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First published in August 2008
From the Andy Shackleton Collection
Photos of Peter McKee, Andy Shackleton, Gordon Jenkins, Brian King, Doug Harrap, Peter Hindmarsh, Rochelle Vinsen, Roger Simpson, Lou Parun, Terry Crayford
From the Andy Shackleton Collection
Photos of Neil Harrap, Andy Shackleton, Rod Stone, Librettos, Lou Parun
From the Rod Stone Collection
Photos of Rod Stone, Lou Parun, Dave Diver, Dave Orams, Roger Watkins, Midge Marsden
(October
1997, Evening Post)
Catch-up time for Sixties Rockers
By MIKE HOULAHAN
Entertainment reporter
What goes around, comes around, veteran musician Midge Marsden says.
“These days everyone wants to sound like the 60s.
And look like it.” Tomorrow,
people get to see if you can’t beat the original, when Marsden and several
other members from leading local bands from the 1960s perform at the Wellington
Sixties Band Reunion concert. Marsden,
of Raglan was in Bari and the Breakaways back then.
It’s been 30 years since these musicians last played together - in some cases,
30 years since they saw each other. But
arriving in Wellington at 1am yesterday didn’t deter ex-members of The
Librettos and The Breakaways from sharing a few catch-up drinks.
Then the hard work began - rehearsing songs that time hasn’t allowed
them to forget. Mind you, they did
play them fairly often.
At last year’s reunion, Librettos rhythm guitarist Lou Parun, living in
Wadestown and working in computers, caught up with guitarist Rod Stone, now
working in Melbourne as a musician, for the first time in years.
This year is Librettos drummer Dave Diver’s first reunion.
His fellow band members had tried to track him down for last year’s
show but couldn’t find him. Ironically,
it turned out he lives only 8km away from Stone, and now makes a living from a
company making and selling Nana Diver’s Muesli Bars.
Dave Orams, Breakaways bass player, says this year’s reunion “came out of
the blue”. He’s also based in
Melbourne and like Marsden, still performs regularly.
“I guess I was hoping it would happen one day, but I didn’t think it
ever would,” Orams said. “It’s astonishing the interest in old Kiwi
music from the 60s”, Marsden says. ‘‘I
got a phone call just recently from the US wondering if I wanted to sell my
vinyl copies of our two albums. The
second Breakaways album is worth $US500. I
think there was a rawness and an energy to the bands here which people like.”
The Wellington Sixties Band Reunion features The Librettos, The Corvairs, Top
Shelf, The Breakaways, Christine Barnett, Justin Du Fresne, Take Five and Trixx.
Lower Hutt Horticultural Hall, Sunday.
4pm-11pm. Tickets $20.
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