Ray Columbus & the Invaders were a rock

Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...

 group from New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 active from 1964 to 1966.

The group was influenced by the early 1960s work of Cliff Richard

Cliff Richard

Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....

 and The Beatles

The Beatles

The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...

. They scored a #1 hit in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and New Zealand with "She's a Mod" in 1964, a cover version

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

 of a song by The Senators. They had several more hits in New Zealand before disbanding in 1966. Leader Ray Columbus later joined California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

 psychedelic

Psychedelic music

Psychedelic music covers a range of popular music styles and genres, which are inspired by or influenced by psychedelic culture and which attempt to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues-rock bands in the...

 band, The Art Collection. Columbus, (born 4 November 1942), went on to become a band manager. Billy Kristian played bass for the Invaders, and he later joined the Keil Isles

Keil Isles

The Keil Isles were a New Zealand-based Rock & Roll group which consisted of the Keil Brothers, Olaf, Herman, Rudolf, Klaus and their cousin Freddie Keil. They were all Samoans with German ancestry.-Band history:...

, The Jimmy Sloggett Band, Headband

Headband (band)

Headband were a progressive, blues rock band formed in Adelaide in February 1971 by bass guitarist Chris Bailey; drummer Joff Bateman; singer-songwriter and keyboardist Peter Beagley ; and singer-songwriter and guitarist Mauri Berg. The group supported Elton John , The Rolling Stones at their...

 and Night

Night (band)

Night was a rock band formed in 1978 in Los Angeles whose personnel were veteran British-based session musicians.-History:Night's vocalists Stevie Vann and Chris Thompson had met when Vann had provided backing vocals for the 1978 album Watch by Manfred Mann's Earth Band then fronted by Thompson...

.

The band were inducted into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame

New Zealand Music Hall of Fame

The New Zealand Music Hall of Fame is a hall of fame dedicated to noteworthy musicians from New Zealand. The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand and Australasian Performing Right Association announced their intentions to create the hall of fame in August 2007...

in 2009.