Line-Up:
    Jon Drinkwater (Drums / Vocals)
    Yvonne Judge (Rhythm Guitar / Vocals)
    Trevor Judge (Bass Guitar / Vocals)
    Bill Kane (Lead Guitar / Vocals)

The story of Noazark begins back in 1965, when Trevor Judge got together with a couple of guys he knew from back in 1961 at Waterlea Public School. Trevor was 15 and had just bought himself a guitar and amp. With John Tui on drums and Henry Wah on guitar, they formed the Yetis. They jammed and rehearsed in John’s parents’ garage a couple of times a week and were asked to play at a party. It turned out that the host’s son, James Robertson, was an experienced lead guitarist, and he sat in with the group for most of the evening. The result was that he was asked to join the band. The problem was that the band had three guitarists, a drummer and no bass player, so a volunteer was required to change to bass guitar. Trevor made the switch and later in life he found it was a good career move, as there has always been a shortage of bass players.

In 1966 Trevor joined Hugo Speman and the Ensigns. They were a 6 piece, Top 40 and jazz-standards dance-band, with guest female and male vocalists, that played every Saturday night at the Surfside Ballroom, in Auckland’s North Shore suburb of Milford. It introduced Trevor to working in a band with a brass section, and he loved it. The drummer in the band at that time was Norris Nutsford from Ray Woolf and the Avengers.

Another band to play at the Surfside Ballroom was Bob Wynyard and the Music Method in 1967. Trevor filled in for their bass player for a few months while he was away. Bob Wynyard had played with Sonny Day and the Sundowners and the Soundells before putting together this show/dance-band. The guitarist in this band was Glyn Tucker from the Embers and the Gremlins, who was later to become part owner of Mandrill Studios in Auckland, and whom Trevor was to encounter again many years later.

1968 saw Trevor playing bass for 6 months for Lou Campbell and the Starlighters. They played jazz standards and old show tunes for strict-tempo dancers in an old dancehall in Upper Queen Street. This was followed in 1969 by a short stint with the Laurie Dunn Quartet. They were a gig band playing jazz-standards, but what was notable was that Trevor had an opportunity to bring his partner of the previous three years, into the band on guitar. His partner was Yvonne Gray, one of the earliest members of Auckland’s most successful all-girl bands, the Fair Sect.

By 1970 Trevor was playing bass and singing with the Blue Souls. This group consisted of Mo Dawson on vocals, Robert Morse on guitar and vocals, a pommy drummer called Steve, and Josie Rika on vocals. Mo Dawson and Josie Rika were later to join Rainbow. When Josie left the Blue Souls, Trevor was once again able to bring in Yvonne on guitar, organ and vocals. The Blue Souls had a regular 3 nights per week hotel residency and also played at private engagements throughout South Auckland. With a very strong vocal line-up, their repertoire was mostly Top 40 and Soul, with a few ‘standards’ thrown in for the dinner music sets.

During their time with the Blue Souls, Yvonne and Trevor got married, bought a house in Manurewa and had a daughter, Tiffany, who is now a star in her own right. After moving to Manurewa in 1971, and the demise of the Blue Souls, Yvonne and Trevor advertised for band players and formed a 4 piece Top 40 covers band called Topaz, with Mark Ducker from Jamestown Union on guitar, and a wonderful, wacky drummer who was going to be around for quite a while, Jon Drinkwater, formerly with the Intimate Blues Connection and the Velvet Bubble. After six busy months Mark left the band to go overseas. Fortunately, Jon knew a great guitarist to fill the position. He was Bill Kane on lead guitar and vocals.

So in 1971, this quartet became known as Noazark. After some intensive rehearsing in their tin garage, they were soon playing 6 nights a week - 3 nights at the Jolly Farmer Inn at Drury and 3 nights at the White Horse Inn at Pakuranga. Their original repertoire was Guess Who, Daddy Cool, David Bowie, Alice Cooper, the Rolling Stones, the Sweet, and some custom arrangements of classic 50's rock & roll songs, all of which suited the pub audiences of the day and before long they had a very dedicated and enthusiastic following.

Noazark 1971 L to R: Trevor Judge, Jon Drinkwater, Yvonne Judge, Bill Kane

Very early in the piece they decided to have band uniforms and started off with a white outfit and a black outfit. In the first year Bill, Yvonne and Trevor bought matching Gunn amps and speakers, finished in white vinyl, and Jon was playing a transparent Fibes kit. Later on, as the band’s image, style and repertoire became more Glam/Rock, they had Lurex costumes made and wore full make-up on stage.

After being at the White Horse Inn a few weeks, the manager, Gary Inglis, introduced them to an entrepreneurial friend of his, Dave MacKee, who happened to be the then manager of 1950's R&R star, Johnny Devlin. Dave loved what they were doing and offered them the ‘deal they couldn’t refuse’. And so they began an intensive couple of years of touring the North Island, headlining their own shows and touring  with all the NZ acts of the day; Johnny Devlin, Craig Scott, Bunny Walters, Angela Ayres, The Happen Inn Dancers, Alison Durban, Tom Sharplin, Nash Chase, Ray Woolf, Mr Lee Grant, Maria Dallas, Yolande Gibson, and once even backing Aussie Johnny Farnham on a stage cantilevered out over an ice rink in Panmure.

