May 11th 2021: Wayne Mason + Supports

26/05/2021 admin

May is New Zealand Music Month, a time to look at our own New Zealand artists and music. And what could be more local than Upper Hutt's very own Wayne Mason?

Wayne has been part of the NZ music scene for the last 56 years . He started his career in the iconic 60s band The Fourmyula and wrote their no 1 Silver Scroll award winning hit " Nature ". In the 70 s he was in the country rock band Rockinghorse and co wrote their well known song " Through the Southern Moonlight ". In 1986 he was a founding member of the country band The Warratahs and his song "Hands of my Heart" their first successful single.

After leaving the group he formed his own group The Wayne Mason Band in 1994 touring round the country and doing 3 original CDs . Since then he has been performing as a duo with bass player Clinton Brown , playing solo ,as the piano player in the Laura Collins Back Porch Blues Band and also guesting in the Andrew London Trio.

He continues to write songs and perform.

Carl Evensen, born 1950, lived his first eleven years in Upper Hutt, behind the Maidstone Milkbar, which his parents managed. It stood where Mr. Bun is now, on Main Street. The tea room section, across the hall, from the family lounge, occupied a jukebox, a penny per song at that stage, and that’s how Carl began his obsession with pop music.

He formed his first band at college, and went on to become a member of The Fourmyula, the Upper Hutt band in the 60s, which did very well in New Zealand. He is the voice you hear on hits by The Fourmyula and Rockinghorse.

Now he works with a band called ‘Rag Poets’.