Bill Cate

 

About 4 weeks ago New Zealand and Australian music lost another music legend with the passing of Bill Cate member of the legendary NZ singing duo Bill and Boyd aged 80 as he had prostate cancer as well as dementia. Bill Cate and Boyd (William)Robertson attended Naenae College in Lower Hutt where they met in 1957 and shared an passion of music  which they formed the duo Bill and Boyd. They performed at local dances and charity events at Lower Hutt including Lower Hutt Town Hall as well as being an support act for Johnny Devlin at the wellington Town Hall in 1959 . They began recording for Peak in 1960  which they released 5 singles including an version of Cathy's Clown, Fall In Love With You and So Sad and then recorded for Phillips in 1961 including versions of I Wanna Love My Love Away, Corrina Corrina, Crying In the Rain and others as well as releasing 2 albums Swinging Together and Songs For A Cloudy Sunny Afternoon.  they were on the bill of Harry M Miller's Showtime Spectacular Tours which had The Howard Morrison Quartet, Toni Williams and Jon Zealando  and also toured with Dinah Lee, Peter Posa and Max Merritt and the Meteors during 1963. In 1964 they moved  to Australia where they would achieve chart success with Chulu Chululu  which went to number 13 in Australia, number 1 in Brisbane, number 10 in Melbourne, number 11 in Perth and number 14 in Sydney and would released singles in Australia through the 60's on Phillips, Zodiac and the Sunshine label  where they did an album and an  EP IF I Were A Rich Man and the other hits they had in the 60's were Don't Take It Away (number 12 Brisbane 1964), Cloudy Summer Afternoon(71 Australia, number  3 Adelaide and number 49 Perth 1965) and If I Were A Rich Man (number 24 Australia 1967), did appearances on Bandstand hosted by Brian Henderson which some of them are on DVD as well as Bobby Limb's Sound Of Music, Be Our Guest and the Country and Western Hour, they were on the bill on the Australian and New Zealand tour with the Seekers, Mark Wynter, The Librettos and Marcie Jones in 1966 which including Brisbane February 19th 1966 and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Australian tour in April 1967 with Bev Harrell, The Sounds of Seven (Brisbane April 1st), The Vibrants (Melbourne April4th-7th) and Ian Saxon and the Latin Quartet (Sydney April 8th-10th) and also toured the club circuit. They toured the USA with Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass in mid 1967  and   They toured with Shirley Bassey in 1968  which included Brisbane March 23rd at the City Hall. They also toured America with the Supremes and Glen Campbell  and in 1970 signed with the Fabel label which they had an minor hit with It's A Small World (no 51 Australia no 10 Adelaide no 52 Hobart and number 34 Melbourne) and in that year worked in the USA as well as  worked to Britain  doing variety shows as well as performing at the Showboat Club in London as well as working with Shirley Bassey, Bob Hope and Harry Secombe. Their biggest success came in 1975 with Santa Never Made It To Darwin  which was the Cyclone Tracy hitting Darwin Christmas Day 1974 and it went to number 2 in Australia number 1 in Sydney, Perth and Adelaide and number 10 in Melbourne  which sold 75,000 copies with $10,000 going to Cyclone relief and  did an version of Tompall Glaser's song Put Another Log On The Fire going to number 5 in New Zealand and number 23 In Australia number 37 Melbourne number 22 Perth and number 3 in Sydney and also the self titled album went to number 1 in New Zealand and number 83 in Australia. Bill and Boyd were on the TV special Down Home Down Under hosted by Glen Campbell on Channel 9 along with Olivia Newton John, John Mellion and Australian rock group Sherbet and would released singles until the 80's for Warner Brothers, Elektra, WEA, Apex and J&B as well as the one album Companions in 1979 on the Elektra label. The duo continued performing until 1989 and  Bill Cate performed with his children  in the clubs called Cate  while Boyd did real estate work in New Zealand.  It is an great loss to NZ and Australian music and to his family  but he has left behind an lot of great music that he made with Boyd that has stood the test of time  and will live on forever with those great harmonies and great songs. Let's hope for more Bill and Boyd music on CD in the future and let's hope for an Hall of Fame induction  in New Zealand and Australia as they should deserve recognition  for what they've done for NZ and Australian music. Thank You for the memories and the legacy Bill Cate and may those great songs live on.