Marc Hunter
Marc Alexander Hunter was a New Zealand rock and pop singer, songwriter and record producer. He was the lead vocalist of Dragon, a band formed by his older brother, Todd Hunter, in Auckland in January 1972. They relocated to Sydney in May 1975. He was also a member of the Party Boys in 1985. For his solo career he issued five studio albums, Fiji Bitter, Big City Talk, Communication, Night and Day and Talk to Strangers. During the 1970s Hunter developed heroin and alcohol addictions and was incarcerated at Mt Eden Prison in Auckland in 1978. He was recklessly outspoken and volatile on-stage. In November 1978, during the band's American tour, supporting Johnny Winter, they performed in Dallas, Texas, where "he made some general stage observations about redneck buddies, illegal oral sex and utility trucks" and called the audience members "faggots". Upon his return to Australia, in February 1979, he was fired from the group by his brother, Todd.
In August 1982, Hunter returned to the line-up of Dragon and continued with the group while also maintaining his solo career. The band included Craig Laird on lead guitar and Steve Boyd on drums. They disbanded in November 1997 when he was diagnosed with throat cancer, and he died on 17 July 1998. Benefit concerts were held to provide for his widow, Wendy Hunter, and children. On 1 July 2008, the Australian Recording Industry Association inducted Dragon into their Hall of Fame. His biography, Chasing the Dragon: the Life and Death of Marc Hunter, was published by Jeff Apter in October 2011.
Early life
Marc Alexander Hunter was born in Taumarunui on 7 September 1953. In the late 1950s his family performed publicly where his father, Stuart, played saxophone, his mother Voi played piano and his older brother, Todd Hunter played guitar with Marc providing drums. He also grew up with two younger brothers, Ross and Brett. Hunter remembered, "We got guitars for Christmas one year, I broke mine but Todd played his. He was two years older than me and always more interested in music. I only saw it as a way of wagging school." He described his home town, " was a great place to grow up in, and a great place to run away from, because you always knew you could go back to it and nothing much would have changed. It was the place where our parents always told us to 'Do what you want to do, just try and be happy doing it.'"Hunter attended Taumarunui High School and started performing as a cabaret singer, Todd later reminisced, "Oh, he was fabulous! He was playing in cabaret lounges and entertaining all sorts of people, driving a pink Mercedes, all that sort of stuff, straight out of school!" Hunter also provided drums and vocals as a member of a band, Quintessence, which performed at a restaurant in Auckland.
Music career
1970–79: Dragon
In 1973, Hunter issued a solo single, "X-Ray Creature", on the Family Records label.Todd, meanwhile, had formed a progressive rock band, Dragon, in January 1972 in Auckland. About a year later the group "played in the next room to one night, and he came through and did some songs... I think we were playing for a really tough crowd of dock-workers, it was really tough and he just swanned in and was excruciatingly funny and completely irreverent. We just thought this guy's great – he's even madder than us, we must get him!"
Marc Hunter joined Dragon in 1973 on lead vocals, percussion and saxophone, replacing their founding member singer, pianist Graeme Collins. The band recorded two progressive rock albums for Vertigo Records, their guitarist, Robert Taylor later recalled " weren't totally original, they were doing things like Santana and Doors songs... At that stage Marc Hunter was playing congas and I think a little bit of sax." They moved to Sydney in May 1975. They were managed by Wayne de Gruchy who told Hunter that he should "stop playing the congas, be more of a front man... Marc was more than just one of the musos." Dragon became a pop-rock act after Paul Hewson joined on keyboards in 1975. They supported Status Quo on their Australian tour in October 1975.
Dragon became one of Australia's biggest-selling bands, scoring a number of hit singles, including "April Sun in Cuba" and "Are You Old Enough?". Their related top 10 albums, were Running Free and O Zambezi. Hunter was incarcerated in Mt Eden Prison, Auckland in 1978 due to developing heroin and alcohol addictions. He was recklessly outspoken and volatile on-stage: in November 1978 during the band's North American tour, supporting Johnny Winter, they performed in Dallas, Texas, where "he made some general stage observations about redneck buddies, illegal oral sex and utility trucks" and called the audience members, "faggots".
In February 1979 Hunter was fired from Dragon by his brother. Todd later explained, "He was demonic... Things like Dallas happened all the time. The 'Miss Mercy' mock rape thing lasted until these feminists started getting up and punching him in the face. Most of the time I wasn't drinking or anything and, from my perspective, this Fall of the Roman Empire thing was pretty wild. I hated a lot of it. People came along because they wanted to see Dragon decombust. They were enjoying it but Marc was just killing himself. We had to fire him or he'd have destroyed himself."
