Country Music Festival Norfolk Island 2012 Tour with Annette & Kim flyer
Annette & Kim Norfolk Island Country Music Festival Tour Information Pack 2012
DECEMBER 2011
Hi folks
We have finished all our gigs for the year. We had a great time with the Kamo Club Dance Section Christmas Break up on the 7th again this year and it was awesome to see so many familiar faces there supporting the night. There were a number of raffles drawn on the night and a couple of door prizes to some lucky people. This is always a nice gig to do and we look forward to seeing everyone again on the 29th of February for the Dance Sections 12th Birthday celebrations. The Friday night saw us playing at the Whangarei RSA where another good crowd had turned out to dance the night away. Although we have a short break until January 14th we are still busy organizing our tour group to Norfolk Island, selecting songs for the New Zealand Showcase and also for the Bay of Islands Festival which we hope to be at in May. We will also be practicing for the Charity Concert in Te Aroha on the 29th of January. So it all doesn't stop for us over Christmas. We would like to thank you all for your continued support during the year and hope to catch up with as many of you as we can in 2012. Until then we would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.
Take care and keep it country
Annette and Kim
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2011
OCTOBER
Hi Folks
It has been a busy couple of months so
I’ll try to be brief. The 2nd of October I was invited to do a guest
spot at the Coastal Country Music Club in Tauranga. What a great club this is
with around 200 people attending the club days held at the Tauranga RSA. They
have an awesome band, great singers and make sure they all enjoy an awesome day
of country music. It was nice to catch with some old friends as well. Thank you
to Karen and the committee for having me.
Friday the 7th October saw
us back with our good friends at the Dargaville RSA. They still know how to
have a good time here and it was good to see old family friends Roger and
Gloria Seymour there.
The following Wednesday we had a great
afternoon with the woman’s section of the Whangarei RSA for their 66th birthday celebrations. Yes, that’s right 66 years they have been going. There
were ladies there from as far away as Pukekohe in the south to Kaitaia in the
north. We had an awesome afternoon of song and laughter but no dancing on the
tables. I had heard that they were renowned for that. Ha ha.
One of the main events for October
was the concert we had been asked to organise for the Kamo Club Dance Section
Spring Fever weekend. We rounded up The Mountain Mist Band, Ian, Richard, Tiny
and Andrew and invited two talented young ladies ti join us as guests Reba and
Taylor Ryland aka Double Trouble. Dennis Pabirowski once again provided his
talents on sound. Dennis has a great feel for the sound that we like and is a
pleasure to work with. M.C. for the show could only be the consummate
professional, Robyn Lilley. Always a pleasure as well to work with Robyn as he
knows how to keep a show humming along. Thanks Robyn and to everyone that made
the show a great success. We look forward to perhaps doing it again next year.
On labour weekend I made a flying visit
to the Tauranga Star Awards to sing my original song “She’s Not The Leavin’
Kind” in the finals concert. The finals concert was excellent with an awesome
band, Bakkus, giving the singers a lift to their performances and well run by
Merv and his team of helpers. I came away with runner-up but the All Blacks won
the Rugby World Cup albeit by one point. So that’s 24 years finished with and
we can move on. Yippee.
Friday the 28th we were
booked to play at the Whangarei RSA. Annette was a little under the weather but
to her credit she rocked up ready to go but we convinced her to go home and
rest. There’s no doubt she’s a trooper. I did the show by myself which went
surprisingly well I might add. Thanks to Lynda and Colin for helping pack down
the gear after the show. It was much appreciated. Wow, that was October done
and dusted.
NOVEMBER
The 5th of November was the
wedding day for Judith and Neville Silby and I was still a one man band but
feeling a little better about it after my test run at the RSA the week before.
A lovely ceremony and dinner were held at the Towai church and hall with family
and close friends. We wish Mr and Mrs Neville Silby and Judith all the very
best for their future together.
On the 12th we headed to
Te Awamutu for the annual charity concert organised by Val and Ray Thurgood. We
were the main guest artists this year and a good crowd turned out for the show
held at the Bible Chapel. There was a great line up of supporting acts however
the show ended on a sad note with the news that former drummer and well known
local identity, Ken Rangi, had passed away. We send our sincerest condolences
to Ken’s family and friends.
On the Sunday we were off to the Vue
Bar at Hamilton Casino to perform. An interesting venue this one to play which
we are slowly getting the feel for and look forward to performing at in 2012.
Once again thank you to everyone that came along to support us especially
Lynette Porter, Joy Adams and the team from Aaron Court Motor Inn. We headed
off at about 4:30 and made it home around 9:30 after stopping for dinner in
Albany at a very nice Thai restaurant which Annette had previously visited and
which was introduced to me by my son and daughter in law.
We had a couple of weeks to recoup
before our big expedition to Nelson for the Hospice Charity Concert organised
by Phil and Barbara Steans, Bob and Hilary Young and their team of helpers.
They flew us down and put us up in a very nice motel, Parkside Motel, for the
weekend. The concert was very well supported and joining us on the show were
Joy Adams, Graeme McCardle, Maureen Thompson and local junior, intermediate and
senior entertainers from the Nelson region who did an excellent job. We must
thank the Good Time Country Band for the excellent backing they provided. They
were; Erol Goodall on lead guitar, Paula Connor on rhythm guitar, Jim Palmer on
bass and Luke Connor on drums. Paula had given birth to her and Luke’s third
baby just a week before the show. That’s dedication for you. Well done Paula
and well done band. Thank you also to Phil, Barb, Bob, Hilary and Marg for
their awesome hospitality. I also managed to catch up with two of my first
cousins, Brian who now lives in the Abel Tasman region and Dorothy who lives
with her husband Brian in Blenhiem. Dorothy brought her three grandson’s , Luke
,Ben and Jack who are my third cousins, along to see us perform. We had a
fantastic weekend even though I was a bit under the weather with a stomach bug.
We must also thank all those kind folk who supported us by buying our cds. It
is very much appreciated.
Also on the weekend of the 26th were the NZCMA EOY Awards and I had an original song in the competition
representing the Auckland Country Music Association Awards. As I was unable to
attend the awards our very good friend Neil McKenzie-Hall had agreed to sing it
for me and blow me down it won. So I am very pleased to say that I am the NZCMA
Songwriter of the Year for 2011.WoHoo. Thank you Neil for singing my song I
have heard that you did an awesome job of it. Congratulations. By all accounts
the whole show was excellent so I have been told. Well done to the NZCMA also.
We must also congratulate Phoebe Ball for taking out the top award and two very
awesome young ladies, Reba and Taylor Ryland aka Double Trouble, for being
Overall Runners Up in the intermediate section. Well done girls.
So that was November done and dusted
as well. We will catch up with you all in December.
