Dave Dobbyn

Sir David Joseph Dobbyn (born 3 January 1957) is a New Zealand musician, singer–songwriter and record producer.

In his early career he was a member of the rock group Th' Dudes and was the main creative force in pop band DD Smash.

Since then he has released the majority of his recordings as a solo performer.

Dave Dobbyn was born on 3 January 1957 in the working class area of Glen Innes, Auckland, the third of five children to tour-bus driver Terry Dobbyn and Molly.

He was influenced by music from a young age, ranging from the Irish songs his father listened to, to the music of the church across the road, to the various radio stations he was able to pick up on the family radiogram.

While his family had a piano at home, he was the only member to not receive piano lessons, something he was grateful for in retrospect as it meant he was able to come to it without memories of strict lessons.

He, along with his three brothers, attended the local Catholic college Sacred Heart College, where he would meet Ian Morris and Peter Urlich.

While Sacred Heart actively encouraged music, Dobbyn was too shy to be involved, and on graduating high school worked nine months as a bank teller, and applied to teachers' college twice, to be accepted on the second try.

As he started teachers' college he was asked by Morris and Urlich to join the band that would become Th' Dudes.

Dobbyn's first success came with rock band, Th' Dudes, which he joined as guitarist.

After performing with the band for a year, Dobbyn quit teachers' college to focus on the band full-time.

Dobbyn suffered extreme stage fright and played early performances standing at the back with his eyes closed.

However, he took on the role of frontman for the song "Be Mine Tonight" (1978).

The song won single of the year in 1979 in New Zealand and led to many critics seeing him as the breakout star of the band.

The band's 1980 song "Bliss" (1980) has become an iconic New Zealand drinking song.

After Th' Dudes disbanded in 1980, Dobbyn formed a pop group DD Smash.

The band's first release was the single "Lipstick Power", followed by "Bull by the Horns" (1981), thought to be about Dobbyn overcoming the stage fright he sometimes experienced while performing with Th' Dudes.

Their first album Cool Bananas (1982) debuted in the New Zealand charts at number one.

After Treavaun, DD smash released Deep in the Heart of Taxes (1983), an album recorded live at Auckland's popular eighties venue Mainstreet.

When DD Smash eventually disbanded, partially to make room for the commercially expanding vision of Dobbyn, they left behind them the hit singles "Outlook for Thursday" (1983) and the violin-tinged, hi perennial classic "Whaling" (1984).

Their final album, The Optimist (1984), although slicker sounding production-wise than its predecessor, showed signs of compromise with the dominant commercial, blue-eyed soul inflected, synth-pop sound of the post-new wave era of British and Australian music which was flooding the New Zealand charts at the time.

Dobbyn apparently had his eye on the larger Australian market and it was not long before he had a number one solo hit there.

In December 1984, DD Smash was playing an outdoor concert in Aotea Square in Auckland.

During their set, a power failure led sections of the crowd to become restless.

Some of the crowd started throwing beer bottles and police arrested them.

The situation escalated and the riot squad was called in.

Dobbyn made negative remarks about the police which allegedly spurred on the crowd.

The concert was stopped by the police and sections of the crowd rioted, smashing shop windows along Queen Street.

Prime Minister David Lange called a commission of inquiry and as a result, Dobbyn was charged with inciting a riot.

The criminal prosecution against Dobbyn began in June 1985.

His lawyer successfully defended him and he was acquitted on the charge of "behaving in a manner likely to cause violence against person or property and using insulting language".

When DD Smash folded, Dobbyn began a successful solo career, by writing the soundtrack music for the animated feature film Footrot Flats: The Dog's Tale in 1986.

The film yielded two hit singles: "You Oughta Be In Love" (1986) and the chart-topping "Slice of Heaven" (1986) recorded with the band Herbs.

After the release of the film, "Slice of Heaven" became one of Dobbyn's best-known songs, frequently used in tourism advertisements aired on Australian television that encouraged people to visit New Zealand.

With the success of the song in Australia, Dobbyn settled in Australia.

In April 1987, a re-worked version of Dobbyn's song "Slice of Heaven" featured in a number of television commercials in Australia.

Funded by the Australian Meat Industry Council (AMIC), the commercials promoted the Devon meat product by substituting the word "Heaven" for "Devon" in the chorus.

Dobbyn released his debut solo album Loyal, a personal celebration of love and loyalty, in 1988.

His follow-up was the Mitchell Froom-produced Lament for the Numb (1993), which included members of Elvis Costello's one-time backing band.

The album was called "un-releasable" by Dobbyn's record label at the time and was shelved for a year until its eventual release.