About Us

I find one of the most difficult things when trying to give information to people, is when it is about oneself....yes, it should be easy because you know all about yourself, but it is what to say about the many years you can remember being "you"....and looking for the things you need to "leave out" instead of what it is you want to tell people. Maybe that is just me........but here is a brief "history of my years" condensed into a few lines....a mere micro-second in the passage of time.... You are currently visiting my site, here in Auckland New Zealand..shown here (when I find a better pic without the "dark cloud" I will replace this one with one showing our "Queen City" in Summer)

This compilation was recorded as it was composed, and does not include any pre-recorded backing or rhythms. It fulfils a personal ambition and I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed putting it together. If you wish to order, please send your payment details via email (from my home page) - "email chard, or use the "enquiry form" to get future updates on new health products that can be viewed from the "Home Page". Maybe you have a "strange or unusual experience" you would like to share? Price: $NZ 25.00...or $22.00 if buying 2 or more. Includes freight and packaging. Overseas freight cost is calculated as per individual package. MY ADDRESS: P.O.BOX 302 261 NORTH HARBOUR AUCKLAND NEW ZEALAND CONTACT NUMBERS: Ph/Fax 64 (09) 443 4881....Mobile/Text..021 182 5534...email...chard@kiwicontactz.com

This is my birthplace, born in a small nursing home with a thatched roof etc. Dorset is where Stonehenge is located...I guess that is why I have been "Going around in circles ever since!!". The Family actually comes from South London....my Mother from Hertfordshire and my Father from Edinburgh, Scotland.

My Father was an Administrator and Accountant for an oil Company - he liked the colonial work, so we were based in Lagos and Accra in West Africa, where my Sister and Brother were born. After returning to England for a short time we were off again, this time to Kiribati (then known as the Gilbert & Ellice Islands) in the Pacific...for three years.

This is a picture of me with my younger Sister and Brother....just before leaving for Kiribati, where we stayed for three years, finally settling in NZ in 1957.

This Band was our local "North Shore" name from which some members left to form the "Hi-Revving Tongues"...Species Nine played all around Auckland venues until it's disbanding in late 1966. The Band reformed with other members but did not continue for too long...I left to join another local Band "the Silhouettes". Later I joined the "Hi-Revving Tongues" on a permanent basis, after filling in for their drummer until his departure in 1969.

A founder-member of "Species Nine"...the group consisted of school friends, and later after their departure to become "steady 9-5 workers" other musicians joined, including future "Hi-Revving Tongues" members. I followed the Band and eventually became the permanent drummer. It was a lot of fun to be in a band at this time when music was becoming more part of peoples' lives, especially the young and the city nightclub circuit. Auckland was a launching pad for many artists and bands.

This award followed a previous great year for the Band, having won the "Battle of the Bands" Contest (1968) The prize for winning the Gold Disc Award was a return trip by ship to Australia and some "Playing Experience" in Sydney..Kings Cross. We played at "Whiskey-A-Gogo" and "Hawaiian Eye".. both well-known nightspots, especially for the American soldiers on leave from Vietnam. We were there for 6 months until returning to work in Wellington, New Zealand and touring the country also. At the end of 1970 we embarked on a passenger liner, playing on board for 4 months around the world..what more could a Band ask for, working only three hours a day!!

This was the second album, and featured the song that won the Band the Loxene Gold Disc Award in 1969..."Rain & Tears" SAMPLE:Rain and Tears Earlier No.1 Hit Single Tropic Of Capricorn. SAMPLE:Tropic of Capricorn

This was after the Band had broken up...I was living in Surfers' Paradise and playing in a band part time. I had a landscaping business. It was in 1977 that I returned to New Zealand, bought a Record Store and again played part time with some good friends (Gib and Ann Williamson) who I had played in a band with in Surfers Paradise. We did this right up until 2001.."once a muso, always a muso". It is about this time that I started to write my own music, finally putting it on a double CD "From The Heart"...piano/orchestral easy listening music.

I had just got out of my Record Shop in Takapuna and Milford, and was selling "Casio" Keyboards to Retailers around the country.

Taken while on holiday in Fiji...the following year I was in Rarotonga and "survived" Hurricane Sally. It was an experience..many roofs were blown away, and a great deal of the island was devastated. We flushed toilets by getting buckets of seawater, made cups of tea by cutting a candle into three and boiling water this way. The pool was completely filled with coral thrown up from the reef during the hurricane. Next day there was an "eerie" atmosphere and dead calm, until later that day when it all happened again, the other half of the hurricane.