Before launching ourselves towards Easter and our slot at the National Jazz Festival I wanted to just spend a minute on some thoughts about Richard's 75th Birthday bash – Frock 'n' Roll.
 
In case you've been out of the Kokomoland loop, our dear friend Richard O'Brien celebrated his 75th birthday on March 24th at Baycourt Theatre in Tauranga in front of a sold out 600 strong crowd, all to raise money for Starship Children's Hospital. The evening raised $32,000 and the show was a blast!
 So some thoughts...
Firstly, nothing to do with Richard, Craig McLachlan who came over from Oz especially, was fantastic! I know bugger-all about him apart from the fact that he was once on Neighbours and currently stars in the very serious Dr Blake series on the Vibe TV channel.
 
I watched that again last night and I still couldn't recognise him. The dour scene presence in '50s garb is so absolutely opposite to the enthusiastic, funny and pumped-up performer that we met. He's a great singer, a damn fine guitarist and a bunch of fun to be around. And he's a magnificent Fank-N-Furter – hats off to Craig!
 
And Richard was, of course, scintillating, as good on stage that night as I've seen him. But that wasn't what stuck in my mind about Mr O'B...
 
What blew me away was the new song. We got to present a new Richard O'Brien song to the world and, in my mind at least, that's a significant thing. A new Richard O'Brien song is an event.
 
Because if there's one thing I value most highly amongst Richard's many gifts, it is his songwriting. He is a simply stunning songwriter, and I say that as someone who beavers away at the same craft. Actually, it's a good humbler having Richard as a friend. When I write something new I'll often play it for him and, as you do with a new song, often I feel pretty pleased with myself.
 
But that works both ways. A couple of days later Richard will play me something new of his and, most regularly, my jaw will hit the floor. One easy way to get put in your place as a songwriter is to hear something new from Richard. 

Love it! There's also some insanely intricate rhyming as the climactic shoot-out occurs: “It was frat boys fighting Fat's boys / lots of gats and rat-a-tat noise”.
 
(There are so many clever lines I wish I could quote them all! And apologies if I've mangled any of them.)
 
But it's right at the end that it knocks me out. The main hood is dead and the song takes a left-turn into typically rude absurdist humour: “He might have ruled the Bowery / but now he's Satan's bitch twice hourly”. Apart from being very funny, it's that rhyme that gets to me: “Satan's bitch twice hourly”. It just rolls out like the most obvious line in the world and you start wondering – did Richard plan that rhyme, that just falls into place absolutely naturally, right from the start?
 
It's the same with the Rocky songs: there seems so much that just cleverly falls into place, even puns on character names “wise up Janet Weiss” or “You're a hot dog but you better not hurt her, Frankfurter”, that the whole thing is like a house of cards – dazzling!

The other thing that occurs to me is that for two years in a row we have sold out Baycourt on March 24th. Yep. This was the exact one year anniversary of our sold-out show at last year's National Jazz Festival. And the person who needs to take a bow for that is Colin Lunt.
 
Colin retired last year as our official publicist or manager or any of the many things he did for the band (though he's still looking after this website) but every time he tries to get out and get on with his own projects something keeps pulling him back. And so it was this time!
 
I suspect he is still recovering from this latest bash but I just wanted to take this chance to let everyone know what a fantastic job he did and does.
 
Colin was the publicist and so much more – stage manager, video clip wrangler, photographer, catering organiser, and pretty much everything that didn't involve playing instruments. I was simply blown away by the work he put into this show (and our one last Easter). Budding promoters should do internships with him to learn the skills required.
 
So there we go. Thank you all for coming to the show. If we missed you there we'll catch you down the Strand in Tauranga at Easter. We're playing on Stage 4, 4.30pm, Sunday 16 April.
 
'til then... 

More than a few people have commiserated and asked my opinion since the results of the American election were announced. Obviously the outcome was a shock in every way for people not in thrall to the profoundly ignorant bigoted narcissistic con-man who was elected.

Clearly the shit-storm is just starting and we should all shudder at – amongst other things - the distinct possibility of a crisis in the Middle East caused by whatever stupid attempts are made to tear up the nuclear deal with Iran. The outcome of combined actions by right-wing military hawks in America and Israel is too alarming to contemplate. And it's likely to impact on us more immediately than the ecological disaster of promised unfettered climate change. That's just a couple of potential nightmares for the world (but of course America have it far worse).

So, no, I'm not feeling too optimistic. And, much as I hate to quote one racist while talking about another, at times like this there's always the acerbic vitriol of H. L. Mencken (that's him in the pic) to turn to, a man who nailed the scepticism that the democratic process can sometimes inspire.

This quote of his pretty much sums it up for me:

“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

And, while we're doubting the basic tenets of democracy in an era where a despicably amoral candidate can lie with impunity and those social media-promulgated lies are ignored and believed, I guess this is similarly apposite:

“Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.”

Good luck everyone...