Keeping the classic tunes alive
Request a classic from the 60s, 70s, or 80s and chances are newly formed Tokoroa cover band Revival will perform it.
For most of their lives band members Robbie Webber and Abraham Walters, who is the brother of the late New Zealand 60s/70s hit maker Bunny Walters, have had a passion for music.
Webber, 68, went professional at age 18 and found success as a drummer with The Simple Image (Spinning Spinning Spinning) and Walters, 74, still remembers music filling his childhood home.
Most recently they were members of local band Our Soundz but after the death of a fellow member and two of their vocalists calling it quits they too considered walking away from music.
But their passion for the music of the 60s, 70s and 80s was too strong.
It didn’t take them long to stumble upon acclaimed New Zealand recording artist Jan Macpherson who is one half of country duo Spellbound.
‘‘I started going to local country clubs and putting my feelers out and then I heard Jan. She also does rock, she can do Suzi Quatro and Pat Benatar, it’s amazing stuff so that was it, I didn’t have to look any further,’’ Webber laughed.
‘‘This is by far the best line up I have had for this sort of thing, it is streets ahead. Vocally it is so strong among the three of us.’’
Macpherson, who moved to the South Waikato from Whangarei in November, said the band was the perfect fit for her.
‘‘I’ve been involved in the country music scene for 30 years but I have always been a secret rock chick so when the opportunity came up to join these guys and do the stuff I grew up with... I absolutely said yes,’’ she laughed.
‘‘I also think it’s a maturity thing, I’m 57, and we have all got any crap out of the way so we can just focus and be committed to the music.’’
She said the band can perform anything from The Drifters and Dusty Springfield to Joan Jett, Cher, and Pat Benatar.
‘‘People want to listen to stuff they can sing along to because that’s what gets people on the dance floor,’’ she said.