Tiny hamlet rocks on while mega gigs come unstuck

By VANESSA BIDOIS

TATUANUI - A hamlet in rural Waikato will rock on New Year's Eve in a victory for do-it-yourself millennium gigs.

While mega concerts in Gisborne, Auckland and Hawkes Bay have flopped, veteran musicians Geoff Case and Wayne Wright are confident of packing the Tatuanui Hall on December 31.

More than 200 people have already bought tickets at $50 a pop to party with their four-piece band, Sign of the Times.

The millennium dance marks the 40th anniversary of a musical relationship dating to the 1950s when the two Hamilton men played in a high school band.

The concert is proving a major draw for long-time fans such as Reg and Molly Shanley, from Waihou, who were married in 1954 and have followed the band ever since.

"We've been to as many of their functions as we could because they play really good music," said Mrs Shanley, now aged 68.

"Now we can't miss the millennium one."

Wright, 57, who plays the bass guitar and sings, said the band played music from the 1960s complemented with hits from the 1940s through to the 1990s.

Case, 59, a vocalist and painist, said the motto for the event was KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid - with the ticket price including a bus ride, alcohol, food and entertainment.

A former farmer, he said the millennium bash had attracted locals who had to milk cows, feed chickens or drive tankers the next day.

Midway between Morrinsville and Te Aroha, the bulk of the Tatuanui community supplies the Tatua Co-op Dairy Co, one of the smallest in the country but the best paying.

Te Aroha farmers Karen and Don Letcher are lucky enough to have a milker on hand for New Year's morning, but most of the 20-strong group joining them at the dance will have to rise early to milk the cows.