Take care and keep it country
Annette and Kim
AUGUST/ SEPTEMBER 2011
Hi Folks
Just to keep you up to date on what we have been doing during August and September. A big weekend for us on the 12th, 13th and 14th August beginning with a Friday night gig at the Papakura RSA. Thank you to Anne McGarry for helping us get this gig and to the folks from Franklin Country Music Club for coming out to support us. It was great to catch up with Lynette, June and Marlene. Saturday morning we headed through to Te Aroha to see Annette’s Uncle Jim and Aunty Molly to entertain at the Rest Home where Molly was staying. We had lunch with Jim then headed to Hamilton where we would be attending the Kiwi Pro-am National Country Music Awards Concert. We were one of the top three finalists in the Best Group/Duo category. It was a great show with an awesome finale which featured Dennis Marsh, Eddie Low and Tony Williams singing How Great Thou Art. The overall results for 2011 were;
Group/Duo of the Year The Topp Twins
Male Artist of the Year James Ray
Female Artist of the
Year Tami Neilson
Country Music Legend
Award Dennis Marsh
Horizon Award Vicki Evans
On
the Sunday we made our debut appearance at the Sky City Casino Vue Bar. Which
was very exciting. Thank you to everyone that came along to listen to us. We
really do appreciate your support. We will be back there on Sunday the 13th November after the Te Awamutu Charity Concert.
Sadly on Monday the 15th Aunty Molly passed away. We attended Molly’s funeral on the Thursday where
Annette sang two beautiful songs at the church service.
The 26th saw us back at
the Dargaville RSA a little worse for wear but willing to give it all we had
left.
At the beginning of September we got
together with the boys from the Mountain Mist Band to practice for the show we
are doing on the 15th October for the Kamo Club Spring Fever dance
weekend. Once again we have Reba and Taylor Ryland joining us as our guest
artists. This is going to be a great show.
On the 10th of September we
had an awesome afternoon entertaining at
the Blind Institutes afternoon get together.
We must wish our good friend Len
Fields a belated Very Happy 80th Birthday for the 24th of
September. Sorry we couldn’t make it to the celebration Len but we hope you had
an awesome day.
We look forward to catching up in October. Take care and keep it country.
All the Best
Annette and Kim
July 2011
Annette & Kim are very excited to have been nominated for the Kiwi Pro-Am National Country Music Awards : Best Duo/Group 2011. Being held at the Founders Theater on the 13th August 2011. Along with Micheal & Ashley, and the Topp Twins.
Annette & Kim are also very excited to have been nominated for the "Best Duo Act "in the "European Country Music Association Top 100 Country Music Radio Charts Awards 2011." This is due to our success with the Hillcrest Compilation disc, produced by Ross Allen and receiving Airplay through out Europe.
MAY / JUNE 2011
Hi
Folks
The main event for May was our tour
to Norfolk Island to the 18th annual Country Music Festival. It’s
hard to believe another year has gone by already.
Once again we met up with our tour
group at Auckland airport. We had 16 people with us for this tour. Six had been
on tour with us previously so it was nice to see familiar faces back for this
years festival. We also had one of the Trans-Tasman contestants with us also,
our good friend Grant Reha-Timoti and his partner Rose Vallance. There was a
lot of excitement in the group with Grant in the competition and Annette to
M.C. the New Zealand Showcase.
We arrived on Norfolk around lunch time
on the Sunday and everyone had the afternoon to settle in and relax a little.
The evening saw us all meet at the local RSL for a welcome dinner and a chance
to become acquainted with one another and to listen to the Norfolk Island band
to kick the week off.
Monday we were up early for the half
day tour to introduce everyone to magical Norfolk island. We also added in
something special with a gospel sing along in the awesome St Barnabas Church.
Which was well received by everyone in the church including a few Aussies. A
couple of tears were shed as well.
Monday evening we were off to the New
Zealand Showcase night featuring junior Khona Va aga Grey, Gina Keating and
Roger Tibbs with Headliners The Coal Rangers and Aly Cook. The artists were
backed by the Galley Slaves and lead this year by Mr Music Man himself Mike
McCarthy with B.V.s by Echo in Harmony. Annette did an awesome job of
compeering the evening and keeping the show ticking along and also slipping in
the odd joke. Everyone was very impressed.
Tuesday was the regular mini golf
competition where a lot of fun was had by all. Agnes and her team have put a
lot of work into the new mini golf course. Once we had completed the golf we
had the traditional cutting of the cake and morning tea. In the afternoon a few
of us ventured down to Emily Bay for a quick dip in the ocean. It was very
invigorating in deed. One of the
cruiseliners managed to off load visitors onto the island also on Tuesday and
we managed to run into Ian and Norma Venables and Margaret from Whangarei in
the local food mart. Just goes to show you never know who you are going to bump
into on a tiny Pacific island. It was the most people I have ever seen on the
island in all the years I have been going there. Then in the evening we dined
at Puppies Point at the Island Fish Fry. It was a chance to sample island style
food as well as the local Trumpeter, King Fish and Groper. Then we were
delivered back to Rawson Hall for the Australian Showcase which featured
Margie-May Hockey, Jim Haynes, Mitchell Shadlow, The Smokin’ Crawdads, Rod
McCormack and Gina Jefferies. It was alright.
Wednesday was the big day for the
Trans-Tasman contestants with rehearsals during the day and the big show in the
evening. Our group had a free morning to relax and do some shopping before we
all met at Hats place for our regular wine and cheese afternoon and a chance to
chat to one of the local identities, well two really, Hats and Leo, Hats dad.
Between them both there isn’t much they don’t know about the history of the
island. We are very lucky to have them as two of our dearest friends and for
Hats to put up with us for a week every year since about 2002. We really do
appreciate it.
Before the evening show most of
the group took in the Trial of the Fifteen which is a 45 minute or so show
covering how Norfolk was initially settled as a penal colony and starring our friend Lucy. Some of
us enjoyed a couple of shots of sherry after the show which warmed your toes I
must say. We all then headed up to Rawson Hall to watch the Kiwis take on the
Aussies in the Trans-Tasman competition and cheer on Grant. It was a close
competition with every one putting on great performances. In the end it was
Australian Melody Felder taking out the
top prize. Our own artists did well also with Keinan Ngapo runner-up and Pheobe
Ball receiving the Dead Ringer Band Encouragement Award. Hayley Smith, Neil
McKenzie-Hall and Grant all did us proud.
Thursday was an exciting day for Annette
and I as it was our RSL lunch time gig which began at 12:00. Lunch was provided
for our group and we had reserved tables. We had a great two hour show with a
bit of a sing along thrown in for good measure. We were blown away by the
support we had and sold more cds than we imagined we would. So thank you to
every one for making it a great afternoon for us as well.
Thursday evening we had booked the
group in to attend the Mutiny on the Bounty show at the outdoor theatre. Every
one rugged up for the evening and it was an awesome show. Our host Hats was
also in the show as one of the ships officers which made it even more
interesting. Following the show we all headed back to Up Country for the jam
session and a chance for the group to let their hair down and party on.
Thankfully Friday was FREE all day so the group could venture out by themselves
and explore the island at their leisure. Saturday was also FREE all day just
time to catch up on that last minute shopping for family and another quick swim
for those that managed to get down to the beach or a bit of horse riding or a
trip on the glass bottom boat out over the reef for some of the group.
We finished the tour off with a
farewell dinner at the Seaworld Restaurant as we had on previous years. Joining our Tour group were our friends, Brent & Leo & the Harris Family ( Campbell, Lucy, Sophie,Tasmyn ) who entertained us with jokes. A couple of our Tour Group members gave a lovely thank you speech and surprised us with a token gift for each of us from then all. We ended the evening with a Port and then off to the RSL to finish off the night with singing and dancing.
Sunday saw us head home to NZ.
