February 2006

Matakana Music Mountain - How It Went

First up, all of us forgot to take cameras (duh!), so we haven't got any pics of this fantastic venue, except a couple that organiser Nigel Rowthorn emailed us. Please, if you were there and took pics, please email us and send us something...

...because what an awesome day it was! What a fantastic spot and what great music! I can't rave enough - it was an absolute pleasure to be part of this event, and a priviledge as always to be on the same bill as Midge Marsden and the wonderful Sonny Day.

It was a very early start of course. We hit the road from Tauranga just before 8.00am for the 4 hour drive. The actual festival was up in the hills north of Matakana (out on the coast past Walkworth and Leigh, and past a pile of fine wineries which we - sadly - didn't have time to visit...), in the staggeringly beautiful gardens of our hosts Nigel and Melissa. They'd gone to a massive effort - building an amazing huge stage and even setting up a little grove of tents (complete with carpets, couches, food and wine!) in the beauty and calm of the bush for bands to relax and prepare. And, as usual at festivals, we ran into a pile of people we knew, including drummer Gordon Joll, and of course old friends Shayn Wills and Freddy Limbert from The Handsome Giants and Midge and Bullfrog Rata... it was quite a gathering backstage!

JT and Roy kicked things off with some smooth jazzy songs, and did a fine job - I hadn't seen JT since our first days of playing in Auckland in the early 90s and he still sings wonderfully, while Roy (whose surname I don't know) is a simply staggering guitarist. Apparently, he used to play with The Wailers (yes those Wailers). What a player!

We had a terrific set next (with the full 6-piece band). Threw in a couple of the new Dylan tunes and hit it hard and heavy. It was fun. Our set was:

TOO MANY WORDS (D Jacombs)

HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED (B Dylan)

After our set we kicked back and listened to Ronnie Taylor, who had an impressive band and was in good voice. It's sad to see the effect the Parkinson's disease has had on Ronnie. He can't walk much any more - but he can still sing like a son of a bitch! Take any chance you can to see him as it seems uncertain how long he'll be able to perform.

Shayn and The Handsome Giants were next and terrific as you'd expect from three such players. They have an unusual trio line-up with Simen "Blues Keys" Taylor (ex of Darcy Perry's band) covering the bass parts on the keyboard and it was a real treat to hear some of Shayn's new originals. Good honest Kiwi blues.

Sonny Day followed them (apparently dragged out of retirement by legendary bassman Billy Christian, who was playing with him - thanks Billy!) and what a pleasure it was to hear his blues-drenched singing again. His band were tight and funky too. All together - "Saaaaaving Up, for the things that Money Can't Buy!"

And, sadly, we had to leave before Midge and Bullfrog played. And before the garden lights went on (apparently the site looks absolutely unbelievable with all the lights!). But we had to be in the van by then heading back to the Bay. Our greatest thanks for Nigel and Melissa. This is one of the most enjoyable and impressive events we've played for a long time - you guys ROCK! And thanks to our supporters who came along - I'm sure you had a ball - what a spot! What music! What a day!

See you all at the next gig,
Derek

Recording Dylan With Matt & The Waitangi Day Concert

Some brief notes from Derek (7th February 2006)

Well, Waitangi Day is over and it's the end of an incredibly busy week for the band.

Matt Hennessey came to town on Wednesday night to play drums and percussion for the first sessions on our Dylan tribute album, then after two solid days in the studio we played at a private party on Saturday night, Nigel and I played at Mills Reef on Sunday, and the band headed down to the main beach at Mount Maunganui for a huge Waitangi Day concert yesterday.

Now we're going to put the Dylan project to bed for a while and concentrate on finishing mixing the live album.

Then, yesterday, the Waitangi Day concert was terrific! Hats off to our friend Tim Cooper for organising such a massive event. There were two or three thousand people out on the beach and we had the full six-piece on display, with "Beano" Gilpin on drums and Mike Kirk on electric guitar. John Michaelz also joined us for a duet on Burden Down.

There were many highlights of the day - Brilleaux were hard 'n' heavy with their patented maximum R & B, Jam Central (from the Matapihi Marae) played some great funky reggae, Blackout Kru did some amazing breakdancing... in fact it was all good - what an awesome way to celebrate all the good things we share on New Zealand's national day.

For the record, we played:

FREIGHT TRAIN (J Terry)

SUPERHEROES (D Jacombs / J Michalez)

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