his album Gotta Get Up,  released at the turn of the millennium, is testimony his voice and songwriting have continued to mature.

Evan Silva was born in Mission Bay, Auckland in 1947 of Portuguese, Pacific Island and French descent. As a teenager his skill as a musician and performer were quickly recognised after an uncle took him along to a club on the North Shore where he ended up making his debut at the age of 13-years.

By the time he was 16 he joined his first band known as The Mockers with some teenage friends who played through the Christmas period at the huge Orewa dances. However plans to take on lucrative weekend gigs were stifled when Silva, who had something of a short fuse, came to the notice of  the law.

Juvenille hi-jinx

He'd been hanging out with a tough crowd and after a several assaults, mostly on those much larger than him, he was given six months of periodic detention. In those days young offenders spent the entire weekend under the watchful eyes of overseers where their frustrations were worked out behind a shovel.

That six months cooling off helped Silva decide once and for all that music was going to become the key focus in his life not hooning around with the bad crowd. He kept himself to himself, playing weeknight performances with his own band which renamed themselves Nobody's Children.

This unit was one of Auckland's first full-on soul bands playing hard edged Wilson Picket songs including 99 1/2, Midnight Hour , Don't Fight It and 6,3,4,5,7,8,9. 

The band was sought after for its hot sound and tight playing despite the fact Silva was often so nervous he would sing with his back to the crowd. 

Nobody's Children played top Auckland venues The Galaxie and the Top 20 in Durham Lane in the mid-60s.

Action full time

While performing at the Top 20 club in 1966 Evan met up with bass player Jack Stradwick who asked him to join his recently formed group The Action. Silva replaced Jack's brother Danny who had decided to leave. 

The band had been formed earlier in 1966 featuring Jack Stradwick on bass, Brian Harris on drums,  John Bissett on keyboards and John Kristian on guitar.

At long last Silva was able to realise his dream of becoming a full time musician. The Action was New Zealand's answer to the Tamla Motown sound with a tight rhythmic feel and classic soul harmonies. 

The Action were resident at the Top 20 Club and then The Galaxie where they regularly drew full houses .They toured heartland New Zealand and recorded four singles on the Zodiac label -  all of which made chart appearances. (name the songs) The band was a regular on Pete Sinclair's C'Mon TV show. Most of the time Evan admits he was drunk on Lemon Gin, 'the flavour of the year'.

The Sydney scene 

The Action headed across the Tasman in late 1967. The first gig in Sydney was at Whiskey a Go Go alongside resident artists Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs. The first spot the band played they received a rave reception from the American GI's on R&R from the Vietnam war. They loved the Motown, soul sounds. 

The band was immediately signed for a 12 month residency at a club called The Hawaiian Eye in Sydney which was extended another year.  They appeared on the top rated Australian TV show Bandstand. 

The Action had taken up lodgings in King's Cross with Sydney's seamy underworld of dope and prostitution all around them. There were parties every night, and drugs were a staple diet. Evan recalls the consequences of those heady days included the death of a number of friends and others who never regained their right mind.

The stresses of working together for two solid years began to tell  as tension grew between members of The Action. By late 1968 Jack Stradwick and new guitarist John Kristian quit so Silva got in touch with Mike Wilson and Gus Fenwick of The Apple to come over from New Zealand to keep the residency. Drummer Brett Neilson was the next to leave - being replaced for a time by Wellington drummer Andy Anderson. 

Wild antics

Evan recalls Anderson often played The Hawaiian Eye with a staff meal sitting on his tom tom drum so he could pick away at the food in-between songs. When the band was playing however Evan says he'd often look over and see gravy and peas vibrating off the plate onto the floor. 

On another occasion Anderson turned up late for a gig without his drumsticks. Just before the set he raced off down the road to the grounds of the Sydney Court House, climbed a tree and came back with two thin green branches. He used these to pound his drums for the rest of the night with the sap spraying into the audience and band members.

The band appeared in the TV soap opera Bell Bird and the movie The Vision, however band members barely remember their on-screen appearances. Within a year of the third line-up change it was all over for The Action. The players had pushed themselves and each other to the limits - it was time for something new. 

Silva put together a short term band with Wilson and Fenwick doing the club scene on Sydney's North Shore. After that he joined forces with popular Melbourne band Compulsion - formed from  top Kiwi band Sounds Unlimited. Band members all had large afro hair styles and were making an impact on the Australian scene playing Hendrix and Joe Cocker covers. The unit played all the Melbourne clubs including the Thumping Tum, Berties and Sebastians. 

