Guitarist and singer Peter De Jong says he and long-time collaborator Jim Porteus changed the band name from 'The Cool Factor' a few years back, coinciding with a switch to club gigs.

The Heartfelt Rodneys are very much a 'sixties and seventies' kind of band that is 'drifting into the eighties' according to Peter.

"We play only at clubs now and consequently mostly to an older audience," he said.

"The name began as a bit of a joke within the band - a Rodney was the word for an average bloke who would lurch up to the stage and ask for requests."

In a way it's become a sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy

"We do it without guilt. We're serious about being dags. We do it with a passion."

The band learns six or seven new songs every three months, but it doesn't add many new songs to its set list, preferring to stick with perennial favourites with 'universal entertainment currency'.

"Certain songs find their way into people's subconsciousness," Peter said.

"We play those kinds of songs you can go out anywhere, anytime and play."

After 10 years as the music director at NEW-FM Peter should know a bit about music.

The band performs songs by 'The Beatles', 'Rolling Stones', 'The Bee Gees', 'The Doors' as well as 'the girlie sixties groups' such as 'Dusty Springfield', 'Sandy Shaw' and 'The Supremes'. The Heartfelt Rodneys include Julie Wilson on lead vocals, as well as drummer Dean Gearing and keyboard player Gareth Hudson, both of which have their own band 'The Good'.

TE Achives