With all the tragic events in recent times in Christchurch my thoughts go out to the People who have been involved directly or indirectly in the disaster.
My flight was due to leave this morning from Invercargill via Christchurch to Brisbane. With the delay I will play one more show in Invercargill tomorrow night at the Tuatara Lodge.
Happy New Year Everybody!!!!!
It gives me great pleasure to share a link with you for a new documentary being put together by film maker Tim Pierce. Tim caught one of my shows and took a shine to the instrumental track `Ask All` from my second album `The Distance From Here`. Watching the video for the teaser has to me been a great reminder of the sheer beauty of the New Zealand landscape and some of the wonderful people that inhabit these areas. It is also gives me great pleasure to announce that I will be returning to play in Wanaka (the area focussed on the documentary) on Tuesday 15th Feb 2011.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Revealing-Lake-Wanaka/116269278445380
So after my run of shows in the Christchurch area I headed north on a
wonderful drive through the mountains up to Nelson.
I camped next to a
river and woke up to a wonderful view of mountain ranges and a
waterfall.
Then onwards I went to my first show. The last time I
played Nelson was two years ago and I really felt a good sense of
belonging to the place. A friendly town with a good sense of
positivity. My first show went by without much drama and then I headed
to Motueka where I played a further two shows. Then I had a few days
off and went further north to a town called Takaka. By this point I
had teamed up with a few other folks to travel with and so we all
camped together and did the tourist hikes together. It really was
great to be sharing the experiences as the road can sometimes be a
lonely place if you let it.
Next came a return to Nelson where I played a heap of shows with the
Sprig and Fern venues. A nice chain of pubs with great beers and all
independantly run. My favourite of these was in the centre of town
where I was allowed to play at a good volume and some folks who had
seen us before returned to watch my return to the area.
I’d also at this point like to say a huge thanks to Brian and Gillian
who were welcoming enough to house me during the Nelson leg of my
trip.
Following on from Nelson came a very twisting drive along the bay to
Picton. From here I played a further two shows on a Lodge only
accessible by boat. Whilst staying there I lived in a shack called
Crumpy’s Camp which had an outside bath.
That was a cool outside experience.
I also played one further show in Picton at ‘Le Cafe’
before I got the ferry to the North Island and once again played on a
boat.
That marked the end of an epic South Island run. Over 20 shows
and heaps of drama’s – But all worth it.
North Island here I come…:)
Stoo
So into town I role. This town (city) however was the last place to have a major earthquake on the planet. As I have been travelling round New Zealand I have been hearing rumours of aftershocks being almost as big as the real thing and I’m gripped with anticipation of my first encounter with a natural disaster.
However before that I have other impending disasters to sort out. Firstly there is my tour schedule for the north island which has been left a little thin due to reasons to follow. Secondly there is my PA equipment which still hasn’t been fixed following on from its second malfunction with distortion back in Milford Sound 10 shows back. This is a two week stretch in the one city so my best chance to get it sorted.
Now back to the issue with my empty North Island schedule. There is moral here I’m sure. I was let down by one booking agent who offered to book it whilst I was in Japan. So A little dismayed I begin to try and get things back on track when I hit NZ; A little behind schedule but possible none the less. However a booking agent catches one of my shows in Dunedin. I ask if he is able to help with my empty North Island schedule. He says it will not be a problem as we used to live there and has many contacts. We have a meeting and he talks up his mighty plans and shows me a map of the North Island and many cities that he will get me shows in. Unfortunatley again I am let down by a whole lot of not alot happening. At which time I give up on any dependency and once again take to booking the shows myself. With the help of my good friend Jax who provides me with a computer I am able in 2 weeks to confirm 12 North Island shows and an additional 4 South Island . It’s now nearly 2 months since my Dunedin meeting and still I haven’t had a single show confirmed on the North Island by this bookings agent. Independence has far less Hassel than dependence.
