The big move happened in January 1969, and they took up gigs at Club Bo-Peep and The Galaxie as full-time professionals. Soon after, Ruka decided to quit the bass guitar to concentrate on fronting the band, and they burgled Billy Williams from Mt Albert band The Omnibus to take over bass duties. Murch decided to call it quits at about the same time so they recruited Bob Patient into the ranks from the recently disbanded Green And Yellow. This was to be the line-up until the band folded in 1970.
Constant exposure at the Galaxie and Club Bo-Peep toughened up their sound, as did the addition of a Hammond organ. It was such a big deal to have a Hammond in a band that this appeared in their advertising blurb.
The band drew big crowds and had an active fan club. They had constant write-ups in the press and were worked almost to death in the clubs, at one stage playing every night of the week for six months straight. Appearances on C’mon TV show in mid-1969 led to an offer to record for a new label, Direction, to be distributed by HMV.
Originally, both sides of the band’s first single were supposed to be originals, ‘That’s the Tune’ b/w ‘It’s Not a Crime’ (the latter written by Ruka). Instead, the songs chosen for the single were the Bacharach and David hit ‘Little Red Book’ b/w ‘Love Machine’, first recorded by US group The O’Kaysions.
When releasing their only single, the gimmick was to give it no title.
To promote it, Ian Wilson came up with the gimmick of releasing it with no titles. A daft idea from the start, it eventually appeared with titles on 1 December 1969. The band was also booked to appear on the 1969 C’mon Stage Spectacular, along with Shane Hales (ex-The PleaZers), Dick Roberts (ex-Troubled Mind), Jacqui James (better known today as Jacqui Fitzgerald, jazz singer) and Larry Morris – a late addition.
This ended their stint on the Auckland club scene for a period while they toured the North Island, drumming up business and winning new fans. Back home, they scored a residency at the Oriental and gigged at The Forum in Takapuna, the Monaco and the Tabla, eventually taking over the residency at the Monaco when The Dallas Four moved over to the Tabla Club.
In 1970, the band performed at a Royal Command show, Super Pop ’70, before Prince Charles and Princess Anne at Western Springs Stadium, along with a massive line-up of New Zealand pop talent. Soon afterwards, they toured in support of the American bubblegum heroes known as 1910 Fruitgum Company, and finally disbanded.
Reggie Ruka moved to Australia where he had a varied career in music and at one point, after some peculiar goings-on in Queensland, had taken to calling himself Andre Santos. With that name he briefly joined Australian band Mississippi; after two months he was replaced by Charlie Tumahai. (Mississippi evolved into the Little River Band.)
Ruka re-emerged here several years later as Reggie Ruka to feature as an all-rounder on the TV light entertainment show 12 Bar Rhythm ’n Shoes. He has also turned up over the years in the occasional film.
Peter Timperley went on to join the Dallas Four, Karma and Uncle Remus. Peter Topp retired, and died in early 1993. Bob Patient went to Perth in Western Australia and [in 1995] is still playing. Billy Williams went on to form Space Farm, joined Freedom Express, BLERTA, and the reformed Ticket before moving to Sydney where he played with ex-La De Da’s member Phil Key’s Band of Light. Later he and Ticket vocalist Trev Tombleson went to England and for a couple of years had a band called Slipstream, in which Phil Collins, they say, was an occasional drummer.
Back in Australia, Williams worked in expat New Zealand singer Barry Leef’s band, in the Leon Berger band, and in King Cobra, then formed Monsoon with other New Zealand musos Ray Goodwin (ex-Dragon) and Trev Tombleson. [As of 1995] he’s still playing – most recently with another veteran, Sonny Day.
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From Hostage to the Beat: the Auckland Scene, 1955-1970, by Roger Watkins (Auckland: Tandem Press, 1995), and republished with permission.
