David Gapes, one of the original Radio Hauraki pirates who took on the broadcasting establishment and who broke new ground in his later careers as manager of band Hello Sailor and as a journalist, has died aged 80. Here Audioculture editor Steven Shaw traces Gapes’ colourful career.
Journalist, commercial radio pioneer, band manager and music lover – David Gapes kicked open many doors. He fought a state-owned monopoly and won. He brought rock’n’roll and pop music to our radio waves and managed one of New Zealand’s premier acts.
Co-founder and managing director of Radio Hauraki in the 1960s and early 1970s, Gapes became Hello Sailor’s manager in 1977, and began an era of live, local original rock at the Gluepot hotel in Ponsonby, Auckland. He took Hello Sailor to Los Angeles in 1978 hoping to get them an international profile and a recording contract, but stretched financial resources led the band to return to New Zealand in early 1979.
In 1965, David Gapes was a journalist at the Truth in Wellington. He had a no-nonsense approach to investigating and wasn’t shy about asking questions of authority figures.
At 23, Gapes was also part of the rock’n’roll generation. Elvis Presley and the Beatles had changed the course of music forever. The Beatles had visited New Zealand in 1964 and New Zealand had its own music stars – Johnny Devlin, Max Merritt and the Meteors, Ray Columbus and the Invaders. But broadcasting was still very much controlled by the government, and commercial radio licences were not available. Only half an hour of pop music was broadcast during the week and the radio waves were full of racing commentaries. Change was well overdue.
Gapes began his journalism career in 1959, working for the Evening Post in Wellington for three years and at the NZ Truth in Auckland for a short time, before heading to Sydney for two years at the Daily Mirror. While in Australia, he heard of attempts to set up private radio in the Northern Hemisphere – an unsuccessful broadcast off the Scandinavian coast, and Radio Caroline in the English Channel. He also noted that Australia had a more progressive approach to broadcasting – a mix of public service and privately owned stations.
When he returned to Wellington in 1965, Gapes was struck by how New Zealand radio broadcasting was still stuck in the 1930s. Other frustrations, including restrictions on drinking hours (six o’clock closing), just served to emphasise how much control government had, and how little freedom the population had. He was sure that the government would never agree to a land-based radio licence – the New Zealand Broadcasting Service (NZBS) had been set in up the 1930s and was considered by the Government to be an essential communications medium. And even though the NZBS was replaced by a supposedly more independent organisation with the creation of the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation (NZBC) in the early 60s, it was in no hurry to allow competition by handing out private licences – the NZBC was effectively a state-run monopoly.
Although he had no technical or business knowledge on how to set things up, Gapes decided a pirate radio station was the way to stick it to the man.
Over drinks at a Willis St pub, he discussed things with another journalist, Australian Bruce Baskett, who was working for the Dominion newspaper. Baskett was prepared to put in some money, and after agreeing that Auckland – with its larger population – would be a better city for the venture, the pair decided they would give up their jobs at the end of 1965 and head north.
Gapes soon came up with a plan to moor an internationally registered vessel outside the then three-mile limit of NZ territorial waters. Consulting a map, he found there was a small triangle of international water between Great Barrier and Little Barrier islands and the Coromandel Peninsula. Mooring there meant they would be a mere 50 miles from Auckland city and could potentially reach a large audience.
The rest of the year went by with Gapes and his wife Wendy saving as much money as they could while they consulted with technical experts – including radio enthusiast Denis “Doc” O’Callahan and a marine surveyor to help find a suitable vessel. They moved to Auckland over the summer of 1965-1966 where Gapes canvassed potential advertisers and gained more confidence that an independent station would attract advertising clients.
As the months went by, they ironed out other technical problems, including planning to use pre-recorded tapes to broadcast shows to get around the problem of playing records on a swaying boat.
But their finances were dwindling, and it was hard to attract investors, so a newspaper story written by Adrian Blackburn, published on Easter Saturday, April 9, 1966, in the NZ Herald, was part of their plan to attract more capital and public support.
