Radio Dunedin announcer Graeme Fyffe and Lutha bass player Peter Fraser are planning a 1970s music revival, when the Dunedin music scene was at its peak.
A catalyst for the renaissance was the success of the Lutha reunion held during the inaugural Dunedin Heritage Festival in March, when veteran Dunedin band Mother Goose also came out of mothballs.
‘‘Lutha were one of the better bands to ever come out of Dunedin,'' Fyffe said.
‘‘They were the first Dunedin band to record professionally and the only real touring band back then. It created an era because people suddenly realised that you could do it in Dunedin.''
Fyffe recently aired a 1970s Dunedin music show on his Saturday morning Radio Dunedin programme to gauge interest.
‘‘I couldn't believe the response to it. It got a heck of a lot of feedback. People of all ages were ringing up with all sorts of old memories,'' he said.
‘‘Afterwards, I felt really privileged about presenting it. You just realised what a very special time it was. So, now we're working on pulling together a Shoreline reunion concert later this year.''
Fraser (59) was the bass player for Dunedin band Lutha, which enjoyed international success in the early '70s, while Fyffe (49) played with the Shiel Hill Tavern resident band Country Fever.
‘‘The Dunedin music scene was thriving back then,'' Fraser said.
‘‘There was an amazing number of bands in Dunedin in the late '60s and and early '70s. If you look at the back page of the ODT from 1970 it's covered in band ads."
The bands plied their trade at venues such as the Nova Bar at the Shoreline, Mojo's nightclub in George St and the Fairfield Tavern, which opened in 1970.
‘‘You'd have more than 2000 people at concerts in the old agricultural hall beside Sammy's,'' Fraser recalled.
Out-of-town bands also regularly visited Dunedin, including the Quincy Conserve from Wellington, Quin Tikis from Auckland, Headband from Auckland, Kal-Que-Lated Risk from Featherston, Simple Image from Wellington and Chapta from Christchurch.
‘‘The magic of it was probably the distinct sound,'' Fraser said
‘‘A lot of it was probably because the baby-boomers were bursting on the scene. So, we were writing songs at the time about real things like relationship break-ups and marriages and babies being born... just all those things you experience in life.''
