The noisy library of New Zealand music
Te pātaka korihi o ngā puoro o Aotearoa
Richard Lee could not believe his ears. It was the beginning of 1979 and the tall, good-looking electric violin virtuoso and singer-songwriter had just been asked to join Australia’s top band, Dragon.
Read this storyWhen the classic Dragon line-up of Marc and Todd Hunter, Robert Taylor, Paul Hewson and Kerry Jacobson reunited in 1982 it was with the intention of clearing debts from the decade before. But a hit song with lyrics that grew from a children’s nursery rhyme, and the following album and tour, had them again scaling the highest reaches of the Australian charts.
Read this storyRay Goodwin was the guitarist in Dragon from its first public gig at The Great Ngaruawahia Music Festival in January 1973 until late 1975. He composed the group’s first Australian single, ‘Star Kissed’ (Vertigo, 1975). This account of the group’s three-week residency in a Fijian nightclub was written for Auckland-based magazine Hot Licks in November 1974.
Read this storyI first recall Dragon as one of the bands that played in the Albert Park band rotunda in the mid-1970s. Original rock music was a hard sell back in the day and Dragon worked hard to break through. They recorded two albums in New Zealand, Universal Radio (1974) and Scented Gardens For The Blind (1975), before crossing the Tasman where they recorded a series of popular hits with fellow expat, producer Peter Dawkins.
Read this story