Billy T James

Residence 1

📍Leamington, Cambridge, Waikato 3432, New Zealand

“I was born William Taitoko and grew up in Leamington, across the river from Cambridge, in the green heart of the Waikato — Tainui country, with the Waikato River and Taupiri mountain not far away. Ours was a Māori family in a small country town, and music was everywhere; I could sing and clown almost before I could talk. Those Waikato years gave me my warmth, my cheek, and the gift of making people laugh with me, never at the cost of their dignity. The whole of Aotearoa would come to know that laugh. But it started here, a Tainui boy mucking about by the river.”

Sources: Wikipedia: Billy T. James

Residence 2

📍Whangārei, Northland 0110, New Zealand

“When I was about eleven the family moved north to Whangārei, in Northland, and that is where I came of age — at the local boys' high, where I sang, played, and discovered I could hold a room. A Māori kid with a guitar and a quick wit, I learned up there to read an audience and win them over in seconds. Whangārei sharpened the entertainer in me before the showbands and the television fame ever came. From Northland I would go on to become, for a while, the most loved face in the country — but the harbour town gave me my start on the stage.”

Sources: Wikipedia: Billy T. James