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First published in April 2009, last updated June 2009
Dave can be contacted at davidgorrie@xtra.co.nz
Photos
and Memorabilia Drut,
Auckland
60's and 70's Reunions
I first started getting into music at the tender age of five when my mother pushed me into learning classical piano (as lots of mums did back then !) My piano teacher had the most unlikely name of Grace Virtue and from what I remember she didn't have a great deal of the former but probably plenty of the latter! I did reasonably well though and after a couple of years decided I wanted to play what I was hearing on the radio. The teacher went out and bought sheet music but unfortunately she taught me how it was written which was not what I was hearing. I was hearing power chords with the left hand in lots of cases but the dots said otherwise and she was unbendable. Foolishly I gave up. My cousin Jim Langabeer who is six years older than I am was playing piano and saxophone for Freddy Keil and The Kavaliers and I would sit and listen to them practice in Jim's mum's living room. That was it.....it had to be a guitar from then on in. After a bit of hurried self taught ukulele I finally convinced the parents to buy me a guitar. I messed around on it for some months before finally getting some lessons. Fortunately, my guitar tutor was the late great "Mr Guitar Man" Bob Paris who was probably in his 20's way back then. I remember buying my first electric guitar, a Jansen Invader that Bob had built for him. It had four pick-ups and a wammy bar and I thought I was just so cool and obviously very lucky to own such an instrument. It was great and I think I sold it to Ray Goodwin who was later to play with Dragon.
My first real band was The Jet Blacks. I wasn't old enough to drive so my dad would drive me to the gigs. I remember the drummer was Robert Payne, Henry Jackson played guitar as well and the bass player was Ian Revell who went on to become a policeman of fairly high ranking and an MP to boot. We had a regular gig on a Friday at St Chads in Sandringham and when we could, we'd finish early and pop around to St Martins in Mt Roskill where Larry's Rebels would be. I thought they were the best band in the land...they were great!
After a short stint in Melbourne playing with the Poles Apart Trio, (who remembers the Poles Apart Folk Club in Newmarket?) an acoustic three piece from the great folk scare of the sixties, I returned to Auckland.
Next came a three piece acoustic band with Rex Smith and a guy he knew whose name escapes me, The Resurrection, which later became electric with the addition of Gerry Copas on drums. Rex then went on to form Green and Yellow and I joined with Mal Finlayson, Peter Traille, Cliff Andrews and John Walmsley (ex High Revving Tongues) to form "Drut" one of the busiest bands of the early 70's. The name was quite inventive for those days...it was "Turd" spelt backwards. Peter, "The Troll" left and was replaced by that fine player Keith Prictor and when I left a couple of years later, Rex Smith took over the lead vocals.
After a short stint with Bruce Morley and John Walmsley, I moved to Kaitaia where I met John "Timberjack" Donoghue in about 1977/78 and we have been playing together on and off since then. We had, and still have occasionally, a duo "Guru and The Gypsy" and we are currently playing in an acoustic 5 piece street band, The Puha Bandidos. (Check out www.puha.co.nz)
I moved back to Auckland in 1983 and joined with Mal again, together with Robbie Lavan, Tiny Thompson and Derna to play in a covers band "Off The Record". Back north again in 1993 to Whangarei then to Kerikeri in '98 where I still reside playing with The Puha Bandidos. It's been a great ride so far and I'm not ready to get off just yet. Long may it continue.
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