Winston Watusi Music Plus

Okay. A couple of folk shows next weekend. But if you thought for a second I wasn't going to write about Brian first this week, then y'all haven't been paying attention.

What a crappy month. First the Queen, then Brian...

Brian Rogers

I got in early. On March 29, 2019, I used my eight hundredth column as a ‘thank you' to Brian (and Claire) for dragging me along on this adventure that is The Weekend Sun. The cancer was already well entrenched and it seemed like we might lose Brian any day, and I wanted to get my note of appreciation on record while he could still read it.

It hadn't occurred to me the sequel to that column wouldn't come for three years. That one was for Brian, this one is about...

Actually, just one thing. His drumming. He was someone who did so much that everyone has different activities they shared. I remember Brian playing the drums.

As a little background, there is, in the aural archive of local musical stories, the legend of a show at which Brian's band once supported Split Enz. Exact details have been lost in the mists of time but some still contend that Split Enz were so astounded by the unique musical style of their support act that it inspired their consequent musical direction and rise to international fame. Who knows? Print the legend I say...

New Year's Eve

My most vivid memory is of Brian a couple of years back on New Year's Eve. It was the last time I saw him, what with the intervening need to isolate. We always have a bit of a New Year bash here and Brian was going through a patch when he was well enough to come along, and to play.

He brought his 'drum suitcase”: an entire drum kit that assembled like some sort of marvellous magician's trick from a plain suitcase. I have no idea how he built it. The case was the kit and the kit was the case. Brilliant. I even got a photo.

So Brian set up on the porch and he played all night. All night. I think he kept slipping round the back for vitamin shots because he clearly wasn't well, but he just kept going and going, jamming with everyone.

And Brian was the most enthusiastic drummer I know. Not in his playing. I don't mean that he thrashed away like Animal from The Muppets. I mean his attitude. I know a lot of drummers, but I don't think I've ever seen one who derived such obvious pleasure from playing. You could see it in every fibre of his body. He seemed to exude a pure joy in what he was doing in a way that made it always an absolute pleasure to play with him.

And now, only after writing, that do I begin to realise the most obvious of things: it wasn't just when he was playing drums. That same energy and feeling Brian brought to drumming, he also brought to sailing and to writing and to everything else. Of course he did. That was Brian. That's why I'm going to miss him so much.

Gigs

So on to a couple of gigs, two duos, both happening at 7.30pm next Friday...

Andrew London has had a busy time recently. The singer/songwriter, known for his witty swing-style takes on middle New Zealand life has recently produced a 'jukebox” musical, ‘Let's Talk About Me', based around his body of songs, written by April Phillips. It just finished a debut run at the Coastlands' Theatre in Kapiti.

Now Andrew is popping through town, and stopping off for a quick show with his bass-playing wife Kirsten at the Te Puna Quarry Park Gallery next Friday, September 30. Seats can be booked by contacting Rosie Holmes at: waharaurosie@gmail.com or 0284121316.

And over at Katikati's Arts Junction, Katikati Folk Club host Celtic Ferret, who are Jean Reid and Ian Bartlett, two-fifths of the acclaimed a cappella group SuperSheep.

Their repertoire includes folk tunes, ballads, cautionary tales, stories of rogues and vagabonds and occasional original material. Expect guitar, mandolin, whistles, smallpipes, bodhran and more. Get tickets on the door, members $15, casuals $20. For more information, check out: www.katikatifolkclub.co.nz.