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Hero image for John Rowles, Ladies and Gentlemen

John Rowles, Ladies and Gentlemen

Television (Full Length) – 1969

In 1969 Kiwi music legend John Rowles was in his early 20s, and flush with UK success: appearing on Top of the Pops and celebrating a single – ‘If I Only Had Time’ – which got to number three in the British charts. This fly-on-the-wall documentary records his homecoming tour, complete with cigars, turtlenecks, rehearsals, press interviews, dancing, hongi and a civic reception in Kawerau (where he’d been fired from a mill job five years before, for arriving late). Rowles launches single ‘M’Lady’, soon to top the NZ charts, and reflects on how he's changed since leaving Kawerau.

Like all the swingers, believe you me, he likes tea, particularly ice tea.
– A DJ introduces John Rowles