Programme Gumboot Tango
Featuring world class musicians ...
... from New Zealand and around the world, Whare Flat Folk Festival is four days of music, sun, camping, workshops and jams in the idyllic native bush surrounds of Waiora Scout Camp. Just 15 minutes' drive from Dunedin, Whare Flat is the best way to see in the New Year.
Gumboot Tango
Mon 30 Dec | 9.30 pm approx. (after welcoming concert) Gumboot Jam | Hall
Wed 1 Jan | Evening concert | Marquee
Thu 2 Jan | 4 pm | Afternoon feature concert | Marquee
Gumboot Tango are an acoustic combo from Godzone Lando celebrating New Zealand songs and songwriters with a farmyard infectious humour guaranteed to put a smile on your feet and the swing back in a Taranaki Gate. Experienced entertainers at weddings and wakes, bottle openings and school closures from Ohura to Tongaporutu, Whangamomona to Rahotu, well-received at Tahora bonfire jams and the Beehive (their first gig, promoting the 1995 Taranaki Festival of the Arts), WOMAD ’99 and the Second Annual Great Urenui School Possum Hunt, Gumboot Tango are well on the way to being the ‘Groaning Bones of New Zealand Folk’!
The Gumboot Tango line-up is Mike Harding, Janet Muggeridge, Steve Muggeridge and Wayne Morris. The band originated in 1994 when Mike joined Alan Muggeridge, wife Janet and Alan’s brother Steve to assemble and record, in Alan’s Rowan Studio, a set of songs for the 1995 Taranaki Festival of the Arts. The ‘Taranaki Top Ten’ and ‘Rattle Yer Dags’ cassettes followed along with the addition of friend Wayne Morris on drums. Alan’s tragic death from cancer in 2000 led to a break but the band continued, recording the ‘Rubber Sole’ CD and celebrating Alan’s contribution by continuing to play several of his songs as part of their home-grown Kiwi song repertoire along with originals from Mike, Janet and Steve. Their uplifting performances of classic Kiwi rock have often been a dance-friendly feature towards the end of many New Zealand Folk Festivals.
