C.E.R. in rock music

Press, 30 April 1981, Page 14

C.E.R. in rock music

Dick Driver, the lead vocalist for Hip Singles, describes the group’s move from Australia to Christchurch as being “like the Beatties going to Hamburg.” ' The new Christchurch band originated in Melbourne, but contrary to popular opinion did not play there.

The former Pop Mechanix vocalist said that the original

band consisted of four Australians, plus himself, but the drummer departed the scene, and the remaining trans-Tas-man members, Trevor. O’Neill, Stuart Ellison, and Peter Zeug came to New Zealand. “We could have played support for such groups as The Swingers and the Newz in Australia, but it would have been virtually us paying to play,” he said.

The risks were big in coming to New Zealand anyway, but they were better than being exploited in Australia. Hip Singles were joined in New Zealand by the Christchurch drummer, Stephen Ward, formerly of the Hoovers.

However, . the band has serious intentions of returning to Australia, hence the phrase “the Beatles go to Hamburg.”

The name “Hip Singles” was “just thought up,” Dick Driver said. “I didn’t want a name with ‘The’ in front of it,” he said.

In fact, some people had commented on the name, thinking that it referred to a swinging single, but that was not the case, he said, although he was quite happy that it added to the dimension of the name.

After leaving Pop Mechanix, Driver spent a “terrible” nine months deciding what to do. “I auditioned for some bands in Australia but did not get anywhere.” He was seriously considering taking up motor-cycle racing, but felt that there was no living to be made in it, and so he returned to the music scene.

Hip Singles will be at the Gladstone Tavern this week,

plus a Friday afternoon gig in a “Rock Against Racism” concert at the University of Canterbury Students’

Association building on Friday afternoon, and again at the same venue late in the evening.