North and South Magazine, September 2007
Page Four
The Beat Goes On
  Sanders and Watkins' wall of fame (top); daughter Tara(above). |
Andrea Sanders is surely the beat behind the BeatGirls. McLaughlin calls her “the mother ship”.
“She’s very straightforward, focused, gifted and she works hugely hard. She works us hard too, and looks after us all.”
Sanders and Watkins grew up just down the highway from each other – Sanders in Plimmerton, Watkins in Paekakariki – and both are the youngest of four children in families steeped in music and the performing arts.
Fresh from school, in the mid-80s Sanders choreographed and performed dance works for Wellington's Summer City festival. In 1987 she moved to Sydney, working as a dancer and vocalist.
In 1991 when her father Bill died she returned to Wellington intending to stay just a few months. There she met Watkins at a dance show and a whirlwind courtship ensued. "Billy said he wouldn't go and trek the Himalayas if I didn't go back to Sydney." Instead they stayed in Wellington and she became a back-up singer for his blues band Billy and the Blue Flames.
In 1994 the couple launched Bossa Nova (Brazilian music) group the Lounge Lizards. Deciding Bossa Nova wasn't commercial enough, they morphed the Lizards into a Beatles tribute band with a twist: three women singing and a band playing.
Soon they realised that while the female trio concept was a winner at Wellington bars, no one noticed the band's instrumentalists or noticed when they got rid of them. With a market niche identified, they began approaching businesses, and corporate gigs replaced bar work.
In 2000 they moved to Sydney, set up the BeatGirls there and continued to run their pool of New Zealand performers.
When Sanders became pregnant in 2002 it was to her surprise and not entirely to her pleasure. "I never thought I'd have children - I didn't like them and I was married to my career."
Realising she needed a family support network, she convinced Watkins to move back to Wellington and found she "loved being a mum".
Tara has 32 stamps on her passport. As a baby she accompanied them to gigs, sleeping in a hammock in wardrobes while they got ready. Now on most out-of-town gigs, Watkins stays at home with their daughter.
Home's a 3.2-hectare property just outside Wellington with rolling hills, bush and sheep paddocks. Inside the colourful, multi-level house there's a BeatGirls wall of fame and one good-sized room dedicated to costumes and props.
"I've put a lock on the door now, but Tara's smart - she'd carry a chair up the stairs and unlock the door," laughs her mum. "She gets her hands on the wigs and lipstick all over her face.
"She knows heaps of songs and some of the moves. We laugh she's going to take over the business."
It wouldn't be a bad inheritance.
While they won't comment on exact figures, Sanders says: " We’ve doubled our turnover in the last four years. Nowhere near where we want to be, but we could definitely make a million if we broke into more markets."
Seventy per cent of earnings go back into the business. Recently they've developed their website (www.thebeatgirls.com) into an eye-catching shop window. Users can scan reviews, photos and testimonials, listen to songs, book the group or order merchandise. There's a BeatGirls T-shirt, three CDs and a plan to expand the merchandise: more CDs and T-shirts and a calendar.
Now they're financially comfortable, they've set up a trust for charitable endeavours. In April they staged a We'll Meet Again Anzac concert in the Wellington Town Hall, singing 40s music like the Andrews Sisters. So many older people came backstage to thank them that they've planned a no-charge tour of Wellington region rest homes in 2008.
 Sanders and Watkins at home in Wellington with daughter Tara. |