Gentle Annie and friends hamming it up for their final performance at the Royal Easter Show, Auckland, 1984. Left to right: Cath Newhook, Glenn Fuller, Steve Garden.
Gentle Annie in late 1982. Left to right: Glenn Fuller, Cath Newhook, Evlynn Barber, Peter Madill.
Gentle Annie and friends hamming it up for their final performance at the Royal Easter Show, Auckland, 1984. Left to right: unidentified, Steve Garden, Sid Limbert, Glenn Fuller, Cath Newhook, Andrew White, Ronny Franks, Roy Phillips.
Cath Newhook’s thank-you letter to Sister Cities International on Gentle Annie’s return from the organisation’s 30th anniversary conference, 1986.
The Gentle Annie line-up that travelled to Los Angeles, 1986. Left to right: Cath Newhook, Becky Bush, Glenn Fuller, Read Hudson, Paul Hewitt.
Gentle Annie predecessor Stringed Instrument Co in concert with Alaska’s Banish Misfortune, 1980. It was Banish Misfortune’s invitation to come to Alaska that brought about the formation of Gentle Annie.
Confirmation of a Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council of New Zealand grant to assist in Gentle Annie’s trip to Los Angeles, 1986.
Cath Newhook’s letter to LA entertainment lawyer Owen Sloane on Gentle Annie’s return from Los Angeles, 1986.
Newspaper piece on Gentle Annie’s welcome home concert, 1986. Left to right: Read Hudson, Cath Newhook, Paul Hewitt, Becky Bush, Glenn Fuller.
Members of Gentle Annie, Limbs Dance Company and Tu Taua during their trip to Los Angeles, 1986.
Proof sheet of a shoot during Gentle Annie’s mid-1984 rebuild. Left to right: Cath Newhook, Glenn Fuller, Becky Bush.
The original Gentle Annie line-up, 1980. Left to right: Cath Newhook, Peter Madill, Martha Louise.
An early Gentle Annie poster.
Gentle Annie’s self-titled album, released on Ode in 1982, became known as Remuera for the sign on the railway station window.
Gentle Annie, mid-1984. Left to right: Glenn Fuller, Sid Limbert, Anna Rugis, Cath Newhook, Errol Shute.
Photo from a NZ Herald article on Gentle Annie’s return from Los Angeles, 1986.
Gentle Annie on stage in Alaska, 1980. Left to right: Cath Newhook, Martha Louise, Peter Madill.
The original Gentle Annie line-up, 1980. Left to right: Martha Louise, Peter Madill, Cath Newhook.
Gentle Annie in late 1982. Left to right: Glenn Fuller, Cath Newhook, Evlynn Barber, Peter Madill.
Gentle Annie, late 1984. Left to right: Brendan Power, Cath Newhook, Becky Bush, Glenn Fuller.
Gentle Annie as they appeared in the Central Leader, August 1988. Left to right: Paul Hewitt, Read Hudson, Cath Newhook, Glenn Fuller, Wayne Baird.
Gentle Annie with singer-songwriter Andrew White at the Royal Easter Show, Auckland, 1984. Left to right: White, Cath Newhook, Glenn Fuller, Steve Garden.
The original Gentle Annie line-up, 1980. Left to right: Peter Madill, Cath Newhook, Martha Louise.
Gentle Annie appear on That’s Country. Left to right: Martha Louise, Cath Newhook, Peter Madill.
Gentle Annie’s Glenn Fuller, Cath Newhook (centre) and Becky Bush on the beach at Mission Bay for a New Zealand Women’s Weekly story prior to travelling to Los Angeles, 1986.
A flyer for Gentle Annie’s welcome home party, August 1986.
Gentle Annie, mid-1984. Left to right: Glenn Fuller, Cath Newhook, Sid Limbert, Anna Rugis.
Gentle Annie and friends hamming it up for their final performance at the Royal Easter Show, Auckland, 1984. Left to right: Sid Limbert, Roy Phillips, Andrew White, Glenn Fuller, Cath Newhook, Steve Garden.
Gentle Annie and friends at the Royal Easter Show, Auckland, 1984. Left to right: Glenn Fuller, Cath Newhook, Andrew White, Steve Garden, Roy Phillips, Sid Limbert.
One of the venues for Gentle Annie and Banish Misfortune’s Alaska tour, 1980.
Gentle Annie pose with a cardboard cut-out of Sting, 1985. Left to right: Brendan Power, Cath Newhook, Becky Bush, Glenn Fuller, Myra Singleton.
Gentle Annie and friends hamming it up for their final performance at the Royal Easter Show, Auckland, 1984.
That's Country (1982, NZ On Screen)
The original Gentle Annie line-up in action, 1980. Left to right: Cath Newhook, Martha Louise, Peter Madill.
Gentle Annie feature as Unsung Heroes on Radio New Zealand’s Tonight Show, November 1984.
Gentle Annie and the Gray Bartlett Band back up singer Suzanne Prentice (front) on That’s Country, late 1982. Left to right: Murray Wood, Peter Gillette, Paddy Long, Wayne Allen, Gary Sammons, Gray Bartlett, Cath Newhook, Peter Madill, Denny Stanway.
Peter Madill and Cath Newhook, 1981.
Cath Newhook - vocals, fiddle
Peter Madill - vocals, guitar, mandolin, dobro
Martha Louise - vocals, guitar, fiddle, mandolin
Denny Stanway - vocals
Glenn Fuller - vocals, guitar
Evlynn Barber - vocals
Anna Rugis - vocals
Errol Shute - pedal steel
Becky Bush - bass, vocals
Myra Singleton - drums
Sid Limbert - bass, vocals
Brendan Power - harmonica
Read Hudson - guitar, dobro, pedal steel
Paul Hewitt - drums
Steve Garden - drums
Wayne Baird - bass
Under her married name Catherine Mayo, Cath Newhook is a “young adult” author. Her first book, Murder At Mykenai, was published in 2013. She doesn’t gig much anymore as the result of a neck injury sustained in a car accident in the early 1990s, but still runs the Stringed Instrument Company in Auckland.
Bass player and singer Becky Bush became a chef and opened Bayou Café in Grey Lynn in 1992. She worked in various Auckland restaurants and cafés and had a food truck before getting homesick and returning to the States in 2000 where she lived in her home town of Shreveport, Louisiana, until her death in 2019.
Wayne Baird, Gentle Annie’s final bassist, switched to guitar and has led his own jump swing band The Alibis in Auckland since the early 1990s.