In the mid 1960s, Wellington (known as New Zealand's "windy city") was a lot further from the world outside than it is today. There was a local music scene which looked outwards towards America and Britain, but overseas trends took longer to make their impact, and music outside the commercial mainstream was unlikely to be released in New Zealand. Despite which, the interest in 'authentic' folk music and particularly blues which had arisen out of the early sixties folk revival was reflected in the local scene, inspired by rare imported lps and sustained by an underground of enthusiasts who disdained the chart oriented local pop scene.

One manifestation of this interest was the brief craze for jug band music which flourished in folk clubs and on university campuses. The real jug band music had been a sub-genre of country blues and was popular in Memphis and other Southern cities for a short period in the late 1920s, but an idea of the jug band as lighthearted music played on home made instruments had become popular on the American folk scene of the early 60s. The most influential group was the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, whose albums were the primary inspiration for New Zealand enthusiasts.

Most New Zealand bands were of short duration, and were often formed for specific occasions such as folk festivals or the annual universities arts festivals. While some participants had a purist approach based on the records of originators such as the Memphis Jug Band and Cannon's Jug Stompers, others were drawn to the vaudeville elements emphasised by Kweskin's group and the novelty impact of music played on jugs, washboards, and tea-chest basses. These contrasting approaches sometimes existed in an uneasy balance within the same outfit.

Jug band musician and commentator Gordon Collier provided an account of the local scene in an appendix to his article "The jug and hokum bands; an historical and critical survey" (Clawhammer, October 1967). The first known group was started in Auckland in 1965 and included Australian blues singer Frank Povah, who was to figure several of the offshoot groups that followed in various parts of the country. By 1967, most university cities could boast an intermittently-appearing ensemble with an unwieldy name, makeshift instrumentation up to and including the proverbial kitchen sink, and a clutch of rough-hewn good-timey songs loosely based on the repertoires of their American counterparts. By far the most successful of these was the Band of Hope, who formed in Christchurch in 1967 and released an album the following year. Wellington had a series of groups, often involving singer and guitarist Max Winnie, while Auckland had the Mad Dog Jug Band.