This booking agent did however manage to do one very good thing. He introduces me to a lady called Lyndsey. She was nice enough to house me for some of my time in Christchurch and also got me three shows booked. Her kind nature and quick humour was a wonderfully refreshing thing and over the two weeks in town we became good friends. Also there to house me was my good friend Andrew of the band Cold Harvest Trust. The band supported me two years back. They’ve had a couple of line up changes since then and I felt they had become a stronger band for it. Andrew writes some great stuff and I recommend any folks to give them a listen at.
http://www.myspace.com/coldharvesttrust
My PA equipment gets fixed and suddenly all feels right 🙂
I also get the chance to record a few demos live into the microphone of a laptop.
The songs are all real rough and unready in everyway but it has been nice to be writing again. I’ll maybe get a sketchy demo uploaded when I can.
Onwards my tour goes through the mountains to Nelson. As it turns out I didn’t feel an earthquake!Not even a little shudder. I guess I should feel lucky really. Even if the term anticlimax seems to be stuck in my head 😦
Stoo
Kia Ora folks.
It give me great pleasure to say that if you click on my shows page you will see a load of new shows on the North Island of New Zealand including Auckland, Wellington, Taupo and an appearence at the Prana Festival which is a 4 day festival running over new years.
In the mean time watch this space and I’ll keep the tour blog coming as and when.
Stoo
So after a nice couple of days chilling in the wilderness I get back to the life of a road dwelling musician.
A beautiful drive from Wanaka to Fox Glacier does wonders for my soul and then it’s onto the hard giggin. The show in Fox was frankly a wonderful experience and the locals welcomed my sound. I felt truley relaxed onstage and the performance resonated with that.
Next came Franz Joseph Glacier followed by Greymouth and my west coast run ended in Granity. My stay in Greymouth was literally a few days before the Pike River Miners disaster. Having briefly got to know the town and the locals I can only say my heart goes out to them. A truley sad time for Greymouth and New Zealand.
During my West coast run I also had the major inconveniece of having my Ipod delete all it’s music. Thanks Apple for making a product that is not able to simply carry out the task of playing MP3’s and not deleting them. This is doubbly inconvenient as my Ipod is synched to a laptop that is in London. DAMN!!!! Fortunatly I have some of my music on an External Hard drive that I travel with. Eventually with the help of other people and their computers I managed to get some tunes back on to it.
I drove an epic distance through the mountains from Granity to Christchurch. It was a scolching hot day and at one point I decided to pull over by a beautiful river. The water was freezing but it didn’t deture me from having a swim. Truley refreshing!!! Then I was back on the road.
Next stop is Christchurch – Lets hope for no earthquakes 🙂
Stoo
I remember the sense of a feeling that came from breathing in the air and taking joy in the location and scenery I found myself in.
Well the title says it all really.
But with a healthy run of shows comes a farily unhealthy life style and diet.
So to follow it I use the two days off I have to drive a couple of miles into the wilderness untill the road runs out and it just becomes a dirt track. After about 30km it involves shallow rivers and after another 10km it just becomes a walking track.
From here I parked up and hiked through The Matukituki Valley.
There was some ultimatly very liberating to be missioning through the wilderness.
The time away was two days and in that time I was able to walk to a hutt where I slept over night and then the following day I began an ambitious climb out of the valley to the top of the first shelf of the mountain. Earlier that morning as I woke up I was talking to a man from the French Island of New Caledonia (located north east of Australia). He went on ahead to climb the route I was to follow a couple of hours later.
About 2 hours after, I had set off through the forest, climbing the whole route. After a while I found myself sat about halfway up next to a waterfall. I was out of drinking water and out of energy when the same man I had been talking too was on his way back down the mountainside. He gave me some drinking water and gave me some chocolate. He also assured me the remaining hike was well worth it for the view; and so with a renewed sense of vigour I crossed the waterfall and continued my trudge towards the top. I was truley rewarded at the top with the view can never truley be summed up in words of even photos. I remember the sense of a feeling that came from breathing in the air and taking joy in the location and scenery I found myself in. It’s always nice to know you can surprise yourself 🙂
The climb down the mountain was followed by a couple of hours sleep followed by another trek back to my car.
My mind cleared I felt ready to get back to the music and to begin the drive up the west coast.
Stuart O'Connor 