Rebel spirit going strong

Spud flicks his cigarette butt into the puddle outside Auckland's Hard Rock Cafe and heads back to the bar.

He says something unrepeatable about the new smoking laws as he joins the other guys in the band.

Over the following hour he and the other Ramblers will reminisce about the great days of rock, when smoking was not only permitted but was almost compulsory - back when rock was rebel music and attracted these guys - all now in their 40s - with its call of the wild.

The Ramblers - singer Spud, bassist Toffee, guitarist Mo and drummer Dodge - are cult legends in the Kiwi rock scene, legends known only to a few musicians, club managers and unfortunate motel owners who have encountered them as they rampaged through the country bringing rock'n'roll mayhem to the provinces.

"I fell in love with rock'n'roll when I was about 10," says Toffee, "just like all these jokers. There was something about the music, the lifestyle of girls and booze and drugs that just drew me in. But the music bit seemed like hard work, so I became a roadie instead. The hours were better."

By night these guys are roadies and lighting crew, the oil which greases the rock'n'roll machine. But every once in a while they get together and play as the Ramblers.

The idea of them forming a band came from promoter Brent Eccles, a former Kiwi known mostly for his career as the drummer in Australian hard rock bands the Angels, Midnight Oil and Pseudo Echo.

Returning to New Zealand from Perth five years ago after an unfortunate incident involving a poodle and a bottle of lighter fluid, Eccles started his own touring company to bring top international acts such as Elton John and Michael Barrymore to New Zealand.

He was always looking for local opening acts and remembered how one Christmas in the early 80s when touring with the Oils he spotted Mo, Spud, Toffee and Dodge setting up the gear then playing a few songs as they always did.

Mo: "We were just tooling around on a few covers - Smoke on the Water, Jumpin Jack Flash and Boney M's Brown Girl in the Ring when Brent woke up and said we should form a band.

"We'd all played together for years but had never actually thought of that, so the next day we tossed some names around and within a month or so had settled on a name that sort of conjured up our lifestyle, the Ramblers. You know, like that car the Nash Rambler."

The Ramblers have recorded seven albums on the ObscurenImaginary label (distributed through Fly-By-Night Records).

The best is Cheap Muscatel And A Korean Guitar, which features guest vocalist Jimmy Barnes on Daddy Please Don't Get Drunk This Christmas.

"The rest of the album is pretty hardcore with songs by Metallica, Megadeth and Backstreet Boys," says Spud, "but when Barnsey came in we just let rip with an old standard and he was up for it. High point of our career, I think."

That, and the hugely successful 1985 single Can't Put My Finger On It which lead to their notorious Luck of the Draw tour.

"That was a classic Kiwi rock'n'roll tour," says Toffee.

"Six concerts in two months with heaps of time off for drinking and getting with the ladies. I'll never forget that, what I can remember of it."

"Cost us each about two grand in expenses and, of course, the record company ripped us off on sales," says Mo. "But we had the time of our lives and got to meet great Kiwi rockers like that joker who drummed for the Car Crash Set."

With former-mentor Eccles behind them, the Ramblers are now back out on the road opening for the Dave Dobbyn, Brooke Fraser, Lucid 3 tour which arrives at the Waihi Beach Hotel tonight.

"It's been a great tour so far," says Dodge as he reaches for another jug of rum'n'coke. "The others are all sort of Christian or Buddhist or something what doesn't drink, so we get to the band rider every night then go and rock the house with classics by Thin Lizzy, LA Guns and Blue Nile.

"There's been no real tension despite the fights and stuff, but there was an unfortunate incident the other avo.

"I was saying to Brooke Fraser at rehearsal that I had more rock'n'roll in my middle finger than she had in her whole body. And I was showing her my middle finger when her Dad walked in. I didn't know the bugger was an All Black. But now it's my eye that's all black, and blue," he laughs.

"But that's the price you pay for playing hard-out rock'n'roll, man," says Mo, adjusting his crotch and pulling his skin-tight black jeans up underneath his beer'n'burgers belly.

"It's tough out there in rock'n'roll, and we're the toughest of the tougherest, mate."

Performance

* Who: The Ramblers

* Where: Waihi Beach Hotel tonight, with Brooke Fraser, Dave Dobbyn and Lucid 3