Hello Sailor

Hello Sailor, noone can challenge Hello Sailor’s place in the evolution of Kiwi music. They surfaced among Auckland’s inner-city student population at the height of the 1970s disco boom, playing soul, Velvet Underground, Rolling Stones, and their own distinctive brand of South Pacific Rock’n’Roll come ‘Ponsonby Reggae’.

Their debut self-titled album, released in 1977, was the first locally made New Zealand record to achieve Gold Record status, and Hello Sailor had the country at its feet.

In 1978, the band based itself in Hollywood and came close to securing a signing with a major American record label. It was not to be, and the ‘Rolling Stones of the South Pacific’ came home then tried Australia before running out of money and steam in 1980.

Since that time, there have been solo projects, film scores, acting, reformations, tours, and four further Hello Sailor studio albums, and lots of great music.

The band attracted a new audience thanks to Gutter Black being used as the theme song for the now-iconic television series Outrageous Fortune.

In 2006, they played alongside Th’ Dudes and Hammond Gamble in a series of sold-out performances on the Radio Hauraki 40th Anniversary tour, supported The Who, Tom Jones, and The Pretenders.

In 2011, Hello Sailor was inducted into the NZ Music Hall of Fame and toured with Jimmy Barnes and Dragon over that summer. Surrey Crescent Moon, an album of new material recorded at Roundhead Studios was released to coincide with joining Dragon on their 40th Anniversary Tour in 2012.

Graham Brazier, Dave McArtney, and Harry Lyon, afterwards the three founding members and songwriters, performed and recorded together until McArtney’s untimely death in 2013, then Brazier’s in 2015.

In 2021, Harry Lyon, long-term drummer Rick Ball and bass player Paul Woolright re-launched Hello Sailor with Stephen Small on keys and old friend Jimmy Taylor on guitar. This new line-up is in demand, playing sold-out shows and festivals. In recent years, they have been busy, sharing stages with the cream of Kiwi music, playing to over 100,000 people with Hammond Gamble, th’

Dudes, Citizen Band, Anika Moa, Dragon, Jordan Luck, Midge Marsden, Stellar\*, Gin Wigmore, Zed, Stan Walker, Devil Skin, The Feelers, Jon Toogood, The Blackseeds, Six 60, Fly My Pretties, Fur Patrol and Blindspott.

In June 2023, they supported English legends 10cc in NZ, Nazareth and Dire Straits Legacy over the 23/24 summer holiday period, opened for Dragon on their sold-out 50th anniversary tour in April 2024.

They have played major festivals like Selwyn Sounds, Marlborough Wine and Food, Great Kiwi Beer Festival, Biggest Pub Gig in the World, Kapiti Classic, McKenzie Sounds, Wildfoods Hokitika, Summer Concert Tour and Homegrown.

In musical style and lyrical content, Hello Sailor’s music reflects its Kiwi roots, particularly the cultural diversity of post-colonial Polynesian Auckland, City of Sails, with all its colour, sea, sand, and bush, plus the steamy underbelly of an increasingly cosmopolitan city of over 1.6 million people.

Hello Sailor in 2026 Rick Ball (Drums): Rick had a #3 hit single with 60s band The Challenge while still in his teens. He formed Ticket along with Paul Woolright in the 1970s, who released two albums in the 1970s and toured NZ and Australia. Rick was an in-demand player in the Auckland scene before being approached by Hello Sailor in 1976. He put ‘the rock’ into the band and is credited with helping create their unique sound. Rick played on every Hello Sailor album and was part of the classic line-up that toured NZ, California, and Australia.

Harry Lyon (Guitar, Mandolin & Vocals): Harry was co-founder, guitar player and songwriter with Hello Sailor. His songwriting credits include Lying in the Sand and Watch Your Back from Sailor’s award-winning first album, Dr I Like Your Medicine, 1981 Single of the Year for Coup D’Etat, and Muscles, from Midge Marsden's Burning Rain album and a 1991 APRA Silver Scroll finalist.

Harry also played with The Pink Flamingos, Hammond Gamble and The Legionnaires for whom he wrote the Top 20 single You Bring Out the Worst in Me. He released a solo album, To the Sea, in 2018 and was busy touring to promote it, opening for US band America on their NZ tour in November 2019.

Jimmy Taylor (Guitar & Vocals): Jimmy’s music career began in Dunedin, playing in bar bands. He moved to London in 1989 and became a founding member of Miss World, which featured musicians who had played in bands like Original Mirrors, The Pretenders and Roger Taylor’s post-Queen line-up, The Cross. During the 90s, Jimmy recorded three further Miss World albums and featured on recordings by The Starlings, Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark and Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics.

Paul Woolright (Bass & Vocals): Paul has been the anchor in a who ’s-who of iconic Kiwi bands. He, along with Rick Ball, was the rhythm section in Ticket when they played alongside Black Sabbath at NZ’s first outdoor music festival. He was part of the original Pink Flamingos line-up played on all their albums and toured with the band until joining up with The Legionnaires before spending 10 years in London. On his return to NZ in the early 2000s, he was brought into the Sailor fold and is the band’s longest-standing bass player.

Stephen Small (Keys & Saxophone): In over twenty years of studio recording and live performances, Stephen has worked alongside luminaries of popular music, such as Jaz Coleman, Belinda Carlisle, Beth Hart, Graeme Downes (Verlaines), Hammond Gamble, Autozamm, Bonnie Tyler and Leo Sayer. He has arranged and directed music for radio broadcasts, televised studio concerts and large outdoor events in New Zealand. Stephen is the Music Director and arranger for legendary Grammy-winning New Age artist Kitaro. He produced the Pop Album of the Year (2012) for New Zealand singer-songwriter Jamie McDell (EMI/Universal) and has accompanied on piano singers such as Dame Malvina Major and the late Sir Howard Morrison.