Compulsive behaviour

Out of Compulsion Silva and Tehei formed another short-lived unit known as Total Abstainers, which was approached to be the resident band for the rock musical Hair. This didn't happen so the band broke up with Tehei going on to join the remnant of another 60s Kiwi band The Castaways.

Silva and Stradwick formed progressive blues-rock band Hamul financed by a successful businessman. They ended up playing in Melbourne then moving to Sydney where the unit was resident at the Condor Room for about six months then at The Groovy Room in Paddington.

Back in New Zealand in about 1970 Jack Stradwick went on to become a founding member of Tommy Adderley's Headband. Silva and Mike Wilson also returned home and in 1971 formed The Truth, which played a six-month residency at the Montemarte before folding. Silva then put together an eight-piece band called Kindred Spirit playing Sly & the Family Stone and Edgar Winter material in clubs throughout Auckland. 

Evan Silva admits he had become "an arrogant, hard-hearted individual". He was experiencing a deep sense of disappointment with his music, his life and everything else. Then in 1973 something happened that was 'so out of the blue' that it deeply challenged many of his  friends and 'enemies'.

Hard heart to Pastor

Profound changes began occurring in Silva's life are he made a Christian commitment. The hard edges soon to fade and he experienced a complete turnaround in his attitude. He and his wife Carol joined a new church that had just started up in West Auckland along with about 25 others. He began to study the Bible and receive new revelations about the real meaning of his life and how he could become a renewed person. 

He began to work in the studio doing vocals for many TV and radio jingles including McDonald's, KFC and Woolworths. This was his forte for about seven years .

Evan and Carol were becoming stronger in their newfound Christian faith and were looking to get more involved. They moved their family to Lower Hutt and started a church there. That was so successful they found another location where they believed they were to create an environment for people to come and hear the gospel. 

During their time in the Wellington Evan recorded three albums of songs that strongly reflected his new belief system.  Evan and former sidekick Jack Stradwick had both become pastors  and collaborated on two gospel tapes Will It Be Gold and to To Bring Glory in the 70s early 80s. Evan drove from Wellington to Auckland to record over a weekend then back again to the capital city to preach.

Just as it was when he was on stage with the Action, Evan was outspoken and determined to let people know 'the message' - only this time it wasn't soul music it was spiritual sustenance for the soul.

He recalls one instance where he was invited to sing at a huge Communist rally in central Wellington. He sang There is a Cross, Faith Pleases God and the worship song Worthy Art Thou from his 1983 album Will it Be Gold. The reaction was predictably hostile.

He returned to Auckland in late 1990 to start another church, this time on Auckland's North Shore. Harbour Christian City Church had its beginnings in a pub but grew so quickly the congregation needed a venue of its own. 

They converted an old warehouse in Barry's Point Rd, Takapuna creating a cafe style ambience.  HCCC has been operating for over a decade now and has a broad section of the community as church goers including musicians, creative types and other 'unchurched' people. HCCC regularly hosts regular cafe nights where jazz and blues artists perform and where artists show their creations. 

Action becomes ReAction

It was from this base that Evan kicked off his re-emergence into the music industry forming ReAction, initially featuring Ronald La Praed the one-time Commodores bass player who now lives in New Zealand. They played corporate functions, Christmas in the Park and the Galaxie nightclub reunion. They also helped kick off the launch of music history book Hostage to the Beat.

 In 1996 Evan went into The Lab studio with ReAction and other musicians to record the CD Ain't No Two Ways About It. The album engineered and mixed by Larry Killip, featured Jack Stradwick on bass, John Olding and Eddie Pausma on guitars, Denis Winters on drums, Trevor King on keyboards, Bruce French on saxophone and Sarah McBride and Vanessa Stradwick on background vocals. 

The title track Aint no Two Ways About It recalls his time in Sydney playing the Hawaiian Eye in 1968 when he recalls a fan jumping on stage and preaching about Jesus Christ. This infuriated Silva who 'made him pay'. However that event stuck with him making his realise his own volatile personality. These days he knows it is Christ who has paid the price to bring him from that old life - 'aint no two ways about it!'. 

