Philips offered a record contract with its Polydor label, Tom McDonald of Universal Booking Agency (UBA) came on as manager, and there followed several years of hotel and nightclub work, not just in New Zealand but in Tahiti, Australia and Hawaii.

In January 1972, as Frankie left for his first overseas booking, in Tahiti, younger brother John predicted success. “As long as he doesn’t sing too many of my songs,” he joked to the Sunday News.

More seriously, John said that he was working at finding an appropriate song for his brother. “Without a hit record, you are in the dark,” he said. “But when you get that record it’s like a light being switched on. You can do practically anything.”

Brother John penned the A-side of his first single, ‘Another Tear Drop Falls’ (Polydor NZ, 1969), which was coupled on the Australian release (as Frankie Rowles) with another John Rowles tune from the second single ‘Sweet Mary’.

After one more Polydor single ‘Pedro Lopez’, Rowles dropped the Price surname for a 1972 swansong ‘Ma Vie C'est Toi’ on the small Gemini label, known mainly as an outlet for Larry Morris.

A Sunday News item in 1972 said that Frankie and John had set up a company to market a grape-based champagne, made for them at Oratia. “One glass of this and you’ll be flat on your back,” warned John. Frankie retorted, “Don’t take any notice of him. He’s only the waiter.” Taste testers said the beverage reminded them of Italian sparkling wines.

In October 1973 the NZ Herald reported that Frankie was working in Nadi, Fiji, with Dick Hopp, formerly of Headband, and his band Borkum Riff, who were taking a break from their residency at Auckland’s Ranch House. 

Frankie (Price) Rowles died on 24 March 2004, aged 59.