Killip
Larry Killip has been in the music industry for a long time and a member of many groups, some of which are mentioned below. He started out in 1965 with a group of school friends in a band called Zarks. In 1968 they changed their name to Omnibus. When that group disbanded in 1971, Larry and Denis Winters, who had played drums in both of those groups, formed a new group called Denver.
When Humble Pie disbanded in 1968, Barry Gill went to Australia. He returned to Auckland in 1971 and joined his brother Graham, who had earlier been with the Dallas Four, and they teamed up with Larry and Denis in Denver. Larry was on lead guitar and Denis 'Tub' Winters, continued on drums. Barry played bass and Graham played rhythm guitar. Denver gigged at the Montmartre, but only lasted about three months before disbanding.
Crossroads came next.
It was while Larry was playing at the Montmartre, that he was noticed by Gerard Smith, from Rumour. He offered Larry a deal and Larry released a solo single in 1972 under the name Killip, released on Philips.
The sales of the single weren't massive, so there were no further recordings made. Larry did however decide to continue, still using the name Killip, in 1972 he formed a new band. Killip had Larry on guitar and vocals, David Wright on bass and vocals, Pete Bayliss on rhythm guitar and vocals, and Denis Winters on drums.
Killip L to R: Denis Winters, Larry Killip, Dave Wright and
Peter Bayliss.
They were picked up by the Family label and in 1973 two singles were released, "Country Pickin' "/"Sunshine Town" and "Taken Back To Mother Earth Again"/"You're Fine". Larry also appeared on TV's "Studio One" in 1973 and sang "Country Spring". It was a Larry Killip written song entered for the songwriting competition. It had Larry's vocals placed over a Garth Young-produced backing track for the show. By the time it was broadcast Larry Killip was on his way to the UK. The song featured on the album of the show, with the album going on to sell thousands of copies.
Larry returned from the UK in 1974. In 1979 Larry joined the former Larry's Rebels rhythm section of Viv McCarthy and Nooky Stott in a band called Chicane.
In the early eighties he formed Larry and the Ladders. This was an Auckland based trio and included Larry on guitar and vocals, faithful Denis Winters on drums and bassist Garry Clarke (from the Challenge and Australian 1970's group Carson).
Larry and the Ladders L to R: Greg
O'Donnell, Denis Winters and Larry Killip.
They released a single, for Ripper Records in 1981. It was "Looking For An Answer"/"Finally Woke Up".
A change in line-up saw Greg O'Donnell replacing Garry Clarke on bass. Greg had previously played with Music Convention. A new record deal had a second single released on RCA 103996 in 1982, "She Came (Turquoise Eyes)"/"Freeway Bite".
Again, sales were not good, but RCA still had faith in Larry Killip, and a solo single, ‘Fire & Thunder’, issued under the appropriate name of Solo, was released in 1983, but it achieved little.
Rock Me Bananas was another group he was involved in.
In the early 2000's Larry set up his own home studio, where he did a lot of production work and recorded many advertising jingles. Three Larry Killip solo albums were self-released, Wild Sky (1991), Good To Getaway (2004), and Never Going Back (2007) and the UK indie label Gap issued a compilation of his earlier work in the same year.
For further information on Larry, have a look at his own website at Larry Killip.
Killip can also be found on the following compilation:-
