Dave Kennedy – LINK “Only Time Could Let Us Know” / “Highway Driver”
Aug 16
Dave Kennedy, singer / songwriter / musician headed the band LINK from 1973-1975 (after the demise of the Chapta, who had previously won the Loxenne Golden Disc Award for their song “Say A Prayer”). They officially released one single, double-A sided: ‘Only Time Could Let Us Know’ / ‘Highway Driver’ with ‘The Day You Came Into My Life’. The song reached the national top twenty in New Zealand and won the 1973 RATA Award for Best Group Song of the year.
A little known fact is that the band also recorded a song titled “Break the Ice” which only ever appeared on a compilation LP titled “New Zealand’s Top 12 Groups”. The song is slightly heavier than “Only Time”, more reminiscent of the music Nazareth or Foghat were putting out at the time and never was released as a single [reportedly because the record company execs didn’t like it].
The two principle songwriters in Link were Dave Kennedy and keyboardist Dave Gillies. Due to gruelling work schedules rhythm section members changed frequently – the original line up below consisted of: Craig Nicholson (drums), Dave Kennedy (vocal / guitar), Nev Claughton (bass), Dave Gillies (keys).
After Link Dave moved to London (in the mid 70s) then to Sydney, Melbourne and finally Auckland in the 90s. He was called back to his native Invercargill in 2003 and was awarded Southland’s vocalist of the year in 2005. He still sings and is a talented musician – playing guitar, bass and drums.
To contact Dave go to this site: http://www.thecabbagetree.com/index.php?pageLoad=95