Live Music From SWAMPTHING

 What a treat! Michael Barker is coming back to Rotorua for one night only and performing with Nikita  Tu-Bryant

Michael is 9th in a family of ten born in the year of the fire horse and hails from the town of boiling mud and steam - Rotorua New Zealand. After a premature departure from high school, Michael worked at the local EMI record shop and played drums with various bands about town, then out of frustration made a necessary migration to Melbourne where he commenced classical music studies, majoring in orchestral and contemporary percussion.

While in his final year at "The Victorian College of the Arts," Michael was performing in a modern adaptation of "A Mid Summer Nights Dream." At the same time nearby (Myer Music Bowl), Split Enz and Crowded House were performing; Michael did however attend the play instead. The following day Eddie Rayner (Enz) contacted Michael and arranged an audition for his "new band" The Makers. From here Michael was initiated into the "N.Z. Music Mafia."

Michael has recorded and performed with a plethora of artists including The Black Sorrows, Christina Anu, Monique Brumby, Deborah Conway, Vicka and Linda Bull, The Melbourne, Adelaide and N.Z. Symphony Orchestra's, Tim Finn, Phil Judd David Bridie and Denis Farring and his bizzare wedding bands. Michael's dream gig came true after Neil Finn (while touring with Enzso) asked him to play drums and percussion on his forthcoming album and tour (Try Whistling This).

Nikita 雅涵 Tu-Bryant is a Taiwan-born Aotearoa (NZ) based Artist. Tu-Bryant is known for fronting psychedelic-pop trio • KITA • (@kitasoundz), as well as her work in theatre and film as an actor, writer, and composer.