His tune ‘White Rabbit’ was a massive hit across Australasia and he made an odd kind of comeback in 2012, when Sony released a best-of compilation and it turned out to be the best selling album of the year! Yet Posa’s guitar sound doesn’t fit well with the others on this list, the lounge music vibe is a little too syrupy. The Shadows were an even bigger influence on renowned guitarist Peter Posa, who took their sound even further from surf guitar by emphasing the topline melody above all else – every note placed perfectly and deliberately, with a sweet, clean tone. Surf Rider Gray Bartlett (aka Graeme Bartlett) (1966) Drummer Jimmy Hill is also worth listening out for – he has no trouble matching every lick of Russell’s in the turnarounds with a playful little fill of his own. According to Columbus’ biography, Russell couldn’t afford to purchase a proper echo unit (as Merritt had) and instead made his own from an old tape machine, but the resulting sound is nonetheless pitch perfect. At the time, The Invaders were most influenced by the hard plucking style of The Shadows (whom they saw play live in Christchurch in 1962) and they ended up following them in purchasing – at great expense – matching Fender guitars. On lead is Dave Russell, who joined Columbus’ first band, The Downbeats, at only 16 following a recommendation from his guitar teacher, Tony Athfield (whom he replaced in the band). ‘Ku Pow’ was written by a Danish rock group and hardly made a splash in the rest of the world, but Columbus saw something in it and his taste was confirmed when The Invaders’ version was picked up for radio play in Australia before they’d even been there. During the early days of NZ rock and roll, choosing cover versions was an art in itself and Ray Columbus was a master at picking out obscure numbers that hadn’t been hits overseas to make his own. It usually seems best to avoid including covers on these top 10 lists, but this track is too great to pass up. I like this tune so much that I already included it on my Top 10 songs about the sea, but it’s pretty much a must-have for a list of NZ surf rock tunes, so I have no regret about listing it again here. Max Merritt made his reputation on his voice, but he was also the lead guitarist in his own group and here he shows off his chops like nowhere else. And here we have the group who were the kings of the 50s Christchurch rock and roll scene showing they’d already perfected the sound by 1963, even adding a bit of slapback echo on the guitar to exaggerate the twanginess. Guitar instrumentals reached a new level of popularity after the emergence of Dick Dale and the Del-Tones, which solidified what a surf guitar track was supposed to sound like – fast alternate-picked guitar notes often slid down the fretboard, a chord progression that derived from 12-bar blues, and the gain on the amp cranked up to full to add a subtle bit of fuzz. Soft Surfie Max Merritt and The Meteors (1963) When it came to releasing instrumental rock on vinyl, The Devils were beaten to the punch by fellow Aucklanders, the Bob Paris Combo, who in 1958 released a 7" with cover versions of the two tracks that started this era in the US – ‘Rumble’ by Link Wray and ‘Rebel Rouser’ by Duane Eddy – as well as their own EP of instrumentals which included their wild original, ‘Dragstrip’. New Zealand’s answer to Elvis, Johnny Devlin, did his shows in two halves, each beginning with his band, The Devils, doing a run of instrumentals to build anticipation before the man himself appeared. Rock and roll bands often had to do long sets in the 50s, so having some songs that didn’t require a vocalist made sense. Here are 10 of the best from this genre, though we’ll start just before the true surf rock era to get some perspective on where the sound came from. The surf guitar sound has been surprisingly resilient in New Zealand, ever since it washed ashore in the early 1960s.
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