"Ain't No Two Ways About It is a reflection of my last 30-years - from the roots of my Motown influence - Otis Redding, Al Green and the Four Tops - to my spiritual experience. I have written songs around nights of remembrance in 
Sydney playing the Hawaiian Eye in 1969, those events are an inspiration for the title song. Love Sweet Love is about people acting with ulterior motives. Mercy Street was written at 1am about a street light in Mercy St. The very cool jazz You Are my Rock is therapeutic. There is some blues in there but nobody wants to stay blue, so the lyrics are about being picked up," says Evan.

Awards, media mentions and airplay

The album attracted considerable media attention largely because of Evan's distinguished history in rhythm 'n blues music in New Zealand and Australia and the curiosity about his conversion to Christianity. 

In 1997 Aint No Two Ways About It was a finalist in the clear Music Awards. In 1998 TV3 Nightline news host Alex DeJong visited the church to film a Sunday service and to interview Evan - this went to air on the 10.30 news. 

ATV news presenter Paul Hobbs also contacted Evan and came to film and interview Evan about his music and the church - the item appeared on the 5.30pm news. 

Radio New Zealand's Lisa Owen attended a service recording Evan and the congregation to put to air. 

Evan appeared on the Good Morning TV show answering questions and performing I Will Cry Out. 

Cool Blue (96.10FM) a secular jazz/blues continuous music radio station in Auckland has play-listed I Say Father from the Aint No Two Ways About It album.

Leighton Smith New Zealand's popular IZB talkback show host received a copy of Aint No Two Ways About It. He listened to it and loved it, concluding Evan must be a black American. He was amazed when he discovered Evan was in fact a New Zealander and decided to run a radio competition for listeners to guess the artist. The phone calls revealed a diversity of guesses from Phil Collins to Stevie Wonder and Eric Clapton. When Evan called to thank Leighton for the airplay, the producer of the show put him live to air and he was interviewed about his life and Leighton asked him to give a full account of his conversion to Christianity.

Since then Leighton has put out a compilation with Warner Music called Makin' Whoopee. The song Sweet Love from Aint No Two Ways About It is included along with tracks from Dr John, Willie Nelson, Ray Charles, Little river Band and others. Leighton publicly declared Evan's music to be of international standard and deserving of greater recognition.

Later that year Evan was interviewed live on air for an hour from the UK by CrossRhythms Network who originated the phrase Kiwi Soul Man in their magazine review of his music. Most tracks off Ain't No Two Ways About It were played on this station and Love Sweet Love was again selected for a CrossRhythms compilation album. On Good Friday 2001 Evan was invited back into the ZB studios for the station's nationwide Easter Show to tell the story of the impact God has had on his life.

Evan and Carol Silva are committed to the vision of fostering and adopting children with first hand experience in this field. in 1999 Evan wrote the theme song for Open Home Foundation entitled You Make The difference. This song was released on a special CD Song for the Children recorded for the inaugural annual Open Home Foundation fundraising concert. it also featured Steve Apirana, Lole and the Popular Auckland Pacific Choir.

Back in the studio

Evan's seventh and most recent CD is a sophisticated soulful album recorded at HCCC in early 2000. Among the key players is old band-mate Jack Stradwick plus Denis Winters on drums, Trevor King on keyboards, Steve Summers on guitar and Chris Mason-Battley on saxophone. 

The CD contains a selection of brand new songs recorded live  with invited guests, family and friends. The recording took place over two special Cafe evenings to a full house. the album Gotta Get Up has funky rhythm 'n blues and soul grooves with up-tempo Latin feels which Evan attributes to his Portuguese roots. The album is introduced by Leighton Smith.

Got to Get Up was nominated for the 2001 NZ Music Awards Gospel Section. The stand out song Send Me An Angel is now being recorded in Denmark by a secular artist. Auckland-based jazz singer Caitlin Smith reviewed Gotta Get Up for NZ Music Magazine headlined "NZ Reformed Bad Boy - our very own Al Green". Caitlin wrote in the Feb/March 2001 issue "the production is slick and warm...this album is testament to Evan's singing strength."

Listen to Evan Silva's sounds and you'll realise he's a world class act and his music is an essential addition to those who love meaningful melodic tunes which get your feet moving and speak to the heart. 

Information for this article was gleaned from  Hostage to The Beat - The Auckland Scene 1955-1970 By Roger Watkins, research by Keith Newman and Melanie Chandler-Winters and from conversations with Evan Silva. Click through to Evan's Jukebox (MP3 files)