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
1956 - 1970
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The Skiffle Scholars 1956-60
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. -
The Strangers 1962-65
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.
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The Cheshire Katt 1966-69
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. -
The Dizzy Limits 1969-70
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.
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Timberjack 1970-71
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. -
The Human Instinct 1972-74
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.
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Bulldogs Allstar Goodtime Band 1971-75
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. -
Timberjack Donoghue 1972-75
GUITAR/PIANO/MANDOLIN: John donoghue's brief career as a solo recording 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.
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Cockroach 1977-80
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. -
The Mangawekas 1981-84
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.
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The Warratahs 1985-88
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. -
Johnny & the Skyhawks 1989-90
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.
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Electric Puha 1993-2001
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. -
Puha Bandidos 1995-2012
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.
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The John Waynes 1984-2022
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. -
The Timberjack Donoghue Project 2010-2022
GUITAR & VOCALS: Since 2010, john donoghue has been performing his own original music as a live concert set with featured guests on the wakastage at the waitangi treaty grounds, at new zealand's bay of islands, each waitangi day. (6th feb)
For more, go to chapter 4 part 4 by clicking on highlighted band name above.