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Lutha — reformed 2007
Graham Wardrop, Garry McAlpine, Peter Edmonds, Kevin Foster and Peter Fraser
Lutha emerged in Dunedin during the flowering of the 1960s, a supergroup formed from three bands: 1969 South Island Battle Of The Bands finalists Throb, Pussyfoot, and Kaleidoscope. They played open-air parties, student hops and scrum rooms in the city's university quarter. When they called it a day in 1974, Lutha left behind two critically acclaimed albums - their self-titled debut and the follow-up, Earth, both of which were released in 1972. As the decades passed, those albums became highly sought after, attracting big money on the collectors market. This led to the release of a CD compilation and a reunion performance by the band at the 2007 Dunedin Heritage Festival. During 1973, Lutha started to perform around North Island venues amid critical acclaim for their second album. The band performed at Auckland's Mon Desir Hotel, and in Wellington alongside Quincy Conserve at the Spectrum Disco Room. Originals in their live set included Earth, I Really Only Want To Be With You, Stop and Here And Now. In June the band moved north from Dunedin to Christchurch where they played with Ticket for the opening of the Christchurch Town Hall and started a hotel residency six nights a week at The Edge. Three months later the group performed its final Dunedin concert and a farewell show for Graham Wardrop before his shift to Sydney. Replacement guitarist, vocalist and songwriter was Kevin Bayley, who had been in Chapta and Taylor [Bayley later joined Rockinghorse and formed Short Story]. They toured south to Invercargill with Ticket and through Timaru to Invercargill with The Rumour and Jim McNaught. They considered moving overseas, but by early 1974 had run out of options and packed up the gear for the last time.
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