When The Cats Away back to play for their fans - and for Margaret Urlich

When the '80s girl band When The Cats Away toured last year to honour the memory of departed member Margaret Urlich, they were taken by surprise at the support from their fans.

“We were absolutely blown away by the love from our audience at the Town Hall event in Auckland,” Debbie Harwood said. “Walking on stage and seeing those beautiful, smiling faces - the same faces that looked up at us when it all began in 1986 - it was quite overwhelming. Unfortunately, we sold out so quickly we couldn’t accommodate everyone and there were a lot of people from out of Auckland who told us they would have loved to have been there. So, we’re on our way.”

And so they are, with a four-concert tour playing at the major centres this month.

The girls, as they still like to be known, are excited to be back on stage.

“It’s like a dream come true,” Kim Willoughby said. “It’s nice to bring such a high-end show, complete with Margie’s songs, to the regions so they can pay tribute to her too.”

“Margie” is Margaret Urlich, who died after a two-and-a-half-year battle with cancer in August 2022 aged just 57.

The previous December, the “girls” had been inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame at the Aotearoa Music Awards to recognise their contribution to the industry here and their enduring popularity.

But it’s “Margie” they really want to remember at these shows.

“We feel her energy,” Willoughby said. “We feel her with us. It’s like Tinker Bell is in the room with us. In my mind’s eye, I see her little wings going ‘ting ting’. We are just loving every moment.”

Dianne Swann remembers Urlich’s cheekier side.

“Margie loved to have a good time and loved a bit of mischief too. She made your [Harwood’s] button pop open at the Town Hall concert,” Swann laughed.

But dealing with the loss of Urlich and trying to resolve that took its toll.

“We were an emotional heap,” said Annie Crummer. “We didn’t know how it [last year’s reunion concert] was going to go and we each had our own thing going on about the actual kaupapa of why we were there. And how we were just going to carry and support her whānau and fans so it was pretty intense.

“Now that we’ve done that ,and we really, sincerely think we’ve done the best that we could in terms of sending her off, we can now exhale.”

Now the girls are looking forward to giving it their all and treating the fans to their favourite songs.

“It’s all New Zealand songs,” Harwood said. “They tend to be ours and the fans’ favourites.

“Cats fans are a great bunch. We love and respect them so much. [They] are coming along with their children who have grown up with Cats Away songs. Young people love the songs and they don’t always know that we did it or a Kiwi band did it.”

And the girls aren’t driven by critical acclaim, just the knowledge that they play with aroha and the fans respond in kind.

“They are open-hearted,” Harwood said. “We attract the people who aren’t cynical.

“They know life is short and they just want to get in there and enjoy it.”

When The Cats Away play Christchurch on April 14, Wellington on April 21, Dunedin on April 28 with the finale at Auckland’s Powerstation on May 18. Tickets available from Ticketmaster.

This article was first published by the NZ Herald and is republished here with permission.