In the very beginning . . .
Growing up with 3 teenage sisters at home, parents that hosted the district's parties and during the birth of Rock n Roll, how could John not grow up with an interest in music? The family had a record player (this is way before stereo's!) but it wasn't loud enough for John. One day when John was 10 or 11, he found out that if he slid a switch on the back of his parents old valve radio from "Radio" to "Gram" and then touched the socket marked "Gram" a hum came out of the speaker. After thinking about it for a while, he connected some wire from the speaker of the record player to this socket . . .
Bingo! All of a sudden John had LOUDER music and so began's John interest in sound reinforcement. Next John found out that if he mounted an old car radio speaker in a old nail box and connected it up to the old radio it sounded even louder. So then John built a BIG speaker box and pestered his Dad till he had the money to purchase a 12" speaker he had seen in this radio shop in Wanganui. Later John found out that if he plugged a microphone into a little tape recorder his parents were bought, and connected that to the valve radio, he had the beginning of a PA system.
Word got to a local church, and John was asked to provide the PA system for the opening of their new church. And then there was another churches youth group dance's John was asked to provide music for. But the real break came in the 70's when the local football club asked John to provide the music for the end of season function - for this John needed a "musical ear" so he asked his sister Lyn to come on the gig with him. And so was born the "Sonic Sound" disco.
The disco era
For the next 3 or 4 years Sonic Sound was synonymous with the best mobile disco to engage for your function, wether that was a wedding, 21st, school ball, champagne breakfast or an after-match function. With Johns pursuit of technical excellence combined with Lyn's musical ear, the music played was right for the occassion and was superior quality to what most people would accept. We travelled from our base in Waverley to just past Wanganui in the south east and up to New Plymouth in the north west. It was not uncommon for us to be booked out Friday and Saturday nights 9 months in advance!
Our big advantage was that Lyn knew what "pop" music to play for a waltz or foxtrot, therefore keeping "the oldies" happy yet providing what the younger set wanted. Most wedding gigs would be fairly formal up until suppertime, with the amps never above 10% gain, but afterwards John would do his "Rock n Roll Medley", when the gain would go upto whatever he thought he could get away with! We both have fond memories of the marque weddings we did out the back of Fordell - asking, and receiving as much as we were paid from 8pm to 1pm to play for another hour, of Lyn helping me pack up at and on the road at 3am, being home at 4.30am, having a half hour sleep, and then driving to Hawera to start her job as a herd tester . . . those were the days. Sadly, the disco days came to a close, but not before we had a lot of fun!
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The manufacture .
In the late 70's gear for disco's was not readily available locally. When one considers that the average "stereo" sold was a 3-in-1 with a power output of 8 watts maximum driving 8" twin cone speakers and using a low quality ceramic cartridge. True, there was imported stereo HiFi gear available but it attracted 40% Sales Tax and "Hard to Get in NZ Therefore You Pay" markups, as I bought some for personal use, like a 27 watt per channel amp at a cost of 699 1970 dollars!
Therefore "Sonic Sound" had little option but to build its own gear, including a 120 watt per channel dual power amp, 3 way high power column disco speakers, colour organ controller and light displays. We used to drive, in stereo, 3 channels of 3 lots of 150w Par38 coloured lamps, in time with the music! Besides our own disco gear, we manufactured a number of stereo units and custom BGM and PA systems, and even a couple of guitar amplifiers, as well as mixers for the other side of Sonic Sound.
Testing 1-2-3 . . .
Remember that John's first "job" had been providing a PA system? So it would be no surprise that during all this time John was providing PA for all the events in the Waverley district, such as school gala's, public meetings, jubilees and horse events, apart from the local races and A&P show. By now, under the name Sonic Sound, John was operating PA equipment good enough to do these and more, and modern and up to date such as the then new high quality wireless microphones, high efficiency reflex horn speakers and solid state AC/DC ampliers.
Ironically it wasn't long before John left the Waverley district that he landed the Waverley Races, local Turf Club trials and
the annual A&P show. Today he is still doing these "gigs" but the monies received is "pocket money" for Cathy, as she administers it all.
