ARGUS Gig Review
On the 17th & 18th Feb, 2023, the ARGUS Rock Show played at The Dunedin Musicians Club. It’s been widely reported that this was going to be our last two shows ever. That remains to be seen but it does seem unlikely we’ll perform again in our current form.
The ARGUS back story is that we used to be a band back in 1974. I was still a teenager at the time. We played pubs and clubs all over Dunedin and became a very popular band. We supported international acts, Osibisa and Blood Sweat & Tears and worked solidly for around 18 months. When the band split, Denis, Peter and I went on to join in the formation of NZ band, Mother Goose, and the rest as they say is history.
In 2005, ARGUS reformed, purely for the fun of it. People came and packed the gigs and from there we retuned to Dunedin every two or three years to play more gigs. And the crowds kept coming. Covid had stopped us playing sooner, so it had been six years since we last played.
This time, we played our final two shows at the Dunedin Muso’s Club and we had two full nights of happy punters. The band sounded fantastic with local sound engineer, Garth Campbell at the mixing desk. Errol Head, our lighting tech, who’s been with us since day one in 2005, brought in lots of special lighting and the band looked and sounded great.
Musically, the band played up a storm and pumped it’s way through a wide array of classic rock hits, with everything from Radar Love with a customary drum solo, to Good Time Bad Times, to Do It Again by Steely Dan and Hush by Deep Purple. We grew up on these songs and so they are very much the soundtrack of our youth. The whole point of these shows was for to reunite, first as friends then as musicians. Our friendship means everything.
Will there be more ARGUS shows, who knows. But by the reports we’ve had from happy punters, it may well not be the last. Who knows. If you were there in the weekend, thanks so much for coming. As I always say, if people don’t come we don’t have a gig. Thanks to everyone who helped make it such a success.
Photo by: Angela Jane @ Angela Jane Photography, Dunedin, New Zealand