HISTORY CONTENTS:

The following NZ bands all performed original material.
Each band outline is headed with John Donoghue's specific role.
To open up the history chapters and read further, click on chapter titles or band names.

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CHAPTER ONE 

THE EARLY YEARS

1956 - 1970

GUITARIST: Chapter one opens just as the world-wide skiffle-music craze of the 1950's is taking the eastern suburbs of wellington by storm.

For more click on highlighted band name above.

GUITARIST: With the sixties came beat groups, flower power and the cheshire katt, surfing through all the psychedelic twists and turns of the decade before finally ending up in auckland as a soul/funk/blues unit.

For more click on highlighted band name above.

GUITARIST: The early sixties saw the strangers emerge from the skiffle groups of miramar, first as a shadows-type band, and then swept up on a wave of beatlemania.

For more click on highlighted band name above.

GUITARIST: After releasing several successful singles in the 1960's, wellington's dizzy limits appeared to be the quintessential new zealand popband. However, in 1970 they journeyed to london, underwent radical changes and returned as the notorious rockband "timberjack."

For more click on highlighted band name above.

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

THE OVERGROUND YEARS

1970 - 1975

GUITARIST: Timberjack were new zealand's first truly gothic rockband. Their short life is remembered for banned records, banned videos, banned performances and endless controversy over their 1971 loxene golden disc nomination.

For more click on highlighted band name above.

GUITAR/BANJO: Bulldogs allstar goodtime band grew from early beginnings as a wellington jugband into a television and radio sensation. They ended their spectacular run by winning "artists of the year" at the 1974 NZ music awards.

For more click on highlighted band name above.

GUITARIST: NZ blues-rock legends the human instinct blazed a trail between new zealand and london in the 1960's. In the early 1970's they expanded into a guitar quartet, capturing their new sound and style on an original rock opera album named the "hustler." This is the story of those years.

For more click on highlighted band name above.

GUITAR/PIANO/MANDOLIN: John donoghue's solo recording career as a NZ folkrock artist produces two albums, four singles, a "NZ Single of the Year" nomination and a "NZ album of the year" award.

For more click on highlighted band name above.

 

CHAPTER THREE

THE UNDERGROUND YEARS

1977 - 1990

GUITARIST: Born in the far north, northland's legendary wild band "cockroach" were one of NZ's first successful indigenous rockbands and proved to be sensations at the nambassa rock festivals.

For more click on highlighted band name above.

BASS GUITARIST: The warratahs were to become one of New Zealand's most popular country bands. Here we explore their early years from humble beginnings in a wellington basement to winning "NZ country album of the year" at the 1988 NZ music awards.

For more click on highlighted band name above.

GUITARIST: The mangawekas went from spearheading the blues revivalist movement that gripped wellington in the early eighties to becoming one of that city's most long-lived and much-loved blues bands.

For more click on highlighted band name above.

GUITAR & VOCALS: Chapter three ends with wellington's rock and roll circus, "johnny and the skyhawks," seeing the eighties out in a glorious blaze of self-destruction.

For more click on highlighted band name above.

CHAPTER FOUR 

TALES OF THE WILD NORTH

1993 - 2023

GUITARIST/BASS GUITARIST: Chapter four opens with the long, winding tale of northland's electric puha band, creators of aotearoa radio's number one hit, "sweet music in te hapua."

For more click on highlighted band name above.

GUITAR & VOCALS: A musical partnership performing off and on since 1984, ex-warratahs john donoghue and wayne mason are still known to pop up in the most unlikely places.

For more, go to chapter 4 part 3 by clicking on highlighted band name above.

DOBRO/MANDOLIN: The puha bandidos acoustic streetband ruled unchallenged as northland's top street band from 1995 until 2012.

For more, go to chapter 4 part 2 by clicking on highlighted band name above.

GUITAR & VOCALS: The timberjack donoghue project was brought back to life when john donoghue began performing annual live concert sets of his original folkrock compositions (with special guests) on the wakastage at the waitangi treaty grounds on february 6th, 2010. (waitangi day) 


For more, go to chapter 4 part 4 by clicking on highlighted band name above.

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