Dragon

In the 1970s, Dragon ranked among New Zealand’s leading rock acts, notorious for excess and even more dominant once they crossed into the Australian market. The band’s story traces back to Todd and Marc Hunter, who grew up in the North Island settlement of Taumarunui and performed professionally from an early age in their parents’ jazz ensemble— Todd on guitar, Marc behind the drums. Over the following years the brothers appeared in various local groups, sometimes together and sometimes separately, until Dragon took shape in 1973 from the remains of Staff. That earlier lineup featured Todd on bass alongside singer and pianist Graeme Collins, guitarist Ray Goodwin, and drummer Neil Reynolds. Tensions surfaced quickly, and the abstemious Collins was soon replaced by the more indulgent keyboardist Ivan Thompson. Without a lead singer, the band recruited Marc Hunter to fill the role.

Once drummer Neil Storey took Reynolds’s place, the classic Dragon configuration was complete. Their dense progressive-rock approach quickly built a dedicated following, and in early 1974 they won top honors at Auckland’s all-day Rock Marathon festival. The victory brought a recording contract with Polygram, and months later their debut album Universal Radio became one of the era’s strongest-selling underground releases. While holding a month-long residency at Fiji’s Golden Dragon nightclub, the group honed its extravagant stage spectacle, complete with a transvestite mime troupe, pregnant strippers, rotting pigs’ heads mounted on microphone stands, and the routine smashing of instruments and gear. During the subsequent national tour, however, Storey was dismissed; Thompson departed in solidarity. New drummer Geoff Chunn joined, yet the four-piece lineup lasted only weeks before the band broke up.

Existing performance obligations soon prompted a reunion. Storey returned to the drum stool, and ex-Mammal guitarist Robert Taylor was added. Their second album, 1975’s Scented Gardens for the Blind, reflected little of the tighter, more direct pop sound they had begun delivering onstage after abandoning their earlier progressive leanings. A string of New Zealand tours raised their profile at home, after which they ventured into Australia. There Goodwin left, replaced by keyboardist Paul Hewson. Initial Australian results were poor: the single “Starkissed” failed to chart and much of their equipment was stolen. After parting with Polygram they moved to CBS, where “Wait Until Tomorrow” also flopped; its follow-up, “This Time,” looked set to break through until tragedy intervened. Storey died of a heroin overdose in September 1976, an event that dominated national headlines.

With Kerry Jacobsen now on drums, a shaken Dragon resumed relentless touring and spent the next two years on the road almost continuously, eventually winning over Australian audiences. Mid-1977 brought the album Sunshine and the hit single “Get That Jive.” By year’s end Dragon had become Australia’s most popular band, securing a U.S. deal with Portrait. The 1978 release Running Free went double platinum in Australia and featured the major hit “April Sun in Cuba,” which was followed by an extensive tour. Fueled by heroin and champagne, the group left a trail of wrecked hotel rooms and dressing rooms, yet their popularity held. Their third CBS album, O, Zambezi, proved their most successful yet, anchored by the number-one single “Are You Old Enough?” A subsequent U.S. tour collapsed, and as Marc Hunter’s drug issues intensified he was removed from the lineup in early 1979. Singer Billy Rogers and violinist Richard Lee took his place.

Almost overnight commercial fortunes reversed: “Love Is Not Enough” failed to chart, and the first New Zealand tour since 1975 drew poor crowds. After the 1979 album Powerplay flopped, Dragon disbanded. In 1982 the core members reassembled simply to settle debts. The lineup— the Hunters, Taylor, Hewson, and Jacobsen— performed so strongly on the reunion tour that they issued the new single “Joanne.” Its successor, 1984’s “Rain,” became a major hit, and many listeners regarded the accompanying album Body & the Beat as one of the band’s finest. Old tensions resurfaced, leaving only the Hunter brothers; tragically, Hewson was found dead within hours of his departure. Dreams of Ordinary Men, released in 1986 and produced by Todd Rundgren, followed, and after 1988’s Bondi Road the group again dissolved.