Georgi Dobrev is our new Lead male guitarist -vocalist!
Lloyd Elisara is our new guitarist/vocalist with Georgi Dobrev for TALL POPPIES Band 5 - 6 piece!
Husband and wife team, Janine and Rob have successfully run TALL POPPIES Band all these years!
We were one of the resident bands playing at The Carlton in Newmarket, Auckland in the late 90s - early 2000s. Matt Walshan and David Rawson were our guitarist and keyboardist then.
Janine McKenna-Woodley from TALL POPPIES, in the late 90s, at The Playhouse, Aotea Square, Auckland.
Carlos Miranda, of Danny Doolan's fame together with Kerry Walker for our 5-Piece band, playing for an Awards night at Auckland Museum.
Rob our drummer sometimes plays with Carlos and Julian at Danny Doolans at the Viaduct.
TALL POPPIES' Bass player Patrick Roxburgh playing live music for an event at The Cordis in Auckland.
TALL POPPIES 4-Piece playing for a Blues Rugby Function
Kerry Walker, guitarist / male vocalist for TALL POPPIES Band, at The Copper Room in Takapuna, Auckland.
When they were the resident band at The Copper Room , a popular live band venue in Takapuna.
Julian Sturrock is our keyboardist who can also be seen sometimes playing with Carlos and Rob at Danny Doolans. Here is playing for a work function at Go Media Stadium.
TALL POPPIES Band was the resident Friday night live band at the popular Copper Room pub in Takapuna, Auckland.
Janine and Carlos of Tall Poppies Band playing for a 40th Birthday function at Mantells on the Water
Carlos is also a regular frontman at Danny Doolans at the Viaduct.
This was Janine and Rob's first band they started from their CCC Church Manukau worship team, before launching Tall Poppies.
Carlos leading for us at a Grammar Juniors Rugby Function held at Grammar Tec Rugby Club.
Tall Poppies 4 piece Band were seen regularly on the Pub circuit in Auckland.
This is the formal Corporate function version of TALL POPPIES Band.
ABOUT US
HOW WE STARTED
Janine and Rob started TALL POPPIES from their music team at CCC Church Manukau. Then the breaks just kept coming! We played for the police APEC function in 1996 then The Rose & Crown called us to fill in for KICK. We invited other bar owners to that gig and next thing, We were regularly booked at bars all over Auckland! You can see all the pubs We played at by clicking here.
JANINE MCKENNA-WOODLEY
Janine is a part-time school teacher but alongside that, she had her own Ballet and Modern Jazz Dance School in Auckland. She herself danced and taught for Julie Cotter Dancers and TipToze - Keri Edley Dancers and a Cardiofunk Dance Troupe. At that same time she was an aerobics instructor with Les Mills then various other gyms. Then Janine embraced her love of singing, initially as a Worship leader at CCC Manukau then the band Axis, followed by Tall Poppies, and the rest is history!
ROB WOODLEY (ONZM)
Rob was initially a semi-professional Rugby League player, then became a hard working, not for profit social service entrepreneur who started Genesis Youth Trust while in the NZ Police, where he was awarded an ONZM. He was then asked to start and run the Blues Rugby Charitable Trust, where he successfully continues working! He has drummed all his life and sings also.
LEAD MALE VOCALISTS
We are excited to announce Georgi Dobrev is our new lead vocalist/guitarist! Lloyd Elisara also joins us for our 5 - 6 piece band as another guitarist/vocalist! TALL POPPIES thanks our previous lead male vocalist/guitarists over the last decade, the awesome Kerry Walker and the legendary Carlos Miranda, (of the Auckland Viaduct's Danny Doolan's fame.)
KEYBOARDIST and BASS
Julian Sturrock often joins us on keys, for our 5-6 piece version. Julian and Rob also played with Carlos sometimes at Danny Doolans. Our incredibly talented and loveable Bass player is still Patrick Roxburgh.
NEW YEAR'S EVES
If you were in Mt Maunganui for the Millennium New Year’s Eve celebration, you would have seen us on the huge outdoor stage, playing to a crowd of over 30 000! We were then invited back there for New Year’s Eve 2001, playing to 35 000! The crowd was so huge that the infamous Mt Maunganui riot happened when TALL POPPIES were instructed to stop playing because of crowd concerns! We also played twice for the Whangamata New Year’s Eve concerts prior to that. Still being as popular as ever, TALL POPPIES were invited back for the Mt Maunganui New Year’s Eve concert as recently as 2008!
TV APPEARANCES
TALL POPPIES also made TV appearances back in the day, on "Trading Places"; "Inside NZ - Teen Summer Whangamata"; the "Police" documentary at Whangamata and TV1 and TV 3 News for the New Year's Eves at Whangamata and 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 at Mt Maunganui!