Sonny Day and the Sundowners came together in Auckland around 1960. The band had numerous changes in lineup, but long-time members included Sonny Day on rhythm guitar, Bob Wynyard on lead, Teddy Toi on bass, Max Purdy on piano, Lloyd Tangaio on sax, and Graeme ‘Trixie’ Willoughby and Lionel Kennedy on drums.They had a number of releases on the Viking and Zodiac labels. Although I haven’t yet heard the Viking releases, I’m familiar with all of their Zodiac work except the one 45 released as by Dave Henry and the Sundowners.

“Baby Jane” was written for the UK group the Applejacks by Pete Dello and Ray Cane, some years before they formed Honeybus. It seems to have made its mark in the Antipodes, as the Pleazers also covered it.

Sundowners 45 releases:

on Viking:
Wolverton Mountain / Minimum Wage
How Many Times / Ta Ta
Hullo Out There / More and More and More
Limbo Party EP

on Zodiac:
Baby Jane / Keep A Knocking – Zodiac 1007
Hawaiian Wedding Song / Little Lovely One (as Sonny Day and the Sundowners) – Zodiac 1135
Tell Me Why / Johnny B Goode – Zodiac 1158
The Nitty Gritty / Things Will Be Different – Zodiac 1173
Ain’t Got No Home / Raindrops (as Dave Henry and the Sundowners)

Recently I had the pleasure of hearing from Lionel Kennedy, drummer for the Sundowners and the Maori Kavaliers. Following are his recollections of the Sundowners:

I was the Sundowners’ drummer from ’63 to ’65. I am originally from Sydney and on a whim left home early March ’63, took my drums and went off to New Zealand and have not lived in Australia since. I joined the Sundowners days after I arrived in Auckland and at our first rehearsal we did the advance pre-release of the Beatles’ Please Please Me and life as I knew it immediately changed.

In very early 1962 I remember watching Brian Henderson’s “Bandstand” when the Sundowners came on and did a spot. I clearly remember them saying that they had adopted the name Sundowners from the movie that was current at that time called the Sundowners with I believe Robert Mitchum and Ann Baxter. Little did I realize that I would be part of the band about nine months later. Their lineup on Bandstand was Bob Wynyard lead [guitar], Sonny Day rhythm, Ted Toi bass and Trixie Willoughby drums. If memory serves I think they came to Sydney as part of a Johhny Devlin show but I could be mistaken.

Prior to their Sydney trip they had done a stint I believe for a couple of years at a coffee shop cafe in Auckland called the Tijuana. Yuk Harrison was on bass and a drummer I don’t remember. The drummer was replaced with Trixie, and Yuk left and was replaced by Teddy Toi. With that line up they went to Sydney.

Upon returning to Auckland still early ’62 they took up residency at the Trades Hall and were being managed by Dave Duningham (you can see his name on that record label as producer).

By the time I arrived in Auckland at the end of March 1963 they had recorded all the Viking tracks and Trixie had left and was replaced with a young drummer named Tiger Murphy. He was not with them long and I replaced him at the beginning of April ’63.

Also there were a couple of additions – Max Purdy on piano, Lloyd Tangaio on tenor sax and Dave Henry as vocalist. Because of the Beatles turning point Bob, Sonny, Ted and I did separate quartet gigs in and around Auckland and just did Beatle stuff but our main gig was at the Trades Hall.

When I first arrived in New Zealand I was offered a try out with Ray Columbus and the Invaders but before that could happen I tried out with the Sundowners and loved it from the start. They were just great people and I loved their approach to music. Ray and all the Invaders became close friends but I never regretted joining the Sundowners. I suppose it was that particular showband style that I enjoyed so much.

Towards the end of 1963 we added a female vocalist Cheryl Allison and in early ’64 added Marsh Cook on tenor, formally of the Quinn Tikis and other great Maori groups at that time. At one time including Cheryl and Dave we were a nine piece group, quite unusual for that time.

The band was doing very well and we were getting huge crowds at the Trade. We did some TV spots at that time. I don’t remember the shows but one was hosted by Pete Sinclair. I also during that time doubled on trumpet so with the two tenors plus a trumpet we had a great sound. I had played trumpet many years earlier, in a Dixieland group in Sydney from 1955 (I was 14) until around 1960 when I started to play drums.

