A band, a Bowl and 15,000 fans
Sisters Sofie, left, and Louise Van Den Tillaart were among more than 15,000 fans who packed into New Plymouth’s TSB Bowl of Brooklands on Saturday to see music stars Paige, Mitch James, Dave Dobbyn and New Zealand’s top band, Six60, and their singer Matiu Walters, pictured.
Six minutes and sixty seconds – that’s what a digital clock said on a big screen above the Bowl of Brooklands stage. The countdown to see New Zealand’s biggest band was on.
Around 15,000 people at New Plymouth’s Bowl of Brooklands were dancing and singing at the top of their lungs to Sweet Caroline before the clock struck zero and the lights dimmed on Saturday night.
SIX60 kicked off the second show of their SIX60 Saturdays tour with Never Enough, off their new album, and the sell-out crowd erupted into cheers.
They did have a tough act to follow – well, several, actually, after Kiwi artists Paige, Mitch James and Dave Dobbyn got the crowd warmed up.
Mitch James also gave a heartfelt performance of his song 21, which he dedicated to Taranaki woman Emily Foreman, who was that age when she died last month after a battle with cancer.
Taranaki guitarist Victoria Girling-Butcher played alongside Dave Dobbyn and said it was an incredible feeling playing at the Bowl in front of her home crowd.
‘‘It was immensely wonderful, nostalgic and a privilege,’’ she said.
She has been playing in Dobbyn’s band, on and off, for 10 years, with their most recent show at Gisborne’s Rhythm and Vines in front of 25,000 people.
She said she was amazed to play in front of 15,000 people in her home town.
‘‘Good on you people of Taranaki for coming out and actually supporting music and especially Kiwi music.’’
SIX60 took to the stage at 9pm and quickly proved why they are the hottest Kiwi act right now.
But this wasn’t an ordinary show; this was a firstrate performance by excellent musicians.
The band, made up of drummer Eli Paewai, bassist Chris Mac, guitarist Ji Fraser, keyboardist Marlon Gerbes and singer Matiu Walters has played in Taranaki before at Oakura’s Butlers Reef.
‘‘Now here we are at the Bowl of Brooklands,’’ lead singer Matiu Walters said to cheers from the crowd.
To be fair, the venue could have been made for them.
Don’t Forget Your Roots was a stand out for the crowd when a Kapa Haka group came out and sang it in te reo Ma¯ori.
After a two-hour setlist the band left the stage after fan favourite Forever before being cheered back out again to play two final songs Don’t Give Up and The Greatest.
With the final lines ‘"till the lights go out’’, the stage went black.
The crowd was well behaved and a police media spokesperson said in general police were pleased.
There were a couple of instances of disorder and one person was arrested in relation to disorder before subsequently given a warning, she said.