2021 NZ Music Hall of Fame Inductees Announced: Annie Crummer, Debbie Harwood, Dianne Swann, Margaret Urlich, Kim Willoughby

The latest inductees for The New Zealand Music Hall of Fame | Te Whare Taonga Puoro o Aotearoa have been revealed. When The Cat's Away members Annie Crummer, Debbie Harwood, Dianne Swann (also just announced for The Others Way 2022), Margaret Urlich and Kim Willoughby will be recognised both for their individual achievements and their work together that gave us 1988's number one hit single 'Melting Pot'. The five artists will be inducted into the Hall Of Fame at this December's Aotearoa Music Awards presentation (to be televised via TVNZ 2 and TVNZ OnDemand from the Aotea Centre) — a fitting context, as the group originally formed after Crummer, Harwood, Swann and Urlich met by chance at 1985's NZ Music Awards (which are now known as the AMAs). Harwood reflected on When The Cats Away's breakout success and the necessity of banding together as an all-wāhine musical collective in the '80s...

“The Cats toured for two and a half years before ‘Melting Pot’ was released... As the single shot to No.1 in 1988, the industry was incredulous. Considering the lack of support at the time, our success was like a flower cracking through concrete! The sharemarket crash had just happened, and the public loved the band because we were optimistic and energetic. Sometimes I felt like Vera Lynn cheering up the troops. The preference would have been that our original bands had been supported by radio and the public, so we reluctantly accepted the huge success of the band, never fully standing in the glare of it. There was a little bit of bitterness at the necessity of forming such a band: a band that was born out of exhaustion from trying to get airplay and support for our original music, a band that was supposed to be merely a short break from the slog.”

Read Murray Cammick's AudioCulture profile on When The Cat's Away HERE.

Watch the classic video for When The Cat's Away's 1988 hit 'Melting Pot'...