Red Raven News launched in late April 2023, where we attended 74 concerts which we captured in pictures and text. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. We are inclusive of all.
You must work hard to find something bad. New Zealand is bursting with talent and in a small country with a population the size of metropolitan Melbourne, it cannot fairly accommodate all this wealth.
We liked to cruise around the small venues of Auckland and check out the up-and-coming stars. Of which there are many, and it is only hard work and dedicated passion that will get artists there.
As Blind Lemon Pye told the interviewer doing a documentary on the magnificent group from Liverpool called the Rutles (in a parallel world), they come down here to Memphis and they taught me everything about Rutlemania. I been poor ever since.
If you were Searching for the Young Post Punks, they surfaced at Clash of Arts ’23 in Henderson.
Post Punk takes a wider view and incorporates old school Heavy Metal to Garage to Power Pop. With huge chunks of what was called Glam. Yer Marc Bolan and yer T-Rex. Same as Bowie.
Add in some of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and there you have it.
Bands like Melanie, Late to Chelsea, Skitch Hiker, Venom Dolls, Edible, The Ideas.
Some of those turned up at the massive Others Way extravaganza on Karangahape Road. As well as a showcase venue from Sweet Treats Punx at the Big Fan.
This relatively new boutique venue in Auckland is providing an ideal venue for young artists to get their shit together in a supportive atmosphere.
Ersha Island put on a stunning show there and were able to transcend technical glitches.
Chris Forster also covered their first birthday bash (only six months older than us) and was suitably impressed by Molly Payton, Lucian Rice and Judah Kelly.
An established avant-garde New Zealand Indie Pop band is the Broods, who triumphed at the Powerstation.
First show honours for Red Raven go to the Live Tribute to Kaytranada show at the Ponsonby Social Club on 6 April 2023.
The band is 75% of Yoko-Zuna (Kenji Iwamitsu-Holdaway, JY Lee and Swap Gomez) with Guy Harrison. Among the top musicians for hire in New Zealand.
Another early show for Red Raven was also a tribute. To Joni Mitchell and a portrait of the seminal artist from Folkie wonder to Jazz Pop maestro, whilst influencing everyone along the way. Beloved of top musicians as well as fans.
Performed by Folk musician Jan Elliot, songwriter poet and spiritual daughter to Mitchell Caitlin Smith and guitarist Cadzow Cossar. At the Harmony Hall in Devonport.
The first show of several, which they are keen to continue as their own Rolling Thunder Revue homage. Or a wrestle and a Last Waltz with the Ego.
The pinnacle of local musicians could well be the Come Together ensemble, as led by Jol Mulholland (often) and featuring the guitar firepower of Bret Adams.
We had impeccable tributes to Neil Young (Look at mother nature on the run in the nineteen seventies), Fleetwood Mac (Players only love you when they’re playing), Dire Straits (I’m just high on the world) and Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction (The Jack Rabbit Slim Dance Off).
They ended the year with a big bash at the Civic Theatre where they tore up the place more effectively than Peter Jackson’s King Kong.
Canadian-born Tami Neilson is now our own, and her Rock’n’roll Revue demonstrated that she is a Queen of that as well as Country music.
This show at the Civic on 13 October 2023 was especially momentous in seeing Dinah Lee performing live at around eighty years old.
The first genuine Kiwi Rock Chick with the classic Do the Blue Beat from 1964. They finished that show with She’s a Mod and cemented Led Zeppelin’s New Zealand connection.
Deva Mahal may also be Kiwi enough by now. The daughter of Taj Mahal who played here many times himself. Mahal is a classic Soul singer in the style of the great divas of the Sixties like Aretha.
Two superlative shows, one at WOMAD in March, and the other at the Tuning Fork in June.
Special mention also to a slightly younger Pop diva, Princess Chelsea who presented her great new album Everything is Going to be Alright at the Neck of the Woods in October.
I haven’t mentioned the overseas acts yet. That could be Part 2 if I could spend the time to do another one.
Instead, I will cram it here. Because I feel lazy.
We got to see the vast majority touring here, and brevity dictates that I can but highlight a few only.
Kraftwerk stunned everyone who attended, and Mike Beck captured it in prose. He also witnessed the stone Soul and R’n’B master that is the great Nile Rogers and Chic.
The next day we had the pinnacle of Americana and post-Springsteen with the War on Drugs and Spoon double bill.
The old bands can still show the younger fans where it all comes from. 10CC were the oldest, and seeing songwriting legend Graham Gouldman perform is worth admission price alone.
There was also Happy Mondays, Original Wailers, The Damned and Living Colour.
Rap and Hip-Hop are much bigger sellers than Rock since the Nineties and they continue to dominate.
Their shows are seamless and rehearsed down to the last second. Following in the footsteps of the Godfather and the Minister of the Super Heavy Funk, that’s Mister James Brown.
50 Cent and Fridayz Live were shows that could match the musical Hamilton for massive theatrical productions. Hamilton broke fresh ground with music based on Rap.
Prior to April I saw Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube (I’m a bad mothafucka and you know this! / But the pussy ass niggas won’t show this!) at the Trust Arena to complete a year of heavyweight Rap royalty.
Complete with foxy ladies and pole dancers who defiantly shake their money-makers.
A last shout out to the extreme Metal bands. Yer Black, Death, Technical, Gothic, Grindcore, Extreme, Doom, Christian (that’s right), Avant-garde.
I think it’s all avant-garde.
If Rap is hard to take for some, this is harder. But once it has penetrated and is in your brain it can transport you.
Behemoth were a sight to behold at the Powerstation. The dance originates in the head and not the backbone. That does not deny the beast with two backs!
We may not get all that we want, but we certainly get all that we need.
Rev. Orange Peel
