New Zealand debriefing - caution! blue water operational matters - steam punked-totally! NDE EURO dates

So we played in Darwin. Such a  lovely place to visit in the months of July or August. We set up in the Happy Yess, which is a kind of courtyard- opened out bar - room staged area just off of the main old park known as BROWNS MART in the middle town. Right near the ABC and the courts. That's a real centre of activity here in a frontier town where black and white australia meets and also australia and asia.
Clare Moore was on keys and Stu Thomas was on baritone / bass and I was on my acoustic guitar through an amplifier kindly supplied by the sound engineer.

As you can see by the picture-Clare went TROPPO pretty quick and used an ESKY as her kick drum for the set.
The venue was a little flea on the ass of in the giant combine that was the FESTIVAL. More correctly known as the DARWIN Festival  but it was reassuringly full of generic , recognizable festival types front of house and behind the scenes. Also on the stages. Modern circus/cabaret/burlesque stuff abounds. Festival shit, really. We are pretty much SPECIALISTS... Independent operators! Lone wolfish types. Actually closer to true carnies if truth be known. We don't know everything, just a few things. There were some other fellow travellers around. Courtney Barnett and her band of players and the marvellous Marlon Williams. We had a  lovely couple of days and Stu Thomas stayed on for a week to do his LEE HAZLEWOOD show at the Happy Yess and the railway Club. These two venues operate in Darwin all year round, putting on music for people. The Festival, like it does everywhere, comes and reproduces itself annually.

Clare and I moved on to New Zealand, a place we had only ever been to once, and to Auckland only, on as a part of the Big Day Out in 1997.I don't know why. The two countries don't see a real lot of traffic between the two music scenes.

I was staring at a mans carry on bag in the queue to get into the plane at Tullamarine. I noted the ubiquitous kiwi imagery on fellow travellers and how cool the national colour black was. We walked into the plane and ALL THE SEATS WERE BLACK!  Air New Zealand.

We played at the Golden Dawn in Auckland. Loved the opportunity to be NEW again. Did a couple of sets , some Australians there who work on a Millionaires yacht around New Guinea and Vanuatu. Nice work! There were a few requests. Weird ones, thankfully.

  We moved down to Wellington, a lovely city that is apparently usually bedevilled by evil winds and rain. For our flight, it thankfully wasn't. We played in a  lovely venue to a dozen people and ate fantastic food.

An English man who lived in Melbourne briefly came up to have a moan. How he hated New Zealand! He suggested we just google "I hate new zealand"....... We stared at him. Life is still too short. He asked where we were playing next. When we told him he exclaimed with joy "oh! so it's going to get worse!" A true whinger, this bloke.
Earlier, we had done an interview and live session with a wonderful person called Emma Smith for Radio New Zealand.

 http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/nat-music/audio/20147781/dave-graney-session

The young girl at the door talked of Captain Beefheart and filled her book with sketches .
The next day we flew to the South Island and the city of Christchurch which was, of course, flattened by two earthquakes n 2010 and 2011.

We had no idea of what it looked like before but the centre of the city was full of vacant lots and old facades propped up by stacks of shipping containers.

We played in a venue called the Darkroom. True to it's name. a very dark interior. This was full by the time the opening act Aldous Harding played. A commanding , highly skilled folk singer with driving acoustic accompanied by a  fellow called Simon on beautifully clean electric guitar. The room was packed.
We started after a  while and we ran through two sets until the early hours. Lovely people running the venue.

The next morning I did  was part of a panel at the Christchurch Writers Festival.  9:30 am. Me, Kristin Hersh and  a local journalist called Philip Matthews. Kristin is very well known, I was not. She had them in the palm of her hand. I enjoyed being NEW, again. (You know me, I like to come from the clouds)

We hired a car and drove to the town of Port Chalmers which is near Dunedin. Spectacular country with very vibrant regional spots.

This was a real old shipping, industrial port. Gothic sea side horror set.

a nearby piano studio

     a fish'n'chip shop

About ten people showed up for this show. It was dark and cold. One of the people however, was a very excited man who had been trying to see us play for 34 years and actually had dozens of our albums, right up to THE DAMES. So I guess it was an intense and quality crowd.

We mooched about the very scenic town for a while before driving away...

We drove on to the last stop Oamaru. A beautiful little town with a perfectly preserved VICTORIAN area that is inhabited by artisans, artists, two working whisky distillers , an ironmonger and blacksmith. (There is actualy a STEAMPUNK CENTRE - not that they really need to amp that side of it up at all)

We stayed in a hotel that could be used for a 19th century New Orleans cathouse. We were the only ones there.