We would like to thank everyone who chose to travel with us to Norfolk Island this year it was great to have you with us and we hope you all had a great adventure. Look forward to seeing you next year for our 2012 tour.
Take care: Annette & Kim
MARCH / APRIL 2011
Hi Folks
Gig wise March and April have been pretty quiet. We
entertained at the Kamo Club Dance Section 11th birthday on the 2nd.
It is always a good night with these guys.
The rest of the month was spent
organizing the Dargaville concert on the 30th April. We visited Big
River Fm on the 19th March and spent the morning with Phil Godfrey
on air promoting the show.
In to April and on the 22nd we were at the Whangarei RSA entertaining the regulars and friends that support
us when we play this venue.
The following week saw us in Dargaville on the Friday prepping the hall
for the concert on Saturday. Annette had made an awesome glittery moon and
stars to dress the stage backdrop and with cowboy boots, saddles and bridles
and plants supplied by the garden centre the stage looked magic. Thank you to
stan and his crew for setting out the chairs for us. One less job we had to
worry about. We hired extra lighting and set the hall spots to where we wanted
them. On Saturday Stan set the sound up and we attended to all the other tasks
required to make the show run smoothly. The band had all set up by 12:00 and at
12:30 we were in to rehearsals.
We kicked off the show at 7:00 with
“Guitar Boogie” from the band and were into it. Ken Foster the M.C. did a great
job of the Merle Haggard classic” Swingin’ Doors” and then introduced Double
Trouble consisting of Reba and Taylor Ryland who are 16 and 14 years old
respectively. These two young ladies did an awesome job of their songs. They
covered Mylie Cyrus, The Dixie Chicks, Carrie Underwood and Sarah McLachlin
with ease. It was exciting to back Reba and Taylor watch out for them in the
future. Our good friend Graeme McCardle was his usual brilliant and funny self
with a mix of traditional and modern country to get the crowd going. We must
thank the Mountain Mist Band for all their hard work. These guys are amazing
and are too good to us. Just brilliant muso’s and so easy to work with. Thank
you guys. They make it so easy for Annette and I to perform. We finished the
show with all the guests on stage singing “Country Road”.
Thank you to everyone that came to the
show to support us and the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal. We raised over a $1000 for this cause.
Congratulations to Richard Tahu for
winning the Western Guitar kindly donated by Wards Music in Whangarei. Also
thank you to everyone that helped us during the weekend. There are too many to
name but please know that we thank you all very much. Your support is
appreciated. We hope you all enjoyed the show.
We now look forward to May and our
Norfolk Island Tour. Annette will be compeering the New Zealand Showcase this
year which will be exciting. We will meet our tour group at Auckland airport on
Sunday the 15th. I know they are really going to enjoy the week on
Norfolk. Not many sleeps to go now and don’t forget to pack your swimming togs.
Regards Annette & Kim
FEBRUARY 2011
Hi Folks
Well,
the second month of the year has come and gone. I had a great day on the 5th of February at Tiny and Loie Heathcotes music day at their property near
Paparoa. Along with a crowd of country music lovers from Auckland and Northland
as well. The weather was hot and some took advantage of the swimming pool to
cool off during the day. Thanks to Tiny and Loie for their hospitality.
On the 11th of February
we headed off to Barham, NSW , Australia. It was an early start on the Friday
as we headed off from Whangarei to drop the car at the lock up near the
airport. We were shuttled to the international terminal and after checking our
bags, paying the excess baggage and reshuffling our hand luggage to get them
both under 6kgs we headed through customs and into the duty free shops to chose
our selections and get them put aside to collect on our return.
Then it was into the plane for the
three and a half hour flight to Melbourne. It was pretty uneventful considering
we were flying Qantas. I managed to watch Jimeone on Ice during the flight what
a crack up he is I had tears in my eyes, not too sure what Annette was watching
Mrs Bucket I think. Oh by the way we were about an hour behind schedule so we
knew when we landed that it was going to be a race to get to the bus which
would take us to Barham. Luckily the customs guy took it easy on us and our
stack of cds he said they were having an amnesty on cds that day and let us
carry on through. All we had to do now was find the bus. A harder task than you
may think considering no one in Melbourne speaks English or so it appeared. The
bus was late which gave us some extra time to find out where it actually
stopped, which we finally did. So, we loaded all our baggage and took our seats for the four hour bus trip
up through Victoria to Kroondrook and
across the Murray river into NSW and the town of Barham just on the other side
where the festival was being held. The floods had just been through the area
and there was still flood water on many of the farms. A lot of crops had been
damaged and hay bales ruined. We both could not believe how flat the place was.
There were no hills for as far as the eye could see and the roads were straight
and flat. A little narrow in some places I thought not much room if you happened
to meet someone coming the other way.
We had left Whangarei at about 6:00am that morning and arrived in Barham at
around 8:30pm their time. Ruth was there to meet us and take us to our
accommodation for the first two nights which was right next to the golf course.
I can’t recall if we had dinner that night I don’t think it mattered much as we
were both pretty beat.
Saturday we just took it easy as we
knew we had a big week coming up. Ruth and Joyce took us to the RSL to show us
where we would be performing. We went to dinner at the golf course’s Chinese
restaurant Saturday night which was a short walk down the road and then prepared ourselves for the week ahead. I also
must mention that on the Sunday Ruth took us to our permanent accommodation for
the rest of the week. It was an amazing brand new apartment type house which
was finished and furnished immaculately. We couldn’t believe our luck. It had
three double bedrooms a bath and shower, air conditioning, plasma tv,
dishwasher and a sauna. So we were set for the week well and truly. Any doubts
or fears we may have had about making the trip were totally put to rest just
with the accommodation. The rest would be a bonus.
The week was full on so I will try to
be as concise as possible and try not to waffle on too much. I will explain the
set up of the RSL first. At one end of the building was the stage and dance
floor which was one venue. At the front of the building was a café area quite
big with a small stage and seating for about 50 or 60 people maybe more which
would be the second venue. Between these two areas was the main club area with
the bar and gaming machines. The club also had its own restaurant and small
bistro. It is one of the largest clubs in NSW due to its close proximity to the
border with Victoria. This is where we would be performing three to four half
hour sets every day from the Monday
through to the following Sunday.
Our good friends Barb and Dale
Goldsmith travelled all the way up from Adelaide to spend the week with us.
They looked after us making sure we were well fed and watered during the week.
Thank you so much for that guys. They also shouted us a ride on the Murray
River which was very interesting and gave us a nice break from being stuck
inside the club all day. We also ventured out to a place called Kerang one
evening for dinner with them.
We met some awesome people during the
week and had a great time entertaining all the folks who attended the festival.
In the main venue they were on the dance floor from the time the music started
until it finished every day. We really appreciated the way in which they
accepted us and the music that we played. Everyone made us feel welcome and
asked if we were able to come back next year which was a real buzz. We must
thank them all for buying our cds also. We look forward to seeing you all in
the future.
Some of the other entertainers we
met were; David and Heather Hoffman who are a duo act like ourselves and are
very popular at the festival. They gave us a lot of help and encouragement. Tom
Maxwell and his wife Lynn, Tom is a full time bush ballad singer with a great
sound and selection of cds. Tom Routledge and his partner Patsy who also shared
the apartment with us, Tom does an excellent tribute show to Marty Robbins, Gene
Pitney and Roy Orbison. Zane McKenzie a young man with cerebral palsy who sings
and plays key boards, just amazing and his wife Kylie who is expecting
their baby soon. Stephen R Cheney and his soon to be wife Nerallie, Stephen is
a regular performer at the Bay of Islands festival and a popular one at that.
We were privileged to be able to attend Stephen and Nerallie’s commitment
ceremony held during the festival. Royden Donohoe and his marketing manager
Micheal, Royden was the winner of Australia’s Elvis impersonator competition in
2010 and does country just as well. We hope to see him at the Bay festival in
the near future. Cameron Mason and Tim Farren two great singers from Victoria. Tim is also getting married soon and we
wish you both the best for the big day. George Farnham and his wife Lillian, George was one of the sound men
during the week and is Australia’s answer to Johnny Cash. Thanks for all your
help during the week George much appreciated. Thanks also to sound man Anthony
Tenace for working so hard during the week to give us the best sound he could.
We look forward to seeing you all next year. One of the highlights of the week
was the Jim Reeves Tribute Show featuring Jim’s nephew John Rex Reeves. John
performs a four hour show in which he talks about his life growing up with Jim
and performs some of his greatest songs. He had the crowd mesmerised with his
stories and songs. We could have sat there for five or six hours just
listening.
As I said the week was pretty full
on and before we knew it it had come to an end. That is not before the finale
show on the Sunday evening where everyone had to dress up and do a variety act.
Considering that they sprung it on us only a couple of days before hand I
thought we came up with a pretty good act. I’ll just say we did the song “The
Happy Wanderer” and you can see the pictures for yourselves.
Thank you so much to Joyce Yates and
Ruth Morpeth for inviting us over to the festival and looking after us so well
we had a ball. We are definitely available to do it again.
All that was left was the four hour
bus trip down to Melbourne the three and a half hour flight back to NZ and the
two hour drive home and that was that.
The following Friday saw us back
with our friends at the Dargaville RSA talking about our trip to Aussie and
singing up a storm. And that was the month.
Take care and keep it Country
Annette and Kim
JANUARY 2011
Hi Folks
We hope you all had an awesome Christmas and a Happy and safe New Year. We are definitely looking forward to 2011. We have some exciting things organized for the year and hope you all will be a part of them in one way or another. The year has already started as on the 1st and 2nd we were guests at Phil Godfreys Wy Worry Woolshed Country Music Festival held at his property at Aranga. What an awesome spot it is. Just a stones throw away from some of Northlands most popular tourist attractions i.e. Kai Iwi Lakes, Trounson Park, Monganui Bluff and Waipoua Forest to name just a few. The weather and music were fantastic and Des and Sharon Fatt did an awesome job on the BBQ keeping everyone fed throughout the two days. It was great to catch up with Rewa MacGregor again. I remember meeting Rewa for the first time last century, which would have been about 1996 or ’97 at the Masterton Awards if I’m not mistaken. That’s one of the great things about country music you just never know when you are going to bump into old friends. It was also nice to meet Kathy Little who is originally from Te Kopuru but now resides in Perth. Kathy has been playing our music on her radio show through Perth Community Radio Station 95.3fm. Anyone wanting to listen to her show can log on to www.6eba.com.au and follow the links. Kathys on air name is Kaz. It was great to do an interview for her during the festival as we really do appreciate her support. It’s nice to know our music is getting air play in another country. We must also thank Phil and everyone at Big River fm for their support as well and look forward to repaying that support later in the year.
We had a great afternoon at the Kawakawa Railway Station on Sunday the 30th in support of the Vintage Railway. They need the funds more than ever now since the storm on Friday 28th washed out a lot of the track they had just recently laid. It was hard to imagine the amount of water that went through the township and many others in the north as well in the 12 to 18 hours and the damage it left in its wake. A good crowd turned out even though some of the roads were still blocked or only just opening again on Sunday afternoon. They were very appreciative of the variety of talent which Shirley had organized for the concert. We must thank Robbie Martin and his band Mirage , Wattie, Riff and Thomas for backing us for our set it was much appreciated guys. The concert was well emceed by John Carter who once again kept the show running smoothly and on time. Thanks to all our friends that came along to support us and the vintage railway .
Well, we are really getting excited about our Aussie trip. Not long to go now just hope it stops raining before we get there. We have been practising flat out for this festival and want to put our best foot forward. The 11th will be a long day though with travelling to Auckland a flight to Melbourne and a 4 hour bus trip up to Barham all in the one day. We arrive in Barham about 8:30pm. Then from Sunday it is a week of country music. Will let you know how we get on next month.
Remember we still have places left on our Norfolk Island Tour in May but seats are going quick. Please contact us if you would like to join us for an incredible week on Norfolk Island listening to some great country music.
Take Care and Keep it Country
NOVEMEBER / DECEMBER 2010
Hi Folks
Well, 2010 has come and gone and we are into a new decade and looking forward to a great 2011. We will just back track for a moment and review November and December 2010. We had a great weekend with Val and Ray Thurgood at the charity concert in Te Awamutu on the 13th of November. They looked after us splendidly and made us feel as if we were at home. It was my first sojourn to Te Awamutu so it was all new to me. It was also nice to catch up with Roger and Denise Tibbs who we hadn’t seen for quite awhile. They had just returned from a trip to North America where they had toured the mid west states, with great success I might add. We also caught up with our very good friends Graeme and Lynda McCardle. The show was sold out and although we went a little over time I don’t think anyone noticed. They were all singing along right till the end. We must thank everyone for supporting the show and for buying our cds it is much appreciated.
On the 21st November we were Guest Artists and judges at the Little Tennessee Country Music Club Awards held at the Kawakawa Primary School. A great afternoon of competition and fun was had by all. They know how to enjoy themselves up there that’s for sure. Congratulations to Warren for taking out the Overall Award. Thank you also to Shirley May for inviting us along. We hope to see all these guys on the 30th November for the Vintage Railway Fundraiser Concert to be held at the Kawakawa Station from 3:00pm.
Our two main gigs in December were our regular Kamo Club Dance Section and Dargaville RSA Christmas breakups. It is always nice to play for these two engagements. They both like to have a good time and really enjoy a night out dancing and singing. We look forward to seeing them all in 2011.
OCTOBER 2010
Hi Folks
The 2nd of October saw us in Rotorua at the NZCMA Entertainer of the Year Awards held at the civic centre. We headed off on the Thursday and spent the night with my cousin Colin and his partner Barb just out of Tauranga. They have an awesome spot up in the hills overlooking the bay. Colin was working on his new hotrod, a 32 3 window Ford coupe, which he was preparing for the Nationals on the 23rd October. It’s going to look and sound amazing. On Friday we shot through to Rotorua for rehearsals in the afternoon and to settle in to our motel. Saturday morning the weather was clear and sunny so we decided to take a paddle on the lake in one of those peddle boats. They are a bit wobbly to get into but once you are sitting down it is full steam ahead. It was nice and relaxing out there with the swans and the ducks. Saturday afternoon we went to the first show which was great. We then managed to grab a quick bite between shows with Susan and Richard Pinny who had come down to support us. Which we really appreciated, thanks guys. Then it was off to the evening show which was sold out. It was a fantastic show everyone sang well and the overall winners were hard to pick. The headline act for the weekend was The Warratahs and they were awesome. Barry Saunders has written some great country songs and they performed most of them on the two shows. It was also good to catch up with many other friends we had not seen in a while. Before heading home on Sunday we took a look at a model train expo being held at the race course. Annette’s nephew, Alex, is building one with his dad so we were looking for pieces for him. I didn’t realise there were so many different sizes of model trains but we got a good run down from one of the exhibitors, a fanatic I think they call them. After that it was homeward bound.
On the 16th October we were part of the Whangarei Country Music Club artists who helped with the “Kids with Arthritis” charity concert. This was to raise funds to send families to the United States for the International Convention which assists them in dealing with arthritis individually and as a family. They are then able to bring that knowledge back to New Zealand to teach others. It was an awesome concert. Our club members did a great job and were very professional. The arthritis society was blown away. The headline act for the show were The Hamilton County Blue Grass Band. A great show which was enjoyed by everyone in the audience.
The 13th November we will be in Te Awamutu for the prostate cancer charity concert run by Val and Ray Thurgood. It will be the first time to Te Awamutu for me so I am really looking forward to it. The other guest artists joining us are Roger Tibbs and Graeme McCardle.
On the 21st November we will be guest artists at the Little Tennessee Country Music Club awards to be held at the Kawakawa primary school. Thank you for the invitation it should be a great day as well.
We have just received our contract for the Barham festival which runs from the 13th to the 20th February and can begin making travel arrangements. This is going to be very exciting. We fly into Melbourne and travel by bus 4 hours up to Barham which is just across the border in NSW. It is a week long festival and we will be performing every day. Apparently it will be very hot at that time of year. I hope there’s a swimming pool handy and no snakes.
We are full on organizing our tour to Norfolk Island in May. We are looking forward to this one as we know all the contestants competing in the Trans-Tasman Award next year. Hopefully there will be a big NZ contingent supporting them as well. If you haven’t already you can down load the tour package from this website and join us we would love to have you there. Any questions just drop us a line and we will be happy to help. It’s an awesome week of country music and relaxation. Don’t miss out!
That’s about all for now we will catch you later.
Take care and Keep it Country
Annette and Kim
AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2010
Hi Folks
Well, what can we say, we just weren’t that busy during August and September. We would, however, like to thank everyone who voted for us in the Kiwi Pro-am national Country Music awards. We really do appreciate your support. We will have to get more of our fans onto computers to help boost our chances for next year. We would like to congratulate our good friends Michael and Ashley on winning the Duo/Group section. Well done you guys and all the best for your future endeavours.
We were booked to play the Kamo club twice in September and always enjoy the Wednesday night Dance Section gigs. Unfortunately we had to cancel our Saturday night gig on the 25th due to illness. We hate doing this and try to honour all our commitments and only cancel if we are physically encapacitated which one of us was. We apologise to all those who decided not to go out on the Friday night thinking they would have a great night with us on Saturday. We will try and be twice as good next time we see you.
We are looking forward to the Entertainer of the Year on October 2nd and will let you know how that goes at the end of October.
The contract for the Barham festival in Australia during February 13th-20th next year shouldn’t be far away. We can then start to finalise the travel arrangements. That will be exciting stuff as well.
Will catch you again next month. Take care and keep it country.
Annette and Kim
JUNE / JULY 2010
Hi Folks
Well another couple of months have gone by and here we are in the second half of the year. We have been performing at various functions over the last couple of months. These have included the Dargaville and Whangarei RSA’s, the Kamo Club Dance section and a private 90th birthday party for a big fan of ours, Knocker Wells. This was a great party with some every touching speeches for a man who is every well respected by his family and friends. It was a privilege to be a party of the celebrations.
Our good friend Freda Kena also celebrated her 70th birthday recently with a dinner at the Kamo Club. Everyone enjoyed a wonderful meal and an evening of dancing and entertainment. Freda was a member of our first Norfolk tour. Thank you for the invite Freda I had a great time.
We would like to congratulate our friends Neil McKenzie-Hall and Grant Reha-Timoti for being the Senior Overall Winners of the Auckalnd and Gisborne Country Music Awards respectively. Both Neil and Grant have gained entry to the Norfolk Island Trans-Tasman Entertainer of the Year Award 2011. Best of luck to you both and we will see you there. Which brings me to the next item. We are now organizing next year’s tour to Norfolk Island. So, if you would like to be on our tour please contact us either by phone or e-mail or if we get it right you can down load the information package from our web site and come and spend an awesome week with us on Norfolk Island listening to some great country music and experiencing the attractions of this magical island. We would love to have you with us.
We would also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who voted for us on the Kiwi Pro-am National Country Music Awards nominations we appreciate your support. We haven’t made the top three finalists this year but would like to wish all those artists who have the very best of luck.
Annette and I will be heading to the Entertainer of the Year on the 2nd of October. We will be singing my original song “Before You Say Goodbye” which won the songwriters section at the Auckland Awards held in July. Some of you may remember this song as we have performed it at some of our shows. It is the one that I couldn’t settle on a name for and which I sometimes called “Mist On The Mountains”. It is registered with APRA as “Before You Say Goodbye” so that may be how it will have to stay. Another song which I also wrote was runner-up at the Auckland Awards it is titled “Runnin’ On Empty”. I was pretty pleased with that effort.
We must also apologize to all the people who were expecting to see us at Taukau Club on the weekend. We are very sorry we weren’t able to make it down with the Whangarei Club as I had come down with the flu and could not travel. We hope to catch up with you all in the near future.
Well that’s about all for now. Take care and Keep It Country.
Annette and Kim
May 2010
Hi Folks,
Well, where do I begin with May. I’ll start at the 1st perhaps. Saturday the 1st of May saw Annette and Alex, Annette’s nephew, fly out to Canberra for Australian National Boccia Championships. They flew out of Whangarei at 7:00am to connect with their flight from Auckland to Canberra for a week of boccia. Alex played well and learnt heaps from his Aussie counterparts. He placed 4th in the teams event, each team consisted of 2 Aussies and 2 Kiwis, and placed 8th in the singles. Well done Alex. Apparently he also had a hot date with two, that’s right, two lovely ladies. Must be those dashing good looks and that charm.
The Bay of Islands Festival kicked off on the 7th of May. As Annette was still heading back from Australia it was up to me and the boys in the band to tackle the Friday night set at Haruru Falls on our own. We decided that it would be a good chance to perform some of my original songs. Which went down surprisingly well. I must thank Ian, Tiny and Richard for making them sound like country songs. A couple of the songs hadn’t been performed live until that night. Saturday morning I was in town listening to the street entertainment and had breakfast with Lorraine and Maureen our line dancing friends. Just in passing Maureen happened to mention that she used to have breakfast with the Beatles before they were really famous, now that is amazing, she also said that it could be no different to having breakfast with me, before I am famous, how would that be. Anyway I digress. Annette made it up for the Saturday show at the Cruza Bar, where we caught up with our good friends, Michael and Ashley, who have just returned from Nashville. Had a good show there and then headed off to the big venue, the Copthorne, where we had a 45 minute set to do. The audience was fantastic, actually all the audiences we played to were fantastic, and we would very much like to thank you all for coming along to listen to us. We really do appreciate it. It was also great to see people dancing as well. On Sunday we finished off at the Paihia Pacific, which is a great little venue, Carleen Still was on before us and James Ray followed us so it was nice to catch their acts as well. Sometimes it doesn’t work out and you miss seeing acts that you would like to hear. Our drummer, Richard Pinny, was a busy man during the weekend playing for Reg McTaggart and his local band Enertia. It was good to listen to these two acts as well. Over the weekend we managed to see Michael and Ashley perform as well as our friend Kylie Austin both talented acts in New Zealand country music.
