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Dragon formed in Auckland, New Zealand, in January 1972 with a line-up that featured Todd Hunter on bass guitar, guitarist Ray Goodwin, drummer Neil Reynolds and singer/pianist Graeme Collins. All had been in various short-lived bands in Auckland. Collins is credited with using I Ching to provide the name Dragon. Their first major gig was an appearance at the The Great Ngaruawahia Music Festival in early January 1973, and by 1974 several personnel changes had occurred, with Todd Hunter's younger brother Marc Hunter joining on vocals and Neil Storey on drums. Despite being New Zealand's top live attraction by late 1974, neither albums nor related singles had any local chart success, and they recruited Robert Taylor on guitar as they searched for a bawdier pop sound. By early 1975, manager Graeme Nesbitt, who had obtained regular gigs and organised their first New Zealand tours, felt they should tackle the larger Australian market, and they relocated to Sydney in May 1975. Nesbitt was unable to travel with them to Australia - he had been arrested for selling drugs. They toured Australia as support act to Status Quo in October, and soon recruited keyboard player Paul Hewson who had a reputation, in New Zealand, as a pop songwriter. In 1976 they secured a residency at the Bondi Lifesaver club, and landed a contract with CBS Records after being seen by record producer Peter Dawkins. The band was rocked by the heroin overdose death of drummer Neil Storey in September 1976, aged 22. By then, founding member Goodwin had left the group, and their single "This Time" had begun charting. After considering disbanding, Todd Hunter consulted with Nesbitt who advised him to continue and organised for Kerry Jacobson to join on drums, and between 1977 and 1979, the line-up of the Hunter brothers, Taylor, Hewson and Jacobson had a string of major hits on the Australian National charts with singles "April Sun in Cuba", "Are You Old Enough?" and "Still In Love With You". After several reformations and splits Todd Hunter (bass) reformed Dragon in 2006 with a line-up of Mark Williams (vocals, guitar), Bruce Reid (guitar), and Pete Drummond (drums). This new Dragon line up released Sunshine to Rain under the Liberation Blue Acoustic Series Label. On 1 July 2008, Dragon were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, and were joined on-stage by James Reyne and Ian Moss to perform "April Sun in Cuba" and "Rain"
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