Th' Dudes reform for one-off tour

* Th' Dudes in their own words - see TimeOut in Thursday's print edition of the Herald.

Legendary New Zealand rock outfit Th' Dudes are reforming for a one-off tour.

The band which launched the career of singer-songwriter Dave Dobbyn in the late 70s will reunite for the first time in 26 years for a tour to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Radio Hauraki.

The band will play 10 shows nationally in October, headlining a tour which will also features fellow veterans Hello Sailor and Hammond Gamble.

The event was launched at a laughter-filled press conference in Auckland today.

Th' Dudes opened the media gathering by performing Bliss, the group's ode to booze which took on a life of its own after the quintet split in 1980.

"I blame the scarfies and terraces at Carisbrook," said a now teetotall Dobbyn about the song's anthem status.

Added Dudes singer Peter Urlich: "It's a call to action and at time the whole music circuit was based around the DB pub circuit. We actually wrote that about Australians."

Dobbyn: "It's grown to include a lot of beverages including a really good up of leaf tea ... and the plethora of New Zealand bottled waters, pure and running like the streams of Eden of which I will be availing myself ... it transcends the brown bubbly stuff and stagger juice in fact it now represents anything liquid."

There was more unintended comedy when Urlich was talking of the band's heyday and soundchecking in pubs with conservative noise restrictions - mid-anecdote the conference sound system gave out. Then the lights went too.

At which point Hello Sailor's Harry Lyon chimed in: "I'd just like to announce another tour sponsor - it's Vector."