Back in 1963 Bryce Erik Peterson, a seaman and small time crook, was caught up in a sensational court case, the Bassett Road Machine Gun Murders. He was a supplier of marijuana to wealthy Auckland socialites. Bryce had been asked by a criminal associate to find a gun because he’d been threatened for trying to steal another man’s girlfriend. It transpired that the machine gun that was loaned him was later used to gun down two men who ran a sly-grog house at 115 Bassett Road in Remuera. To make matters worse, Bryce had been seen sitting in his car outside the murder scene two days before the murder!
Peterson gave evidence in the trial and received part of the reward money for doing so. His criminal friends refused to forgive him for turning nark and his drug customers wanted nothing to do with him either. He became depressed and one day, standing at the water’s edge near the end of Shelly Beach Road, Peterson sliced open his midriff with his sharp sheath knife and dived into the sea in an attempt to kill himself. Visiting Australian surf lifesavers rescued him. In 1965 he was caught driving a van full of marijuana plants and charged with being a rogue and a vagabond.
Peterson had learned to play the guitar while he was in borstal. He became a self-styled Bohemian hanging around coffee bars and nightclubs in the 1950s and developed a lifetime obsession with jazz music, opening Auckland’s first jazz nightclub.
He started writing songs for his son and in 1967, Peterson formed a five-piece rock band, The House of Nimrod. They played numbers written by Peterson. Their first singles, Slightly-Delic and Psychothartic, were written in response to the drug-fuelled summer of Sgt Pepper. Peterson and his wife Karen penned Gracious Lady Alice Dee and approached local all-girl group The Fair Sect to record it but they didn't think much of him or his songs and told him to sod off.
Bryce then made contact with local pop singer Lew Pryme. “It was early 1968 and I was writing songs for a pop opera for kids. Lew had performed in a few pantomimes and offered to help me. He came around to my pad one day and absolutely flipped over the song and begged me to let him record it, I said yeah sure Lew ... but it's about LSD!!! He didn't think that it would be a problem as he was keen to break away from his peroxided pop star image.” Petersen’s simple image of walking with his wife in the park tripping was enhanced by arranger Jimmy Sloggett and engineer Bruce Barton who introduced wind and other sound effects helping to turn it into a minor league pop classic. The song was controversially banned on Radio.
In 1969 Peterson, the Pied Piper of Auckland, departed for England intending to approach Rolf Harris who had his own studio. However, his trip was unsuccessful and Peterson returned to Auckland where he established the Spotted Dog Studio, teaching guitar to children. Bryce Peterson died in 2008.
