THE race is on to fund a proposed television mini-series about the rise of rock band Dragon in Australia in the 1970s.
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The recent mini-series INXS: Never Tear Us Apart was a ratings bonanza, and saw that band's music shoot back up the ARIA charts.
Dragon is hoping for a similar boost.
Dragon founder Todd Hunter revealed details of the mini-series to the Lakes Mail this week, on the eve of the band's Trilogy Concert Tour which arrives on the Central Coast on April 11.
"There are maybe three lots of people who are trying to get the funding together to do the Dragon story," Hunter said.
"There is a lot of interest there.
"It would be a dramatisation of what happened with us here in Australia during the '70s."
The Dragon story has the necessary ingredients: it's a rags to riches tale spiced with tragedy, humour and triumph told against a killer soundtrack.
Dragon survived its early years on a mantra best summed up as: Whatever doesn't kill you makes you angrier.
"We were driven by anger a lot in the '70s," Hunter said.
"Every terrible thing that happened to us just made us more angry and more resolute not to give up."
Hunter recalls the starving young band had its gear stolen, struggled to get good gigs, and once even agreed to play at a Sydney bar in return for a bowl of "terrible mince".
"After we played that gig we had to go around and scrape up a cab fare. We were such losers." Hunter said.
"But that was the place where [music producer] Peter Dawkins brought the head guys from CBS down to see the band, and then we got signed."
Dragon went on to become a household name across Australia.
Their hits remain classics today, and include April Sun In Cuba, Are You Old Enough, Still in Love With You, Rain, and Speak No Evil.
But living the rock'n'roll lifestyle of excess came at a price.
Band members endured battles with alcohol, drugs and fans.
"We behaved exasperatedly, but the worse we behaved the more we were rewarded," Hunter recalls.
Ultimately, though, drummer Neil Storey and keyboard player Paul Hewson died from drug overdoses.
And Todd's brother, lead singer Marc Hunter, died of throat cancer in 1998.
Todd Hunter reformed the band in 2006, adding singer Mark Williams, drummer Pete Drummond and guitarist Bruce Reid to the fold.
"It was meant to be," Hunter said of the new line-up.
"I just rang the guys up and said 'Do you want to be in a band?' and there were no auditions, we just started playing.
"This has been the longest running line-up so far - by quite a long time."
The Trilogy Concert Tour celebrates the three ages that define the band - the Young Years (1973 to 1979), the Glory Years (1982 to 1998) and the Phoenix Years (2006 onwards).
"We do two sets in the concerts, starting with the current stuff, then back through the '80s and '70s ... it's like a reverse archaeological dig of our songs," Hunter said.
■ See Dragon in the Trilogy Concert Tour at Laycock Street Theatre, Gosford, on Friday, April 11. Tickets cost $55 for adults, and $49.50 concessions. Visit laycockstreettheatre.com to buy tickets, or phone the box office on 4323 3233.