Marc Hunter

The band included Craig Laird on lead guitar (currently of 1927) and Steve Boyd on drums (ex-Adam Brand).

In the late 1950s his family performed publicly where his father, Stuart, played saxophone, his mother Voi played piano and his older brother, Todd Hunter (born 1951) played guitar with Marc providing drums.

He also grew up with two younger brothers, Ross and Brett.

Hunter remembered, "We got guitars for Christmas one year, I broke mine but Todd played his. He was two years older than me and always more interested in music. I only saw it as a way of wagging school."

He described his home town, "[it] was a great place to grow up in, and a great place to run away from, because you always knew you could go back to it and nothing much would have changed. It was the place where our parents always told us to 'Do what you want to do, just try and be happy doing it.'"

Hunter attended Taumarunui High School and started performing as a cabaret singer, Todd later reminisced, "Oh, he was fabulous! He was playing in cabaret lounges and entertaining all sorts of people, driving a pink Mercedes, all that sort of stuff, straight out of school!"

Hunter also provided drums and vocals as a member of a band, Quintessence, which performed at a restaurant in Auckland.

Australian Rock Database entries:

Marc Alexander Hunter (7 September 1953 – 17 July 1998) was a New Zealand rock and pop singer, songwriter and record producer.

Marc Alexander Hunter was born in Taumarunui on 7 September 1953.

During the 1970s Hunter developed heroin and alcohol addictions and was incarcerated at Mt Eden Prison in Auckland in 1978.

He was recklessly outspoken and volatile on-stage.

Todd, meanwhile, had formed a progressive rock band, Dragon, in January 1972 in Auckland.

About a year later the group "played in the next room to [Marc] one night, and he came through and did some songs ... I think we were playing for a really tough crowd of dock-workers, it was really tough and he just swanned in and was excruciatingly funny and completely irreverent. We just thought this guy's great – he's even madder than us, we must get him!"

He was the lead vocalist of Dragon (1973–11/1979, 8/1982–1989, 1995–11/1997), a band formed by his older brother, Todd Hunter, in Auckland in January 1972.

In 1973, Hunter issued a solo single, "X-Ray Creature" (1973), on the Family Records label.

Marc Hunter joined Dragon in 1973 on lead vocals, percussion and saxophone, replacing their founding member singer, pianist Graeme Collins.

The band recorded two progressive rock albums for Vertigo Records, their guitarist, Robert Taylor later recalled "[our gigs] weren't totally original, they were doing things like Santana and Doors songs... At that stage Marc Hunter was playing congas and I think a little bit of sax."

They relocated to Sydney in May 1975.

They moved to Sydney in May 1975.

They were managed by Wayne de Grouchy who told Hunter that he should "stop playing the congas, be more of a front man... Marc was more than just one of the musos."

Dragon became a pop-rock act after Paul Hewson joined on keyboards in 1975.

They supported Status Quo on their Australian tour in October 1975.

Dragon became one of Australia's biggest-selling bands, scoring a number of hit singles, including "April Sun in Cuba" (No. 2, November 1977) and "Are You Old Enough?" (No. 1, August 1978).

Their related top 10 albums, were Running Free (No. 6, 1977) and O Zambezi (No. 3, 1978).

In November 1978, during the band's American tour, supporting Johnny Winter, they performed in Dallas, Texas, where "he made some general stage observations about redneck buddies, illegal oral sex and utility trucks" and called the audience members "faggots".

Hunter was incarcerated in Mt Eden Prison, Auckland in 1978 due to developing heroin and alcohol addictions.

He was recklessly outspoken and volatile on-stage: in November 1978 during the band's North American tour, supporting Johnny Winter, they performed in Dallas, Texas, where "he made some general stage observations about redneck buddies, illegal oral sex and utility trucks" and called the audience members, "faggots".

For his solo career he issued five studio albums, Fiji Bitter (November 1979), Big City Talk (August 1981), Communication (September 1985), Night and Day (August 1990) and Talk to Strangers (late 1994).

Upon his return to Australia, in February 1979, he was fired from the group by his brother, Todd.

In February 1979 Hunter was fired from Dragon by his brother.

Todd later explained, "He was demonic... Things like Dallas happened all the time. The 'Miss Mercy' mock rape thing lasted until these feminists started getting up and punching him in the face. Most of the time I wasn't drinking or anything and, from my perspective, this Fall of the Roman Empire thing was pretty wild. I hated a lot of it. People came along because they wanted to see Dragon decombust. They were enjoying it but Marc was just killing himself. We had to fire him or he'd have destroyed himself."

Dragon were named in the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Drug Trafficking (1981–83), due to their association with fellow New Zealander, Greg Ollard.

Its report stated "that Ollard supplied heroin to group members and that at least one member of the group sold heroin on Ollard's behalf."

In August 1982, Hunter returned to the line-up of Dragon and continued with the group while also maintaining his solo career.

He was also a member of the Party Boys in 1985.

They disbanded in November 1997 when he was diagnosed with throat cancer, and he died on 17 July 1998.

Benefit concerts were held to provide for his widow, Wendy Hunter, and children.

On 1 July 2008, the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) inducted Dragon into their Hall of Fame.

His biography, Chasing the Dragon: the Life and Death of Marc Hunter, was published by Jeff Apter in October 2011.