Warratahs return after sold-out gig

BACK FOR MORE: The Warratahs will play a return performance at King Street Live tomorrow after a sold-out debut show at the Masterton venue last year. PHOTO/SUPPLIED

The Warratahs reprise a sold-out debut show at King Street Live and will storm the stage at the Masterton venue for a return performance tomorrow night.

Up With People promoter Mark Rogers said the gig will be the first Wairarapa performance for the Warratahs since their full house debut at King Street Live last year, which was "a magnificent night that saw the band play to a rapturous audience at one of this country's best music venues".

The Warratahs, featuring Greytown-based frontman Barry Saunders, will perform a repertoire that reaches back over eight albums to their first disc, Only Game In Town.

Opening for the Warratahs will be Auckland-based duo The Bads, comprising Dianne Swann and Brett Adams, who had formerly clocked up dates throughout Britain as The Julie Dolphin, opening for bands such as Green Day, Oasis and Radiohead.

Adams and Swann, while holed up in their rural West Auckland home, have written some of the country's most enduring tunes including So Alive, Helensville and Drop In The Ocean, said Rogers.

Both are accomplished songwriters and Adams has added his licks to the music of Tim Finn and Gin Wigmore, while Swann has contributed to a number of NZ artist's recordings and live shows.

Since their return home to New Zealand in 2003, the duo has released three albums as The Bads -- Earth from Space, So Alive, and Travel Light.

The duo since returning also had toured New Zealand numerous times and opened for acts including Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, The Swell Season, The Jayhawks and Rodrgio Y Gabriela.

The Warratahs, supported by The Bads, play King Street Live tomorrow from 7pm. Tickets cost $25 and are available online at dashtickets.co.nz