Encore |
|
Life will be a doddle for Ray Columbus and his wife Linda when they sell their 8ha property near Matakana. They’ll be sad to go, but their focus is now on making the most of their time together. Ray is still recuperating from a major stroke last June and the property takes a lot of looking after.
“It’s too big now, too much work… I’m not a green thumb, I’m a rock and roll singer,” says 66-year-old Ray, best known for his years with 60s group Ray Columbus and the Invaders, and their biggest hit, a little toe-tapper called She’s a Mod – number one in 1964 in New Zealand and Australia.
Ray and Linda hope to buy an apartment in Auckland and a place near New York City, where their daughter and one-year-old grandson live.
“It’s summers forever now,” says Ray, though he plans to continue his work here and commute to the US.
It’s likely Linda won’t know what to do with herself when she leaves their home of 15 years. She does all the gardens and mows most of the lawns, which can take four to five hours at a time. The elegant 50-something has her own tool shed and proudly shows off a tidy selection of power tools, including a chainsaw. She thinks nothing of taking out a tree and chopping it up for firewood.
Ray claims that, when they left Auckland for Matakana, which was then “the sticks”, he had to go and assure the chap at the local hardware store that Linda was not stalking him – she just loved tools. “I’m much happier shopping for tools than clothes,” she says.
Their architecturally designed home, Volare, was originally owned by a family whose son studied landscaping, so the grounds were well planted. Linda has added the easy-maintenance gardens and courtyards and a shade house to propagate her favourite plants.
She has also taken the interior design in hand, giving the downstairs floor of their contemporary home the “shabby-chic” treatment. Out came her tools – a concrete grinder, hose and orbital sander – and the concrete floors (previously covered with sisal) were transformed and painted for a suitably “rustic” result. It worked so well that the floors in the Casa, a self-contained cottage in the grounds, were done the same way.
Linda and Ray loved the house’s cedar exterior, with its white joinery, but found the dark timber interior too dark and depressing. So the walls and ceilings are now white throughout.
Furnishings and other decorative elements draw on a black, white and cream palette, with the odd splash of bold colour for effect. And, in sympathy with the rural setting, Linda has chosen French provincial and Italian-style furniture, enhancing the look with original touches such as her use of old wooden shutters as a headboard in the master bedroom.
The home is perfect for country living, with large windows that slide back to open the house to the outdoors in summer. The couple have taken out the wall of their third downstairs bedroom and turned it into a TV and music room, where Ray’s baby grand Yamaha piano takes pride of place. The spacious Casa, just metres from the main house, provides plenty of privacy for visitors.
Their complementary relationship began 20-odd years ago when the pair met in the Italian-style deli/cafe Ray used to own in Remuera. At the time he was divorced from his first wife, with whom he has a son and daughter (he has since adopted Linda’s daughter, Tina, as his own). Linda says she recognised him instantly. “But I used to turn him off on the radio,” she says with a chuckle.
Still, they both felt a connection. Though she was dining with a male companion, Ray found an opportunity to ask Linda what her Chinese horoscope was. On being told she was a tiger, he somewhat cheesily replied, “I’ve been looking for a tiger all my life.”
They’ve been together since their first date, says Linda. But the past six years have been tough for the couple. In 2002 they were involved in a major car accident on a US highway in which Linda broke every bone in her face (today it’s held together by seven titanium plates).
Then in 2004 Ray had a heart attack that left him with three stents in his arteries. Last year’s major stroke followed a series of minor strokes, which Ray reckons were triggered by the earlier road accident.
“[My stroke] was similar to Rob Guest’s, but he went straight into a coma… The blood thinners I was on for my heart saved me.”
But this talk of difficult times is constantly punctuated with comments about how lucky they have been. Linda says she learned early on, as a child with polio, that there was no point in feeling sorry for herself. She believes in the therapeutic value of challenges – for herself and others.
“I knew Ray needed to learn new skills after the stroke, not just do the same things.” So she had him following recipes and baking.
“I’m no baker but Linda was amazing in my recovery – she doesn’t take any prisoners either,” jokes Ray.
Though his right vocal chords were paralysed with the stroke, Ray’s back writing music and he’s working on “the definitive collection” of Ray Columbus and the Invaders. There are other projects on the go too. After earning an OBE in 1974 and a Commemoration Medal in 1990 for services to tourism and trade, Ray feels he’s done his bit to promote local music. Now he’s representing others through the ins and outs of intellectual property. “I can open doors.”
Ray grew up in a state house in Christchurch with six siblings and ended up sharing the stage with such international stars as Shirley Bassey, Tom Jones, the Hollies, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Eric Burdon and the Animals – to name but a few.
But he’s always been interested in giving back. “He’s been doing charity events since before any of the big stars got involved,” says Linda.
At a recent fundraiser at Hamilton East Primary School, which had been badly affected by fire, Ray taught the students some entertainment skills and a few songs, including She’s a Mod, which they sang to a sold-out concert in the school hall. “It was the most uplifting thing I’ve done in years.”
It was the inspiration for the Ray Columbus Foundation, now being set up “to help children, wherever there is a need,” says Ray. “Not every kid is going to be an All Black or a Silver Fern. I was a tap dancer and soccer player so I was a double sissy, but my father, who had me on the stage at six, encouraged us to do our very best with whatever we do.”
Story: Lyn Barnes
Photographs: Liz Goodall
| 
|
| 
