Dog Trumpet

Dog Trumpet or Reg & Peter's Dog Trumpet is an Australian rock band that was formed by brothers Reg Mombassa (aka Chris O'Doherty) and Peter O'Doherty. Both Mombassa and O'Doherty were members of the Australian band Mental as Anything, and they formed Dog Trumpet as an outlet for their material.[1] The Dog Trumpet sound reflects affection for 1960s pop and psychedelia.[2]

Dog Trumpet
Also known asReg & Peter/Peter & Reg
OriginSydney, New South Wales, Australia
GenresRock, pop, psychedelic folk,
Years active1990–present
LabelsRegular, TWA, Half a Cow, Electric Entertainment, Orange Lounge
Associated actsMental As Anything, Dynamic Hepnotics, The Whitlams, The Reels, Happening Thang, The Go-Betweens
Websitedogtrumpet.net
Members
Past members
  • John Bliss
  • Amanda Brown
  • Jess Ciampa
  • Mike Grubb
  • Mark Honeybrook
  • Tony Martin
  • Peter Mitchell
  • Iain Shedden
  • Hamish Stuart
  • Andy Travers
  • Jonathan Zwartz

Biography

In 1990, Mental As Anything members had agreed to take a sabbatical from their band work and turned to solo or side projects.[3] Mombassa and O'Doherty formed the duo Reg & Peter/Peter & Reg (they alternated names whenever interviewed). Under the name of Reg & Peter, the duo issued the single "Jean"/"Nobody Home" in March 1991 on Regular Records, the song is described by Mombassa as "a fusion of psychedelic and Celtic rock 'n 'roll dealing with metaphysical romance", before assuming the name Reg & Peter's Dog Trumpet for the album Two Heads One Brain. The album made the Rolling Stone's list of top albums for the year. Two further singles were lifted from the album, "Made of Wood"/"Red Brick Home" in June 1991 (the cover art for which is a painting of a howling dog trumpet by Mombassa) and "I'm So Handsome"/"Dream" in October 1991.[2] The name "Dog Trumpet" came from a piece of Mombassa's artwork which featured a creature resembling a cross between a dog, a trumpet and a jet engine.[4] The album was produced by Steve James and helping out in the studio were Mike Gubb (keyboards; ex-Dynamic Hepnotics, Mental as Anything, The Whitlams), John Bliss (drums; ex-The Reels) and Mark Honeybrook (bass).[5]

The next two years saw the release of two EPs, Kiss a Gun Down in October 1992 and Strange Brew in October 1993.[2][5] Film clips were made for "Beast of Prey" and "Melancholy Way", although they were not released as singles. Strange Brew was an inspired reworking of the old Cream song. The artwork for Strange Brew, was painted by Martin Sharp, who designed several album covers for the real Cream in the late 1960s. Tony Martin had replaced Honeybrook on bass.[5]

After that, Mental as Anything re-emerged to tour and record, with Dog Trumpet put on the back-burner. In 1996, Reg and Pete revived Dog Trumpet and issued the album Suitcase. Backing the duo in the studio were Tony Martin, Andy Travers (drums; ex-the Happening Thang) and Amanda Brown (violin, backing vocals; ex-The Go-Betweens).[2][5] "Suitcase" was released as a single on TWA Records in 1996, with "Into the Bible" released by TWA as a radio single in 1997 (the cover picture of a lecturing monster is by Mombassa).

The band's third album, Dog Trumpet, was recorded over a period of years and was engineered and produced by O'Doherty on an old sixteen track reel to reel in the spare room of his flat in Coogee. It was released in February 2002 on Half A Cow Records.[5][6] Aside from regular drummers, they used Terepai Richmond for some tracks. The cover is a painting by Mombassa of him and his brother Peter when they were small children.

Dog Trumpet released their fourth album Antisocial Tendencies in March 2007 on Half A Cow Records.[5] The album features a cover of "Lili Marlene", a popular World War II song made famous by Marlene Dietrich.[6][7]

In 2008 Mombassa and O'Doherty began recording songs for the next Dog Trumpet album, uploading a demo of "The Great South Road", a new song from the forthcoming album, on their MySpace website in December 2008. The album, River of Flowers, was released on 28 May 2010.

