Dragon

The band formed in Auckland in 1972, with a line-up that featured Todd Hunter, guitarist Ray Goodwin, drummer Neil Reynolds and singer Graeme Collins but by 1974 several personnel changes had occurred before Marc Hunter joined on vocals and Neil Storey came in on drums. The original band was booked for a music festival and when a name change was required, Graeme consulted the classic Chinese Text, I Ching and came up with Dragon.

1973 saw the band earn a regular wage with residencies at Auckland's Levi's Saloon, the Tabla, Do Re Mi and Rasputin's. Each place they went to saw them bringing along their growing group of supporters. In 1974 they moved into Dante's Inferno in the heart of Auckland's red light district. They also picked up first prize at the Auckland Festival's all day Rock Marathon.

With this success, Dragon landed a record contract and recorded two progressive rock albums in their native New Zealand: Universal Radio and Scented Gardens for the Blind (with an added guitar element from Robert Taylor). Paul Hewson also joined the band on keyboards.

During the first few months of 1975 they did extensive tours of the country before heading to Australia in May. They released the single 'Star Kissed'/'Crystal Dove' in August 1975. Always a lightning rod for controversy, the band was rocked by the heroin-overdose death of Storey only weeks after arriving in Australia, and their original manager was also deported back to New Zealand on drugs charges. By then, founding member Goodwin had left the group.

During the first six months of 1976 they continued to play gigs, but the venues were poor. Paul began to write some songs and attracted the attention of Peter Dawkins from CBS. With persistence they eventually landed a contract in Australia with CBC Records.

Storey was replaced by Kerry Jacobson and between 1975 and 1979, Dragon scored a string of major hits on the Australian pop charts with songs including 'April sun in cuba', 'Are you old enough' and 'Still in love with you' and the albums Sunshine and O Zambezi. There were high hopes of an American breakthrough but these were scuttled by a disastrous American tour, in which Marc Hunter incited an Austin, Texas crowd (calling all Texans "f****ts") and the band had to dodge flying beer bottles. Marc Hunter left the band in 1979, due to his health problems, which were by then seriously affecting his performances.

It was going to be difficult to replace the frontman but they settled on Richard Lee, who had appeared on the O Zambezi album. This combination was different to what had been before. They aimed for a more sophisticated audience and even changed their musical style.

In June they undertook a tour with two other New Zealand bands, Hello Sailor and Mi-Sex, which left their former fans confused. To coincide with the tour they released another single 'Love's not enough'/'Four short solos', but it was a failure, only reaching 37 on the charts.

To try and re-kindle interest, CBS released Dragon's Greatest Hits Volume 1 in July. The old fans bought it and it ended up peaking at number eight on the albums chart. Containing seven songs from their previous three albums and three singles, it was a great selection of their music, even if it was a bit presumptuous calling it Volume 1.

Marc Hunter cleaned up somewhat in the post-Dragon years and released two moderately successful solo singles, 'Island nights' (1979) and 'Big city talk' (1981) and the LP Fiji bitter. Brother Todd had meanwhile teamed up with his partner (and later wife) Johanna Pigott (formerly of indie group XL Capris) and together they became a successful songwriting team.

Two and a half years went by before one of the greatest comebacks by a New Zealand group took place. Dragon reformed in August 1982 with their classic line-up of the Hunter brothers, Hewson, Taylor and Jacobsen. When they disbanded in 1979, they had left some large debts behind. The main reason for the reformation was to do some gigs to pay off the debts. They did a quick tour, played all the old hits and packed in the crowds. It was obvious that there was still some magic there. With this in mind they decided to continue.

The band's second comeback single 'Rain' proved to be a massive hit. The group's 1984 album Body and the beat became one of the biggest-selling albums in Australia and New Zealand and the band was restored to something close to its late 70s glory. In November, 'Magic' was the follow up single, reaching 33 on the charts. Alan Mansfield who had worked with Robert Palmer produced both singles. Paul Hewson left the band and tragically died from a drug overdose in New Zealand in January 1985.

After this, Dragon again split up in 1988 although a year later the Hunter brothers and Mansfield had reconvened once again with guitarist Randall Waller and drummer Barton Price, ex-Models and Choirboys, for Bondi road, which actually featured Emmanuel's guitar playing.

Dragon continued to record and tour off and on with varying line-ups centered around Todd and Marc Hunter and Mansfield until 1997, although Todd Hunter retired from the band to do soundtrack work. In November 1997, Marc was diagnosed as having throat cancer and he sadly passed away on July 17th 1998.