News

Songs & dusty instruments

Bill — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 03:03:00 +0000

Been a while so hope you all are still mighty fine. Recently we spent a weekend out on the wild west coast workshopping a whole lot of new song ideas that we’ve each been developing separately. At the end of a long hard working weekend (Neil really IS a great cook-just have plenty of cool beverages on hand as the chillie content ranges from thermo to nuclear. Just as well he is a Master Brewer as well) we had 13 (count ‘em) new songs! As well as the ones we’ve already developed into performance-worthy numbers. So hey-here’s to a double album at some time!

At the same time as this we have been playing monthly on Sunday brunch times 11am to 2 pm at the Ruby Lounge-Bond St Wellington. This is the Wellington Heads Trio, and all acoustic! Yes’m! Neil plays banjo, mandolin, guitar, ukulele as well as harp + singin. Bill on all-metal resonator gtr, and stand-up Geoff on stand-up bass. A veritable 2nd-hand shop’s worth of dusty old instruments. Not even a mic for the singer. I reckon it sounds awesome but then I would say that wouldn’t I? I recommend you drop by for Sunday brunch sometime soon. It’ll be worth the visit.

Upcoming stuff

Bill — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 21:21:00 +0000

Well the songs are arriving & being hammered into shape like anything. We started off this session with a few songs…which grew into a few more…and wouldn’t ya know it, we now have enough for a whole nother album! But in keeping with our general approach, we’re not gon’ be recording these little gems until we’ve taken them out & played them in front of people. Lots of times. It’s the best way of getting the loose bits to fall off so that finally all that;s left is the stuff that actually is the song, and not the other bits that get in the way. A bit like a new Harley Davidson really-the trick is if you ever have one of these, you ride it through a narrow gateway first of all. That gets rid of the unnecessary baggage etc.

Anyhoo the upshot is, we gots some live gigs coming up. Check out the “Gigs” part of this website. However in summary it’s:

May 8th – Swing night at the Ruby Lounge: dinner & dance all night long, for ONLY $40 all up. A deal in anyone’s language.

Jun 4th – Southern Cross. Another of those legendary Friday nights at the Cross. They sure are doing something right at that joint.

Jun 25th – Absolutely fabulous dahlings! We’re playing at the St James Theatre as part of their “Life is a Cabaret” season. We promise it will be a “Night on the Town” to experience.

All quiet...not!

Bill — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 03:03:00 +0000

Things have been a bit quiet on the gig front of late…that’s because we have been really busy practising and writing new songs! Yes, folks, it’s all true! We’ve got 6 new songs humming along nicely at the mo’, and at least 5 more in the pot. Personally this is one of the best bits about being in this band-the quality of the songwriting seems to be getting better and better. It’s almost like being in the band for the first time, there’s been such a rush of new songs (Geoff, I’m looking your way in particular). And the fun thing is, we’ve discovered that you can get a horn section to do just about ANYTHING as long as you ply them with enough beer. So there are some really interesting horn arrangements as well. Just hope we can afford all that beer.

As a consequence we haven’t been actually hustling for any gigs at all-slack people that we are. Once we’ve gotten the new songs to a point where we’re ready to inflict em on the unaware public, we’ll be back all over town. Just try to stop us.

In the meantime we’re booked to play in this year’s St James cabaret season. We will be performing some of these new songs & lots of our favourite existing songs upstairs at the St James Theatre, on June 25th.

Make a note for that one NOW.

Happy New Year etc

Bill — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 23:23:00 +0000

Yup here we are, 2010 and all that…seems as though just yesterday it was longer than that ago, if you get my drift!

Well we’re starting off the new year with a hiss & a roar, first gig up is Southern Cross on Friday Feb 5th.

The other thing planned is the workshopping of a number of new songs. We’ve each got a little backlog of songs but last year was kinda busy so they didn’t get much of an airing. Hopefully we’ll be having some new songs in the ever-expanding repertoire soon.

What's be happen

Bill — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 02:02:00 +0000

Well, quite a bit…it’s just that we’re a little slow in the keeping-you-updated department. There have been several gigs at Southern Cross, Ruby Lounge, Bristol Hotel, and another at Sandwiches.

The Sandwiches gig happened on one of the most awful nights in recent memory-howlin’ southerly wind, rain, cold…so we were pleasantly surprised at the turnout. Many thanks to all of those who turned up, including some of the best swing dancing swing dancers we’ve seen!

Note that Neil’s singing from a semi-standing position, thanks to the Royal Singing Stool. Still recovering from serious knee surgery, he seems to be singing better than ever. Which is kinda counterintuitive but works mighty fine Brer Rabbit. Seems his ears are now more in line with the amps & drumkit (or something). Anyhoo we’re not looking into this in any detail in case we blow the mojo.

The Ruby Lounge gig was fun-nice to have a really good house PA, complete with someone who knows how to make it work-take a bow, Tony. We recorded the gig and it sounds great. Also nice to arrive at the gig and find the mics all set up & the system ready to roll. I could live like that.