Noazark 1972 at White Horse Inn L to R: Trevor, Yvonne, Jon and Bill.

Their bread and butter gigs during these times were residencies at the White Horse Inn, the Thunderbird Valley Inn in Glenfield, the Papakura Town and Country Tavern, the Jolly Farmer Inn and Sunday nights at the Panmure Ice Rink. New Years Eve 1971 found them, along with three other groups, touring Christmas / New Year shows, playing to 6,500 people at Western Springs Stadium before they all continued with their respective tours. The headline act for the tour was Mr Lee Grant, on a brief return to NZ from England. By this time Noazark had the full-on Lurex costumes and make-up, and had become known as a Glam-Rock band. Trevor remembers singing David Bowie’s ‘Jean Genie’ as some spectacular fireworks were going off behind and above him.

Noazark 1972 at Awapuni Hotel, Palmerston North L to R: Trevor, Yvonne, Jon and Bill.

Noazark appeared on TVNZ’s ‘Happen Inn’ in 1972 with a rock and roll ‘shoo-bee doo-wap’ style original song, ‘Payroll Rock’, written by Trevor Judge and recorded at guitar legend Peter Posa’s studio.

Later in 1972 they went into Stebbing’s Recording Studio in Ponsonby to record a song called ‘Money’s Made To Burn’, which was released on their manager Dave MacKee’s Kontact label.  Dave commissioned Rock and Roller Tom Sharplin to do the artwork for ‘Noazark money’ (4 different versions - each member had their head and shoulders photo as a watermark). They performed the song on Happen Inn, played it live and gave away ‘Noazark money’ like it was going out of style but the song wasn’t destined to be a hit. The flipside was a dreamy, psychodelic-feeling song written by their guitarist Bill Kane and called ‘Broken Dreams’.

After playing on stage to within 3 weeks of going into labour, Yvonne, gave birth to their second child, Derek, who is also a star of stage and small screen in his own right. Out of necessity, they both took time off from Noazark and Trevor had the opportunity to play with two Auckland greats, Merv Thomas on trombone and Allan Quinnel (who had been in Tommy Adderley’s Headband) on guitar, filling in on bass for a couple of months at their Westhaven Trillo’s residency.

Around this time Bill Kane, decided to leave the group and return to a more sensible lifestyle, at first back to teaching and then working with the musical company Roland. After their break for the addition to the family, Yvonne and Trevor, along with Jon, decided to keep Noazark up and running and, after a reasonably smooth transition through two guitar players, first Mike Caen and then Dave Mitchell, they found Glen White, a terrific guitarist (including slide) and singer, with whom they settled into a very comfortable groove.

At the beginning of 1973, Glen, Jon, Yvonne and Trevor played on a 5-week tour of New Zealand’s South Island - one week each in Nelson, Te Anau, Dunedin, Timaru, and Christchurch. It was a lot of fun except for Trevor breaking his nose on the second week when he dived into the swimming pool at the Lake Te Anau Resort.

Later that year Jon Drinkwater decided to retire from the rock band scene and embrace a more spiritual and peaceful lifestyle, becoming a Krishna devotee. Not giving away music entirely, he writes and records songs with a more spiritual message than those he had performed in the glittering costumes and make-up with Noazark.

The new drummer, Paul Fenton, had a huge kit that dominated any stage they worked on. In addition to double bass drums, it had four mounted and two floor toms and, as a result, it sometimes took Paul two whole bars to complete a drum fill. Paul was an excellent drummer and singer and this final version of Noazark settled into an 18 month, 4 nights per week residency at the Wiri Trust Hotel (later known as the Manukau Arms).

Noazark 1975 at Wiri Trust L to R: Trevor, Glen White, Paul Fenton and Yvonne.

Their repertoire with this line-up was Santana, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Joe Walsh, Rick Derringer, John Myall, Grand Funk Railroad, Skyhooks, Eagles, Bachman-Turner Overdrive etc.

Noazark 1975 L to R: Glen White, Trevor Judge, Yvonne Judge and Paul Fenton.

After five fantastic years of glitter/glam-rock, touring the length and breadth of NZ, from big shows in theatres to small shows in country pubs, and residencies where they made so many friends, Noazark was disbanded in 1976 with Glen White heading for Perth and Paul Fenton going to Sydney.

Scoring some regular bookings at the Crypt in the heart of the city was a break that put them into Auckland's nightclub scene. To go from playing to friendly locals in suburban taverns and finishing at 10pm, to playing for a bunch of shady customers in a dim, smoky, downstairs bar until the very early hours of the morning, was thought of as an upward move.

Kashmir disbanded early in 1977, possibly because of an excess of sex, drugs and rock and roll.

In early 1977, Bill Kane, Yvonne and Trevor reformed as a three piece 'unplugged' version of Noazark for a two month booking, again at the Wiri Trust Hotel, with a laid-back, close-harmony repertoire of Hollies, Beatles, Bee Gees etc.

Trevor Judge then went on to play in a number of other bands, Swayed, Rock Candy and Databand, to name a few.

New Zealand Music