Former Southlander Murray Burns, of Mi-Sex fame, was looking forward to nothing more than rocking out with his band mates in New Zealand this summer and visiting his friends and family back home.

However, the band has reluctantly made the decision to stay in Australia – wary about not being able to get back across the ditch quickly, amid the worsening COVID-19 situation in Australia.

New South Wales and Victoria have both recently recorded new cases of COVID-19 in the community, leading to harsher restrictions on travel.

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Victoria’s border is now closed to those entering from NSW without a special exemption.

Mi-Sex was set to perform at the Gibbston Valley Winery Summer concert on January 26.

This would have been the band’s first time performing at the concert.

Burns, who lives in Byron Bay, said making the decision not to come was hard but it was the right call to make.

“If we had to follow our own hearts, we’d probably be sitting in quarantine right now,” Mr Burns said.

“[But] our agent said this is all a bit shaky… and he recommended that we stay put.”

Burns was set to line up at the gig with fellow Mi-Sex bandmates, vocalist Steve Dalbi, guitarist James Cooper, drummer Jordan McDonald and bass player Travis New.

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Raised in Invercargill, Burns said he was looking forward to visiting his hometown and spending time with his elderly Dad in Christchurch.

“I was really excited to see my family; I hadn’t seen them in a year – so I was killing two birds with one stone,” he said.

He said he also still had a strong connection to Invercargill and usually tried to visit a couple times of year, to spend time with loved ones and teach music.

“I visit my dear aunty Wilma Muller… and I come and take classes at SIT [Southern Institute of Technology] in the audio and music department,” he said.

But for now, the longest member of the 1980’s rock group will have to wait it out at home, but he plans to hopefully take a trip home to see family again this year.

Two other Australian artists were also pulled from the line-up by Gibbston Valley Winery Summer concert organisers, amid further COVID-19 outbreaks in Australia.

Aussie bands The Angels, Pseudo Echo and Mi-Sex have now been replaced by three Kiwi acts, The Jordan Luck Band, Stellar* and Hello Sailor.

Greenstone Entertainment made the announcement of the change of line-up this week.

Greenstone Entertainment CEO Amanda Calvert said despite the unfortunate loss of the Australian acts, she was excited that the show could still go on.

The three new Kiwi artists will be performing alongside Gin Wigmore and Dragon to form an all-Kiwi summer line-up.

The Gibbston Valley Winery Summer Concert has the capacity for 18,000 attendees, with tickets still available from Greenstone Entertainment.