebrations. The original tour was 11 dates, but quickly expanded to 17 shows due to demand. The band compiled a six-track album of demo and alternate versions of their biggest hits, culled from the band's own collections. This CD was available only at shows on the tour and was called '' Pubs, Parks, Theatres, Clubs, Church Halls, Gardens, Lounges & Band Rotundas''. In late 2007, Th' Dudes embarked on the "Summer of Love" tour. In 2008, the band sued Stebbing Studios for non-payment of royalties. The band sought to show that they were not paid royalties for sales of their music due to their songs being recorded in downtime at Stebbing, but studio owner

Eldred Stebbing Eldred Claude Stebbing (3 October 1921 – 6 December 2009) was a New Zealand record label owner and co-founder of the Zodiac Records label. He also founded Stebbing Studios in Auckland. Biography Stebbing was born in 1921. After leaving schoo ...

claimed production costs had not been met. The dispute was resolved to both parties' mutual satisfaction in November 2008. In 2019, the band announced a new tour of New Zealand, with dates from 9–25 April 2020, but it was postponed until November due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. Ian Morris's brother, Rikki Morris joined the group for the tour. Ian Morris died suddenly in Napier on 7 October 2010. Prior to his death, Morris produced records and wrote advertising music, after having had a brief solo career under the stage name Tex Pistol. He is survived by his twin daughters, Julia and Maude.

Members

Dave Dobbyn Sir David Joseph Dobbyn (born 3 January 1957) is a New Zealand musician, singer–songwriter and record producer. In his early career he was a member of the rock group Th' Dudes and was the main creative force in pop band DD Smash. Since then he ...

– vocals, guitars * Ian Morris (deceased) – guitars, keyboards, backing vocals *

Peter Urlich Peter may refer to: People * List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name * Peter (given name) ** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church * Peter (surname), a su ...

– drums (changing to vocals later) *Peter Coleman, (Replaced by Lez White 1978) – bass *Bruce Hambling – drums *Rikki Morris

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

Demo albums

Singles

Awards and nominations

Aotearoa Music Awards

The

Aotearoa Music Awards The Aotearoa Music Awards (previously called the New Zealand Music Awards), conferred annually by Recorded Music NZ, honour outstanding artistic and technical achievements in the recording industry. The awards are among the most significant tha ...

(previously known as ''New Zealand Music Awards'' (NZMA)) are an annual awards night celebrating excellence in

New Zealand music The music of New Zealand has been influenced by a number of traditions, including Māori music, the music introduced by European settlers during the nineteenth century, and a variety of styles imported during the twentieth century, including ...

and have been presented annually since 1965. ! , - , 2019 , , Th' Dudes , ,

New Zealand Music Hall of Fame The New Zealand Music Hall of Fame , Te Whare Taonga Puoro o Aotearoa is a figurative hall of fame dedicated to noteworthy New Zealand musicians. The hall was created in 2007 by Recorded Music NZ (then known as the Recording Industry Associati ...

, , , , , -

References

External links

Th' Dudes homepageAudioCulture

Th' Dudes at last.fm

NZ Music survey
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dudes APRA Award winners New Zealand post-punk music groups People from Auckland People educated at Sacred Heart College, Auckland Musical groups established in 1975 Musical groups disestablished in 1980 Musical groups from Auckland New Zealand punk rock groups