Unlikely link between 'ace of bass' player and the man who filmed him

While Pete Metcalfe spontaneously jammed bass in the middle of a Whangarei road the son of a friend was filming.

Metcalfe didn't know he was being filmed, and the man filming, Luke Dixon, didn't realise he knew the man.

But because of the video, which has now gone viral with 704,000 views, Metcalfe was able to attend his friend's funeral.

"I believe it has to be karma or divine intervention. It was meant to be," he said.

Dixon filmed the video on June 11 and posted it to his Facebook page and his old flatmate tagged Metcalfe in the video.

"[Pete] messaged me and said, 'Is that fella in your Facebook profile page your old man, he's an old mate of mine? Tell him I say hi','' Dixon said.

"So I messaged him and asked for his number and phoned him up and said, 'Dad's got a couple of days left to live, he has liver and pancreas cancer' and so he came to the funeral a week later."

A week after the service, Dixon went to Metcalfe's house because he needed to level his backyard and it happened that Metcalfe was a land sculptor.

Dixon said he remembered visiting Metcalfe's house with his dad when he was younger.

"It's a small town. I wasn't surprised. I did remember him," he said.

Metcalfe has been jamming out of the boot of the car for about a year. The day the video was filmed he was waiting for Te Matau a Pohe bridge in Whangarei to close so he jumped out of his car, plugged his bass into the amp in his boot before turning up his car stereo and playing along to Jamiroquai's Virtual Insanity. Jamiroquai even watched the video.

The video shot by Dixon was picked up by the Only in New Zealand Facebook page on Tuesday after his friend shared it to the page.

It has been shared 5302 times, liked more than 11,000 times, and has more than 2000 comments.

"It was worth it when I saw how much joy it brought people and how they were proud of, not only Whangarei, but New Zealand," Metcalfe said.

Metcalfe said with the platform he's gained he wanted to encourage young people to vote in the General Election on September 23.

"The youth see no future - they see a future of debt, you've got families where Mum and Dad are living on minimum wage and they can barely pay power and rent."

Metcalfe said before the election he wanted to travel around the North Island and jam with people on the way.