Tony Peake


Tony Peake was an outsider, an Australian who liked punk rock and heavy Jamaican dub. What the hell was he doing taking punk Christchurch by scruff of the neck in the late 1970s and 1980s?

Changing it for the better – it seems – by pioneering Garden city punk with The Vandals and catching the moment with The Newtones, before letting loose Afrika Bambaataa, roots and dub reggae on Radio U show Blue Monday and at Zanzibar, one of the city’s first post-punk dance clubs. All the while seeding the city’s air and imaginations with imported music from his University Bookshop lair.

The Newtones head south
Photo credit: Andrew Schmidt Collection
The Newtones with soundman, Fred Kramer. L to R: Graeme Van Der Colk, Mark Brooks, Fred Kramer, Tony Peake
Photo credit: Andrew Schmidt Collection
Androidss, Newtones, Playthings, Ritchie Venus @ The Gladstone
Photo credit: Design by Robin Neate - Christchurch City Libraries Collection
Tony Peake
Photo credit: Andrew Schmidt Collection
Tony Peake in the late 1970s
Photo credit: Andrew Schmidt collection
The Newtones - Paint The Town Red
The Newtones – Mark Brooks, Graeme Van Der Colk, Tony Peake
The Vandals in rehearsal in Christchurch before being filmed for Radio With Pictures, 1978
The Newtones - Graeme Van Der Colk, Mark Brooks, Tony Peake
Labels:

Failsafe


Newtones Music


Propeller

Trivia:

In 1978 The Scavengers asked Tony to come to Auckland to replace departing singer Mike Lezbian. Tony came north, stayed for a while then declined and went back to Christchurch.

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