Glen Moffatt and Kaylee Bell entering their hands into Gore's Hands of Fame at the 2026 Gold Guitar Awards. Photo / Nicky Coats Exposed Pixels Photography
A Hawke’s Bay balladeer’s imprint will live on in the heart of New Zealand’s country music capital.
Napier-born Glen Moffatt, known for his classic 1995 album Somewhere In New Zealand Tonight, entered into Gore’s Hands of Fame during this year’s Gold Guitar Awards, alongside Waimate-born country hit-maker Kaylee Bell on Sunday, May 31.
Gore’s Hands of Fame is a structure in the shape of a guitar covered in concrete handprints of some of the biggest country acts from New Zealand and around the world.
At each year’s Gold Guitars Awards, more hands of prominent country musicians are added to the monument.
Speaking from his home in Brisbane while proudly wearing a Napier City Rovers supporters’ hoodie, Moffatt said it was exciting to return to the award ceremony for the first time since 1983.
It was also the first time he had performed on stage in two years.
“I loved it,” he said.
Moffatt arrived in Gore before the awards started and went to look at the Hands of Fame.
He said it was great to see the handprints of his musical heroes, such as John Grenell, Danny McGirr, The Plainsmen, Patsy Riggir, Suzanne Prentice, The Warratahs and The Topp Twins.
“I used to watch That’s Country back in the day. So it’s pretty neat to be put amongst that company."
Moffatt said he was fortunate enough to see Lynda Topp at the ceremony, where he gave her a big hug and shared his condolences about Jools Topp’s passing on May 23.
The Topp Twins gave him a “really good opportunity” to play at their shows in Tamworth in New South Wales in 2002.
“They would get 900 people to this auditorium every day for 10 days and blow them away,” he said.
“I got to perform twice on their shows over there, which was a great opportunity.”
Away from country music, Moffatt is an accomplished journalist, formerly writing for Napier’s Daily Telegraph and now writing about New Zealand’s musical history for website AudioCulture.
“That’s sort of what I’ve given all my energy to lately,” he said.
It was important to him that New Zealand country musicians who did not have long careers, “because real life got in the way”, were remembered.
Without his work on AudioCulture, he said the stories of artists such as Dinger Bell, Dusty Spittle or Val Elliott and the Rhythm Ramblers were in danger of falling into oblivion.
“You might find a couple of tracks or an album on Spotify, but you wouldn’t be able to find out that they were from New Zealand, when they existed, who they were and their story.”
Moffatt’s last release was 2014’s Superheroes and Scary Things, but he said being in Gore had reignited the songwriting flame in his stomach.
“I’ve been back home and had a few ideas about sort of trying to do something again. Let’s see where it goes.”
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in the UK, Germany and New Zealand.