You can't stop the music

You can’t stop the music - this ‘80s band’ does not refer to the decade

Just as you catch yourself tapping your toes to a Mozart piano sonata, the music drifts into Abba’s Chiquitita, before fading back to Mozart.

This is typical of the music of Nostalgia, a group of serious musicians at Kāpiti (Retirement) Village.

As well as Rex Hebley on guitar, Nostalgia is made up of Kert Snater on drums, Nancy McLean on piano, Neil Sutton on saxophone, Stuart Douglas on bass guitar, and Rob Hiddleston on percussion.

“If you add up all the years that the six of us have been playing, it comes to over 300,” Hebley says. They got together in 2019 and play for their retirement community, as well as for local fundraisers.

Rex Hebley learned the mouth organ and ukelele as a child and took up guitar as a young man.

Hebley, 80, the youngest in the group, says they all get a “big buzz” out of playing with the band.

“It’s a lovely pastime, and it’s interesting that none of us are playing really the type of music we grew up playing.

“It’s like we’ve been given a fantastic second chance to enjoy it all over again.”

Hebley learned the mouth organ and ukelele as a child and took up guitar when he was doing his electrician apprenticeship. He played in the Southern Cross Ceili Band (traditional Scottish and Irish folk music) for decades.

McLean was told she had the ability to be a concert pianist, but chose teaching as a career instead.

Stuart Douglas plays bass guitar, but his background is in conducting - both orchestras and choirs. He was conducting symphonies in England, and is actually a choir master as well.

Rob Hiddleston has been drumming his whole life, but is loving being on percussion for Nostalgia.

Rob Hiddleston is the percussionist, but his life has been centred around pipe bands. He started as a side drummer and finished up as a drum major.

“The change from pipe band music to what Nostalgia plays has not been a problem to an accomplished musician like Rob,” Hebley says. “It’s absolutely blowing him away. He enjoys the whole thing, and the change.”

Neil Sutton picked up saxophone as a teenager, and joined a band within months, mainly playing with jazz bands in London where he grew up. “Just making music together is a wonderful thing. And I’m pleased at my age that I can still do it,” he says.

Hebley says modern technology has made a huge difference to how they operate.

“With the aid of modern technology like iPads [which] contain hundreds of pieces of music and [to be able to] change the pages at the push of a foot switch, and to be able to play a piece of music over and over again with artists who play in the same key as we do on Spotify to get it right ... It’s something we never had years ago.”

The band plays a diverse range of music, with 178 songs currently on their playlist. Songs include Big Spender, Both Sides Now, I’ve Got You Under My Skin, A Whiter Shade of Pale, and Your Song.

And the feedback from their audiences?

“Excellent,” Hebley says. “It’s mind-boggling. They just enjoy it. It’s all music that they know, most of it anyway and if they can, they try and get along to every performance that we make.”