Two ex-NZBC employees, Derek Lowe and Chris Parkinson, were shocked to read the story. They, too, had been planning a private radio station, and the subject had been in their minds for several years. When they joined forces, Parkinson, a golden-voiced announcer and studio technician, and Lowe, who had set up a commercial and jingle production company, were a perfect complement to the venture. Other announcers, including future promoter Ian Magan, soon signed on.
Plans to set sail and begin broadcasting were met with many setbacks – after towing the MV Tiri from Gisborne to Auckland for a refit and transmitter installation, the Marine Department kept finding compliance reasons to knock them back. Several attempts to set sail were stymied; the authorities took them to court and lost.
On Sunday October 23, 1966, public support swung massively their way when the police tried to stop the Tiri entering the Waitemata Harbour by lowering the drawbridge on Auckland’s western viaduct so the vessel couldn’t get through. Gapes and his fellow pirates sat in harm’s way under the jaws of the drawbridge so it couldn’t be lowered, and eventually the Tiri was underway. But Gapes and his crew were arrested and loaded on the police launch Deodar for a trip back to shore and a night in the cells.
More public demonstrations followed in the weeks following, and after a court case that found in their favour, on Monday, November 7, 1966, the Tiri quietly slipped into the harbour. Test transmissions on the frequency 1480AM began on the evening of December 1, 1966, but strong winds knocked out the transmitter mast. Radio Hauraki started broadcasting again from December 4.
With a format aimed at a young audience, the station played pop and rock’n’roll hits. It kept the playlist fresh, relying on a network of airline pilot friends to bring in new releases from overseas, playing local releases and showing support for New Zealand recording artists. Public support and audience numbers grew.
Surviving wild conditions at sea, a shipwreck of the Tiri (they continued with a new vessel, Tiri II), the death of announcer Rick Grant at sea, heavy-handed political opposition, and financial hardship for four years, Radio Hauraki was eventually granted a licence. On September 26, 1970, it became the first privately owned commercial station to broadcast legally in New Zealand since the 1930s.
David Gapes stayed on as an executive at Radio Hauraki until 1977. He dabbled in other ventures, including the birth of Hot Licks, a monthly rock music magazine co-founded in 1974 with Kerry Thomas of Direction Records and edited by Roger Jarrett. Hot Licks lasted 27 issues and ceased publication in 1976.
In 1976 Gapes hired DJ Barry Jenkin as 7pm to 10pm evening host, luring him away from 1ZM with the promise of a company car and free rein with his choice of music, which at the time included a mix of Steely Dan, Little Feat and the Rolling Stones. While at Hauraki, Jenkin earned the nickname “Doctor Rock”, took a liking to punk rock and went on to host TV2′s Radio With Pictures.
By 1977, Radio Hauraki was a far more corporate affair. Gapes was forced to sell his shares in Radio Hauraki and move on. His next adventure was as manager of Hello Sailor.
While he hadn’t managed bands before, he had showed plenty of support for local artists. When Headband, fronted by singer Tommy Adderley, released their second album Rock Garden in 1975, Gapes wrote the liner notes: “They have been important contributors to contemporary music in this country. Their original album and their live performances five years ago were important milestones in New Zealand rock …The result is really good rock and roll. It just might be a New Zealand rock classic.” He and Adderley remained close friends until Adderley’s death in 1993.
In late 1977, Gapes met at his Birkenhead home with Hello Sailor members Graham Brazier, Dave McArtney, and Harry Lyon. With a loyal following and having completed their debut album, they were a band on the way up and urgently needed management.
“On that leafy summer afternoon,” wrote McArtney in his posthumously released 2014 memoir Gutter Black, “it was agreed that Gapesy would take the helm and sail us into corporate sponsorship and get us to America. This, he assured us, was our next most important, most obvious step. He knew the West Coast scene in the US through his years of contacts in radio and his annual industry-related business trips there. We were perfect for the market there, he said. ‘Let’s go!’ We collectively agreed.”
“When I took over, they were just starting to gear up for the 1977 Rum and Coca-Cola tour and I went on the road with them,” Gapes told Murray Cammick in 2001 for Real Groove magazine. “They were so hugely popular and everywhere they played there were queues, some queues going around the block.
