What became of Larry’s Rebels?
Why does no footage exist of an iconic 1960s band? Amberleigh Jack investigates whether it’s vandalism or a cheap broadcaster.
When the late Larry Morris and his iconic 1960s band the Rebels were inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame in 2020, only one official archived video of the band existed.
One rumour exists that all television footage was destroyed years ago when Morris – known to be a character capable of rocking the boat – angered a TVNZ staff member so much that this unnamed person destroyed all Larry’s Rebels tapes. After that alleged destructive incident, the footage was gone forever.
Others say the missing tapes are simply a matter of money, or lack thereof.
Following this month’s death of Morris, the lack of archives is even more frustrating as the band had appeared on popular 1960s shows C’mon, Town and Around and New Faces.
My own personal connection to the band had me determined to find answers. Morris played my own parents’ wedding at an Auckland barn in 1976.
Was Larry’s Rebels really a victim of brutal vandalism?
Or were tapes simply expensive, and TVNZ (or the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, as it was known at the time) cheap?
Music historian Grant Gillanders has spent ‘‘years’’ hunting for archives of the pop band and while he has plenty of audio and photographic material, he confirms to Sunday News that when it comes to video, there is only one: the 1967 music video for Let’s Think of Something (which was filmed on the balcony of Tom Jones’ hotel when he was visiting Wellington).
But Gillanders believes the missing footage is down to money because, in the 1960s, tape cost a dollar per foot and the workaround was to tape over everything not ‘‘historically important’’.
‘‘A dollar was a lot of money, so you get a 30-minute programme that you’d recorded – heaven knows what that would cost. A lot of the tapes were used over and over.’’
Those close to the band, though, have heard a more vindictive version of what went down all those years ago.
Natalie Rouse, daughter of Rebels keyboardist Terry Rouse, heard that the tapes were actively destroyed, after Morris annoyed a staff member at TVNZ/NZBC.
‘‘This act seems more egregious as time passes,’’ she says. ‘‘This person tried to erase Larry Morris, and by extension the Rebels, from history and almost succeeded . . . The unbelievable maliciousness of trying to erase a character from New Zealand’s TV archives is itself hard to fathom, but the fact that it also . . . robs future generations of New Zealanders of a piece of our musical history . . . is inconceivable.’’
Rouse does not know the specifics of the alleged vandalism but suggests names of people who might.
Frustratingly, she says, the generation that remembers will not be around forever.
‘‘As that generation dies out, nobody will know.’’
Terry Rouse has also heard the rumour but cannot provide specifics either.
In 1972 Morris was caught in possession and charged with LSD supply. He was given seven years in prison and Terry understands this is when the tapes were destroyed.
‘‘I think . . . they decided they didn’t want to have anything associated with him,’’ he says.
‘‘That was what I heard, but I don’t know for sure. Rumours are rumours, are rumours.’’
Former band member Dennis ‘‘Nooky’’ Stott says the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Larry’s Rebels had five consecutive top-10 hits in the 60s and their style and swagger led their management company to come up with the hook: ‘‘Lock up your daughters: Larry’s Rebels are coming to town.’’
Ultimately, says Stott, the general attitude from government departments ‘‘and the like’’ was: ‘‘How dare they upset our grandmothers?’’
He recalls that even Sir Robert Muldoon, the former prime minister, got ‘‘stuck into’’ Larry’s Rebels. ‘‘So when it came to clearing out things, they went right through and destroyed the tapes.’’
While he says the cost-saving measures came into play, as a reason on its own, Stott says, ‘‘when you actually look into it, it didn’t really hold a lot of weight.’’
As exciting a story as destroying tapes in a fit of rage may be, Gillanders and NZ Music Hall of Fame manager Mark Rhodes both say there is simply no truth to the rumour.
‘‘It’s one of those old wives’ tales,’’ says Gillanders. ‘‘It didn’t happen like that . . . TVNZ didn’t start archiving everything until 1985. Everything was either useable or biffed.’’
While it is true that there is no archived footage available of the band and they were inducted into the NZ Music Hall of Fame with a montage of photos, interviews and that one remaining video from 1967,
Rhodes says the lack of video from bands of that era is common. At the time, NZBC taped over almost everything.
‘‘They didn’t have the money to store and have loads of tapes. This is prevalent throughout the entire 60s period.’’ he says.
And although things improved in the 70s, the lack of footage is frustrating.
‘‘We know these artists did these performances, but none of it exists.’’
Sunday News reached out to TVNZ, and a representative confirmed via email that all archives sit with Ngā Taonga as the national archivist, but there is not a lot from the 1960s.
They offered to ‘‘ask around the office’’ but suggested the case of the missing tapes might remain a mystery. ‘‘If the footage doesn’t exist, it may or may not be due to the rumour you’ve mentioned below. I’m not quite sure how we would be able to substantiate that.’’
Still, almost everyone suggested one person knew the full story. Peter Grattan worked with Morris as a promoter in the 1960s. He also joined TVNZ in 1975, was responsible for putting Radio With Pictures on air and later became head of entertainment.
Speaking from the United States, Grattan says Larry was always a ‘‘bit of a rebel’’. He recalls one particular incident that got the vocalist in some hot water with a prank, during the filming of music show C’mon.
‘‘Howard Morrison was singing a song, and Larry was backstage . . . and threw an apple, and it hit Howard Morrison on the head,’’ he says.
‘‘And Kevan Moore [the show’s producer] came running down the stairs: ‘Who threw that?’ Everyone was laughing and Larry got the blame.’’
Morris may have been in the dog box that day, but, Grattan says there was no tape destruction as any form of payback. They, like many tapes of the era, were simply recorded over, he says. ‘‘There was never a conspiracy to delete everything.’’