THE RIGHT NOTE: Rock's excesses led to blues

THE STORY SO FAR: Robbie Laven emigrates to New Zealand and after three years living in Te Awamutu he moves to Tauranga and joins a couple of bands. After three years gigging around this neck of the woods he is on the move again - this time to study law at Auckland University. The story continues.
ONE OF the vocalist entrants in the Johnny Cooper talent show was a guy called Bob Cooper, who got Robbie a gig in a Mersey beat group called the Downbeats that caused a sensation at the Oriental Ballroom in Auckland.
The Downbeats were shortlived, though sensational, and an over-the-top introduction to the Auckland music scene, which featured plenty of adoration, but no money as the band were far too wild for regular work.
The Downbeats were a vocal group, with five singers and one guitarist, (Robbie). The lead singers - Bob Cooper and Bill Bacon - became lead singers for the Australian Pleazers as Bob and Bill London.
The rock 'n' roll lifestyle has a voracious appetite for the passionate and the unwary, and young Robbie ended up in hospital as a direct result of being in a wild rock 'n' roll band and trying to do law assignments at the same time.
It was also while living in Auckland that Robbie played in a band called Mollie (named after an Australian DJ/personality) with Pete Kershaw, singer Jenny Parkinson, Dave Vercoe and Ramon York, who later went on to be part of glam rock band Ragnarok.
After Robbie's recovery from the excesses of rock 'n' roll, he started playing with an outfit called Tymes Four which was musically more sedate, healthy and financially more lucrative.
The lead singer and rhythm guitarist in Tymes Four was a very clever part Samoan musician, John Bergersen (who unfortunately is no longer with us.) John and Robbie played folk music when it first exploded on to the scene in Auckland where they became quite a feature of the folk music 60s scene.
John went to Spain to play flamenco and ended up as a full-time musician in London.
In Robbie's first year at university he was was given a National Dobro resonator guitar by an admirer and as a consequence became enamoured with country blues.
The following year he was invited by the Mad Dog Jug Jook and Washboard band to take over from Henry Jackson, an Auckland blues guitar legend who wanted to concentrate on electric Chicago blues. Other jug bands around at the time were the Christchurch's Band of Hope and the Wellington's Windy City Strugglers who are still active today. The Strugglers' Andrew Delahunty was one of the Mad Dogs' harmonica players.
Robbie says that "this time was a highlight of my musical career and I still love the jazzy/bluesy grunty goodtime riffy aspects of jugband music".