Librettos

The Librettos were, at one point in the mid-'60s, the top rock & roll group in New Zealand -- a status they deserved based on their recordings, which were among the hardest-rocking sides of this era to come out of New Zealand or their transplanted home, Australia. And at least one of their members, Brian Peacock, went on to an international career that took him all the way to England. The band was formed in 1962 at Rongotai College in Wellington, where all five of the original members -- Roger Simpson (vocals, piano), Rod Stone (lead guitar), Paul Griffin (bass), Johnny England (guitar), and Gordon Jenkins (drums) -- attended school. They built a reputation locally in Wellington, at dances and the like, before their first breakthrough, a residency at a club called Teenarama -- the latter became to Wellington's (and New Zealand's) rock & roll community something akin to what the Cavern was in Liverpool and the 2I's was in London, a mecca for audiences seeking good music and managers and producers seeking worthwhile talent. The band gained a huge fandom in 1963, though they did lose their original drummer, Gordon Jenkins, who was replaced by Dave Diver late that year. And they were soon spotted by Kevan Moore, a television producer who installed them as the house band on his weekly program, Let's Go, a kind of pop/rock showcase aimed at younger viewers. They lost rhythm guitarist Johnny England a little later, and he was succeeded by Lou Parun, who had already recorded four singles under his own name. And Paul Griffin left and was succeeded by Brian Peacock on bass, formerly with a band called the Downbeats. And with the departure of Roger Simpson later in 1964, this left the Librettos as a quartet, of which lead guitarist Rod Stone was the only original member. This...