Latu Miller

Latu William Miller was born on 14 July 1956 in Apia, Samoa where he grew up with his brothers Harry and Maua. On finishing school Latu left for Auckland, New Zealand in 1974 on an Engineering scholarship. Like most students, he looked for work during the semester breaks to pay for plane tickets home for vacation. His kind of job was, you guessed it, paid band gigs. One such gig was advertised in the paper, requiring a drummer for a resident pub band at a spot called DB Tavern.

After a Saturday afternoon audition Latu got the job and happily flew home for Christmas. His first band was a 4-piece group called Moods, playing covers at the usual club and social venues and finally scoring a resident gig at the Masonic Tavern, Devonport. On completing his BE degree in 1978 he returned to Samoa with his school sweetheart of the preceding six years, Catherine Miller (yes, same surname!) from Hong Kong, for post-graduate project work.

Latu and Catherine moved back to Auckland in 1980 where they were married, and then settled. Latu pursued a career in telecommunications and at the same time formed another covers band called Phase One. He happily “reconnected” with the Masonic Tavern and extended the house band residency there for a little while longer, before moving closer to home to a pub in Avondale called Inner Circle.

Latu has no published studio recordings to share with you but do feel free to click on the links below to hear a couple of amateur captures on YouTube.

Sundown (Wes Montgomery) 3:49. This is a cover of this Wes Montgomery 12-bar blues, learnt off a vinyl record, on a steel-stringed acoustic guitar, no pick, one Sunday afternoon after Mass, while boarding at Sacred Heart College, Auckland, 1974. This amateur recording with Maua on bass guitar, from about 2006, is one of Latu’s first attempts at music production after Maua got him hooked on DAWs.

Europa – Earth’s Cry Heaven’s Smile (Carlos Santana & Tom Coster) 6:12. This was a mono cassette tape recording of Latu’s 4-piece band Phase One, covering this number from Santana as their closing number for the night, during their tenure at the Masonic Tavern, Devonport, Auckland, some time in 1983. Phase One was Dave Evarard and Latu on guitars, Dave Masters on bass, and the formidable Steve Ututaonga on drums. Please excuse the slight tape damage at about 1 min 47 sec into the track, and the waiter bringing drinks to the table where the portable radio cassette player recorder was sitting 🙁