STEPHEN TE OHIA UTUTAONGA
Te Arawa-Ngāti Whakaue, Tainui-Ngāti Māhanga, Ngāpuhi-Ngāti Hine
HUSBAND OF:
Karen Joyce-Harvey Ututaonga
“You are my heart and my soul.
I light a candle for you here and you
light a candle for me in heaven,
to guide me to you again.
I love you forever”
BIRTH: January 28, 1952
Whatawhata, Waikato District, Waikato, New Zealand
DIED: 22nd March 2020
Tauranga, Waipuna Hospice
FATHER OF:
ZORRO & NINJA, ROMMEL & COSMO
‘Charisma’ Auckland band 1974-1978
Video courtesy of Andy Burns
“Charisma was a perfect start to my music career. We had a lot of laughs and we were great mates. We were always playing practical jokes on each other especially when we were on tour. We had so much fun and we loved the music. I was the youngest in the band and still living at home. We played at most of the well known venues in Auckland including Backstage, Shanty Town, The Crypt and The Royal George Hotel. We also toured the north island playing at the popular pubs and clubs. Barry Wetini and I shared the vocals. Charisma was the only band in the country at the time that had two lead vocalists. The rest of the band also used to sing harmonies. There was Andy “Finky”Burns on keyboards, Louis Farrac on guitar, Steve Ututaonga on drums and Graeme Sait on bass. Barry and I played the congas and percussion. We were singing all the top 40 songs and this lead us to performing on the tv show “Ready to Roll”. In those days the artists singing the songs didn’t have video clips so they employed local bands to perform the latest songs. We performed Steely Dan, Earth Wind and Fire, Stevie Wonder, The Doobie Brothers, Santana and 10CC. They were all great songs and I’m still singing some of them today, 30 years later.”
MY OWN EULOGY!
Time is infinite…….Life is fleeting!!
So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart. Trouble no one about their religion; respect others in their view, and demand that they respect yours. Love your life and love the one your with, perfect your life, beautify all things in your life. Seek to make your life long and its purpose in the service of your people. Prepare a noble death song for the day when you go over the great divide.
Always give a word or a sign of salute when meeting or passing a friend, even a stranger, when in a lonely place. Show respect to all people and grovel to none.
When you arise in the morning give thanks for the food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason for giving thanks, the fault lies only in yourself. Abuse no one and no thing, for abuse turns the wise ones to fools and robs the spirit of its vision.
When it comes your time to die, be not like those whose hearts are filled with the fear of death, so that when their time comes they weep and pray for a little more time to live their lives over again in a different way. Sing your death song and die like a hero going home. Tra la la la la! Time is not on my side! …Yes it is!
Saturday 21 March 2020
My darling brother Steve, It hurts too see you like this..and its so hard not to be able to awhi you one more time. I have to thankyou from the bottom of my heart for being My Big Brother. You are my Rock and in actual fact the ROCK our family. I could ring you anytime with any concerns and you always listened without judgement and if for any reason you disagreed with my train of thought you would set me right. But that was far and few between. You & Karen worked hard and enjoyed life to the fullest, and Ice & I are so lucky to have been apart of some of those good times..thank you for those happy memories my bro Biggest hugs our brother go in peace but i ask one more thing of you please. Biggest hugs to Mum, Dad, Paul, Bubby and all our whanau gone b4 us. Im a coward asking Mick to read this but I would only end up a blubbering mess … I’m too sad at the moment. R.I.P. my darling brother No more suffering … until next we meet From the bottom of our hearts Jen, Ice, Kellie, Nia, Ngaiterangi