Dragon (New Zealand eclectic prog)

Dragon is a New Zealand band which started their career as progressive rock outfit and after 2 great albums moved to Australia to become pop band.
Their progressive rock albums are: Universal Radio (1974) & Scented Gardens for the Blind (1975). Music on this album is progressive rock influenced by Yes and Cressida (they even wrote this influence on their myspace website). Long composition (7-10 minutes) with organ and guitar solos (occasional also Moog synth). For me they are very similar to Australian band "Spectrum".


line-up:

Todd Hunter (bass, vocals), Graeme Collins (piano, vocals, 1972), Neil Reynolds (drums, 1972), Ray Goodwin (guitar, keyboards, vocals, 1972-75), Ivan Thompson (keyboards, 1973), Marc Hunter (vocals), Neil Storey (drums, 1973-76), Geoff Chunn (drums, 1974), Robert Taylor (guitar, 1974-84), Paul Hewson (keyboards, 1975-84), Kerry Jacobsen (drums, 1976-83), Billy Rogers (harmonica, saxophone, vocals, 1979), Richard Lee (violin, vocals, 1979), Terry Chambers (drums, 1983-85), Allen Mansfield (keyboards, 1985), Doane Perry (drums, 1985-86), Don  Miller-Robinson (guitar, 1985, 1995), Peter Northcote (guitar, 1995), Tommy Emmanuel (guitar, 1986-88), David Hirschfelder (keyboards, 1987-89), Lee Borkman (keyboards, 1989), Andy Sidari (bass, guitar, keyboards, 1989), Mike Caen (guitar, 1989), Mitch Farmer (drums, 1989), John Watson (drums, 1989), Mark Williams (vocals, guitar, 2006-present), Bruce Reid (slide guitar, 2006-present), Pete Drummond (drums, 2006-present)

discography:

http://rateyourmusic.com/artist/dragon_f1

audio clips:

http://www.myspace.com/dragonnz (songs: Avalanche & Patina are from 1st album, La Gash Lagoon & Greylynn Candy from 2nd album, the 2 left are pop song from their Australian days)

other info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_(band)

http://www.recordheaven.net/body.cfm?x=browseLabel&sc=&ob=tl&so=ASC&pp=20&sl=true&ID=3464&iID=67531

http://www.dragononline.com.au/

http://www.sergent.com.au/music/dragon.html


Edited by ozzy_tom - May 25 2010 at 00:41

Hi Any Colour You Like ! I see you are from New Zealand. Do you know any similar prog rock bands as Dragon from your country? I only know 2 others:
"Cleves": http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=66542
and "Think": http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=67662&PID=3664674

Excellent suggestion.  "Patina" and "La Gash Lagoon" sound like pure Symphonic Prog, and they're also very good. "Greylynn Candy" sounds like Canterbury and Symphonic at the same time. "Avalanche" starts like Crossover but slowly builds into Symphonic. Based on these samples, I'll ask the Symphonic Team to evaluate the suggestions. 

Were a  couple of threads on this, and it was put to Crossover before, but I don't know what the verdict was (if there was one)

I am not from NZ or Australia but also I know  :
Schtung:   http://www.myspace.com/schtung77

Edited by GentleGiant - May 26 2010 at 23:07

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Edited by AtomicCrimsonRush - May 27 2010 at 01:42

GentleGiant wrote: I am not from NZ or Australia but also I know  : Schtung:   http://www.myspace.com/schtung77

Any Colour You Like wrote: AtomicCrimsonRush wrote: Any Colour You Like wrote: AtomicCrimsonRush wrote: i am not really in favour because the bulk of their output was crass pop....   If anything it is crossover i suppose, but not very sure about this band - 2 albums in an early phase that were totally forgotten in the 80s.   Nobody talked about them and they were an Australian sensation with their radio stuff! All a band requires to be included on this site is ONE PROGRESSIVE ALBUM. Dragon produced two, then went poppy when they moved to Australia (go figure?). If we exclude bands who made 'crass' pop albums, then we must exclude Genesis, Yes and Pink Floyd too. Fair? Yes, the first 2 albums were prog!   But I hate the fact that we will get pple here thinking we are morons for including on a prog site 'April Sun in Cuba' or 'Rain'.   If we could ignore their catalogue after the first 2 albums that would be terrific, but I guess that wont happen.    That's what the ratings and reviews are for... when people see that their later albums are rated 1 and 2 stars, they will know they are rubbish. Anway, I doubt many people would bother reviewing them anyway. Dragon are hardly well known even in NZ.

I can believe that too. They are still played on the radio as iconic Aus/NZ legends but I dont think they have an impact worldwide. Well they can go for it. But what genre - crossover? Surely not pure prog....

^ You wave a persuasive wand. I think I am convinced of crossover if not symp too, like you. We will have to consider this when Ivan gets back...

harmonium.ro wrote: GentleGiant wrote: I am not from NZ or Australia but also I know  : Schtung:   http://www.myspace.com/schtung77 I think they are under evaluation already, I've seen Moris from the Eclectic Team promoting them.

Yep:  Schtung (New Zealand, Eclectic?)

Moris brought it to Eclectic and I believe we both had some reservations about it in Eclectic due to mainstream qualities,

It's one for an Art Rock sub.  I was leaning towards Crossover, and wanted to hear more music before making a final decision, but basically I felt that if Crossover didn't want it then would vote Eclectic.  Moris brought it to the Crossover team to see what they think, but I haven't followed the case since then.

EDIT: I just deleted a duplicate post on this that I just noticed now that was posted some twenty minutes later, though I only posted once (some weird forum bug or more likely a problem with my computer where something was re-set it was sent again).


Edited by Logan - May 28 2010 at 16:35