“Never before or since have I seen myself as a band manager,” said Gapes. “It’s just that there was a special magic with Hello Sailor.”
Gapes and Hello Sailor were the catalyst for a change in booking strategy at the Gluepot in Auckland, where original music wasn’t regarded as important as cover acts. Since 1967, a band called The Radars, comprising blind and near-blind backing musicians, had held a residency. They had moved aside in 1976 but covers bands were still the norm. Gapes pushed the bookers hard to get Hello Sailor into the big room and they were sceptical at his prediction that they would fill the room. They filled the room three nights in a row and ushered in a new booking policy. Acts such as Citizen Band, Th’ Dudes, and Mi-Sex soon followed in their path.
The Rum & Coca Cola tour of 1977 was “hugely successful by local standards”, wrote John Dix in Stranded in Paradise, “… grossing over $30,000, it pioneered the pub rock circuit of the late-70s, as well as introducing the era of the big PA, the lighting rig, the crew. With Gapes at the helm, Hello Sailor brought a new level of professionalism to New Zealand rock.”
After recording their second album Pacifica Amour in 1978, Gapes and Hello Sailor headed for Los Angeles. Through his contacts, he was able to secure a rental property – at 8888 Hollywood Hills Drive – and get the band working visas for six months. The band played and partied hard, and Gapes pushed them as hard as he could.
Dave McArtney: “Gapes was on the case, telephone receiver jammed between shoulder and chin, a Marlboro smoking in his left hand, ballpoint furiously making notes and taking down details, in his characteristic bold style. He was the very model of the antipodean entrepreneur: holes in his Levi’s, crumpled Hawaiian shirt hanging out, unshaven, talking bucks and pushing like fuck: selling the merits and interests of his band.”
Hello Sailor did get gigs in Los Angeles. The highlights included playing at the Troubadour for a music industry crowd and opening for the Knack at the Whisky A Go Go in front of recording industry movers and shakers. The Doors’ Ray Manzarek joined them onstage.
But the elusive recording contract didn’t come through. Time was running out, and so was the cash. Gapes had taken a gamble on Sailor and subsidised their existence there, using his own money. He wanted to hold out a bit longer, but it wasn’t to be.
The band stayed in LA from August 1978 to February 1979. As the money ran out, Gapes and Hello Sailor went their separate ways.
After returning to New Zealand and taking on Phillip Mills as their new manager, Hello Sailor headed for Australia, a plan that Gapes had always rejected. “I was never big on trying to tackle Australia because I just thought it was a bigger version of New Zealand,” he told Murray Cammick, “I thought we were looking for something considerably bigger than that. The whole reason for going to America was to get a record deal.”
Back in New Zealand, Gapes and old friend Tommy Adderley joined together in a cafe/club venture, The Green Door (aka Tommy’s Place and the Greasy Spoon). But Adderley’s old drug habits brought persistent inquiries from a patron, and he gave in to his demands to get him off his back. The patron turned out to be an undercover cop. In 1980, with Gapes, he was arrested for supplying morphine and allowing a club premises to be used for drug use. Adderley and Gapes were convicted and served prison sentences.
Gapes eventually returned to journalism, working at the Star in Auckland during the 1980s. He was the first editor of film and television industry magazine OnFilm, and later the editor of AdMedia, a long-running trade magazine for the advertising and media industries. The role fitted Gapes like a glove. He had the vision to bring advertising to radio waves and establish a commercial presence with Hauraki in the 1960s, and had gained respect from senior professionals in the media and advertising industries.
After AdMedia wound up with the decline of print magazines, Gapes joined the march to online media, editing M+AD, an online news resource for the advertising and media industries.
David Gapes was a true rock’n’roll pioneer and one of the original Hauraki “Good Guys”. In founding Radio Hauraki, he set New Zealand’s radio waves free, expanded the nation’s musical horizons, and helped to promote many of New Zealand’s performers, including taking a shot on one of our greatest acts, Hello Sailor. In 2019 he was named Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list for services to broadcasting.
This piece originally appeared on Audioculture, the NZOA-funded website which describes itself as “the Noisy Library of New Zealand Music”.
