to Peter Frampton at Western Springs in November, even though they were not paid much, they spent more than their fee backstage and had better facilities than the star of the show.

A record contract was negotiated with Eldred Stebbing and in the beginning of 1979 came their debut single, 'Be Mine Tonight', written and sung by Dave Dobbyn, backed with 'That Look In Your Eyes'. The entire year was taken up with a gruelling touring schedule. It was a life style fit for stars, full of booze, drugs and groupies. They made a controversial move on Anzac Day, when at the last minute they pulled out of a concert at the Wellington Opera House, claiming the sound system wasn't up to their standard. The two support acts, RoughJustice and the Wide Mouthed Frogs, didn't see a problem and carried on. Th' Dudes lost more than a few Wellington fans that day and the backlash had begun.

Their debut album 'Right First Time' was released in June 1979. To promote it, the group took to the road with a recently imported Cerwin-Vega sound system, in order to show how it should be done. To handle all the gear, they had the largest full-time road crew in the country. This was certainly doing it in style.

The ANZ Bank sponsored a series of "lunchtime concerts" at high schools throughout the country. This brought Th' Dudes sound right to the fans they wanted to reach, and audience reaction was wild.

In November, they were in Australia doing a support tour for