Hogsnort Rupert "Have a Hogsnort Rupert Summer" 1970

...After much encouragement from Luther and Terry’s landlady Jo Johnson, the tea lady at HMV Studios, Hogsnort Rupert’s Original Flagon Band booked in to HMV to record four Luther-penned songs as a keepsake and something to send home to their families in England. When it came time to pay, the engineer Frank Douglas told the band to hold off until he played the songs to producer Howard Gable. Gable liked what he heard and offered them a five-year recording contract. Their debut album, All Our Own Work!, was engineered by Douglas and produced by Gable. It contained eight of Luther’s compositions and two by Frankie Boardman, although the album cover has his ‘I’m Going Home’ erroneously credited to Luther. When Gable left for Australia, HMV’s young gun Peter Dawkins came on board to produce the covers ‘The Morning After The Party’ and ‘What A Mouth’, although he remained a bit standoffish. HMV encouraged the band to enter the NZBC’s Studio One. They performed ‘When I Was Young’ in the heats and finished third in the final with ‘Maggie Maggie’, both Luther songs off the debut album. The win earned them a spot on the televised Miss Wellington Show where they performed a new song called ‘Gretel’. With the album selling poorly and HMV losing interest, Luther had visited the company’s sales manager Graham Feasey to ask for one more session to record ‘Gretel’. “We’ll give you four hours,” Feasey told him. Dawkins produced the track – which was based on a harmonica riff that sounded like an accordion – with Terry singing and Luther’s Swiss electrician friend Urs and his wife providing a spoken Swiss German interlude...
...With the help of the television exposure, ‘Gretel’ was a No.2 hit in Wellington and made the national top 20. It even sold 10,000 copies in West Germany! The success rekindled HMV’s interest and sparked the first murmurings of the band going professional. However, Billy Such, Ian Terry and Frankie Boardman had all converted to the Church of Christ during the previous 18 months and were finding it difficult to balance the band with church activities and beliefs and their jobs at the NZPO, and all three decided to leave. Eager to maintain momentum, Luther headed to Chez Paree to look for replacements. He was continually pointed in the direction of 22-year-old Lower Hutt singer-guitarist John Reilly, who had graduated from his brother’s band Mike and the Beavers to gaining his own following as a solo artist in the folk scene. With similar early influences to Luther, he fit like a glove. Bass guitarist John Newton and drummer Graeme Brown were also recruited. Newton had played with The Regency Set while Brown had been with Wanganui band The Minors, who had recorded singles for HMV, before he moved to Wellington in 1966. ...The new line-up headed into HMV with Peter Dawkins to record a Dave Luther song called ‘Pretty Girl’. After the success of ‘Gretel’ in West Germany, Luther hit upon the short-lived idea of doing an album of sounds from all around the world and intended ‘Pretty Girl’ as a kind of West Indian ska number. John Newton overdubbed piano and Dawkins had Graeme Brown put his drumstick in a cowbell and play 16th notes to give the chorus some movement. Alec Wishart sung in a faux West Indian accent, unintentionally slipping into a Spike Milligan-like Indian accent for the spoken second chorus, and even added a Cornish “Come on, my lover, give us a kiss!” to bring in the end choruses. As the song came together with overdubbed tambourine and handclaps, Luther’s harmonica, Wishart’s kazoo and a distinctive high vocal harmony from Reilly, Dawkins became quite excited. Having already produced New Zealand No.1 hits for Shane, The Fourmyula and Craig Scott since being hired by HMV 18 months earlier, he was adamant ‘Pretty Girl’ would be a hit. HMV released the single and the NZBC filmed Hogsnort Rupert’s Original Flagon Band performing ‘Pretty Girl’ for Studio One as an update on the previous year’s finalists. But before it could be televised, Luther and Wishart folded the band due to the old “musical differences” chestnut. The single had barely sold 700 copies in about six weeks when Studio One screened the clip. As the camera came in close on Wishart and he uttered the words “Come on, my lover, give us a kiss!” he gave a cheeky wink. Peter Dawkins would later say the song sold on that wink. He rang Dave Luther the following Monday and said, “Get the band together! You’ve got to form something – we’ve just had orders in for 2,000 copies of ‘Pretty Girl’.” It continued to sell at 2,000 copies a day, made it to No.1 and kept on selling in excess of 55,000. Luther and Wishart brought back John Reilly but decided to hire various rhythm sections as the need arose. Dawkins became their quasi-booking agent, taking 20 per cent, until they joined the Joe Brown stable. They used session musicians on the Have A Hogsnort Rupert Summer album – which included ‘Aunty Alice (Bought Us This)’, ‘Aubrey’ and a sample of their live show recorded at the Beefeater Arms –and it shot to No.1. By the end of 1970, ‘Pretty Girl’ was the highest-selling single in New Zealand that year, outdoing ‘Let It Be’ by The Beatles, ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ by Simon & Garfunkel and ‘Lola’ by The Kinks. When it was released in Great Britain at year’s end, Top Of The Pops requested the Studio One film clip but refused to air it when they found it was in black-and-white. The band dropped the ‘Original Flagon Band’ title and began advertising themselves as simply Hogsnort Rupert. They toured as part of Joe Brown’s Miss New Zealand shows, supported Roger Whittaker through the country and then as part of a Joe Brown country music show along with John Hore, Eddie Low and the Hamilton County Bluegrass Band. While on tour it became evident that John Reilly was battling his own demons. When he went AWOL after a Christchurch show and didn’t catch up with the tour until it reached Wellington he was let go. Luther and Wishart held it together for a bit longer, recording one more album with Peter Dawkins – Ways Of Making You Laugh, which included the singles ‘Monday’ and ‘Charlie Was A Good Man’ – before shutting up shop and, independent of each other, travelling to England...to be continued... - audioculture
trax:
01 Little Ukelele 02 Something Old, Something New 03 Gretel 04 Aubrey 05 Old Blue 06 Aunty Alice 07 Pretty Girl 08 Keep Your Hands Off Her 09 Maggie Maggie 10 What A Mouth 11 Got My Mojo Working 12 Lonesome Traveller 13 All Things Bright And Beautiful 14. Your Tender Look (Bonus Track)
…served by Gaius…