The Dugites
| The Dugites | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Perth, Australia |
| Genres | New wave |
| Years active | 1978–1984 |
| Labels | Deluxe Rough Diamond Mercury Half Baked/BMG |
| Past members | see members list below |
The Dugites were a Western Australian band who formed in the late 1970s and went on to record three albums in the early 1980s. The Dugites combined elements of power pop, new wave and electronic, producing songs with strong melodies, hooks and a smattering of politics. With hit singles "In Your Car", "Waiting" and "Juno and Me", they received extensive airplay, appearances on Countdown and toured nationally around Australia. The band's name refers to the brown venomous snake, the dugite, common to Western Australia.
The Dugites formed in Perth in 1978 with a line-up of Lynda Nutter on vocals, Peter Crosbie on keyboards, Gunther Berghoffer on guitar, Phillip Bailey on bass and Clarence Bailey on drums. In 1979 The Dugites released a single "Hit Single"/"Bruce", and toured as the backing band for Dave Warner. The single had been self-financed, but that year they were signed by the Deluxe label distributed by RCA Records. In 1980 Paul Noonan (ex-Dave Warner's from the Suburbs) replaced Phillip Bailey. Their first album The Dugites was released in August 1980 and reached No. 22 on the Australian Album charts. It went on to attain gold status (35 000 copies sold). Three singles were issued from the album, "In Your Car"/"13 Again" in May 1980, which reached No. 34 on the Australian Singles charts in July, "Goodbye"/"No God, No Master" in July and "South Pacific"/"Gay Guys" in October, which reached No. 90. At the 1980 Countdown Music Awards both The Dugites and Nutter received nominations for 'Best New Talent' (Johnny O'Keefe Memorial Award) and 'Most Popular Female' respectively. In December the band were the opening act for Elton John's concert at the Perth Entertainment Centre.
The band's second album, West Of The World which, like the first, was produced by Bob Andrews (Graham Parker and the Rumour), was released in July 1981. The album peaked at No. 33 on the Australian album charts and saw the release of two singles, "Waiting"/"Who Loves You More?", in May 1981, which reached No. 40 and "Part of Me"/"Never Touch" in September. In mid 1982 Berghoffer left the band and was replaced by guitarist Andrew Pendlebury (ex-The Sports), following which the band issued a single, "No Money"/"Decide" in July on the Rough Diamond label, and the related mini-album, No Money in August. Pendlebury was then replaced by Bob Fallovic (aka Boris Garter; ex-Stockings) and Paul Williamson also joined on saxophone. By mid-1983 however the line-up was reduced to Nutter, Crosbie, Bailey and Noonan. In 1985 after several appearances on TV's Hey Hey It's Saturday, Clarence and Linda stayed to live in Melbourne a while, where Clarence played drums in a Afro Reaggae Band called 'Randy and JahRoots' featuring Ghanaian star Randy Borquaye and drummer-congero Dezzy 'Animal' McKenna from Hey Hey.
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