HERBS HISTROY (Special thanks to Glen Moffat)
Pacific Islanders Toni Fonoti (vocals), Spencer Fusimalohi (guitar) and Fred Faleauto (drums)
formed Back Yard in the mid-1970s to play gigs around their Ponsonby, Auckland, home.
They briefly changed their name to Pacific Herbs in 1980 before settling on simply Herbs.
By the end of 1980 they had been joined by guitarist Dilworth Karaka (a Maori) and bassist Phil Toms
(a pakeha), found a manager in Polynesian Panthers co-founder Will ’Ilolahia and caught the eyes
of Mascot Recording Studio boss Hugh Lynn and WEA Records.
On the eve of an unpopular rugby tour of New Zealand by apartheid South Africa, Herbs’ six-song EP Whats’ Be Happen? was released in July 1981. The cover featured a photo
of the controversial eviction of protesters from the disputed Bastion Point in Auckland.
Herbs’ first single, released a year later, was “French Letter”, a protest of French nuclear testing in the Pacific Islands. The song spent 11 weeks on the New Zealand charts, peaking at number 15.
Saxophonist Morrie Watene was added to the line-up, but Phil Toms left the band after “deterioration of relations” with main songwriter Fonoti and was replaced by Jack Allen. Ironically, Fonoti departed soon after, his spot taken by percussionist Carl Perkins.
Herbs undertook what would become a regular excursion when they toured the Pacific Islands in 1982, and a year later released their second EP Light Of The Pacific. Midway through the tour to promote
the release, Fusimalohi left after a disagreement with Karaka.
As preparations began for their debut LP, the band was augmented by keyboardist Tama Lundon and later recruited guitarist Willie Hona. Powerhouse New Zealand music promoter Lynn took over the band’s management and they went into his Mascot studios with producer Billy Kristian to record their new album.
Long Ago was released at the end of 1984 and featured future live staples “Long Ago” and “Nuclear Waste” -- both written by consummate frontman Hona and Lundon, the latter with Rob Van De Lisdonk --
as well as songwriting contributions from the other five members.
Herbs spent part of 1985 based in Australia, including supporting Rick Wakeman on a national tour, and were faced with more line-up changes when Perkins and Allen departed the following year to form Mana.
Percussionist Thom Nepia came in to replace Perkins, while Allen’s spot was filled by Karaka’s cousin Charlie Tumahai. Tumahai had left New Zealand in 1967 and spent time with some of Australia’s best bands, eventually journeying to England with Mississippi, an early incarnation of the Little River Band.
When Mississippi disbanded he joined Be Bop Deluxe, recording five albums and touring the United States eight times with them, and later formed the Dukes with former Wings guitarist Jimmy McCulloch. In 1985
Tumahai decided it was time to return home.
Herbs toured throughout the Pacific in 1986 and performed at the Hiroshima Peace Festival in Japan while between times recording their new album, again with Billy Kristian at Mascot. Their distinctive vocals were an integral part of Dave Dobbyn’s transtasman number one “Slice Of Heaven” the same year.
The follow-up album Sensitive To A Smile was released in June 1987 with a launch at the Mangahanea Marae in Ruatoria. The title track was the first single and peaked at number nine on the New Zealand charts. “Rust In Dust” got as high as 11.
The album was judged best album at the New Zealand music awards while Dilworth Karaka, Charlie Tumahai and Todd Casella won songwriters of the year for “Sensitive To A Smile”.
Big things seemed in store for Herbs in 1988 but that was when the wheels started to fall off.
Costly touring expenses were not matched by returns. According to New Zealand rock music archivist John Dix, “Fred Faleauto had an epiphany midway through a soundcheck, suddenly reciting large chunks of the Bible,
screaming like a preacher in full flight, freaking everyone out.” The last link to the band’s Back Yard days, he left in June 1988.
Herbs recruited longtime Auckland nightclub drummer Gordon Joll, late of Satellite Spies, and when Sensitive To A Smile’s third single, “Listen”, rose to number seven in October 1988, things looked to be back on an even keel. However, the single’s co-writer Willie Hona was sacked from an Australian tour the next month, with Nepia and Watene taking over his vocal parts and Karaka taking on his guitar duties.
In June 1989 they were back in the higher reaches of the New Zealand charts when they contributed to Tim Finn’s single “Parihaka” from his self-titled third solo album. The song peaked at number six.
Earlier that year, the six-piece Herbs settled in to record a new album with none other than former Eagles and James Gang guitarist Joe Walsh as producer. Walsh immediately took the band and New Zealand to heart,
announcing he would move to the country and become a permanent member of Herbs.
Midway through the sessions Herbs toured town halls and theatres with Walsh as their “special friend”, but he had gone back to the States permanently by the time Homegrown was released in 1990.
The album confused Herbs fans, opening with an acapella verse of “Amazing Grace”, perhaps in an attempt to match “E Papa” from the previous album, followed by the first of two Joe Walsh vocals. In fact, the three Walsh songs on the LP would surface on his own recordings over the next two years.
Homegrown also included covers of the Left Banke and Merle Haggard hits, and the only links to Herbs of old were “Anthem”, “Homegrown” and a new version of “Azania (Soon Come)” from Whats’ Be Happen?. Later versions of the album featured bonus track “Talkback Radio”, the theme song
for The Billy T. James Show.
With Lynn heading for bankruptcy and Homegrown a commercial let-down, band and manager parted ways. Lynn had poured a lot of money into Herbs’ career and they had benefited greatly from his industry connections, touring with or supporting the likes of Black Slate, UB40, Stevie Wonder, Neil Young and Jimmy Buffett throughout the 1980s.
Herbs featured on single collaborations in the early 1990s -- Annie Crummer’s joyous “See What Love Can Do” and the questionable “Till We Kissed” with ’60s icon Ray Columbus --
but there would be no new album.
Neither the spirited vocals of Tumahai nor the searing guitar of new addition Tama Renata, who had earlier contributed to Light Of The Pacific, could save “Till We Kissed”, but it was included on 1993’s
13 Years Of Herbs: The Best Of, which spent 10 weeks on the charts, rising to number 14.
Karaka, Tumahai and Renata wrote the main love song “Here Is My Heart” for the 1994 New Zealand blockbuster movie Once Were Warriors, for which Renata also provided the memorable instrumental theme.
When the French Government resumed nuclear testing in the Pacific in 1995, Herbs re-recorded “French Letter”, which peaked at number 9. On their tour of France that November, members of the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team passed copies of the cassingle to the Paris crowd after their final test match.
Tragedy struck the Herbs whanau on December 21 1995 with the sudden death of Charlie Tumahai from a massive heart attack while working for a volunteer organisation helping young Maori at the Auckland District Court. He was just 46.
In the 10 years following Tumahai’s passing, various Herbs line-ups regrouped sporadically for occasional performances, including a rendering of Dave Dobbyn’s “Slice Of Heaven” at the Australasian Performing Right Association’s celebration of the top 100 New Zealand songs of all time in 2001.
Besides featuring on Dobbyn’s song, which was voted in at number seven, Herbs made it onto the list three times in their own right. “French Letter” was number 42, “Long Ago” was 68 and “Sensitive To A Smile” was 80.
Herbs’ original drummer Fred Faleauto passed away in 2001.
WEA released a revamped hits compilation called Listen: The Very Best Of Herbs, which debuted at number one on the New Zealand album chart in January 2002.
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