Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

At the start of this week I was chastising Auckland for being a dump these days and don’t get me wrong, I still hate the traffic, the cones, and the congestion. But, I am here today to defend the city of my birth.  When I criticized Auckland this week, part of my long list of complaints was the way people behave at concerts (Snoop Dog was the example). Someone who attended said the crowd was so baked and out of it they were barely alive.  But in Auckland’s defence, I was at the sold-out Morgan Wallen concert this week and boy did Auckland lap him up. What an audience.  The packed Spark Arena absolutely loved him, sang every word of his songs, cheered and clapped and danced til the bitter end and even then insisted on an encore and got a spectacular one.  Two things I learned. One, the support for country music in this country is phenomenal, and rightly so. Bands and singers out of Nashville are slick, well-organized, class acts, brilliant musicians who know how to play a live show. They’re humble and connecte