Pianist and singer Jan Preston’s Boogie Circus is coming to Gisborne’s Evolution Theatre this week.
Greymouth-born Preston and percussionist husband Mike Pullman are touring the north and east of the island while promoting her new album Pianoland.
The septuagenarian duo will perform Preston’s original songs and compositions, which provide a perfect counterpoint to a long and colourful career she will talk about between the music.
The classically trained Preston has had a long and sometimes bumpy road to piano stardom.
Audiences can expect yarns about the diverse places in which she has performed – from “dives” in Manhattan to the concert halls of Europe – stories of her early days in Wellington’s Red Mole Theatre Troupe; her time with Auckland rock band Coup D’etat, who won Single of the Year at the 1981 New Zealand Music Awards with their number-one hit Doctor I Like Your Medicine; her relocation to Sydney in the 80s; and her enduring 50-year career as a piano player, singer/songwriter and composer.
