*In over dramatic voice over* (US Drama style – with generic racy background music)
“Recently on Stuarts New Zealand tour”
Stu – “Oh no I’ve broken down en route to my gig many times but luckily I was able to be jump started many times so I got to my destination.”
Random Kiwi Dunedin living people – “We’ll help you along your way and make sure you get to the gigs OK. Cause we rock!!!”
Stu – “Thanks guys I couldn’t have done it without you.”
🙂
Stu (again) – “But oh wait my PA equipment has decided to blow. How on earth am I going to play without the essential equipment.”
More random very helpful Kiwi Dunedin living people – “We will help you with that too. Cause like we said before, We farkin rock!!!”
Stu – “Thanks again guys, all my Dunedin shows went ahead and I couldn’t have done it without you.
Now it’s time for me to leave Dunedin. I do hope I have no further trouble along the way.”
(At this point Stu forgets to touch wood – bad mistake).
So that was how things were left.
Now before I get started on the thrilling drama of part 2 of my NZ experience I just want to chuck you out my favourite Kiwi quote of this juncture.
“She’s so ugly she ‘s like a pitbull chewing a wasp” – A thrilling visual description by a local of the old lady across the road to one of the venues I played who sees fit to complain on a regular basis about the noise.
So anyway!
From Dunedin I missioned it to Milford sound. An awesome 5 hours of driving through wonderful mountains and open valleys.
Really a unique experience. My Ipod was blasting and the sun was beaming.
Unfortunately the picturesque ideal nature of the trip was interrupted by the back to reality bump of my PA (which was working fine in the music shop in Dunedin) suddenly having more issues during sound check.
This time there was no smoke filling the venue but there was a bastard horrible distortion over every sound that went through it.
Somehow I got through the show but I knew there was a problem that needed sorting bad. I contacted the electronics expert who had serviced my gear in Dunedin.
He was awesome and I felt he really did sympathise with my situation. Because the nature of the problem was different this time I knew he was not to blame for the new problem. He worked tirelessly to help me resolve the issue over the phone and when nothing worked he offered to get new equipment to me at my next destination. How I asked? “Oh I’ll just pop it on the bus”. At this point that all seemed like crazy talk. You can’t just put something on a bus and have someone else pick it up at the other end. But it appears in New Zealand. You definitely can.
So when I rocked up in Wanaka a couple of days later to play my show. I detoured to the bus Depot where there was a very nice man called Barry waiting for me, with an amp by his side. We talked about the weather and briefly about my life in music and his in Bus the world of transient buses; and then I went on my merry way wondering what the hell this Rock and roll life style was really all about. But still I’m on course with massive thanks to the folks at Rock shop in Dunedin (Bob and Robin).
Also massive thoughts and thanks must go out to my good friends Lora and Marc who not only housed me in Dunedin but also came to support me in Queenstown and housed me there too.
You rock guys!!!! 🙂
By this point I am 10 shows into the tour and have fully adapted to the more relaxed pace of life in New Zealand. A far cry from the craziness of Japan.
My highlight of the recent stint has to be my second show in Wanaka which was full of folks who had seen me play the night before and had returned with others to catch my second show in town. I’ve heard many industry professionals advise not to play too many shows in one area. But my Wanake experience reinforced that when you are trying to build up your name. Playing as many times as possible often pays off. Not least because you earn more but also because folks can bring others to see you if there is another chance.
Anyway that’s the serious bit aside.
*In over dramatic voice over* (US Drama style – with generic racy background music once more)
“Stay tuned for more exciting Stuart tours New Zealand adventures”
Sit boo boo sit
Stoo