[2] The Mergers played mod-ish instrumentals,[1] with the Shadows as their major influence,[3] at local dances and school socials.

[4] The Beatles' visit in June 1964 and the emergence of the Rolling Stones, brought a change of style to the group with Key becoming their lead singer and Borich and Wilson adding backing vocals.

[2][3] A local TV producer, Robert Handlin, had the group promote a film broadcast, Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), in exchange for studio recording time.

[5] Zodiac's owner Eldred Stebbing caught their performance at The Platterack and asked the La De Da's to issue a cover version of American duo the Changin' Times's album track, "How Is the Air Up There?"

Although their music was "tough garage-punk",[2] the La De Da's donned mod clothing with plaid trousers, satin shirts and buckle shoes.

We were listening to Zoot Money, John Mayall, Manfred Mann, the Animals, all that sort of stuff and trying to create that sound... we tried to be a lot more imaginative about what we did ... We had no idea what we were earning on tour, we just spent what we wanted and ploughed the rest back into the band.

[1][2][4] The La De Da's second album, Find Us a Way (May 1967), had their sound shifting from R&B roots by adding influences from the Spencer Davis Group.

[4] The La De Da's travelled to Sydney in May 1967, where they worked at Ward Austin's Jungle disco and also supported the Easybeats, which had returned from the United Kingdom.

[They] were one of the first local bands to include covers of Vanilla Fudge, Doors and Traffic... [and were] at the forefront of the Australian flower power movement.

[2] English-born producer, Jimmy Stewart approached the La De Da's to record their third album, The Happy Prince, but by November the deal had collapsed.

[5] Early in 1969 Adrian Rawlins convinced the group to continue recording in Sydney with himself as narrator and David Woodley-Page as producer for EMI Music (NZ).

[4] The exit of Howard, Tahei and Wilson resulted in a four-piece with Barber, Borich and Key joined by Peter Roberts (ex-Freshwater) on bass guitar.

[2] At Byron Bay on New Year's Eve 1970, the La De Da's unveiled their stripped-down hard rock style, which took them back to their R&B roots and drew heavily from 12-bar Chicago blues and the legacy of Jimi Hendrix.

The La De Da's issued their next single, "Gonna See My Baby Tonight", in November 1971,[2] which drew a rave review from Molly Meldrum in teen pop music newspaper, Go-Set ("...a fantastic song, intelligently recorded, it has to be number one").

[15] In November 1971 the La De Da's planned a four-week New Zealand tour but despite shows selling out the group dropped out at Key's insistence.

[5] Sydney-based Michael Chugg of Consolidated Rock was hired as their talent agent and when he later set up his own agency, Sunrise, he continued to handle the La De Da's.

According to NZ musicologist John Dix, they delivered "...a well-paced set [that] blew Black Sabbath and everything New Zealand had to offer clear off the stage.

For the rest of the year, it was a constant round of touring, either as head-liners, sharing the bill with Sherbet or as support to visiting international acts, Little Richard, Gary Glitter, Three Dog Night, the Guess Who and Lindisfarne.

[4] The Sunrise agency organised a benefit concert at Sydney's Green Elephant Hotel (the Doncaster Theatre) with the La De Da's, Sherbet, Buffalo, Pirana, Lotus, Home, Country Radio, I'Tambu, Original Battersea Heroes and Hush, which raised about AU$2000 for the group.

Now he had the chance to shine, a latter day [Hendrix] with pop star features inside a fiery rock trio.

[2] It was also lauded by Glenn A. Baker as "one of Australia's finest rock albums, a fiery, cohesive work dominated by the superbly talented [Borich] and carried off by the reliable gutsiness of Peel and Barber.

The situation was summarised by Baker in 1981: Overseas bands can make an album, do a tour and then hide away for a year or two to prepare the next LP with no concern for loss of position.

In Australia, just three months off the road to prepare new material and a band's gig price drops to half, the media erects new superstars in their place, and the public acts as if they never were ... That is what killed the La De Da's: the bludgeoning effect of realising that, after 10 hard years, nothing tangible had really been achieved and the only thing that lay ahead was more of the same.

[8]In March 1975 EMI issued Legend, a valedictory compilation album of single A-sides, recent recordings and leftovers curated by Chugg.

On 20 April, they performed at a benefit concert for Bangladesh at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl with Ayers Rock, Jim Keays, AC/DC, Phil Manning, Daddy Cool, Toulouse & Too Tight, the Dingoes, and the Moir Sisters.

[3] AllMusic's Richie Unterberger acknowledged "[they] were New Zealand's most popular rock group of the '60s" aside from Ray Columbus & the Invaders".

[2] After the split of Band of Light in 1975, Phil Key left the music business and died in 1984 from a congenital heart condition.

[1][4] Ronnie Peel undertook a solo career in the late 1970s as Rockwell T James and later joined John Paul Young's backing band.

[4] The remaining original La De Da's' members reunited in New Zealand in 1992 for a Galaxie Club reunion show and played a set dedicated to the memory of Phil Key.