Ray Columbus

Raymond John Patrick "Ray" Columbus OBE (4 November 1942 – 29 November 2016) was a New Zealand singer and songwriter, television host, music manager and entertainer, with a career spanning six decades. As the lead singer of Ray Columbus & the Invaders his most well known hit was "She's A Mod", part of the new wave surf music craze released in 1964, complete with "Mod Dance", written by UK musician Terry Beale. This became a number one hit in Australia, the first song from a New Zealand group to reach the top of the charts in another country. He had also been a solo artist, television host, and diversified into music management. In the late 1990s he managed the rock band Zed. Columbus was toured with The Rolling Stones and Roy Orbison and The Newbeats. As well as playing Royal Command Performances and being the opener of the 1974 New Zealand Commonwealth Games.

Personal life

Columbus studied tap, but was more interested in the rock n roll of the era and formed his first band in 1959, The Dominoes, and got his big break playing with the Downbeats Band which later became Ray and the Drifters.

He suffered a heart attack in 2004, and a stroke in 2007 that left him partially paralysed. In April 2014, he was reported to be terminally ill, from an immune deficiency condition caused from medication.

Columbus died at his Snells Beach, North Auckland residence in November 2016 aged 74, after a "four year battle with ill health", he was survived by wife Linda and two children.

Honours and awards

In 1973, Columbus received the Benny Award from the Variety Artists Club of New Zealand Inc, the highest honour available to a New Zealand variety entertainer. In the 1974 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for services to entertainment.