The Hāwera Country & Variety Music Club has been fostering live country and variety music for over 30 years.
Open to all, the club meets twice a month at the Highland Pipe Band Hall, giving anyone who comes along the chance to sing with a live band or simply listen and enjoy the music.
“We get around 70 or more people most nights. Anyone can take the mic and there’s a real variety—from pure country to rock’n’roll, to harp music and even poetry and monologues. At $5 for members and $7 for non-members it’s a pretty cheap night,” said Terry Fell, Musical Director.
“It’s like a walk-up concert. People put their names on the board to sing. They give us the chord charts for their songs, and the live band accompanies them. We even run to backing vocals if they want.”
However, the club’s old, outdated sound equipment was causing serious problems.
“Our equipment was constantly failing, so our sound man and I were always having to do urgent repairs. We were always having to fix or borrow amplifiers, and it was causing major outage issues on club nights,” said Terry.
Toi Foundation’s $15k grant gave the Hāwera Country & Variety Music Club the chance to upgrade all their gear at once. Buying in bulk meant they scored a generous discount — enough to add a digital sound desk into the mix.
“Now we have two powered House speakers and four powered monitor speakers (all with built-in amplifiers), two cordless microphones, a digital sound mixing desk, interface card, electrical and audio cables — and it’s all so much easier to set up now.
“This upgrade feels like going from a manual car to an automatic, and the quality of the ride is like a 1960s Land Rover to a Rolls-Royce today,” said Paul Humphrey, Club Vice President.
“We were bowled over by how quickly people noticed the difference. The first day we ran it, we got favourable comments and even comments from people just walking in off the street.
“We really appreciate Toi Foundation’s grant and the difference it’s made to our club and community.”
