Known for iconic pop-rock anthems like April Sun in Cuba, Rain, and Dreams of Ordinary Men, New Zealand born and Australian claimed band Dragon will play two pub shows later this year at Toronto Hotel and Shoal Bay Country Club.
While Dragon is well-known for its famous songs, and was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2008, the band also has an infamous history.
No stranger to drug addiction, overdose and several line-up incarnations, the band lost it's first original member, drummer Neil Storey, in 1975 to a drug overdose only months after first arriving in Sydney.
Nine years later the band also lost key songwriter Paul Hewson, who suffered the same fate just months after leaving the band to return to New Zealand in 1985. Hewson was an influential songwriter for the band, penning a number of hits including April Sun in Cuba which reached number two on the Kent Music Report Singles Chart and remained on the chart for 22 weeks.
The band was to suffer yet another loss in lead singer Marc Hunter, who joined the band in 1973, was fired in 1979, and rejoined again in 1983 until esophageal cancer forced his retirement in 1997. He passed away less than a year later.
While many recall Hunter as the face of Dragon, the singer was not without criticism having led a controversial life as a heavy heroin user and offending American crowds during the band's first US tour in 1978 when he used abusive language that inspired one concert goer to threaten shooting him on stage.
While Dragon is well-known for its famous tunes, and was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2008, the band also has an infamous history...
But perhaps the most enduring and constant presence in the band is bass player Todd Hunter, now 67.
Brother to former front-man Marc and founding member of the band, Hunter describes the early years as being more than a little hectic.
"The 70s was a very dangerous time which I did not enjoy one bit," he says.
"I was that guy. The one who stayed sober and just thought 'what the hell is going on here', all the time. But the band had its own rhythm and way of enduring and over the years it's been an incredible journey of playing great music."
Hunter took a break of his own in 1995 after recording the band's 10th album Incarnation to focus on composing music for TV and film, but rejoined in 2006 when Mark Williams stepped up as lead singer after Marc Hunter's death.