Glen Moffatt to be Inducted Into the NZ Gold Guitar Awards Hands of Fame on May 31st, Alongside Kaylee Bell
Glen Moffatt to be Inducted Into the NZ Gold Guitar Awards Hands of Fame on May 31st, Alongside Kaylee Bell
April 7th, 2026
New Zealand country music luminaries Glen Moffatt and Kaylee Bell are to be inducted into the 2026 Hands of Fame on Sunday 31st May, as part of the Mataura Licensing Trust New Zealand Gold Guitar Awards.
Since its release in 1995, Glen Moffatt’s album Somewhere in New Zealand Tonight has become a bona fide New Zealand country music classic. He released three albums in New Zealand before moving to Brisbane in 2002.
Moffatt’s fourth album, 2014’s Superheroes & Scary Things was recorded between Brisbane and Auckland. It brought him the Rising Star Award at the 2015 Australian Independent Country Music Awards. “A rising star at the age of 44,” he quipped at the time.
A contributing writer to the New Zealand music history website AudioCulture Iwi Waiata, Moffatt has brought to light the stories of many of New Zealand’s country music stars including Ken Lemon, Patsy Riggir, Brendan Dugan and Jodi Vaughan, as well as the genre’s local pioneers like Les Wilson & Jean Calder, The Plainsmen and Rusty Greaves. He has also provided articles on New Zealanders on the Grand Ole Opry, and the Gold Guitar Awards.
Moffatt even has his own story on the AudioCulture Iwi Waiata website, written by John Dix (who wrote the legendary Aotearoa New Zealand music book Stranded in Paradise). You can read Moffatt’s AudioCulture profile here.
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The NZ Gold Guitar Awards Hands of Fame was established by the Gore Country Music Club in 1992 to honour individuals who have made significant contributions to Aotearoa country music.
Heading back to 1981, members of the Gore Country Music Club mooted the idea of a Hands of Fame structure in the shape of a guitar, to substantiate Gore’s claim of being the New Zealand capital of country music.
Fast-forward to 1992, and club members began collecting hand prints set in concrete of country artists. These prints included international stars Kenny Rogers, Ricky Skaggs, Jade Hurley, and Slim Dusty, alongside Aotearoa legends Patsy Riggir, Garner Wayne, Suzanne Prentice, and many more.
The contsruction of the Hands of Fame guitar began in 2004, and all previously collected hand prints were installed – with space made for future prints. Since then, inductees such as John Grenell, Jodi Vaughan, Tami Neilson, The Warratahs, and the Topp Twins have their hands cast and added to the ceremonial sculpture.
The Gold Guitar awards themselves started in 1974, and over the years have become the biggest and most prestigious country music event in New Zealand. Their growing reputation, combined with Gore’s affinity with all things country, were the foundations for a sister city relationship between Gore and its Australian country music counterpart, Tamworth in New South Wales – and they too have a Hands of Fame “walkway’.
Winning at the illustrious Gold Guitar Awards has created a stepping-stone for many of New Zealand and Australia’s top country music artists. Household names such as Patsy Riggir, Noel Parlane and Kylie Harris, along with songwriters such as Jeff Rea, Rosy Parsons, Eddie Low, Terry Gavin and Judy McTaggart have all gone on to create careers from their country talents.
In recent years, modern country music has taken the lead. Gold Guitars winners such as Camille Te Nahu, Kaylee Bell, Jenny Mitchell, and Kayla Mahon have worked to build their careers across Australasia and on to Nashville, in the United States.
The APRA/AMCOS Best Country Music Song Award is also presented each year at the New Zealand Country Music Honours / Gold Guitar awards in Gore. The 2025 winner was Holly Arrowsmith for ‘Blue Dreams’.
The Gore Country Music Club is still going strong, celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2022. Each month it holds an entertainment day, where performers take to the stage on a Sunday afternoon at its temporary club rooms at the Gore Town & Country Club, in Bury Street.