Life Begins At Forty - Dave & The Dynamos (1983)

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This song made #1 on the NZ chart for three weeks in October 1983. The band consisted of Hogsnort Rupert members Dave Luther (who composed the song), Kevin Findlater [bass] and Bernie Reber [drums] thats me in my younger days. The song actually started off as a short ditty in the Hogsnort Rupert stage performance. The band was in their first revival period (1981 1986), after disbanding in the mid 70s. The stage show featured a talent contest of assorted weird characters, played by the band members. One of these contestants was Dave & The Dynamos, a group well past their use by date, way older than everyone else around them. It was simply a tongue in cheek dig at old rockers who refuse to retire. In time, more and more requests for their little song were made by the shows audience and finally Dave decided to flesh it out into a full grown song which was then recorded in Wellington early 1983. I remember helping send promo copies of the (vinyl) single to various radio stations around the country. When the song eventually made it to the charts, Radio Hauraki, who never played it, confessed that they had biffed their copy and now needed one for their NZ Top 40. We made them buy their own. In total it spent 22 weeks on the NZ chart and also made an appearance on the Australian chart. The video was done at Avalon studios at Lower Hutt. Im the mad psychologist and drummer. As far as I know, this is the first time the video has been seen since those heady days in 83. Alas, the success of the record was not followed up quickly enough and it took more than a year for a new song to be released, named Cant Spell Rhythm. It didnt do so well. One more release followed in 1985 called The Holiday Song, but by now the Dynamos no longer generated the sparks and went where old rockers tend to go when theyve done their dash. Hogsnort Rupert folded again in 1986 but revived once more in the late 90s with a changed line up.

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