THE BANDS Biography

The Unknonz band is an Auckland based country/folk/rock band.
Our most recent project was the filming of a music video in Hokitika, West Coast,
New Zealand of a song from our Due South album called The Fugitive.
In 2024 we filmed a music video 'Ted's Bottle' - a popular NZ folklore story about
Ted D'Auvergne. Ted's Bottle was shot on location at the Waihao Forks Hotel, Waimate near TImaru, South Island, NZ. Ted D'Auvergne was leaving to fight in WW2 when he left his unopened beer behind the bar to drink on his return. He was killed in action on the Greek Island of Crete and the beer remains behind the bar to this day at the Waihao Forks Hotel.

The band comprises a core of four members:
Barney Bainbridge- Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar;
Martin Ward – Guitar and Lead Vocals on some tracks;
Merv Hutchinson - Bass Guitar;
Pat Cox - Drums.
Sarah Bainbridge writes song lyrics and manages the band.

Laura-Jean Bainbridge performs on some songs as Lead Vocalist and Back Up Vocals along with Tainui Kuru.

Other musicians performing on the various albums are:
Nick Jones – Violin;
Tracey Collins – Accordion.

To date the band has recorded five albums.

The earlier albums Past Selves and Present Selves
comprise cover songs by other composers (available online only).
The three most recent albums
1.Maungatapu Murders
2.Hokonui Moonshine
3.Due South
are entirely original songs

Songs are written by Sarah and Barney Bainbridge and Martin Ward as well as Martin Bassett.
Pat Cox produced these albums in association with Kane Bennett, who recorded and
mixed them at his studio kanethesoundguy.com.

It was 2017 when the band decided to stop performing live to concentrate on composing original songs and recording albums based on New Zealand historical events, colourful characters and folklore.

This resulted in the Maungatapu Murders album based on ‘The Burgess Gang’ who terrorised the gold prospectors of the West Coast and Nelson area in 1866.

In 2021, the band released the Hokonui Moonshine album based on characters and events involving illegal moonshine distilling in the South Island and the story of Mary McCrae.

In 2022 the band recorded and released Due South an album of songs telling stories about South Island locations.
There are also a number of ‘singles’ telling the life stories of our band members notably – I’m, Hey Boomer, Crossroads of London, and Blue Sky Weekend.

These albums are available on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube and Amazon Music as well as other music streaming services.