Ticket and Human Instinct back in business

New Zealand rock band (and the hairiest band of their era) Ticket in the 1970s. Photo / Supplied

When 30-something guitarist Joel Haines invited me to the launch of the new Human Instinct album he told me he'd joined the group. I said, "You've joined what used to be one of the most dangerous bands in the country! Good luck."

They might not have been, but in the late 60s-early 70s, bands like Human Instinct, Ticket and the Underdogs were impressively adult to me. A few years older, they didn't fanny about with pop music and knew about dark things like the blues and illicit substances.

Human Instinct's second album Stoned Guitar (1970) is a Kiwi classic and evidence that Billy TK was the Maori Hendrix.

Human Instinct grew out of the Four Fours - a mid-60s pop band - which included guitarist Bill Ward and Maurice Greer, the singer, standing-up drummer and sole constant in HI.

The Four Fours toured with the Stones, went to London in 1966, changed their name, grew their hair, released well-received but not chart-bothering singles, supported Cream and returned home after two years.

Ward was replaced by Billy TK and the story really began.

Their sound was loud and psychedelic, they went back to London, scored a following, came back to record, Neil Edward replaced bassist Larry Waide, TK left, keyboard player Graeme Collins joined, then guitarist Martin Hope from the Fourmyula.

They released five albums - Burning Up Years, Stoned Guitar and Pins In It with TK, then Snatmin Cuthin? and The Hustler with Hope.

In 2001 Greer belatedly delivered Peg Leg, an unreleased 1975 album recorded at Stebbings.

And now Human Instinct - with Greer, Edwards, Haines at the core - have a new album, Midnight Sun, which features Murray Grindlay (Underdogs), former Enz-man Eddie Rayner on keyboards and a cover of the Enz' Dirty Creature.

Haines conjures up kiss-the-sky attitude when required and Midnight Sun - mostly revisits to material from those first three albums, two with TK - is highly respectable.

Haines - the best guitarist in the country? - was on fire at the launch.

From the same period are Ticket - the hairiest band of their era - who have reformed for shows in Christchurch (where they made their name) and Auckland.

Ticket delivered heavy, acid-infused rock and their debut Awake (with their trippy hit Country High and the eight-minute Dream Chant) gets a long overdue reissue.

Guitarist Eddie Hansen was in the same league as Harvey Mann (Underdogs) and Billy TK, but all were great musicians: after Ticket's two-year career here and in Australia, drummer Ricky Ball went into Hello Sailor, and bassist Paul Woolright was in Cruise Lane and Rainbow (with Ball) then in Graham Brazier's Legionnaires and Dave McArtney's Pink Flamingos.

Then after more than a decade playing in Britain, Woolright came home and with Ball has been the Hello Sailor engine room for the past decade.

After Ticket, singer Trevor Tombleson joined the acclaimed Keef Hartley Band in Britain, and Hansen went to Sydney, played in bands but mainly concentrated on songwriting and arranging, and became a producer for Warners (then RCA) during the 80s. He still writes and plays for documentaries and soundtracks.

But in the early 70s when they played Auckland clubs like the notorious Bo Peep with Human Instinct, Ticket delivered inventive, edgy, post-Hendrix psychedelic rock. Word is they still do. Good.

Human Instinct and Ticket. Bringing the noize. Again.

*Ticket's Awake will be available in time for their gig at the Kings Arms, on November 13.

*Human Instinct play the Kings Arms on November 19. Midnight Sun is available now.