Recording

I was not on the Viking tracks. They were recorded with Trixie Willoughby, but I was on all the others including Dave Henry’s single. The Sundowners also recorded an E.P with Trixie on drums at Viking called “Limbo Party.” All of these I believe were recorded after their return from Sydney. All in all I recorded five singles with the group.

“Tell Me” (flip side of “Johnny B. Goode”) and “Things Will Be Different” (flip side of “The Nitty Gritty”) I co-authored with Bob Wynard, the lead guitarist and band leader. We also may have written the one on the flip side of Sonny’s Hawaiian Wedding Song, “Little Lovely One” but am not sure. Bob and I wrote a whole bunch of songs during that time so forgive me if I’m a little hazy.

Although Sonny Day was the lead band vocalist the front man vocalist was Dave Henry and we recorded “Ain’t Got No Home” and “Raindrops” with him on Zodiac.

Breakup and the Maori Kavaliers

Around mid 1964 for reasons still inexplicable Sonny left the group. He had been such a mainstay that it was difficult to think we could have gone on without him. But we did and we added a male vocalist who was really good and I only remember his name was Alan.

So we got thru the rest of ’64 and returned to Mount Maunganui for another Xmas season and Dave Dunningham all of a sudden fired us. At that time Bob Wynard and I were doing side work with Peter Posa and right at that moment he called us and Bob and I went over to Rotarua and did a show with Peter at the farewell concert for the Howard Morrison quartet at the Rotarua Sound Shell. After, Bob and I returned to the Mount, joined everyone else and came back to Auckland. Ted Toi joined Max Merritt and went off to Sydney.

Although Sonny had left the group earlier he and I were both staying at a boarding house so around mid-January we were hanging out at the Shiralee when we bumped into Gilbert Tong who had been looking for us around town. He made us a proposition to go up to Noumea and play in his night club the ‘Tahiti Cabaret’ and replace the band who was leaving, the Kavaliers without Freddy Kiel. They went on to Sydney and Sonny and I set up shop in their place at the club. A few months later Gilbert our boss set up a deal here in Tahiti to do a grand opening of the big new hotel in Tahiti the Hotel Taaone. He brought the boys (the remainder of the Kavaliers) back from Sydney and we put together a showband and came to Tahiti.

The band was called the Maori Kavaliers:

Sonny Day
Lionel Kennedy
Toko Pompey – tenor and all round singer/showman
Gerry Gerard – vocalist
Brian (Tuffy) Smith (Kavaliers)
Bill Peters lead guitar (Kavaliers)

The band was a tremendous success in Tahiti. We returned to Noumea and immediately took off with the same show and did a tour of the New Hebrides. Came back to Noumea, the band broke up and Sonny and I returned to Tahiti and the Hotel Taaone. During the late sixties at the Hotel Taaone it was almost like old home week. Every month we had a new floor show and they were all without exception the old friends from NZ, i.e Peter Posa, Dinah Lee, Howard Morrison, Eliza Keil, Tony Williams just to name a few.

Sonny went back to NZ I believe early 1967 and I stayed on in Tahiti and am still here. I continued to play but because of things out of my control I decided to stop playing and got work in the hotel business and am still doing that. I have a son and a daughter both in their thirties and two grandchildren. I am now 67 and am doing fine. At the hotel that I manage I started a jazz night on Wednesdays and it has become quite popular but it gives me the opportunity to play again.

I had no contact at all with any of the band members until August of last year when Max Purdie finding my email let me know that Sonny had passed away. And just last week he emailed me to tell me that there would be a big memorial to Sonny this coming August so in short after confirming that everyone will be there all of us will reunite after 44 years for a jam session at the Kings Arms in Auckland, August 17th, 2008.

I am really excited about the memorial. It will my first time back in 43 years. I believe Ted and Bob both now live in Australia but have confirmed that they will be there. With any luck I may bump into Eldred Stebbing of Zodiac so I will see if any of the singles are available, I sure hope so. I had lost all my photo albums and copies of the recordings over thirty years ago. I haven’t heard those songs for over forty years.

Lionel Kennedy

More infomation on the Sundowners is available at the New Zealand Music of the 60’s site. Thank you to Lionel for his in-depth story and for the photo scans.