Early August 2013, Dog Trumpet released the double album 'Medicated Spirits' through Orange Lounge Recordings. The album has been short-listed for the 'Australian Music Prize' Australian Album of the Year. The band have also been invited to attend SXSW in March 2014.

Playing various Festivals all over from "Port Fairy Folk Festival", "Bluesfest", "Blue Mountains Music Festival", "SXSW". Dog Trumpet lost their talented Drummer/Journalist Iain Shedden in 2017. Iain was replaced by Jim Elliott ex Cruel Sea. Over the last couple of years Peter and Reg have been recording a new album due for release in May 2020.  The album's title is "Great South Road", a title that serves as both a link to their childhood in New Zealand referring to the old main road leading from Auckland to Wellington passing through their southern Auckland suburb of Papakura; and also as a metaphor for the parlous and perilous state of the world, for a human society that appears to be heading South towards a dystopian future. First single “Gravity


Members
Current members
  • Reg Mombassa — guitar, vocals (1990-present)
  • Peter O'Doherty — guitar, mandolin, bass (1990-present)
  • Bernie Hayes — bass, vocals, (2002-present)
  • Jim Elliott — Drums, (2017-present)
Former members
  • John Bliss — drums (1991–1993)
  • Mike Grubb — keyboards (1991–1993)
  • Mark Honeybrook — bass (1991–1992)
  • Tony Martin — bass (1992–1993, 1996)
  • Amanda Brown — violin, vocals (1996, 2002)
  • Andy Travers — drums (1996, 2002)
  • Jess Ciampa — drums (2002, 2007)
  • Hamish Stuart — drums (2002, 2007)
  • Jonathan Zwartz — bass (2002)
  • Peter Mitchell — harmonica (2007)
  • Iain Shedden drums (2012, 2017)

Discography

Albums
  • Two Heads One Brain — Regular (D 30577) (1991)
  • Suitcase — TWA (TWAD106) (January 1996)
  • Dog Trumpet — Half A Cow (hac101) (February 2002)
  • Antisocial Tendencies — Half A Cow (hac126) (1 March 2007)
  • River Of Flowers — Half A Cow (hac141) (28 May 2010)
  • Medicated Spirits — Orange Lounge Recordings (ORANGECD2002) (August 2013)
  • Great South Road — Electric Entertainment (EE100) (May 2020)

EPs
  • Kiss a Gun Down — Regular (D 11332) (October 1992)
  • Strange Brew — Regular (D 11609) (October 1993)

Singles
  • "Jean" — Regular (March 1991)
  • "Made of Wood" — Regular (June 1991)
  • "I'm So Handsome" — Regular (29 October 1991)
  • "Suitcase" — TWA (TWAS 016) (1996)
  • "Into the Bible" — TWA (1997) (Radio Single)
  • "Stay For Too Long / Overseas and Elsewhere" — Self-published (2017) (Double A-sided digital single)
  • "Gravity" — Electric Entertainment (digital single) (2019)
  • "Wallpaper" — Electric Entertainment (digital single) (2020)
  • "Lonely Death Cleaning Company" — Electric Entertainment (digital single) (2020)
  • "You've Heard it All Before" — Electric Entertainment (digital single) (2020)

References
  1. Sentimental as anything, The Sydney Morning Herald, 29 June 2002.
  2. McFarlane, Ian (1999). "Encyclopedia entry for 'Dog Trumpet'". Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop. St Leonards, New South Wales: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86508-072-1. Archived from the original on 19 April 2004. Retrieved 21 August 2009.
  3. McFarlane, Ian (1999). "Encyclopedia entry for 'Mental as Anything'". Encyclopedia of Australian Rock and Pop. St Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86508-072-1. Archived from the original on 13 August 2004. Retrieved 21 August 2009.
  4. Donovan, Patrick and Tessie Virgiotis: Every dog has its day, The Age, 12 October 2007.
  5. "Reg and Peter's Dog Trumpet". Australian Rock Database. Passagen.se (Magnus Holmgren). Archived from the original on 29 September 2012. Retrieved 9 March 2014.
  6. "Dog Trumpet Bio". Half A Cow Records. Retrieved 21 August 2009.
  7. Zuel, Bernard: Dog Trumpet, The Sydney Morning Herald, 16 March 2007.
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