Dragon were named in the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Drug Trafficking, due to their association with fellow New Zealander, Greg Ollard. Its report stated "that Ollard supplied heroin to group members and that at least one member of the group sold heroin on Ollard's behalf." According to David Nichols, in the mid-1970s, "Three of the five members of Dragon – Marc Hunter, Hewson, and Storey – were by now associated with heroin selling and consumption." Ollard had been murdered in September 1977 and his body was found five years later.
1979–82: Solo Career: ''Fiji Bitter'' and ''Big City Talk''
Marc Hunter travelled overseas to recuperate, visiting Morocco and London. Back in Australia he signed a recording deal with CBS, which issued his debut solo album, Fiji Bitter, in November 1979. For the sessions he used Todd on bass guitar, John Annas on drums, Harvey James on guitar, and Terry Wilson on guitar.Fiji Bitter was recorded at Studios 301 in Sydney with Richard Lush producing and engineering – Hunter wrote or co-wrote most of its tracks. The album's lead single, "Island Nights", peaked at No. 20. He formed Marc Hunter and the Romantics, with Annas and James, to promote the album. Two more singles, "Don't Take Me" and "When You Walk in the Room", appeared – neither reached the top 50.
In 1980 Hunter, on lead vocals, formed an R&B group in Sydney, the Headhunters, with Todd on bass guitar, Kevin Borich on guitar, Mick Cocks on guitar, John Watson on drums. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, described them as "an ad hoc aggregation of musicians who were drawn together by a love of playing raucous R&B".
An encounter with Hunter in 1980, at 7am in Sydney's King's Cross, led Robert Forster of The Go-Betweens to describe how Hunter was the embodiment of a "rock star":
"He didn’t have to look so good so early – he just can’t help it...A haughtiness, a regal grab at life, a mood, that doesn’t just come on at six o’clock in the evening when showtime is close. Rock stars are ready at breakfast."Hunter resumed his solo career with his second album, Big City Talk, which appeared in August 1981 on PolyGram/Mercury labels. It was co-produced by Hunter and Todd. Debbie Muir of The Canberra Times, felt it "covered a wide range of material that bore some resemblance to his last album, Fiji Bitter, but was totally different to his old, Dragon days." He had used session musicians: Kevin Borich, Dave Mason and Mark Punch. Muir's fellow journalist at The Canberra Times, Garry Raffaele, opined that it "is flat, directionless, unexciting, effete rock and roll. It is devoid of feeling."
On working as a solo artist, he declared, "I am happier now on my own. I was in a wretched state of mind when I was in the band... I miss the camaraderie involved but then I prefer to make my own decisions." The title track, "Big City Talk", was released as a single in July and reached No. 25. Follow up singles, " a Loser's Game", "Side Show" and "Nothing but a Lie" did not chart. In 1981 he formed the Marc Hunter Band and in October they toured Australia with Renée Geyer; the set included a duet by Hunter and Geyer. During 1982 Hunter was working with US-born keyboardist and record producer, Alan Mansfield. In March of that year he was arrested for "$4500 in unpaid parking fines", he described his jail cell as "unbelievably filthy."
1982–89: Dragon reborn, Party Boys and solo ''Communication''
In August 1982 Dragon reformed with the line-up of Marc, Todd, Hewson, Jacobsen and Robert Taylor on guitar for a national Class Reunion tour. McFarlane noted that it was "Ostensibly run to pay off outstanding debts, the tour proved so successful that the band re-formed on a permanent basis." Their single, "Rain", was issued in July 1983, which peaked at No. 2. It was co-written by Marc, Todd and the latter's then-girlfriend, Johanna Pigott; and had Mansfield producing.In June 1984 the group's next album, Body and the Beat, which was produced by Mansfield and Carey Taylor, was released and peaked at No. 5. The group provided "a much fuller, more rock-oriented sound... was a polished, contemporary sounding Adult Oriented Rock album." After a tour in support of the album, Hewson left to return to New Zealand, he died of a heroin overdose in January 1985.
While on a break between Dragon tours Hunter joined the Party Boys, a "good-time rock'n'roll band" with a floating ensemble, for their Great Bars of Australia tour. The line-up of Hunter, Kevin Borich on guitar, Paul Christie on bass guitar, Richard Harvey on drums and Joe Walsh on guitar and lead vocals, recorded that group's fourth live album, You Need Professional Help, during the tour.
Hunter issued his third solo album, Communication, in September 1985 with various session musicians used: Jeff "Skunk" Baxter, Kirk Lorange, Mark Punch and Peter Walker on guitars, Todd Hunter and Phil Scorgie on bass guitar, Allan Mansfield and Don Walker on keyboards, and Mark Kennedy and Ricky Fataar on drums. Mansfield produced the album, which McFarlane described as "a polished set of Adult Oriented Rock songs." Its title track had been released as a single in 1984. Hunter returned to his duties with Dragon and was recorded on two more studio albums by the end of the decade.