[1] One day he met Murray Savidan and Roger McLay, two students at Auckland Grammar School, at a second-hand music shop, and they decided to form a band, initially called the Nomads.
[1] That year, a key turning point in the band's early development happened when Savidan bought a copy of the Beatles' Please Please Me LP and played it for the group.
[1] They returned to live performance and unveiled their new repertoire at St Chad's Hall, but were initially greeted with a tepid response.
[1] With their new direction, they immediately made most of the other local bands appear outmoded and their stock began to rise.
The resulting single "Please Be a Little Kind" b/w "I Can't Take it" was released by Decca's London label in December 1965 and on their Australian counterpart in February 1966.
[3][2] The A-side was a moody ballad, and, on the flip-side, "I Can't Take It" was a raucous and upbeat garage number.
[3][4] Later in 1966, they went to Mascot Studios to record a follow-up "It's the End" and "S'pose We're Away", but the single was rejected by Decca, who parted ways with the group.
[3] The band recorded several other songs at the Mascot sessions, such as the brooding "Don't Wanna Be Lonely".
[6][2][7][8] The song features highly invective lyrics delivered in snide fashion by Murray Savidan.
[6][8] Its defiant third line, "I don't stand for the Queen", announced a swipe at the conventional practice of standing to sing "God Save the Queen" before public events, such as movie showings, and anticipated the kind of anti-royalist sentiments later heard from the Sex Pistols and other punk acts.
[10] In an effort to keep outside noise to a minimum, the group always made sure to keep the windows closed during performances, but other bands did not take this precaution, and a rash of neighbour complaints forced them to finally shut down by year's end.
[12][2] John Harris moved on to composing and recording religious songs with St Paul's Singers and later became a successful television producer.