The days of seeing a Maori showband in cabaret may be numbered - the club scene is shrinking because of new smoking and drinking laws.
Maori Volcanics' member Billy Peters says the showband's mix of popular songs, impressions, comedy skits, kapa haka and musicianship has been entertaining crowds around the world for half a century.
But times are changing, he told Waatea News, and the once lucrative Australian club scene that has sustained the Volcanics for decades has been dealt a blow by changes to smoking laws.
The new restrictions took away half the club crowds, Mr Peters says. People are also buying their liquor supplies at the supermarket now, and showbusiness is getting more limited as a result.
The Maori Volcanics are in New Zealand for five shows, the first of them at the Tokoroa Cosmopolitan Club on Wednesday night.
