A Rebel Returns To The Far North
One good thing about music,
when it hits you, you feel no pain.
Bob Marley
You can't keep an old rocker far from the stage and the man described by former Prime Minister, Helen Clark, as a 'true kiwi music icon' is heading to the Far North for a rare appearance.
Larry Morris is one of the country's original 'rebels of rock' and his eponymous group Larry's Rebels were seldom out of the charts in a five year period from 1965 - 1970 with nine top 10 hit singles as they dominated radio and television. Songs like 'I Feel Good', 'Moreen', 'Painterman' (which was banned by the NZBC) and 'Everybody's Girl' were de rigeur party anthems of the period. His cover of 'Bad Moon Rising' was his first single after leaving Larry's Rebels for a solo career. It reached number four in the music charts.
Larry's Rebels toured New Zealand with some of the all-time greats including The Who, Roy Orbison and The Yardbirds with Jimmy Page who went on to form Led Zeppelin when he returned to the UK.
During that period (1971 - 1982) Larry had no fewer than five singles in the top 40. In 1981 he formed his first Larry Morris Band (LMB) and for three years were resident at Sky City performing a Tribute To Joe Cocker.
Other artists he has worked with include David Bowie, Tom Jones, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, The Walker Brothers and the Brit-pop group Dave Dee Dozy Beaky Mick and Tich. He has toured Australia, USA, the UK and Europe and five years ago Larry Morris received the Variety Artists' Club Lifetime Achievement Award.
His new project, Rebellion, includes all his familiar hits plus gems from the era when pop music flourished. His band for the Far North tour includes four of New Zealand's top backing musicians - Peter Grattan (piano, guitar and vocals and founding member of Whangarei band The Clan) Kevin Furey (guitar and vocals, Quincy Conserve), Allan Wade (bass and vocals, former music director for Billy T James), Chris Fox (drums, Chapta and Tuhi Tama Band) - and all of whom are perfectly suited to capturing the revival sounds of the sixties and seventies.
And as if to confirm that rockers - and indeed their audience - can mature, Larry Morris and Rebellion will be performing two buffet dinner shows in the Far North, one at the Copthorne Hotel and Resort Bay of Islands, and the other at the Taipa Bay Resort.