The show was put on by an enthusiastic bunch of locals. I love doing these gigs that are outside of the hospitality industry or arts curated whoop-di-doohs.
The room was in a  disused "gentlmens club" and I had a game of snooker with Clare in the Billiards room. A giant , proper table. It took an hour. I wasted my early teens on the green felt in Fosters pool hall in Mt Gambier and just love having a  play.  There was a folk/country duo from Dunedin on first. The man was a dead spit for Rory Gallagher and played the guitar like a demon as well.
The second band were THE CARPET FLOOR who had been at the ghostly gig in port Chalmers. Absolutely delightful people.

Clare and I did a set which was warmly received. (Kiwis seem to get my kooky humour and general tempo) Then a bunch of guys got up and whomped through a set of post punk classics like a party band. Glad we didn't have to follow them. "What do I get?" by the Buzzcocks, "search and destroy", "don't wanna know if you are lonely" by Husker du", "Transmission" by Joy Division and "Dancin in the Moonlight" by Thin Lizzy (?). New Zealand is weird all the way through!

The next day we ran into Oliver from the CARPET FLOOR in the street.

He rides this to work- at the ABBOTTOIR! They have a Penny Farthing race every year...

We took our time leaving Oamaru and drive to Christchurch to fly back to Melbourne.

We flew back to Melbourne, I did my radio show BLB- on Triple R the next morning, then we drove to Ararat to play on the Wednesday. We had a great time , again one of those gigs set up by people who just want to hear music in a situation with like minded others. No disinterested swingers walking in and out of the room, looking for a hopeful docking procedure. David Nicholson , who runs Ararat Live, told us some amazing ghost stories about the rooms we were staying in , and we did hear some strange shit. But we had a  good nights sleep. I wanted to eat at Debs Diner again the next morning but was over ruled by the gourmets....
We drove back to Melbourne and Clare did a show drumming for Stephen Cummings on the Friday night. On the Saturday we did a DAMES show at the Workers Club in Melbourne and on the Sunday, Clare, Stu and I did a set at the Westernport Yacht club in Balnarring for the Thin Green Line Foundation.
http://thingreenline.org.au/
They're an organization who help to protect endangered species and the rangers who go into the danger zones.
A great day by the sea. A bunch of dolphins even did a swim past!
 After the gig , we went to the home of the organizer, Sean. He's a ranger who actually goes into these wartorn areas like the Congo , trying to save Mountain Gorillas.
This is how he lives, in an old tram on a  plot of land overlooking the sea.

He stuck a roof over it and built a porch out the back, looking across a couple of paddocks to the water.

We've done so many shows this year. There has been one live review -written by an art critic through!
FEARFUL WIGGINGS is a great album.  Love playing the songs from it. They cut through to people. We're weird though, we're musicians who just go out and play shows. Terribly antequainted types I'm afraid. We also play to strangers, in strange places. This Sunday is our last for a while.....


A word from our sponsors....


Sunday Sept 14th - matinee show - Northcote Social Club - tix here 
 

HARRY HOWARD AND THE NDE EURO tour

FRANCE
Binic 24 LE CHALON QUI PASSE
Brittany 25 LE GALLION
Rennes , Brittany 26 LE MONDO BIZARRO
Paris 27 MECHANIQUE
Sept 30th dave graney and clare moore at La Cantine 108 bvd de Belleville Paris
OCT 01 La Feline – PARIS- Dave Graney and Clare Moore and also the NDE
Lille 02 OCT

3.10. KUNST!GARTEN /Bonn
BERLIN:
4.10. KAFFEE BURGER
5.10. Valentin Stürbl (Dave Graney and Clare Moore show only)
6.10. Sofa Club (Harry Howard / Dave Graney solo shows)
7.10. URBAN SPREE /w. Dim Locator
8.10. White Trash
14th Oct Harry Howard and the NDE/Dave Graney and Clare Moore double at the Windmill in Brixton
16th Oct London 12 bar club Harry Howard and the NDE and Dave Graney and Clare Moore performance
18th October Dave Graney and Clare Moore at the Mucky Pup, Islington

Dec NSW dates 

Wed 3rd Dec - Brass Monkey, Cronulla
Thur 4th Dec - Camelot, Marrickville-Sydney
Fri 5th Dec - Gearin Hotel Katoomba
Sat 6th Dec - Royal Exchange Newcastle
Sun 7th Dec - Six String Brewery, Central Coast- NSW.