Dave Dobbyn


Like the proverbial Irish bard, Dave Dobbyn seems to have a song for every occasion.

His songs are sung at weddings and funerals – not just those of everyday citizens but also civic leaders. They are performed for visiting dignitaries, hollered spontaneously at boozy sing-alongs, adopted as campaign songs for major sporting events. At different times, in different situations, he seems to speak – or at least sing – for the whole country.

Dave Dobbyn on the Stone People tour, Hautapu Street, Taihape, April 1986.
Photo credit: Chris Bourke
Dave Dobbyn, 2007
Outlook For Thursday
Dave Dobbyn, 2007
Homegrown Profiles: Dave Dobbyn (2005)
Dave Dobbyn, mid-1980s on a summer beach tour
Photo credit: Photo by Murray Cammick
Dave Dobbyn, 1982, with promoter Mike Corless to the right
Photo credit: Photo by Murray Cammick
The Australian DD Smash line-up pre-show at the 1984 Thank God It's Over gig
Photo credit: Photo by Murray Cammick
Dave Dobbyn, 1982
Photo credit: Photo by Murray Cammick
Peter Warren and Dave Dobbyn, 1985
Shake! magazine, February 1988
Tim Finn, Bic Runga and Dave Dobbyn, on their nationwide Finn, Runga and Dobbyn tour, 2000
Photo credit: Photo by Mark Roach
Gold discs for DD Smash for debut album Cool Bananas, with Minister of Justice Jim McLay. Peter Warren, Rob Guy, Jim McLay, Lisle Kinney (behind), Dave Dobbyn (front). Taken at Record Warehouse in Durham Lane, Auckland, 22 May 1982. There was a countdown to gold and Jim was on hand to present and press the flesh.
Loyal
Dave Dobbyn, Sam Hunt, Eddie Rayner, Neil Finn at Womad for ENZSO, Western Springs, Auckland, 1997.
Photo credit: Murray Cammick Collection
Tim Finn, Bic Runga, Dave Dobbyn, Winery Tour 2010
Dave Dobbyn, 1982
Photo credit: Photo by Murray Cammick
The 1980 Sharon O'Neill touring band with Dave Dobbyn. L to R: Sharon, Brent Thomas, Steve Garden, Dave, Clint Brown
Fun on tour: Paul Streekstra (soundman, producer), manager Roger King, Dave Dobbyn, circa 1983
Photo credit: Photo by Kerry Brown. Murray Cammick Collection
Slice of Heaven - live at the APRA Silver Scroll Awards 2012
Dave Dobbyn, 2005
Dave Dobbyn, mid-1980s
Photo credit: Photo by Kerry Brown
A 1995 Sony publicity shot
Ian Morris, Dave Dobbyn, Scott Calhoun, Nelson early 1984
Photo credit: Ian Morris Collection
Dave Dobbyn - Nau Mai Rā (2017)
Live 1982
Photo credit: Photo by Murray Cammick
Dave Dobbyn, 2008
Dave Dobbyn, Bic Runga and Tim Finn on tour, 2000
Photo credit: Photo by Mark Roach
Dave Dobbyn, early 1980s
Photo credit: Photo by Murray Cammick
Dave Dobbyn, 2010
Photo credit: Photo by Matt Taylor
Interview with Dave Dobbyn about the album Twist, 27 April 1995. Directed by Ross Cunningham, DOP Mike Monten, edited by Gregor Boyd, art by Johnnie Pain. Photographs of Auckland's west coast by Dave Dobbyn.
Bic Runga, Tim Finn and Dave Dobbyn rehearsing for the 2010 Winery Tour
Bic Runga and Dave Dobbyn, Finn, Runga and Dobbyn tour, 2000
Photo credit: Photo by Mark Roach
The Finn, Runga and Dobbyn tour, 2000
Photo credit: Photo by Mark Roach
Dave Dobbyn - Loyal (1988). Cover photograph taken by Robin Morrison at Lowburn, Central Otago. 
The Cool Bananas line-up of DD Smash. L to R: Lisle Kinney, Rob Guy, Dave Dobbyn, Peter Warren
Dave standing on the corner of Kent Terrace and Oriental Parade, Wellington
Photo credit: Photo by Phil Reid for The Evening Post. Courtesy of the Alexander Turnbull Library
