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The Simple Image - very successful 1960s/70s group which latterly included Christchurch's Wayne Allen on drums ....
Harry Leki, Bruce Walker, Barry Leef, Wayne Allen and Ronald Casgoigne
From small teen clubs in Wellington and national pop package tours to heavier times in Sydney in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Formed in 1967 by three Hutt Valley bred youths, Barry Leef (rhythm guitar), Ron Cass Gascoigne (bass) and Harry Leki (lead guitar), The Simple Image had three strong vocalists in a line-up completed by drummer Alan Gordon (succeeded in 1968 by Gordon Wylie). Cass had been in an early pre-Fourmyula band, The In-Sect (also featuring Frankie Stevens on guitar/vocals). The Simple Image's first gigs were on the Wellington wedding circut, improving no more than slightly when agent Tom McDonald signed them to his UBA agency. He sent the band off on a trip around the Pacific on a cruise liner. The heavily phased Spinning Spinning Spinning (also released in the UK and Holland) went to No.1 in June, aided by producer Howard Gable's inventive light psychedelic production. There it sat for a month, prompting an album of the same name for HMV Records. Barry Leef left for Sydney in July 1969, forming Strawpatch with fellow New Zealanders Jack Stradwick, Mike Wilson and Mike Darby. With new singer Doug Smith, Bruce Walker on keyboards, and the NEBOA Entertainer Of The Year group award under their belts, The Simple Image followed, taking up a residency at Sydney's Whisky A Go Go in September 1969. Leef soon rejoined and Gordon Wylie was replaced by Christchurch drummer Wayne Allen in October. |
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