Rob Carpenter

Rob Carpenter Collection

Rob Carpenter

Rob Carpenter was born in Christchurch and is an extremely talented and versatile musician, initially playing Lead Guitar, but graduating to Keyboards, and ultimately on to his "go-to" instrument, Bass Guitar.  His first group was Beats Incorporated which morphed into The Assenders - both of these groups included his brother Ken on Drums.

Beats Incorporated circa 1961 - Ken Carpenter (Drums), Rob Carpenter (Lead Guitar),
Dennis Allison (Bass Guitar) and Murray Irvine (Rhythm Guitar)

The Assenders circa 1963 - Dennis Allison (Bass), Kevin Taylor (Rhythm Guitar),
Ken Carpenter (Drums) and Rob Carpenter (Lead Guitar)

Rob has played in many groups including The Blues Revival (later to become The Revival).   Backtracking to 1968, Dunedin's top band Fantasy relocated to Christchurch, and shortly after arriving, then bass player Craig Scott met up with the guys in the local group The Blues Revival (which of course included Robbie Carpenter) and Craig joined them as lead vocalist.  In February 1969, at the suggestion of Ray Columbus, they shortened their name to The Revival and changed their image and repertoire, rendering immediate success for the group, and in May 1969 they won the Christchurch section of the National Battle Of The Bands which caught the attention of HMV's Peter Dawkins and they travelled to Wellington to record a single.  The result was their cover of Viva Bobby Joe by British group The Equals, and it outsold the original hand-over-fist, making it to number 14 on the National charts.  The flipside Rudi's In Love was also a cover, of The Locomotive's hit.

The Revival - Craig Scott, Rod Coe, Rob Carpenter, Bruno [Gerrard] Berens and Eddie Hansen

The Echophonics

The Others

Although successful, the bubble-gum pop style wasn't really what most of the members felt comfortable with, and so when Craig was offered a solo career in April 1970 The Revival broke up, as Craig went on to carve a very successful solo career over the next four years.  Eddie Hansen moved on to Ticket and later Living Force, Robbie continued to move forward with his career, playing in several groups from there on.

Rob Carpenter and Murray Wood - Las Vegas 23/1/1989

Rob Carpenter on the job

Rob Carpenter and Dave Chapman - Funny Feeling

Rob Carpenter at ROCKONZ 2007

Rob Carpenter backing Pat Kearns at ROCKONZ 2007

ROCKONZ Southern Star 2010

Robbie Carpenter has continued to add to his long history of professionally playing bass and guitar.  From early on playing bass with the Doug Caldwell Trio, Harry Voice, Malcolm McNeil, through to jazz fusion bands out of Christchurch, and session work for TVNZ.  Rob is one of the more visible of the old timers and he is to be seen performing regularly and often around Christchurch and beyond.  He also harbours a passion for racing cars.

Rob in concert

Peter Sowden, Billy Karaitiana [Kristian] and Rob Carpenter

Paddy Long, Wayne Allen, Rob Carpenter and Harry Harrison

Rob Carpenter, John Bevin and Janet Carpenter

Rob Carpenter with the legendary Doug Caldwell

Rob Carpenter, Peter Williams and Peter Sowden - Baby I've Benn Watchin' You ...