2000 motels—Th’ Dudes

Press, 17 April 1980, Page 14

2000 motels—Th’ Dudes

By

NEVIN TOPP

Th’ Dudes rattled the already thinning ranks of the Auckland rock scene nearly three weeks ago when they announced that the band would split. With the demise of Hello Sailor, Citizen Band with a new line-up, and Mi-Sex, Toy Love and Split Enz in Australia, the Auckland scene looked bleaker when Th* Dudes was added to the list of casualties. Th’ Dudes were in Christchurch on Good Friday to play at a function at the University of Canterbury Students’ Association building / at Ilam, and the drummer, Lez White, and the bass guitarist, Bruce' HamblingHambling, gave some reasons why the band had decided to quiet. Lez White implied that

one of the reasons was the grind- of touring, including staying in box-like motels which did not exactly give rise to. inspirations for a musician. The interview with White and Hambling gave' the backstage view, of rock music, staying in sterile motels, away from “our ladies” as Lez White put it, the continual grind of touring, and a lack of company. At first Lez White seemed reluctant to talk, but later he said that it was good to talk to someone about why Th’ Dudes hid called it a day. Besides the grind of touring the expectations' that the group was going to do well had not taken root.

The group had won last year’s Recording Industry Association of. New Zealand awards for both best

album and best single, but the relatively young band had not broken any new ground. • Lez White pinpointed the time that the band did not seem to be going anywhere to their return from Australia last December. A week before the break-up was announced at the Windsor Castle, in Auckland, the guitarist, lan Morris, had decided he wanted to leave the band, and Peter Urlich, the vocalist, decided that he had had enough also. But the remianing three members, White, Hambling, and Dave Dobbyn, the talented songwriter and guitarist, have decided to. set out as a three-piece on their own — initially. Lez White indicated that the end of Th’ Dudes as a five-member band was not necessarily bad. Both, he and Hambling saw the

new group as having the potential for new and better opportunities. The trio’s determination was evident because . Lez White had a large exercise book in which the names names, addresses and telephone numbers of hotels, promoters, - and journalists were written, and he said the new band was being managed by the members.

He said that Th’ Dudes manager, Charley Gray, and the band had made mistakes. Th’ Dudes make their final appearances in Christchurch at the Hillsborough Tavern this evening and again on Frid a y and Saturday nights, and the band’s last waltz is at Wellington where they are to appear at a live concert next Thursday for a “Radio With Pictures” television special.