Yes, Dance Party is back

MWDanceParty BACK TOGETHER: (From left) John Steadman (saxophone), Fred Loveridge (guitar), Peter Calkin (vocals), Murray Loveridge (bass), Brent Holt (keyboard) and Mike McGrail (drums). PICTURE / SUPPLIED

Rumours are rife around town that Wanganui's band of the 1980s, Dance Party, is reforming for a one-off engagement.
The rumours are true, says Fred Loveridge, Dance Party guitarist.
The band was started by Fred and Murray (Dusty) Loveridge in the summer of 1984 when they recruited Mike McGrail, who had been playing drums in Andrew London's band.
"We hired a hall and the three of us got together," says Fred. "But we realised with the material we wanted to cover, we needed a keyboard player."
Mike's brother Richard McGrail joined on keyboard. Pete Calkin and his band had just finished a residency at the Red Pepper, so he was the next recruit as lead vocalist and very visual frontman.
"I was working at the freezing works with my cousin, John Steadman, and I knew he flirted with saxophone and a few other instruments," says Fred. He was brought into the band originally as second guitarist because he didn't own a saxophone, but shifted to sax when he turned up to rehearsal with one he'd just bought.
"Within the space of a week it all fell together and we started playing at the Palm Lounge as resident band, playing Friday and Saturday nights for Erin Casey, who ran the place."
It was a dine-and-dance arrangement at a time when the pubs closed at 11pm and there were no nightclubs.
"We'd play schmaltzy stuff for the first two sets, and then at about 11pm all the people from the boozers would turn up for some action and they boogied on until 1am. It was basically a nightclub scene because of the late licence.
"It was kind of a weird band at the start because we weren't really sure of the direction, musically. Pete introduced us to a lot of left field music that I wasn't necessarily into, but I got into it because I saw the reaction from the punters. It was B52s, Madness, all that sort of thing. So we went down that road for a while."
Dance Party started playing pubs like the Rutland, the Criterion and the back bar of Fosters and the line-up changed. Simon Bloor joined on trumpet and keyboards and the music adapted to include horn-driven material.
"When Simon left we got Barry Brown-Sharp across from Palmerston North; he was playing with Soundproof. He became our keyboard/trumpet player."
Neither Simon nor Barry were available for the reunion gig so Brent Holt, keyboardist with the Clazzmatic Boogie Orchestra, has stepped in to help.
The band lasted four years, a respectable term for a band, folding in 1988.
"The idea of the reunion has been toyed with for a number of years now but it just seems the right time to do it. It's been 30-odd years, we're all still alive and so we may as well. It's just a one-off; we won't do it again.
"We started putting rehearsals together and it's like we haven't been away. We'll be digging out the old stuff like The Cars ... and our original stuff as well. The first couple of rehearsals sounded pretty good," says Fred.
For nostalgia's sake, the gig will be in the back bar of Fosters - now Stellar - on Saturday, December 12.