(From left) Bruce Hambling, Lez White, Peter Urlich, Ian Morris and Dave Dobbyn hit the road again. Picture / Becky Nunes

(From left) Bruce Hambling, Lez White, Peter Urlich, Ian Morris and Dave Dobbyn hit the road again. Picture / Becky Nunes

They started off as teenagers and weren't much older when they stopped. But in their five or so years together in the late 70s, Th' Dudes left their mark on Kiwi rock with two albums, a row of enduring singles and one drunken national anthem.

Unlike many acts of their generation, they've never reformed. Until now that is, headlining a tour celebrating 40 years of New Zealand's original rock station, Radio Hauraki.

Before they launched the roadshow - which also features Hammond Gamble and Hello Sailor - at a press conference yesterday.

Scott Kara and Russell Baillie tracked down all five members - guitarist-singer Dave Dobbyn, singer Peter Urlich, guitarist Ian Morris, drummer Bruce Hambling and bassist Lez White - and asked them their memories of those good old days. And inquired whether the reunion is about a bunch of fortysomething guys following their Bliss ...

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The beginning...

Ian Morris: Should you ask me to put a date on when Th' Dudes began, I'd point to a Saturday afternoon sometime early in the Auckland summer of 1975.

Dave Dobbyn, Peter Urlich, Peter "Nyolls" Coleman and I were gathered - as usual - in Nyolls' grandmother's basement in Greenlane. We were "getting a band together". Dave, Peter U and I had known each other since form one at Sacred Heart College in 1968.
(from the liner notes to compilation Where Are The Boys?)

Peter Urlich: We played during lunchtime for whoever was around at the time. Then Ian and I wanted to take it further and we hooked up with this garage band from Glendowie College. We were trying to get Dave to come along but he was incredibly shy.

Morris: We finally convinced Dave to come along and play some guitar. We would've been 18. We advertised for a drummer and Bruce Hambling turned up for that one.

Dave Dobbyn: Ian dragged me along one day and I was quite reticent because I hadn't really done a lot of public playing. But they had. They'd had bottles thrown at them at Surfside on the Shore.

Bruce Hambling: answered an ad in the Herald. I just felt that they had something about them and they were trying to do their own music, which was rare back then. They had a good vision about where they were going and it was just this machine starting up and it was really going to get rolling.

Dobbyn: The first gig we played was at Crofts nightclub in Airedale St, and Human Instinct were playing. I was shitting myself. Terrified. I was facing the amplifier. But a little bit of Dutch courage in the form of some sly grogging probably gave me the courage to play and I was hooked.