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Led by the highly respected singer/songwriter Dave Dobbyn, DD Smash was among the most popular New Zealand bands of their era. Formed in mid-1981, the group was originally named Dave Dobbyn's Divers, and also consisted of ex-Lip Service guitarist Rob "Revox" Guy, drummer Peter "Rooda" Warren and bassist Lisle Kinney. After a handful of gigs they rechristened themselves DD Smash, and soon issued their first single, "Repetition"; it quickly reached the Top 25 and led to the 1982 release of the LP Cool Bananas, which entered the charts at number one. After an auto accident, Kinney left the band, and with new bassist Ian Morris, DD Smash resurfaced in 1983 with the hit "Outlook for Tuesday." After a concert LP, Live: Deep in the Heart of Taxes, Dobbyn fired everyone but Warren, recording 1984's The Optimist with session players. On December 7 of that year, the new DD Smash played a free concert which ended in rioting; Dobbyn was made the scapegoat of the incident, and was tried for inciting the crowd to violence. The charges were eventually dismissed, but in the wake of the trial, DD Smash quietly disintegrated, as Dobbyn began focusing more and more of his energies on solo work.
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