La De Da's The Happy Prince

This is the untold history of Oceania's 1960s lost psychedelic album, The Happy Prince.Recorded in Sydney by the La De Das, an Aotearoa/New Zealand band, this was the first LP in Australia that told a single story, creating an audio world. The La De Das were – and are – one of New Zealand’s most loved bands. By 1967 they had numerous hit singles and two albums of diverse music. What drove them to experiment with an art pop form? This book answers that question by digging into archives, dusting off historical memories of those who were there. Released in 1969, this album is a collection of original songs based on an Oscar Wilde story, published in 1888. The tracks include narration by Australia’s pop poet Adrian Rawlins. It was a technical and artistic statement, the likes of which Australian music had not previously heard. At EMI’s studios in Sydney, the production experimented with 8-track recording, using electronically synchronized four track machines. EMI provided an in-house producer but the album was independently funded. At the time, it was hailed in music magazine Go Set as “the best thing ever recorded in Australia”. Yet the album disappeared, rarely promoted and never charting. That line up of the band did not record another album. This book finally tells their story.

John Tebbutt researches and writes on the cultural history of media and music. With Shane Homan, Seamus O’Hanlon, Catherine Strong he co-wrote Melbourne Music City (Bloomsbury, 2021) and edited and contributed to Interrogating Popular Music and the City (2024). He has produced radio programs for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. John is an honorary Associate Professor in the School of Design and Social Context, RMIT University, Melbourne. He lives in Meeniyan, Victoria, Australia.