Much-loved Motueka performers to make comeback

September 23rd, 2015
[by David Armstrong]

One of New Zealand's best-known children's performing acts, Motueka's own The Crocos, is gearing up for a comeback next year.

The band, invented by Gerry Drummond and previously known as Gerry and the Crocodettes, has been hibernating for nearly three years now, but the team is getting back together with new songs and shows.

Gerry Drummond with Froggy

Gerry says the aim at present is to play an active role in the Motueka Starlight Parade in early December, and then stage new shows by the middle of 2016.

The Crocodettes began in 2008, and all the six performing members and two support crew (except one from Nelson) are Motueka people.

Three years ago Gerry pressed the pause button while she and her husband took over running Hot Mamas cafe. All the Crocos equipment, costumes and music were put in storage.

They sold the cafe earlier this year, and in May Gerry returned to the storage shed to find that time had taken its toll on the contents, with much of it ruined and beyond use.

"It was a matter of either give up totally, or picking up what was left and rebuilding," she says. "But the rest of the cast encouraged me to get stuck in again, and now everyone is rearing to go."

Gerry, who was raised in Motueka and was a popular entertainer in Christchurch in the 1990s, decided a decade ago that she no longer wanted to do so many pub gigs. Instead she wanted to go back to a key love of hers, entertaining and educating children.

The Crocos, as they are now called, aims to be more about education than just entertainment, so it often has a space-themed and scientific-minded stage show. They aren't just another Wiggles.

All the songs are composed and recorded by Gerry, and the cast work out the dance moves. "It's the best feeling in the entire world to have kids coming up to the foot of the stage during shows and doing all the dance moves," she says.

When they were busy, the Crocos went on three New Zealand tours and were really making a name for themselves. Being major attractions at events like the Wellington Teddy Bears Picnic, in front of a 5000+ audience, was typical. They also performed at lots of theatres around the country during winter times.

Getting new songs and shows together takes considerable time, and Gerry does not cut corners with professional production quality. All the pre-recorded music is done by live bands, and she sings all the parts in the vocal tracks.

To help kick things off again, Gerry is turning to social media to revive interest in the act. She has launched a Facebook page on which there are videos of many of their songs, including the two latest ones called "Fun fun" and "Many hands make light work". (.)

She also has a new website, thecrocos.com. And she has a new business partner, Vanessa Carr, an illustrator who is turning the Crocos into cartoons (also posted on their Facebook page) and children's stories.

Terry says that the Crocos is not a moneymaking venture, just a way of having a lot of fun with good friends. But she still gets a kick out of occasionally getting a cheque in the post for royalties from her songs being played somewhere overseas.

Roll on the Starlight Parade, we say!

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