Month: June 2025

Someone found this print ad and took a photo of it. It got to me via social media. This was 1998 and the gig was at St James Cabaret. I found a page about it on obscure.co.nz which is kind of charming for not mentioning any kind of online presence for the gig or its promoter – but it does give you his landline, fax, and mobile number. Someone message John 27 years later and see if he’s got the same number!

I got Toby Laing to play trumpet and Tim Jaray bass. They’re probably best known for Fat Freddy’s and Black Seeds respectively, though they’ve both played for both bands.

In the 90s, along with many of my friends, I got really into 70s soul music. It was everywhere. On a trip to the wintry student town of Dunedin I picked up a soundtrack CD for a movie I’ve still never seen, just based on the songs on it. I rightly picked it was a super cheap way of getting many absolutely cracking tunes. This song opened that album and is still one of my favourite Sly Stone songs:

From there I remember living and breathing the chunky hits collection Anthology, and only much later bothering to check out the critical faves There’s A Riot Going On and Fresh.