Fred Dagg
Fred Dagg is a fictional character from
In 1977, Clarke moved from New Zealand to Australia, where he went on to establish himself as a top script writer and personality.[2]
He appeared regularly on Australian television delivering political satire sketches with actor comedian Bryan Dawe until his death in April 2017.[3][4]
Influence
Clarke stated that the inspiration for Fred Dagg came primarily from his uncles who would talk in such a way, using intonation and speech rhythm, to cause laughter without the standard telling of jokes.
Much of the comedy coming into New Zealand at the time was British radio and this was an inspiration to him.
Works
John Clarke slowly refined the character of Fred Dagg in short comedic interview segments that screened occasionally on the New Zealand current affairs show Nationwide throughout 1974. In December of that year the character was the subject of a satirical
An album called Fred Dagg's Greatest Hits followed and was a massive seller.[5] Thirty years after its release this album remains one of New Zealand's all-time biggest selling records.
Another single recorded with Diamond Lil was an even bigger hit in 1976. "Gumboots"/"Save The Last Dance For Me" climbed to number 6 on the charts. "Gumboots" was a modified version of Billy Connolly's "If It Wasna For Your Wellies", itself an adaptation of the old song "The Work Of The Weavers".[6]
A second album, Fred Dagg Live was released in 1976.[7] Following on in the style of the first, it was also a huge seller.
1977 saw the release of the film Dagg Day Afternoon, co-directed and co-written by John Clarke and Geoff Murphy, and starring Fred Dagg. The film, under 45 minutes long, is essentially a series of sketches tied together with a loose narrative about Dagg's secret mission to find a "bionic sheep" (or 6 million dollar ram) which has been lost by the government.
By 1978 John Clarke and his young family had settled in Australia but he briefly commuted back to New Zealand during that year to create a Fred Dagg television series for South Pacific Television (TV2). The Fred Dagg Lectures on Leisure consisted of 20 five-minute long episodes which screened Sunday nights from September 1978 through to February 1979. The programmes featured Fred holding forth on a variety of diverse subjects such as golf, photography, how to write an autobiography, UFO spotting, saving whales and tree-felling. The original master tapes of all these episodes no longer exist and are thought to have either been wiped or lost by SPTV when the company was dissolved and amalgamated with Television One in 1980.[8]
A third and final album was released in 1979 called The Fred Dagg Tapes.[9]
In 1998 the Fred Dagg Anthology CD was released by
"We Don't Know How Lucky We Are!" was re-released in 1998 with revised lyrics. This re-recording was driven by
Discography
Studio and live albums
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions |
---|---|---|
AUS [11] | ||
Fred Dagg's Greatest Hits |
|
- |
Fred Dagg Live |
|
- |
The Fred Dagg Tapes |
|
36 |
Compilation albums
Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | Certifications |
---|---|---|---|
NZ[12]
| |||
Fred Dagg Anthology |
|
2 | |
The Taihape Years |
|
34 |
See also
- Agriculture in New Zealand
- Gumboot Day
References
- ^ "Dagg's humour". The Australian Jewish News. Vol. XLVII, no. 7. Victoria, Australia. 17 October 1980. p. 35. Retrieved 4 September 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
- ISSN 1440-7485
- ISSN 0007-4039
- ^ "Satirist John Clarke, of Clarke and Dawe fame, dies aged 68". ABC News. Retrieved 10 April 2017.
- ^ Clarke, John (1976), Fred Dagg's greatest hits, EMI, retrieved 11 February 2020
- ^ "Gumboots" New Zealand Geographic No85 May–June 2007
- ^ Clarke, John (1976), Fred Dagg live, EMI Records, retrieved 11 February 2020
- S2CID 194640769. Retrieved 16 June 2021.
- ^ Clarke, John (1979), The Fred Dagg tapes, Festival, retrieved 11 February 2020
- ^ Clarke, John; Rayner, Eddie (1998), Fred Dagg anthology, Columbia, retrieved 11 February 2020
- ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
- ^ "Fred Dagg NZ Charts". Charts.nz. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
- ^ "Gold and platinum New Zealand albums to 2013". Te Ara. Encyclopedia of NZ. Retrieved 12 July 2020.
External links
- Fred Dagg on John Clarke's official website
- Fred Dagg on New Zealand Music.
- Fred Dagg's gumboots at the collection of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa