The Warratahs, still strong after 24 years

It was in a café in Wellington, while New Wave ruled the airwaves, that a guitar player first asked a fiddle player if he’d like to form a country/blues band. A group name was pulled out of a hat and The Warratahs were born and, with them, a new sound on the New Zealand music scene.
What was originally supposed to be a brief collaboration has resulted in nearly 25 years of performances, including two shows scheduled for this week on Rarotonga, tomorrow (Thursday) at Hidie’s Bar and Saturday at Sails.
Earlier this week, the band – including Cook Islander Maurice (Mo) Newport on drums – performed an acoustic version of its hit song, Hands of my Heart, on a balcony at The Edgewater. The four members talked about their careers and how excited they are to visit the Cook Islands for the first time.
Maurice (Mo) Newport, drummer, band member for 10 years
Q: Is it a special feeling to finally show your home island to the rest of the band?
A: Absolutely. It’s great that they’re here, in this beautiful part of the world.
Q: Why has the group come to the Cook Islands?
A: It’s a bit of a holiday for them, to get out of cold, wet Wellington. Come up here, have a bit of a break but also do a couple shows. And introduce the Cook Islands to the Warratahs’ sound.
Q: How would you describe that sound?
A: It’s always hard to pigeonhole the sound of the band, but I’d say it’s definitely country.
Q: Is that going to fit in with the Cook Islands?
A: I think so. I think people will enjoy the sound and the songs of the band. Country these days has elements of folk and blues. So I think that will appeal to a broad section of people here on the island.
Q: Are you a bit nervous about friends and family seeing you perform?
A: Yes, I am.
Barry Saunders, lead guitarist and lead singer, founding member
Q: As an original member, can you tell us what a ‘Warratah’ is?
A: A Waratah is actually two things. It’s the national flower of New South Wales, which has nothing to do with us. And it’s also a stake in the ground, as part of a fencing system, which also has nothing to do with us. The name came out of a hat 24 years ago. We were only going to stay together for a week or two.
Q: Has your music changed over the years?
A: Primarily, the sound is the same. It’s developed but it hasn’t changed. It’s pretty much the same as it started out.
Q: Did you have a heyday, as it were, when you had big hits and filled stadiums?
A: When we first started, there was nothing that sounded like us. A certain type of radio station really took to us – mostly public radio – so there was definitely a heyday there. We recorded the TV advertisement for the Inter-Islander and that was on national television every night of the week for a couple of years.
Q: Is your music still relevant considering how much rap dominates the current music scene?
A: It’s still relevant. A lot of people relate to us. When you’ve been together a long period of time, a lot of people see you at various periods of their lives. So the sound of the band or a song can mean something to someone – it can represent a part of life. For instance, we did a lot of orientation gigs for people in university and quite often we get people say, I saw you when I was at uni, or things like that. You just play a little part in people’s lives.
Q: That’s got to be important to you, to know you’ve touched people in that way.
A: I don’t think any band would stay together for any other reason, really.
Sid Limbert, bass guitar, band member for 14 years
Q: How is important is the rhythm section to a band?
A: Absolutely important. The guys out front don’t realize that we are the ones that really matter. We’re the guys in charge.
Q: When you say ‘country music’, a lot of people think of Nashville and the southern U.S. How big is country music in this part of the world?
A: It is very big – lots of followers. It’s diversified so much that it’s very hard to pigeonhole things now, to say ‘that’s country music’. What we play has all the elements of country music but with a Kiwi flavour, an original flavour. We’re the only guys who sound like we do.
Q: Country music in America is filled with songs about how your girlfriend has run off with your best friend, your pickup truck is out of petrol and your dog died. Does Kiwi country music have the same themes?
A: No. In fact, Barry writes a lot about feelings and things, but also about places in New Zealand. We tend to say he paints landscapes with his songs. Because of the lyrical contents with his songs, a lot of people relate to those places and the feelings about what’s going on in those places. So the dog still dies, but probably more graphically.
Q: How do think your sound will translate to the Cook Islands?
A: Good music is good music. People are often quite surprised – they think we’re a twangy, acoustic band that plays in the corner, but we’re not. Our sound man, Lincoln Mail, does a great job. We use big sound systems so we’re not just a little corner-of-the-room band. We’re a big-stage band with a big fat sound.
Nik Brown, mandolin and fiddle, original member
Q: How did you and Barry meet?
A: I was playing in a 1930s-style gypsy jazz group in Wellington, and there was this very dangerous looking guy standing at the bar. He didn’t look very happy. At the break, I wandered over to the bar and he sort of wandered over to me, and I thought, oh dear, this doesn’t look good. And then he said, I’m Barry, do you want to join a band? That’s how it all sort of started off.
Q: Did you have any idea that, nearly 25 years later, you’d still be in that same band?
A: Absolutely not. But I love it. That’s why we keep going. It’s an organic thing – it keeps changing. Over the years, we’ve been fortunate to have a whole bunch of hits that people have picked up on.
Q: When you develop a new song, do you figure out the individual parts for your own instruments?
A: Barry brings the song and the basic melody and the chords and then we play around with it and put bits in it and decide what’s the best mix of instruments. It’s a sort of living sculpture, really.
Q: Has the band’s popularity faded in and out with changing music tastes or have you always had a steady fan base?
A: We’ve always had a base. People younger than us keep coming along and we end up with varsity-age kids picking up on us. When a movement like rap or New Wave comes along, you kind of fade into the background. But a lot of that stuff people find very difficult to sing in the shower, whereas they’ll sing us in the shower.
Q: You’ve toured with the likes of Billy Joel and Johnny Cash. Tell us about meeting Johnny Cash.
A: That was amazing – what an incredible man. I remember the first time we met him: we were in the old rugby changing rooms at Athletic Park in Wellington. In through the door walked this man who looked like an old-style American preacher in a long black frock coat. He puts his hand out and says, Hello, I’m John Cash. It was just the most amazing moment; that he would actually bother to come in and say hello to us.
Q: Do fiddle players get groupies like lead singers do?
A: I’m sure they do, but I never have.
Q: Can you give us some insights into the sex-drugs-and-rock’n’roll lifestyle of being a musician?
A: Absolutely not.
Q: Is it still fun after 24 years?
A: I love it. It just gets better.

By John Ireland

Herald Issue 463 10 June
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