Kiwis love Andrew London and the lyrics he dreams up as a performer with Hot Club Sandwich and, given the number of Kiwis who claim Scottish descent, it is not surprising that Steve McDonald's Celtic-inspired music brings floods of patriotic nostalgia.
Now the two team up in Haggis Sandwich, awide-angled and often irreverent approach to Kiwi culture - where some of it came from (Scotland), where it is now, and what we can expect in the future, given the everyday issues that consume and confuse so many of us.
Food fads, youth culture, male insecurities, weddings, rugby, coffee - all of these and more are explored and exploited in Haggis Sandwich.
Born in Wellington in 1950, McDonald began taking piano lessons at the age of 5. After a classical music upbringing, he became interested in pop/rock music and performed with various rock bands, including Human Instinct. He performs regularly in the US and has sold more than a million CDs worldwide.
In 1992, after a friend sent him a scroll containing a brief history of the name McDonald, he became interested in the stories behind the clan system in Scotland and determined to put that history to music.
London plays, writes and records with Wellington five-piece country-rock band The Cattlestops and, over the years, has played with many Kiwi stars, including Ray Woolf, Rodger Fox, The Nairobi Trio, Malcolm McNeill, Rob Guest, Marg Layton and John Rowles.
Hot Club Sandwich has released eight CDs, one of which gained a four-star review in Downbeat USA, the world's most widely read jazz publication.
Supported by Arts On Tour New Zealand, Haggis Sandwich will be live in Whangarei on Friday, at The Riverbank Centre, Reyburn House Lane, starting at 7.30pm.
