Jubilation Choir's Jean McAllister recalls a bittersweet New York farewell

Jean McAllister is a member of the Jubilation Choir which celebrates its 20th anniversary next month.

The Exit interview: Musician Jean McAllister tells Eleanor Black about leaving New York City

You went to the Big Apple to make music. Why did you leave?
We arrived in New York in 1979, on April Fool's Day, driving from the West Coast. We had flown to California for $350 and we had an onward voucher to London, which we never took up; we just stayed. We were doing the music for an iconic New Zealand underground theatre group called Red Mole and then they moved to London. Some of the band went with them and three of us stayed behind in New York and played on the street. We earned our hotel bill that whole summer, just the three of us, playing on the street.

Then the guitarist came back from London, joined up with us and we formed The Drongos. We got management and we played clubs and we made three records - our second album was recorded on the street, it was very cool - and we toured. We did that for seven years. And then it was the end of the band and I had a baby in New York, at home with a midwife, and we decided we wanted to come home. And then there was the small matter of immigration ...

You came back to New Zealand for a tour?
At the end of 1985, beginning of 1986, we did a tour with The Drongos right through the North Island. It was the swansong. I was pregnant with my daughter and that was fine, we didn't have a problem getting back into the United States. Tony and I stayed in our apartment that was owned by the City of New York and very cheap. He did sound work and I looked after our daughter and continued to do music intermittently. We had a little recording set-up in our place. It was fun but being home with a child in New York was not the same kind of life as it was rehearsing and touring and being in a band. I saw the lifestyle of our friends in Auckland and it was kind of lovely and familiar.

At this point New York had lost some of its sparkle?
After doing the tour in New Zealand, where it was summer and that lovely summer thing happens, we arrived back in New York at the end of January 1986 - back to reality, winter in New York. We decided we wanted to come back to New Zealand to introduce our then 18-month-old to the family. We stayed for six weeks at the end of 87 and had booked a return to New York.

What happened?
We got to Honolulu and they said, "No, we don't want to have you back, you can go home now." That was a bit of a shock. We had all of our stuff in New York. So what happened was our dearest friends - and we owe them a debt of gratitude to this day - packed everything into our Chevy Beauville van that Tony bought at a police auction for $300, and they got a container and they put everything in the container and sent it all back to us. The whole kit and caboodle.

Were there tears at the airport in Honolulu?
Oh my God, yes. They sent us to a hotel room but they had a guard, so we couldn't abscond. And they put us on the next plane back to Auckland and we had to pay for it. It was really not fun. And then when we tried to return to the US in 2009 - and this was 21 years later - they wouldn't let us. They wouldn't give us a visa.

To go and get a visa is a public sort of thing, you go up to a window at the US Consulate in Auckland and there is a whole room of people sitting there. Anyone can hear your conversation with the immigration officer or whoever they've got there, so it is a very demeaning experience to go through. The first thing the consulate officer asked me was "So, you had a child in the United States - tell me about that?" And I thought, "Oooh, that's tricky, this could be a difficult conversation, this is not going well." Then to be told, "You're not a good candidate for returning, so I am going to deny your visa,' was like, "Oh my gosh!" So we thought, "Bugger it, we'll go to Europe instead."

Have you made it back to the US since?
Yes, in 2017 we applied again for visas to go back to the United States, because by then our oldest daughter was living there. She was born there and has gone back there as an adult and is working in New York City and we wanted to go visit her. We thought, "Surely they'll let us back in this time. We're older, we're not a threat, we've got jobs, we've got a house. Surely it's over."

Jean McAllister is a member of the a capella gospel choir Jubilation, which celebrates 20 years with a concert at Tapac, Auckland on March 8.