Dave in Cha Cha magazine, 1983
Photo credit: Photo by Kerry Brown. Murray Cammick Collection
Love You Like I Should
Dave Dobbyn In Concert 1994 (filmed before a studio audience at Revolver Studios, Auckland)
Dave being congratulated by Festival Records boss Jerry Wise on Cool Bananas debuting at Number 1 on the chart. Somewhere in the South Island, maybe Kaikoura.
Photo credit: Photo by Chris Caddick
Taken at the 1982 APRA Silver Scrolls, Dave Dobbyn and partner sit with his manager Roger King and Rip It Up editor and owner Murray Cammick
Dave Dobbyn on Holmes (1998)
1983-84 DD Smash line-up after the RIANZ Music Awards. L to R: Ian Morris, Peter Warren, Gary Langsford, Scott Calhoun, with Dave Dobbyn at front.
Dave Dobbyn with Herbs, from the Slice Of Heaven video shoot, 1986
DD Smash at Auckland's Mainstreet, 1982
Photo credit: Simon Grigg collection
Dave Dobbyn, 2008
Photo credit: Photo by Philip Simpson
Dave Dobbyn, Bic Runga, Tim Finn - Summer Winery Tour 2010
DD Smash, Dance Exponents, and Daggy & the Dickheads - a triple bill in the key of D, Mainstreet Cabaret, Auckland, 21 October 1982 
Photo credit: Auckland Star
Dave Dobbyn, Bic Runga and Tim Finn on the Finn, Runga and Dobbyn tour, 2000
Photo credit: Photo by Mark Roach
The original lyrics to Bliss, hand-written by Ian Morris and Dave Dobbyn
Photo credit: Ian Morris Archives
The Australian DD Smash band, 1984
Dave Dobbyn, 2009
Dave Dobbyn on Talk Talk (2010)
Dave Dobbyn and an early version of DD Smash with Rob Guy and Lisle Kinney, Avalon Park, Lower Hutt, early 1982.
Photo credit: Photo by Bryan Staff
Dave Dobbyn and Peter Warren, 1983
Photo credit: Simon Grigg Collection
The DD Smash touring van with Dave in the centre, 1983
Photo credit: Ian Morris Collection
Whaling
Making the Slice Of Heaven video, 1986
Photo credit: Photo by Kerry Brown
Publicity shot for the 2000 Finn, Runga and Dobbyn tour
Tim Finn and Dave Dobbyn, late 1980s
Photo credit: Murray Cammick Collection
Dave Dobbyn's first solo single Bull By The Horns, 1981. Produced by Rob Aickin and Ian Morris, it was the first time the name DD Smash appeared.
Peter "Rooda" Warren
Photo credit: Photo by Murray Cammick
Spot On - Dave Dobbyn (1988)
Dave Dobbyn at an APRA Silver Scrolls in the early 1990s
NZ Music Awards, late 1983. Dave Dobbyn receives an award from the then leader of the opposition, David Lange. A year later it was Lange's government who instructed the police to proceed with a prosecution against Dobbyn after the Queen Street Riot.
Photo credit: Photo by Jocelyn Carlin. Courtesy of RIANZ
DD Smash on tour - Rooda and DD, 1983
Photo credit: Ian Morris Collection
Dave Dobbyn - Overnight Success (documentary, 1999)
Language
Welcome Home
The industry invite to the DD Smash Countdown To Gold on May 22, 1982. The Cool Bananas album had already gone gold by the time this was sent out but a little hype is not unknown in the music industry. You can see the presentation of the gold discs elsewhere on this page.
Photo credit: Murray Cammick Collection
Dave Dobbyn was inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame in 2013. The Hall of Fame is an initiative of Recorded Music NZ and the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), whose support of AudioCulture enables the site to stream music content.

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