Hogsnort Rupert’s Original Flagon Band
Formed in 1968 by five members of the Wellington Diamond United soccer club, Alec Wishart, Dave Luther, Ian Terry, Frankie Boardman and Billy Such, who had all emigrated to New Zealand from the UK. In 1969 they decided to hire HMV recording studios and record four tracks to send home to their folks in England.
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After the session they asked the recording engineer Frank Douglas for the bill who told them not worry about the cost at the moment as he wanted to play the tracks to ‘In house producer ‘ Howard Gable. One week later the band was offered a five year contract and so the story began. Audio Culture history
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Bulldogs Allstar Goodtime Band
Formed in 1972 and in January 1973 made an appearance at the now legendary Great Ngaruawahia Music Festival, where they were so well received that they were asked to perform a second set. On the Easter weekend of 1973 the band got together in Wellington for a couple of gigs including one at the Western Park Hotel in Thorndon. Songwriter/guitarist Dave Luther, who was one of the five original Hogsnorts heard about the group from bluesman Midge Marsden “ You’ve got to see this band, they are very similar to Hogsnort, you will love them” said Midge and love them Dave did. He became their record producer and manager and so the story began. Audio Culture history.
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Hogsnort Bulldogs Goodtime Show.
The link between those two 1970s goodtime bands was very strong and it was inevitable that their paths would cross again long after Hogsnort Rupert and Bulldogs Allstar Goodtime Band had disbanded. In 1976 Dave Luther found himself playing guitar along with Bulldogs bass player Kevin Findlater in The Jo Michat Group, Jo was the cousin of Greek super star Demis Roussos whom he had played with in Greece before marrying a New Zealand girl and settling down in Wellington. After a conversation with Alec Wishart, Dave approached Kevin and two other members of The Jo Michat Group to see if they would be interested in joining the Hogsnorts to record an album they agreed and so Alec, Dave, Kevin, Bernie Reber and Margaret Gill were set to go. The band needed a banjo player so Dave rang Bulldog’s vocalist Neil Worboys to see if he could suggest anybody “What about me” was Neil’s reply. Dave had not thought of Neil, not realising he played tenor banjo and so the picture was complete, the inevitable had happened.
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Hogsnort Rupert decided to do some live shows after the album was completed and appeared together up until Alec Wishart’s passing in 2016.
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Bulldogs Allstar Goodtime Band also came out of retirement with three re-union tours as well as recording numerous tracks for CD release, both at Broadcasting Studio 2 and the Huge Music studios in Auckland..
The initial idea of a 'Goodtime super group' came from Kevin, he envisaged a show featuring the goodtime music of both bands including their respective hits and so it was the birth of Hogsnort Bulldogs Goodtime Show featuring:
Bulldogs
Neil Worboys – vocals, banjo, harmonica, guitar, jug and kazoo
Kevin Findlater- vocals, bass guitar
Hogsnorts
Dave Luther – vocals, guitar, ukulele, harmonica
Dean Wishart- drums, washboard (Dean is the son of the late Alec Wishart)
Hogsnort Bulldogs
Chris Brown-vocals, guitar
Dave Allen-vocals, electric guitar and slide
Wayne Mills- Piano, Accordian
Whenever possible at live performances, we will feature some great guest artists, we have some wonderful entertainers booked already, making for some very dynamic shows.