The following weekend we were heading off to Norfolk Island for the annual country music festival. We had a group of fourteen joining us on our tour. Half flying out with us on the Saturday morning and the remainder arriving on Norfolk on an afternoon flight. Both flights made it to Norfolk, which meant the weather was good. It can be a bit scary when you haven’t met some of the people on your tour before. Des had finally counted off the last sleep and was raring to go. Sharon, Makuini and Len had all been on our previous tours. But we needn’t have feared because we had a wonderful group of people join us. They all had some amazing backgrounds and it was a pleasure to meet them and show them around the Island. Well, we didn’t personally show them around the Island we had some help from Eddy and the other drivers. We were also joined by Brendan Dugan and his tour group on some of the organized events. Brendan even joined us on the Monday to do a lunch time gig at the RSL which was a real honour for us. The weather was great with only one or two showers during the week but nothing to disrupt the organized entertainment or dampen the spirits. The music was great as well. The New Zealand stars were Tami Neilsson, Jodi Vaughan, Barry Saunders ,of The Warratahs fame, Entranzet, the South Islanders and Philip Winter. The Australian contingent was headed by Catherine Britt and comedian Jim Haynes with Kristal Collins and Lee Brittan.
The Trans-Tasman was won by Angela Easson from Australia with Helen Van Der Linden from New Zealand taking 2nd place. The Dead Ringer Encouragement Award went to Breanna Gerritsen from Australia. The Original Song Award was won by Lance Coassin also from Australia. A big mention must go to Arianna Baker who was very unlucky in our opinion not place or even win the title as she sang and entertained particularly well. Hayley Smith was also a strong contender for the Kiwis she never fails to lift her game for this competition.
We must thank our photographer Barry Rabarts for all his hard work and constant support of our abilities as tour hosts. He was recommending us to all and sundry, so thank you Barry. Thank you also to his wife Sonia for being so patient it was a pleasure to meet you both. Barry and Sonia also convinced their friends Stan and Pat, and Colin and Lois to join our tour as well. We hope to see them again next year perhaps. We also had two lovely ladies from the Pukekohe area join us, June and Marlene, who were so easy to look after. They had their own things organized to do and just enjoyed the Island and the week of country music. We hope to see you gals back next year as well. Regulars to the Island Wayne and Jo Greig who usually tour with Dennis Marsh also joined us on our tour as Dennis and Yvonne were otherwise engaged and it was a pleasure to have them with us. We hope they may join us next year.
A big thank you to all our friends on Norfolk who made our tour group feel at home and always welcome us back each year. Brent and Leo for opening their home to us, they are the best friends we could ever have. Chrissy for helping to organize the tour and for making sure it all ran smoothly. Terrence at the RSL for supporting us and allowing us to entertain and to Kim and the band for their awesome musical abilities. We had a great time once again and were sad to have to come back to reality. It was nice also to catch up with Lucy and Campbell and their two wonderful daughters Sophie and Tasmyn.
Thanks also to all the people that purchased our cds we appreciate your support very much.Well, we are nearly at the end of May, but not quite. The weekend of the 29th saw us heading to Kerepehi for the Kiwi Magic Charity concert which commenced at 1:00pm. To save ourselves time we headed down to Patamohoe on the Friday to stay with Aunty June and Uncle Leo. Then went to Kerepehi for the afternoon concert with guest artist Kylie Austin and then headed north to Dargaville to appear at a concert there with guest artist Marian Burns. Both were great shows but it made for a long weekend of travel. The things we do for our music.
And that was the end of May. One of the busiest for us for awhile. We will catch you somewhere in June.
All the Best and Keep it Country
Annette and Kim
March/April 2010
Hi Folks
A pretty quiet March with Kim performing at the Relay for Life Cancer Fund Raiser while Annette was away on a course. A very worthy cause which we are always happy to support in any way we can. Well organized by Eddie Hemara with a great sound man, namely James Franklin from JD Sounds, making us all sound good.
Early in April we entertained the exhibitors from the Creative Fibre Festival at their closing function. An enjoyable and humorous couple of hours for everyone and an enthusiastic audience even after a very long weekend for them all. Kim met some long lost relations just for good measure.
We also had a great afternoon entertaining the ladies at the Whakapara Gardening Club birthday celebrations. Not much cash crop being grown here though. However, the spread was awesome especially the apple cake. Thanks to Betty for the invitation. It was a great sing-a-long afternoon. With everyone going home tired but happy and a bunch of flowers for mum.
The 23rd of April saw us at the Dargaville RSA for the first time this year. A few birthday parties going on here as well and a good number of people sticking it out until the end. Always nice to catch up with these guys.
The following week we were at the Whangarei RSA where a big crowd had gathered. Hopefully we thought to listen to us. Another good crowd on the dance floor right ‘til’ the end as well. Great to see our friend Larry again stirring things up. And also friends from the country music club, the rock ‘n’ roll club and the line dancers. Sounds like most will be at the Bay of Islands Festival. Hope we see you there too.
We still have a couple of places left on the Norfolk Tour. Joining us for the third year in a row will be Des and Sharon Fatt from Dargaville and Makuini Ututonga and Len Field all the way from Kawakawa. They must either be devils for punishment or they really really like us. No matter we really really like them. Des is counting down the sleeps. We look forward to meeting everyone on our tour on the 15th.
I would like to thank our friend Phil Steans from Nelson for recording two of my songs on his latest album “ Give Me One More Shot” they were “Wide Open Spaces” and “I’m Living With A Memory”. He has made a great job of them and just over the weekend he made it to the finals in the New Zealand Song category with “I’m Living with a Memory” at a South Island Awards plus winning the Male Veteran and Gospel sections, so well done Phil.
Catch up with you all next month. May is going to be full on.
Take care and Keep it Country
Annette and Kim
January/February 2010
Hi Folks
Well, it’s been an interesting start to the new year. We hope it has found you all happy and healthy and ready for an exciting 2010.
To bring you up to date on what we have been up to so far this year we had a great afternoon at the Kawakawa Vintage Railway concert on the 31st of January. A variety of entertainers performed for a very appreciative audience on an extremely hot day, it was a scorcher. Annette and I donated part of our cd sales to the Railway Restoration Fund so thank you to all those who supported us and the great work that the team up there is doing to preserve a very important part of Northlands history. Thank you also to Shirley May for organizing the day and inviting us to perform.
Due to circumstances beyond our control we could not fulfil our first gig of the year at the Dargaville RSA on the 12th of February so we apologise to everyone that missed us. We would like to thank Peter and Carleen Still for standing in for us at such short notice it was much appreciated. We are sure everyone would have enjoyed their company and made them feel at home. We did make to the Whangarei RSA on the 19th though and everyone seemed to have a great night especially an awesome couple from Whakatane who googled us before they came up to see who we were and what type of music we played. Friday the 26th saw us at the Paeroa RSA for the first time ever entertaining the locals. We had a great response to our music and hope to get back there in the near future. On the Saturday we went to listen to the Cream of the Country Awards auditions in Morrinsville for a couple of hours before Annette had to head back to Whangarei. Congratulations to Leeanne and Jan on their success in the awards, Jan was winner in the Gospel section and together they won the duo section and were runner-up to the Overall Winner our good friend Hayley Smith. Big congrats. To you to Hayley.
