Ray Columbus and The Invaders finally called it a day in July 1966. We always got overseas star status when we played there.” Of course there was more money to be made by being in a band there, but I like the idea of being an overseas act in Australia. The tensions manifested themselves in an argument over where the band should live.Ĭolumbus: "Wally Scott and Dave Russell were happy to live in New Zealand but Billy and Jimmy wanted to live in Australia. Which wasn’t a problem for those who spent the money wisely, but some band members were struggling, the sparsity of their bank balances exacerbated by Columbus’ policy of not lowering The Invaders’ booking fee which cut off lesser paying club dates to the band. So there they were, living in Auckland, teen scream famous to the point they couldn’t walk the streets unmolested, but depending solely on record royalties and concert fees. Early attempts to cash in on the records came to naught, however, as the band was refused amittance to the United States after objections from the American Musicians’ Union. The band would carry on as the contracts kept getting better and more tempting.Ĭolumbus wanted to try his voice in the United States where The Invaders had made some inroads with She’s A Mod and Till We Kissed. ![]() He’d known Billy Kristian and Dave Russell since they were fourteen. The band was one of the best around and a vital part of the hit sound. It mattered little to him who The Invaders were. ![]() The break up has been building for a while its seed planted two years earlier in a performing contract ex-pat Kiwi promoter Harry M. What’s Columbus doing in San Francisco and where are The Invaders? Social End Product talks to Ray about his little reported American sojourn and the break up of Ray Columbus and The Invaders.įlashback to Auckland - August 1965 - Ray Columbus and The Invaders have just split up, leaving a trail of hit records and fans throughout Australia and New Zealand. The incident inspired Ray’s best post-Invaders record, the fuzz propelled Kick Me, flip-side of his U.S version of Australasian hit, She’s A Mod, released on Columbus’s own American label, Colstar Records, and backed by one of the Bay area’s many Stones/ Who inspired white R & B bands, The Art Collection. He’ll soon wise up: acid was just about to hit the San Francisco Bay Area wholesale and soon everyone he knew in the biz would be on it. “What? Pounds, shillings and pence?“ (whose abbreviations resemble the letters LSD), wonders Ray. He was on his way to Europe.ĭrug-free Columbus seizes on the headline, Student Flies Out of Window on LSD. The first newspaper headline that caught his eye was the tragic tale of a young student who plummeted from a 20th storey window, while out of his gourd on LSD. ![]() In July, 1966, a young Australasian pop star, Ray Columbus, disembarked from his New Zealand - San Francisco flight.
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