Bio

Four members of ‘The Rumour’, twins Gerard & Shade Smith, Jacques Koolen and Ross Hindman, taught themselves to play the guitar & drums in the early 1960’s while in the 4th Form at Huntly College in the Waikato. They formed a band called The Sapphires and played for many school dances and local community socials. In 1966 they changed their name to The Surfires and recorded their first release at Stebbings Recording Studio in Auckland, called ‘I Can’t Wait for Summertime’ which was given a lot of airplay, especially on Radio Hauraki.

In 1971 the band moved to Auckland and became The Rumour. Shade & Gerard began writing more great songs and they recorded ‘L’Amour et L’Enfante De La Liberte’ which was a No.1 hit for 6 weeks, followed by another popular single, ‘Holy Morning.’ They were also in demand for many concerts & televison appearances, and won “Studio One” in 1971 with ‘L’Amour et L’Enfante de La Liberte’. They were the support act for the Beach Boys and Neil Sedaka for their Auckland shows, and also toured New Zealand with Cilla Black. They recorded two albums, ‘Garden of Your Smile’ and the very popular ‘Land of New Vigour and Zeal’ about the first immigrants to come to this country.

After going their own separate ways for a few years, they reunited in 1985 for the ‘25 Years of Television Special’, which was nationally broadcast on TV1 from the Michael Fowler Centre in Wellington. Later, when playing for Gerard & Shade’s 40th birthday party in an old warehouse in Auckland, the old 60’s music was a huge success with everyone jumping up on tables and dancing and cheering at hearing their favourite songs once again. The Rumour was playing the same music that originally got them started so successfully back in Huntly in the 1960’s.

Band Members:
Shade Smith
Gerard Smith
Jacques Koolen
Ross Hindman