I stayed on in Te Aroha with Molly and Jim, Annette’s Aunty and Uncle, to do a guest spot at the Te Aroha club on the Sunday. What an awesome turn out they had, as usual. Always enjoy visiting Te Aroha everyone is so supportive. We really do appreciate it. Thank you to Myrie and the committee for inviting us down.
We are getting ready for the BOI Festival at the moment. The band is as keen as and looking forward to playing. I will definitely be at the festival and Annette may be there Saturday or Sunday. The week prior to the festival Annette and Alex will be in Canberra at a Boccia tournament, The Aussie Nationals I think. So we will be playing it by ear.
There are still places available on our Norfolk Island Tour and we would love to have you join us for an awesome week of country music and relaxation. It runs from 15th – 22nd May. So give us a call or download the brouchure off the web site.
Wow, we are into March already. Don’t know where the year is going, but it’s looking good lots of engagements coming in will tell you about those as they come up. We will also up date our “SHOW” page so you are able to see if we will be in a town near you.
Take care and Keep it Country
Annette and Kim
November/December 2009
Hi Folks,
Well, it has been a great year . Wow, 2009 has just flown by. We are getting ready for the Christmas break and would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous 2010. We feel we have achieved quite a bit this year and are looking forward to greater things in 2010 and hope you all will be a part of our journey. We have one more gig to do for the folks at Dargaville RSA on the 18th Dec. before the end of the year and are really looking forward to finishing off the year with them.
So, everyone take care, drive safely and have an awesome holiday. We will catch you in the new year.
Best Wishes
Annette and KimOctober 2009
Hi Folks,
October was a fairly quiet month for us performance wise most of our time was spent organizing the concert at the Kamo Club. We basically arranged every aspect of the show from organizing posters and tickets, arranging advertising, getting sponsorship ( for which we would like to say a big thank you to Dicksons Transport and Quarries, Wards Music Works, Magic Music and Big River fm for their support ), contacting guest artists and making sure everything was in place for the band and the sound men to making sure everything was in place for the audience.
Here’s how the show went.
Annette Hawkins "I'm Still Here" Hometown cd Release Concert 11th October 2009
Wow!!! What a turn out for Annette’s concert. Our aim was to fill the Kamo Club to its maximum allowable limit that was with fingers crossed. We are both so amazed and humbled by the support that we received from all our friends and fans.We are truly grateful to have so many people who enjoy our music.A great day was had by all. We feel very sorry for those of you who missed out but we just couldn’t let any more people in. Robin Lilley did an excellent job of MCing the afternoon. We would like to thank our band, Ian, Tiny, Richard and Andrew for backing us, Dennis and Craig for the great work on sound, you certainly know when you have talented peoplemixing sound, and our guest artists. We kicked the show off with the band and I doing some classic country. I started with “Folsom Prison Blues” which we have a great arrangement for Ian starts with a couple of instrumental verses and then we up the key for me to come in. We followed this up with “ El Paso City” a classic Marty Robbins tune and then for something different I donned a pink jacket and white tie to sing “Heartbreak Hotel”, thought I could do better than the utube version, not sure if I did though. Then our very talented lead guitarist finished the set with one of my favourite pieces of music, Fleetwood Mac’s “Albatross” he sure can play. Our first guest was Tutjana Wiremu who impressed the audience with a variety of modern and traditional songs. Everyone enjoyed “ Blue Smoke” and her renditions of “Travelin’ Soldier “,” Independence Day”and “Jesus Take The Wheel”. It was easy to see why she is the 2009 NZCMA Junior Entertainer of the Year. Her grandfather Wakina then took to the stage and with his own smooth style entertained us with “Life Turned Her That Way”, the Dwight Yoakem classic “I Sang Dixie” and the Dennis Marsh song “Too Many Memories”. Wakina is the 2009 NZCMA Veteran Entertainer of the Year. Wakina and Tutjana are the first grandfather and granddaughter to hold these awards in the same year.
Then we were on to the main event with Annette performing songs from her new cd “ I’m Still Here” to very appreciative audience. She began with an old favourite “Silver Threads and Golden Needles” and followed that up with a mixture of old and new which included Patsy Clines “ Movin’ Along” Jim Reeves’ “Guilty”the original songs “Shadow of My Heart” and the title track “I’m Still Here” and the Kathy Matea song “Every Little Thing”.
Our sales and marketing manager, Loie, did a sterling job on cd sales which we must thank her for. As well as everyone who assisted on the door with tickets and raffles. That’s Cynthia, Adam, Alex and Jo. The raffles raised over $500 for the Boccia Nationals so we must say a big thank you to everyone who bought raffles on the day.
The second half of the show was no less exciting our guest pedal steel player, Andrew Paterson, had the audience in stitches with his jokes and in awe with his steel playing. His set included “Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain”, “Your Cheatin’ Heart”, “San Antonio” and a vocal rendition ofNed Millers“From A Jack To A King”. I chipped in with a couple of original songs I have been working on “Mist on the Mountains” and “Tonight She’ll Go Back To Him” I really enjoy singing these songs with this band. Plus a couple of country standards “Is It Cold In Here” from my album and George Straits “The Fireman”.
The Show was finished off by Annette and myself performing a few numbers from our duo cd plus a couple of extras we have been learning such as “The Remember Song” and “Try A Little Kindness. Annette also included an audience sing along with “One Day At A Time” and we ended with one that always gets the audience going “Wake Up And Smell The Whiskey”. That was before we got an encore,can you believe that, well I couldn’t, from a fantastic audience so we finally ended the day with “Boot Scootin’ Boogie”. And everyone went home happy but tired and a bunch of flowers for mum.
We hope everyone enjoyed the day. I know the band did they are looking forward to the next one. Perhaps we will consider it.
Take Care
Annette and KimSeptember 2009
Hi Folks
Well, sorry it’s been so long. But we have been waiting for work to be completed on our website which will enable us to update information ourselves and also to put our music on itunes or amazon so that people can download it if we chose to go that way.
Since our last news update quite a few things have been happening. I will try to recall them all in chronological order as best I can. In April we performed at the Annual Mobile Home Convention in Kaikohe. A massive turn out of nearly 1000 mobile homes with only a couple of fire call outs while we were singing. A huge marquee was set up for the Easter convention with dance floor and seating plus a huge stage.
In May our band was all set to go for the Paihia Festival and what a great time we all had. It was so nice to perform with a live band and the crowds were very enthusiastic and appreciative. We must thank Ian, Tiny and Richard for all their hard work, dedication to the cause and awesome talents. They really made us look and sound good. Thanks guys. Also thanks to Richard and Susan for the breakfast on Sunday and to Loie , Tinys partner, for being our sales and marketing manager for the weekend. She did a roaring trade with our cds.
Also in May we took another tour group to Norfolk Island for the country music festival. I have included the run down of the tour which I wrote for the club news letter at the end of this article.
