Laurie Herdman (Dee)

ROCKHAPPENZ Public Collection

Laurie Herdman  a.k.a. Laurie "D", Laurie Dee

Michael Lawrence Herdman was born in Christchurch and performed under the stage-name Laurie Dee.  Due to a lack of space in a 1970s newspaper advert, he was promoted as Laurie "D", and as a compromise he agreed to then become Laurie Dee.  Originally Laurie was the vocalist with The Five Degrees (later to become just The Degrees) - the group which opened The Monaco Nitespot (formerly The Pride Of Place) in 1968, and latterly he was lead vocalist with Beam Unity, Beam and latterly as Laurie Dee & Beam), a touring band, well known on the pub circuit playing top 40 hits.  Laurie moved into a solo career and released one single in 1975, followed up with two more singles and an album in the 80s.  After some TV exposure on Free Ride, he was invited to become part of Kevan Moore's Sing TV Show, moving on to comedy support roles and an extended involvement with the Billy T James Show as an actor and a writer.  He has also been a prodigious inventor.

Laurie's recordings were ..... 1972  Bus Rider // We Can Work It Out; (Beam Unity), 1973  Teach Me How To Fly // The Road  (Beam), 1974  Freedom // Harmony (Laurie Dee & Beam), 1975  My Love And I // I Wanna Do It All (Laurie Dee).  He is perhaps best remembered for his 1981 rendition of Wink Martindale's Deck Of Cards a record with a distinct rugby flavour after a lyrics re-write by A.K. Grant, T. Tyler and C. McVeigh.  In 1982 he recorded a single The Diet Song // That Ain't No Stuff, and an album of his Greatest Hits in 1981.