The California Dreamers were a Wellington, based, 60's revival act, originally covering The Mamas & Papas, Byrds, Association, the musical Hair and other acts of that ilk.

  I joined them in January of 2010 for a gig at the Askerne Winery in Havelock North and five years later, we all ended up in Los Angeles playing One Last Party, the night before the Oscars in Hollywood.

  It is fair to say that in-between was somewhat of a roller coaster ride, but life with the Dreamers, well, there was never a dull moment...nor a sober one!

  At around the time I joined, everything in Wellington was ramping up for the Hobbit trilogy of films, to be made at Stone Street in Miramar, directed by Peter Jackson.

  William Kircher, husband of Nicole Chesterman (the brains behind the Dreamers concept), successfully auditioned for the role of the dwarf Bifur and just by association, The California Dreamers instantly waltzed into the lime-light and - dare I say it - became more marketable because of it.

  Not that we weren't good, we were. Nicole spent a lot of time working out the intricate harmonies, costume and choreography (which I detested), but the package was a good one and the Dreamers were extremely popular, wherever we went.

  The Hobbit association (and William's marketing prowess) secured us two prestigious gigs; The 2012 World Premiere of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Party gig at the Amora Ballroom in Wellington, as part of Hobbit week in November, 2012.

   We were joined on stage during the gig by Andy Serkis, Phillipa Boyens (and Elijah Wood and PJ at one point) and played between The Shire Waytes and  Jed Brophy's band.

  While strictly a covers band, the Dreamers very occasionally flirted with ideas to do a few originals, of which I composed a very palm-tree in the sun-sounding piece called Cruisin' California at one point.

  But our own spin on a song from one of the Hobbit films called Stairway to the Misty Mountains (a tongue-in-cheek title owing to its vague similarities to the Led Zep classic), went down very well when we played it at the Amora gig.

  Below is a live take from a practice session, when we were clearly still going through the motions putting it together. But not a bad take for a live recording.