June saw us playing for the Kamo Club Dance Section Birthday for another year. Always a pleasure to entertain these guys they really enjoy their dancing.
In July we were invited to do a guest spot for Tutjana and Wagon Wiremu.They organized a great concert to raise funds for their trip to Entertainer in October to held in Rotorua. Tutjana is an entrant in the junior section and Wagon, her grandfather, is an entrant in the veterans section. They had an awesome line up of guests including Marion Burns, Ray Solomon ,Chris Powley and Hannah Cosgrove just to name a few. Tutjana was one of the guest artists to perform on Norfolk Island this year. She is a fabulous singer.
Waitemata invited us back to their birthday concerts again this year which was held in August at the Playhouse Theatre in Glen Eden. What a great little venue this is. The word is that they were more successful than the previous years shows so that was a buzz for us considering we were the guest artist last year as well. It was great to see the crowd come back to see us. Thank you to the Waitemata club for their wonderful hospitality.
Coming up in October I am off to the Entertainer on the 3rd to sing my original song “Tonight She’ll Go Back To Him” which won the original song section at the Auckland awards in July.
On the 11th of October we are having a concert at the Kamo Club to release Annettes new cd “I’m Still Here” we are calling it the “Hometown cd Release Concert”. We have some awesome guests appearing and will be backed by our band from Paihia. Tickets are $10-00 and children 15 and under are free. Its going to be a great show so don’t miss it tickets are limited.
We have had some other exciting things going on as well since our last update. Our album “Something Between Us” made the top three finalists in the “Best Country Album 2009” section of the Tui awards which was won by Tami Neilson of Auckland. We also made the top three finalists in the Kiwi Pro-am National Country Music Awards “Best Duo/Group 2009” section which was won by the Topp Twins.
Following on from “Wake Up And Smell The Whiskey” reaching NUMBER ONE on the European Country Music Assoc. Radio Chart Top 100 the song Chattahoochee also from our duo album has reached number 19 on the same chart. Plus we have been nominated as a TOP FIVE finalist in the European Country Music Association Awards “Best Vocal Collaboration of the Year” and “Best Duo of the Year” sections. So we will keep you posted on the results. We must thank Ross Allen of Hillcrest Music for selecting the songs which have done so well for us in Europe. We are just blown away.
At present we are organizing next years tour to the Norfolk Island Country Music Festival which will be held from the 15th – 22nd of May 2010 and are looking for registrations of interest. So if you love country music and South Pacific islands give us a call and we send you one of our flyers. We would love to have you join us.
Finally, we would like to thank everyone for their continued support it is very much appreciated. As I say at the many shows we perform at it is our pleasure and privilege to share our music with you. And to anyone from the South Island reading this especially our friends and supporters in Nelson and Dunedin we look forward to seeing you all in the near future.
Best Wishes and Keep it Country
Annette and KimANNETTE AND KIM NORFOLK ISLAND COUNTRY MUSIC FESTIVAL TOUR 2009
Well, we had another great week at the Norfolk Island Country Music Festival. Our group flew out on Saturday the 23rd May and arrived in Norfolk safe and well and ready to enjoy the week. Which started with a night of music at the RSL with the Norfolk Island Band and guests Dennis Marsh, Brendan Dugan and myself. Annette was unable to sing due to contractual arrangements. Everyone had a great night especially Des and Sharon Fatt from our group who won the raffle which consisted of about 24 bottles of wine and spirits and about 2 dozen beers. That set them up nicely for the rest of the week by the end of which they were giving the stuff away. Sunday night saw us join Dennis’ and Brendan’s groups for a progressive dinner which culminated in dessert and a sing along.A very tiring way to start the week so everyone needed to pace themselves.
Monday saw the festival begin proper with the NZ showcase an excellent night with guests Tutjana Wiremu, Laura Thompson, Johnny and Chet O’Connell, Chris Powley, Suzanne Lynch and MC Joy Adams. Tutjana , Chris, Johnny and Chet being the stand outs of this show.
Tuesday had the Australians playing with Canadian Danny Mack and the ever popular Adam Harvey entertaining along with an all girl group whose name escapes me at the moment. A good show but not as good as the kiwis I thought.
Wednesday night came and that was the Trans-Tasman competition. All the singers performed well and it was a close run competition with Kristal Collins from Mount Compass South Australia coming out the winner. Hayley Smith Neil MacKenzie-Hall and Keinan Ngapo did the Kiwis proud. All sang exceptionally well as did our very own Annette Hawkins who wowed the crowd with her half hour show that included some of the songs from her new album I’m Still Here which she released at the festival to some very appreciative fans.
In between all this our group was having a great time on the island enjoy a game of mini golf and a Walk in the Wild with a fantastic lunch laid on by the Travel Centre Team. Wine and Cheese and a chat with our good friend Brent Hattersley a descendant of the Bounty Mutineer Fletcher Christian.We also enjoyed a Half Day tour of the island a Coffee Plantation tour, had my first coffee in about twenty years, don’t think I’ll be changing back to it though, and a Fish Fry on the cliff tops at Puppies Point watching a beautiful Norfolk Island sunset.
Then it was time to return home,but not before getting together for a farewell dinner at the Seaworld Restaurant and one last hurrah at the Lets Party Night where all the guest artist performed a couple of songs each. Once again Chris Powley showing his diversity by doing an Elvis impersonation with all the gear i.e. authentic jump suit, sunglasses and all the moves no doubt.
Then it was off home.Our group leaving us on Saturday the 31st Dennis Marsh leading us all in a Waiata for the Norfolk Island folk before the flight left.
We had an awesome bunch of people with us again this year and may we say it was a pleasure to be their hosts on the tour. We wish everyone of them the very best.
Annette and KimMarch - April 2009
Hi Folks,
Well, it has been a farely quiet March. Annette was one of the guest artists at the Opotiki Charity Concerts along with Laura Downing, Graeme McCardle and Marian Burns. Sounds like she had a great time with everything laid on by Mike Butterworth and his great support team.
Early March saw us playing at the Kamo Club Dance Section 9th Birthday. Always a pleasure to play for these guys they really enjoy their dancing. We will be there a couple more times later in the year.
We also had our first practise with the guys who will be backing us at the Bay of Islands Festival. Things are coming together pretty well we had a great day with Ian Anderson on lead guitar, Brendon Heathcote on bass and Richard Pinny on drums. Both Annette and I are looking forward to the festival as these guys are awesome to work with.
To top the month off we found out that the song “Wake Up and Smell the Whiskey” had reached number 1 on the ECMA Radio Chart Top 100. How cool is that!!!! We have our fingers crossed that something big will flow from this. Maybe a tour or something we will have to brush up on our foreign languages.
Looking ahead to April. On the 5th I will be heading to Kerepehi for the Kiwi Magic Fundraiser. This will be a great day of country music with some awesome talent performing.Then on Thursday the 9th we will be kicking off the Mobile Home Convention. Which is being held near Kaikohe this year.We have met quite a few mobile homers on our travels and they also enjoy their country music .So this should be an awesome night as well.
We are still organising our tour to Norfolk Island and things are coming together quite nicely.This will be an excellent week of country music with some fun activities organized. So don’t miss out on your chance to come with us. Talk to you next month.Keep it country and take care.
All the Best and Keep it Country
Annette and Kim
