Do we like Dave Dobbyn?
Our score: 8 out of 10. A clean harm record, a long run of benefit gigs and welcoming songs, and one old riot charge that ended in an acquittal.
Dave Dobbyn grew up Catholic in working-class Glen Innes, Auckland, a shy kid who leaned on his guitar and his sense of humour. At school he met the mates he later formed Th' Dudes with, and he sang lead on their hit “Be Mine Tonight”. After the band split in 1980 he started DD Smash, and the 1986 Footrot Flats soundtrack and “Slice of Heaven” made him a mainstream name on both sides of the Tasman.
The big blot on his history is the 1984 Queen Street riot. DD Smash headlined a free end-of-year show in Aotea Square that turned into clashes between the crowd and police, and Dobbyn was charged with inciting a riot. He was acquitted, but the saga left a mark and he spent much of the next decade living overseas.
On the harm check, we found nothing nasty. No campaigning against anyone's rights, no conspiracy rabbit holes, and no dodgy co-stars turned up in the searches. In a 2017 Spinoff interview he talked about society marginalising people, and he said neoliberalism is “alive and well and eating people alive”. He also called te reo Māori essential for New Zealanders to understand each other, and said his song “Welcome Home” grew out of an anti-racist march. Searches for his views on LGBTQ+ issues and the climate turned up nothing, so we can't say more than that.
The one proper stoush was in October 2021, after a Twitter exchange over Covid. Social media rumour had him lumped in with the anti-vaccine crowd, and the Herald's Steve Braunias wrote that the rumours were untrue. Dobbyn said on Facebook: “I am double vaccinated. I encourage it for everyone.” He also said he calls out “unkindness” aimed at people who hadn't yet got the jab. Where you land depends on whether you read that as a plea for decency or as soft on the holdouts, but it isn't anti-vax.
The good stuff is real. In April 2019 he played both the Auckland and Christchurch You Are Us / Aroha Nui benefit concerts for people affected by the Christchurch terror attack. In Christchurch he sang “Welcome Home” early on, then closed the night with a big sing-along of “Slice of Heaven”. All proceeds went to the Our People, Our City Fund.
The honours followed. He was inducted into the NZ Music Hall of Fame in 2013 and made a Knight Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to music, announced at the end of 2020. He called the knighthood “totally honoured, flabbergasted and humbled”, and said it was on behalf of the community he belongs to.