Dragon are rock royalty in this country, and I recently got to chat to Todd Hunter from the group about their upcoming Countdown Years tour around the country. We talk about the shows, their memories of Molly and Countdown, longevity in the industry and more…
This tour is all about the Countdown Years, which is timely considering Channel 7s release of their mini-series about Molly Meldrum in the New Year. What are your strongest memories of Molly and Countdown?
Countdown was interesting for us because before we ever went on Countdown we were struggling incredibly to get any crowds knowing any songs but as soon as we started with Countdown everything changed 100%. So we’re very affectionate towards it (the program). And with Molly too, he liked our happy poppy shiny music but I think he was quite disappointed with what a bunch of idiots we were and how badly we behaved! So often on Humdrum (Molly’s soliloquy segment) he’d scold the band. But Countdown itself was quite different, and we got used it very quickly. We’d film it in Melbourne. Rehearsals during the day, dress rehearsals to empty studios. And then they’d bring the kids in they’d just be screaming. So it’d be this frenetic time where you’d play for your three minutes to the pre-recorded instrument tracks but singing live. So they were long days but very fun.
In the current line-up, you’re the only remaining founding member of Dragon. But watching footage of your performances in the last couple of years, I feel like your brother’s spirit is alive and well. Is that important to you when perform the 70s and 80s hits like you’ll be doing on this tour?
Yeah absolutely. I mean I always say about playing live, if he was alive, he’d be there. Especially when you’ve got a big crowd of like 30 or 40 thousand people and they’re just chanting lyrics to you, you really do see Mark (Hunter) and Paul (Hewson) around. It’s an incredible thing to be part of and it’s a real honour to be able to keep doing it. Apart from the fact that it’s huge fun.
I watched a specific performance in Christchurch from 2014 and the crowd was so into it. It was during “Rain” and I just thought this is exactly what this band is about. And we’re 40 years on and it’s still happening.
That happens a lot when we go along to festivals and most of the crowd are 24 or 25 and they’re singing all the songs and it’s a scream to be part of when you’re almost 60! And it’s therapeutic, it does make you feel a lot better. You travel long distances somewhere and you’re playing late, but when you come off stage after an hour and a half you feel so much better. And that’s only because of all the positive stuff that’s coming back at you.
Staying on the current line up for a moment. For the younger readers of the AU review, can you tell us a bit about how yourself, Mark (Williams), Bruce (Reid) and Pete (Drummond) came together?
Sure. Okay well it started with Marc (Hunter) dying in ’98. There was no band for almost ten years and no possibility of any band. I did soundtrack work, I did all the music for Heartbreak High in those six years. And it just really seemed like our songs needed to be played again somehow. So I didn’t think much about it all, I just picked up the phone one day and rang Mark Williams and said, “Do you want to be in a band?” and he said, “Yeah, why not?” I asked my studio assistant (from the soundtrack work) did he know of any great guitar players and he said there was this Canadian guy who was brilliant. He said he was working with Wendy (Matthews) and they’re not playing hardly at all. So I rang him up and said, “Do you wanna be in a band?” and he said, “Yeah ok.” And then he said, “Have you got a drummer?” and I said I didn’t have a clue. So Bruce said he knew this young guy who was brilliant named Pete Drummond. So I rang him up and said the same thing. Luckily we were all free, so we just got together and started playing and that was 700 shows ago. It was sort of like it was meant to happen because this line up of the band is actually the longest serving of all.
Pete seems to be a pretty multi-talented guy…
He is. I mean everyone multi-tasks, but sometimes I look over and just shake my head. Playing keyboards with one hand, drums with the other, effects pad in between and singing beautiful harmonies all at the same time. I just think, “What a ninja!” It helps having a young drummer with so much energy. One thing we’ll never do is become a covers band or relax into it so much that we’re not challenging ourselves anymore.
You’re a Kiwi by birth, and we’d never want to downplay the significance of your roots, but I reckon Aussie rock fans probably see you as more Aussie even than some of their own family. Does that sit alright with you?
Yeah it does. My kids see me as an Aussie because that’s all they’ve known. Mark and I will always be Kiwis, you can’t escape that. Even though we’re Australians as well. We have two Kiwi/Aussies, one Canadian and one Aussie in the band, it’s sort of like our own League of Nations. It does become very confusing when we play for All Blacks and Wallabies games. We’re comfortable being both in the end. We still love NZ, we’ve got a tour coming up there next year with The Angels.
Dragon are an Australia and New Zealand rock music institution. How does it feel, forty years after the beginning of this band, to realise you’ve made such a permanent mark on the music industry? Did you ever think about that when you first started the band?
Oh God no. We were completely unprofessional. We never had a long term plan. I like to say we were just totally in the moment. The end goal of all this (the re-birth of Dragon) was just to be able to keep playing at quality level and have a great time. And we do realise how lucky we are, especially when you hear those songs played by other people. One night I was walking along the beach up in Cairns and there was this bonfire with about 50 people camped around it singing “Rain”. Witnessing those songs having their own lives is amazing.
It’s funny you should say that because I’m 31 now, but as a teenager, the very first time I ever heard “Rain” was coming out of a pub on Jetty Road in Glenelg (Adelaide). And I know I’ll play it to my kids. I guess that speaks to how well your music transcends generations.
It never really feels like they’re our songs. We just feel lucky that we’re able to keep playing them all. As soon as you release a song, that’s it. It’s not yours, as you know. It’s funny, the first song Pete (Drummond) learned in a band was Rain. I realised recently when playing a song like Rain, it just sorta pulls you through all the changes. It plays itself in some ways.
On the Countdown Years tour you’re going to be playing a selection of Dragon songs and also some covers. What was it like to get into the headspace of other people’s songs?
Look it’s really fun. It’s fun to deconstruct the songs, figure out how they put them together, why you like it and then put them back together with some sense of validity of your own. Any of the songs that we try that we can’t make our own in some way, we won’t do. We’ve done covers before, a few years ago we did some shows where we played Police songs in the middle of the set which was great fun.
You mentioned a desire to keep things challenging before, this is a great way to do it.
Yeah and to have things going in different areas. We have an album of new songs being released in January I think. Roses was last year. Basically we do an album a year because we love it, it’s never going to get radio airplay but we don’t care. Name me one forty year old band that ever gets played on radio…
Well maybe not new material, but the classic rock stations sure love to flog “April Sun In Cuba” and “Rain”.
And we’re perfectly happy with that. I mean we play two or three new songs to a crowd and they’ll always be singing them after the second chorus. That’s good enough for us.
Forty years is a long time. You ever feel like you’re too old for this, or are they going to have to carry you off that stage in a casket.
(Laughs) Look I’m completely happy doing it. It’s so simple and so great, I’m just going to do it as long as I can.
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Tickets for Dragon’s The Countdown Years tour are on sale now. For more information, please visit www.dragononline.com.au:
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