Children's play brings musician Taane to his knees

Jumping children aren't Tiki Taane's usual crowd at a gig but he proved a big hit at First Steps Papamoa.

About 200 children and their parents gathered in the daycare centre's playground last night to hear the top New Zealand artist perform in a one-off fundraiser for the Starship Foundation.

Taane was home for a brief period before hitting the road on tour, starting on Thursday night at Mount Maunganui's Imbibe bar, so he decided to do the fundraiser gig at his son's daycare.

As well performing his more well known songs such as Always On My Mind, Taane also wooed the crowd with children's songs, some he made up on the spot.

"It's exhilarating, especially when you get them to jump up and down on one foot. It doesn't happen in the pubs very often."

The Starship Foundation is a cause close to Taane's heart.

His younger brother died of cerebral palsy when he was 7 years old and he's had other family members go through the children's hospital for treatment. "I'm aware of the work Starship do. My niece and nephew also went through there.

"My mum works in health care in Christchurch and she's been around it because of my brother. Starship was the most logical charity for me. If I wanted to support a cause they were at the top of my list."

Taane didn't go into the daycare with a plan for the gig but said he'd had a blast.

"I didn't know quite what I was going to do but I enjoyed making things up on the spot and jumping around being happy."

Centre manager Rachel Moscip said everybody had a great time and they were proud to be the first daycare centre to host one of Taane's gigs.

"It was cool how he started off his tour with us. He's been an active dad in our centre so he's here quite a bit. He knew a lot of the kids."