As the band enters its 38^th year and performances are lining up for 2026, band member and Mt Vic local Nick Theobald explains the strong connections that the much-loved country music legends the Warratahs have to Mt Victoria. 

It’s Austin Street, 1987. Mt Victoria residents Barry Saunders and Wayne Mason produce alchemy with the chords G, E minor, C and D that results in ‘Hands Of My Heart’, the band’s debut hit single. Fast forward to 2025 and 38 years of touring, one-night stands, sold-out shows and scores of great songs have been rewarded recently with the band’s induction into The New Zealand Music Hall of Fame.

While Saunders’ songs such as Taranaki, Big Sky, Ruby Bay, Cape Turnagain and Kupe’s Tears take the listener across the land, it’s his song Mount Victoria Rain that brings it all back home.

And all our shattered times were here

and the pieces still remain

and I can see them shining clear

through the Mt. Victoria Rain

Lead singer, guitarist and songwriter Barry Saunders has lived locally since 1987, but he’s not the only one of us to love the location. 

Our keyboard and accordion player, Alan Norman, has history here. From 1983 to 1989 he ran The Victoria Café, on the corner of Brougham and Queen Streets. Between 2001 and 2005, Alan and his brother ran ‘Stamp & Go’ the Caribbean-style restaurant in Majoribanks Street.

I’m the bass player in the band and am still resident in Mt Victoria. I began my tenure in Austin Street in a small apartment that years after I’d long gone, became a dormitory for ‘working girls’. In the late 1980’s, my Queen Street house was a target for local burglars - until a trap was successfully sprung. Never mind, we move on.

Perhaps it’s the location, the views either over the city, or up to the majestic Town Belt. For The Warratahs, Mt Victoria hits all the right notes.

The Warratahs are playing Meow on Sunday 7 December at 4pm.  Book at www.meow.nz