Peter Dawkins

Peter Dawkins - Ace Record Producer for HMV Records
Major successes included  —  Shane (Saint Paul), Formyula (Nature), Craig Scott (Starcrossed Lovers), Hog Snort Rupert (Pretty Girl), BLERTA (Dance All Around The World)

The Flacons

The Others

Me And The Others

Peter William Dawkins was born on November 27th, 1946 and died on July 3rd, 2014.  He started in the music business in his teens as a drummer in his hometown of Timaru, although he was also proficient on bass and was a good backing vocalist.  He playedg originally with The Falcons (The Hi-Fi Flacons) which soon led to a move north from Timaru to Christchurch.  Soon he would join The Strangers before moving on to The Others, which would morph into Me And The Others (with the inclusion of Gary Thain and Paul Muggleston from The Secrets, with whom he went to England in the mid-60s ..... (Me and The Others consisted of Peter Dawkins, Paul Muggleston, Dave Chapman and Gary Thain) - and eventually that group toured the UK and Europe and achieved a residency at the famous PN Hit House in Munich, Germany, after which Peter formed a new rock trio, The New Nadir (Peter Dawkins, Gary Thain and Ed Carter).  In London they even jammed at The Speakeasy with Jimi Hendrix, but never recorded professionally before parting ways.  Guitarist Ed Carter went to California to play for the Beach Boys, bassist Gary Thain joined The Keef Hartley Band, and then Uriah Heep before his drug overdose in 1975 - at the age of 27.

New Nadir

New Nadir

New Nadir

In the late 1960s Peter returned home and started his producing career in 1969 with HMV Records, the NZ branch of EMI, where he produced a large number of recordings, including seven number one pop hits and the iconic Nature by The Fourmyula (New Zealand's Record Of The Century).  He moved to Australia circa 1972 and became a house producer for EMI Australia, succeeding fellow NZ expatriate Howard Gable as the producer of leading Australian progressive rock band Spectrum, for whom he produced the albums Warts Up Your Nose (1972) - released under the pseudonym Indelible Murtceps, Testimonial (1973) and the valedictory live album Terminal Buzz.  Around 1972/1973 he also produced early singles for John Farnham (then known as Johnny Farnham) including Don't You Know It's Magic and Rock Me Baby.  In the mid-seventies Dawkins produced a number of recordings by Spectrum's successor Ariel, including their acclaimed albums A Strange Fantastic Dream (1973) and Rock'n'Roll Scars (1974), which was recorded at the famous Abbey Road Studios in London.  During this period Dawkins also created, co-wrote, and produced The Star Suite (EMI, 1973), a concept album based on astrological themes, released under the name Patch and featuring members of Ariel and Tamam Shud and leading Australian session musicians.

SHANE

THE FORMYULA

CRAIG SCOTT

HOGSNORT RUPERT

BLERTA

DRAGON

AIR SUPPLY

AUSTRALIAN CRAWL

MATT FINISH

PSEUDO ECHO

In 1975 he moved briefly to Festival Records, then on to CBS Records where he produced a string of successful recordings in 1976, including hits for the expatriate New Zealand rock group Dragon and Melbourne band Australian Crawl.  During this period, he also produced several albums and hit singles by noted singer-songwriter Ross Ryan, Mi-Sex, Matt Finish's cult album Short Note, Pseudo Echo, the internationally successful album-oriented rock group Air Supply, Slim Dusty, Russell Morris and Billy Thorpe, amongst many others.  Dawkins' productions for Dragon include the hit singles This Time, Are You Old Enough? and April Sun in Cuba and the LP Oh Zambezi which led to a move to Los Angeles for a year in 1976.  For Australian Crawl, Dawkins produced their hugely successful 1981 LP Sirocco, which went to #1 in Australia and earned four platinum discs.  Around this time he concurrently ran his first label, Giant Records, which signed Matt Finish.  He went on to be General Manager of EMI Australia in the mid-1980s, and in 1986 he was appointed General Manager of J. Albert and Son music publishers, running their London office.  The death of CEO Ted Albert precipitated Dawkins' return to Australia and another change of employment.  In 1990 he opened a recording studio in Balmain, Sydney - Giant Studios, and started his second label (through BMG) called Nova.  The earlier Giant name was bought by Irving Azoff, who was starting a label in the United States with the same name.

The development of Parkinson's Disease meant that he had to gradually cease work over the next few years, with the shut-down of the studio in the mid-90s.  In 2005 he was able to afford further medical treatment after extensive fund-raising by his friends in the music industry.  As part of this effort, in 2006, Sony/BMG issued a compilation album of Dawkins' recordings - For Pete's Sake, which included a new recording of the Matt Finish song Understand, written by Dawkins' son Paul and the late Matt Finish singer/songwriter Matt Moffitt, and sung by the Little River Band's Glenn Shorrock.  It was produced at Sony Studios in Sydney and mixed by noted engineer Richard Lush.  The CD includes liner notes by historian Glenn A. Baker.