Auckland trip. Recent movies. Miami Steve. Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes Shows.

We have our February single out.



All kinds of digital portals for it available here. 

We travelled to Auckland for a week which included two shows. The first was at Aotea Square in the centre of the city. Part of a  week long fringe/arts festival.

The shows were organized by a fellow called Matthew Crawley who we'd met in 2004 when he was in his late teens or early twenties managing the Brunettes. Matthew now runs an excellent music and food joint called The Golden Dawn and we did another show there.

We did the gigs as a trio with special guest Lawrence Arabia on bass. Lawrence aka James Milne was playing bass in the Brunettes on that 2004 tour to Australia. He did an amazing job, learning about fifteen songs in a couple of days. They made it so easy for us and we had an absolute ball.
We have seen the last two tours to Melbourne by Lawrence Arabia, always so inspiring. Incredible songwriting, singing and playing. 




We met up with Jonathan Bree who had been the co-singer and writer for the Brunettes. He runs Lil Chief Records. Since they finished in about 2008 he has concentrated on the label, released two amazingly high quality solo albums and worked with Princess Chelsea.

Jonathan's last solo album was the classsically influenced "A Little Night Music". This song, WEIRD HARDCORE, is a modern classic.Listen to that beautiful "plunky" bass sound.




Princess Chelsea released a video for a song several years ago which went totally viral and they have toured eastern Europe, playing large festivals a couple of times. This clip is so charming. AsI write this , it has had 33,527,000 views. You get paid after a few tens of thousands. I love stories of musicians and artists WINNING.




It was great playing and hanging out with these people. We also ran into Delaney Davidson, a musician from Christchurch.



Just for the hell of it, I'll put up a clip by a supreme NZ freak, Connan Mockasin. Apparently he lives in LA now. All these people have great ambition and guts.




Oh, and at the airport on the way back, I bumped fists with Miami Steve Van Zandt who had just played a couple of shows with Bruce Springsteen there. We were both in the airport newsagent, buying mints. 

On the way over I watched the Ron Howard film on the Beatles, "8 Days A Week". I loved it. I'm always bagging the moptops but I'm just bored by their omnipresence. this film really humanized them and put them to such a thrilling time line.

I was a kid when they were all happening, I didn't need to go over and over it again later. I saw their films at the Mt Gambier Odeon theatre. Matinee shows. I heard them pouring out of the radio in the kitchen and watched them doing "Hello Goodbye" on the Ed Sullivan Show. I think I even saw their world wide hook up for "all you need is love" as it actually happened, too.
Loved this film.

Then I watched "HAVANA MOON", the Rolling Stones film of their  recent gig in CUBA.
I always love the Stones and again, I experienced their albums like "Get Yer Ya yas Out" and "Goats Head Soup" and "Its Only Rock'n'Roll " coming out new. They were in that seventies scrum much more than the Beatles who faded into anachronism pretty quickly. When "Some Girls" came out right smack in the moment of punk it was exciting to see how they would react to it. "Miss You" was amazing.

This film was a lot more enjoyable than teh Scorcese one. Just a straight concert flick. Great sound and cameras so cose to the band. Quite thriling to watch them play through all teh dynamic changes in "Midnight Rambler". Looking at each other to make the switch in the beat while Mick is way out on his catwalks. Mick almost ruins it with some cod reggae crowd chants like the Police did. "wee yo yo yo". The others dig in and bear it. He's working a  massive stadium. They do "Paint it Black" with Ronnie on an electric sitar. Ronnie never struck me as being really bright but he carries an amazing haircut.
 Also caught a documentary produced by Maick Jagger called "Mr Dynamite: the rise of James Brown". Must have been to accompany the dramatic film about JB he also produced. This was a great doco. I'll have to see it again. Such an innovator and such a great band.

I also watched the Absolutely Fabulous movie which was hilarious.
We went to the town of Piha which is thirty or so kilometers out of Auckland and walked along the black sands.

Had a great time.

We have shows with Dave Graney and the Coral Snakes coming up.

Dave Graney'n' the Coral Snakes
Melbourne NGV March 3rd
Adelaide - Riverbank Palais March 9th
Lizottes in Newcastle March 31st.
Sydney April 1st - the Basement

Dave Graney and Clare Moore NSW dates w/ special guests from Brussels/Miami Georgio "the Dove" Valentino and Patrizia.

Sunday 2nd April(2.30pm - 5.30pm TBC)- Dangar Island Bowling Club NSW
Tuesday 4th April (7pm - 9pm) Georgio only @ The Bearded Tit -
Thursday 6th April - Oxley Wine Bar Cowra
Friday 7th April - Bowral Bowling Club
Saturday 8th April - Gearin Hotel, Katoomba
Sunday 9th April - Smiths Canberra

davegraney.com