Author: Maciek Hrybowicz

The Conmen were first formed about 12 years ago with Trevor Harris on lead guitar, Huw Alderman rhythm guitar and vocals, then Dean McGaveston joined on drums, shortly followed by Pete Wood on bass, then Bruce Stott came in with his Harp, followed closely by Amy Lee Gorlicki on Sax to complete the brass section. There have been a few changes with Barry Stirling, Maciek Hrybowicz, then Jingyu Zhang playing lead guitar, and over time, Dean, Pete, Barry and finally Bruce leaving, resulting in the star line up of Marty Haughie on drums, Trevor Harris on bass, Amy on sax and keyboards, Derek Hartley (aka Deek) lead/rhythm guitar and backing vocals (BV’s), Dave Wilkinson on lead guitar and BV’s with Huw Alderman (current band-leader) doing the singing out front plus a bit of harp and rhythm guitar.

As Huw says “it’s been a long and rewarding venture to get to this point with having such an encouraging group of talent. In fact, I must say, I’ve been encouraged by Trev to stop singing, Dave to stop playing guitar, and everyone to stop playing harp!!!” says Huw… “I love playing with these guys. We have a lot of fun at rehearsals and always do our best to put on a good show, with the wide and weird range of music, that, to be fair, generally I choose.”

Blues You Won’t Believe

The Agnostic Contrarians are a Hamilton and Kāwhia modern blues band with a good dose of  original material. We also like to delve into the lesser known highways and byways of the almost infinite great blues songbook.

• John Thomson – bass, vocals and songwriting
• Morris Taylor – guitars and vocals
• Maciek Hrybowicz – guitars
• Neil Reynolds – drums
• Bill Forrest – saxophone

Roger McLay  Acoustic and Slide Blues

Roger (aka  Mr Mudslide) is a solo performer with a lifelong interest in blues music.  These days he contributes to keeping the blues alive by focussing on traditional finger-style acoustic and resonator slide guitar.

It is not unknown for Mr Mudslide to accompany himself with rack harmonica on occasion.

He often performs on instruments he has built himself, performing regularly at smaller venues and various events around the  Waikato. 

Mr Mudslide favours open tuning when playing slide and draws his repertoire mainly from songs by many of the early blues masters. However he does perform acoustic interpretations of certain contemporary blues classics as well as a handful of originals for good measure.

Hamilton-based band Hillmen Hunters is the classic two guitar, bass and drum line-up spearheaded by the energetic styles of guitarists Dave Wilkinson and Derek Hartley.

Completed by the experienced and tasteful rhythm section of James Phillips (bass) and Greg Tims (drums).

Their take on the blues includes traditional styles mixed with Americana rock grooves.

Regulars at Hamilton Blues Society Showcase gigs and Blues Nights, they recently played a well recieved set at the Bluestock Festival, Hamilton.

Covers by artists such as The Allman Bros, Eric Clapton, Bondi Cigars, Keb Mo and Three Dog Night.  Repertoire includes some danceable original songs.

Shotgun Band, formerly Shotgun Hill, grew from an amalgamation of musicians from HBS ensembles Sandpit and Tin Shed, into a working band, Shotgun. Bandleader Neil Ransfield has been instrumental in bringing together a selection of HBS musicians over a period of time to create a four-piece band with a strong blues influence.

Neil provides vocals, harmonica, and percussion where required, Chris Dunn delivers on lead guitar and vocals, Garry Phillips vocals and bass, with Dean McGaveston on drums. All vocalists provide backing vocals in support of one another.

The blues style is very much electric blues leaning strongly towards British blues. Other influences include Los Lobos, Bondi Cigars, Red Devils, Clapton, Hendrix, Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac), Santana, Jeff Beck, and others, such as John Mayall.

From the audience point of view, a dynamic representation of the blues genre, with a diverse splattering of classic and modern blues numbers.

In the mid 1980’s the ex-vocalist from Morrinsville Band ‘Gaffa’, Doug Barker, teamed up with Hamilton guitarist Murray Coombes and formed ‘Velvet Bulldozer’. A blues band leaning more to the rockier edge of the genre. There were few changes along the way before they settled on their final line up and for the next several years played pubs, clubs and festivals around the North Island as well as becoming huge favourites of the Motorcycle Club circuit.

But all good things got to come to an end and in the mid 90’s Velvet Bulldozer disbanded and the members all moved on to other bands, careers and adventures and got busy raising families.

In Sept 2016 the entire line up reformed for the first time in 25 years to headline at the Roadhouse Bar & Cafés ‘Woodstock Revisited’ event to help raise money for a local muso doing it a bit tough.

With only a couple of rehearsals it was evident that the magic was still there and the night was a great success. It didn’t take much for the boys to decide that this wasn’t going to be just another one-off and to get back out there and spread their brand of hard rockin’ blues. They’ve become regular favourites with The Hamilton Blues Society and have performed at the Tauranga, Pirongia and Bay of Plenty Blues Festivals, the 2018’s “GEMINI’ party, (an annual rockfest organised by Paul Martin from The Axe Attack), and opened for the NZ AC/DC Tribute show at Altitude.

With no signs of slowing down, Velvet Bulldozer are back and out to party.

For more info or contact details, check them out www.doublebass.net.nz/page/velvet-bulldozer/