By 1977, The Dingoes had carried their distinctly Australian blend of rock, country and blues halfway around the world. After establishing themselves as one of Australia's most highly regarded bands of the mid-1970s, Broderick Smith, Kerryn Tolhurst, Chris Stockley, John Bois and John Lee headed to North America, where A&M Records had signed the group to a two-album deal. Following rehearsals in Canada, the band established a base in Mill Valley, California, and recorded Five Times the Sun in San Francisco with producer Elliot Mazer.

Released by A&M in 1977, Five Times the Sun became The Dingoes' first album issued outside Australia. The American campaign put the band on the road across the United States, playing clubs, colleges and theatres as they attempted to establish themselves during an extraordinarily competitive period of American rock music. Surviving advertisements and concert listings document appearances from New York and Maryland through the Midwest, South and West Coast, but the known itinerary remains incomplete and some performances have disappeared from the surviving record.

One of those missing pieces is a Dingoes appearance remembered at the Tally-Ho, at Concord Pike (Route 202) and Naamans Road in Delaware. The exact date has yet to be established. The memory is unusually vivid: a small group of Australians attended the show, made a connection with the band through mutual contacts from the Melbourne music scene, and remained after the audience had gone, spending time with the musicians on the stage. A "Never Bark... Always Bite!" promotional T-shirt from the band's American campaign became a lasting souvenir of that period.

In August 2026, former Dingoes bassist John Bois provided an intriguing new clue while responding to research into the unidentified Tally-Ho date. Although he did not remember the date, Bois recalled that Tom Petty had come to see The Dingoes in the Philadelphia area to determine whether they would be suitable to appear with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers at New York's Bottom Line. The Dingoes and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are documented together at the Bottom Line on November 19 and 20, 1977. Whether the Philadelphia-area performance Bois remembered was the Tally-Ho show remains unconfirmed, but his recollection provides a valuable new lead in reconstructing the band's American itinerary.

The Dingoes' American story also carried a cruel twist. The band was expecting an important touring opportunity connected with Lynyrd Skynyrd when the October 1977 plane crash that killed members of the group abruptly changed those plans. The Dingoes continued working in America, but the breakthrough they had hoped for never fully arrived.

This page brings together surviving advertisements, contemporary record-industry coverage, tour listings, memorabilia and personal recollections to reconstruct a small part of The Dingoes' 1977 American journey. It remains a work in progress. Where dates or details cannot yet be independently verified, they are identified as such. That continuing search - separating memory from documentation and then bringing the two back together - is exactly what Analog Archaeology is about.

Research in Progress: The Tally-Ho

The exact date of The Dingoes' appearance at the Tally-Ho, Concord Pike and Naamans Road, Delaware, remains under investigation. Contemporary newspaper advertising, tour documentation and other archival sources are being examined. John Bois' recollection of Tom Petty seeing the band in the Philadelphia area before the November 19-20 Bottom Line engagement provides a potentially important chronological clue, but no claim is made here that the two performances were the same event until further evidence is found.

Sources & Acknowledgements

·        John Bois - personal correspondence with Peter Bornos, August 2026. Historical recollection paraphrased rather than reproducing the private email.

·        The Bottom Line Archive - 1977 performance chronology.

·        On A&M Records - The Dingoes artist, discography and historical archive. Used as a research reference; gallery photographs are not reproduced without appropriate permission.

·        World Radio History - Contemporary record-industry advertisements and coverage. Digital archive consulted.

·        Personal recollections and memorabilia - Peter Bornos collection.