hough's first band was after hours, the first band of a teenage neil finn, which lasted until 1977 when finn was asked to join his brother's band, split enz. from here, hough moved to the short-lived fang, for whom he played drums. by late 1977 he was playing with up-and-coming auckland punk band suburban reptiles using the stage name buster stiggs, which would remain with him for his whole musical career. he was a main songwriter of the band, writing their single "saturday night stay at home".