Hey ho, here’s Christmas, arriving unexpectedly next month-it does this every year, doesn’t it? 12 months of shopping days, yet it always seems to be a scramble. I wonder why that is. Anyhoo we have a few gigs left before it all happens, including Southern Cross (tonight); St Paul’s cafe, and just setting up another at Sandwiches if we can marshal everyone together enough to be in the right place at the right time. Not easy in the Silly Season-here’s hoping.

Small Hiatus...but not fer long.

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 21:21:00 +0000

The most recent gig was at the end of June-in the most amazing house I think I’ve ever been in, playing at a 30th birthday party! This house must have been well over 100 years old, with a huge performance space in it, surrounded by a balcony/mezzanine area. It was a blast! Many thanks to the organisers and to the great folks who attended and got into the spirit of things so enthusiastically.

Since then things have been on hold a bit-Neil has had to receive some serious leg surgery regarding the hard time he’s given his body in much sportier times. Whoever said that sports was “good for you”? It’s a lie, I tells ye! Anyhoo he’s survived that and is making great…erm…strides (!) in recovery so we’ll be back tearing it up before you know it. Stay tuned to the “Upcoming gigs” section of this web site.

In the meantime the good ol’ New Orleans Dinner Club has had to call it a day. What a disappointment for all involved. Not only have we lost a regular gig, and not only have our favourite dancers lost a cool venue, but Wellington has lost one of the best gumbo places in town. I think we’re all a little the less culturally rich for its demise. Thanks to Nick & Don for putting together such a nice place, however so briefly!

The nice thing though is the latest NZ Musician magazine features a full page article on us, and the “Fresh Cut” column has a really cool positive review of our latest album-“Night on the Town”. Of course, we already KNEW it’s a great album but it’s always nice when someone else agrees! So big ups to all the folks at NZM for their unstinting support of NZ music in general, and of us so much over the years. Check um out at www.nzmusician.co.nz

Also in the meantime we’ve been putting together some hitherto half-finished ideas for new music so we will have some new songs to debut. If they’re at least up to some of the quality of our most “finished” new song, Geoff’s “The Southern Night Sky” it’ll be a further step forward.

The wintery blast continues...

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 03:03:00 +0000

…meanwhile we’re playing music to warm the very cockles of your heart, whatever they are. Never really been THAT fond of seafood that isn’t fish and chips. However, if it’s great food you’re after you could do worse than check out the New Orleans Dinner Club in Blair St-which is where you’ll find us playing, every other Friday night, 9pm til later. The food’s great, the place is warm, and the band is HOT. May Nick keep up the good work he’s doing down there (gotta pay for those old VWs somehow, eh?)

Played the Southern Cross again a couple of Fridays ago. It’s a great place to be-both inside and out! There’s always a warm spot to be found if you want just a quiet drink & a catch-up with friends. And if you want to groove-well, let’s just say it was great to be able to stretch out a bit with groovemeister and king of swing himself, Mr Richard Te One on drums. It’s a privilege having him play with us, and he turns the Wellington Heads into one kick*ss li’l band. Yay. (Yes, we keep an eye on the little red light…)

CD Launch and all

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 01:01:58 +0000

Hey yup so that’s the CD launch done-what a blast! Thanks to all who came. For those who didn’t make it, sorry you missed a really cool event. Big ups to Tony P who did the sound, Syd with the lights, Barry with the cinematography and all the Sandwiches staff who helped to make the event the outstanding success it was.

So I don’t know if you counted, but at one point we had 14 (count em!!) people on stage-the band, augmented with four backing singers (SingaPation) and Alan Norman on accordion.

So a good time was had by all, we had a packed out venue and sold a truckload of albums, great sound quality in a room that has great acoustics. Let’s do it again some time (but maybe not too soon)!

In the meantime, we’ll maybe see you down at the New Orleans Dinner Club.

Up & Running

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 12:00:00 +0000

Hey now hey now thanks to the wonderful lads & lassies at Glue we now have our news column back! Welcome everyone to the new year (well, we’re a few months into it now, but…). We started ours off with a hiss & a roar,on New Years Day, playing on the Interislander on our way to Nelson for the Nelson Jazz Festival.

The jazz fest itself was a great time-big ups to Ro (again) for her great organising skills-not a thing left to chance (except our playing) which meant that all we needed to worry about was actually getting to the gig & playing. Which we did. Lots. With Richard Wise drumming, Nick van Djik and James Tait-Jamieson as the horn section, the band was unstoppable. Yay.

Following the jazz festival, we continued our World Tour of the top bit of the South Island, playing at the wonderful Mussel Inn in Golden Bay, Park Cafe in Marahau, and Riverside Community in Moutere.

A total of 13 gigs in 13 days, all up. Many thanks to all who attended and who were so appreciative. (Especially those wonderful folk who bought so many of our cds! We can eat again).

March looks to be pretty busy for us-check our “Gigs” column. A new place for us to play is the New Orleans Dinner Club in Blair St. The folks running it are great, and the menu looks even better. If you’ve got a Jones-ing for some gen-yoo-ine gumbo, this here’s the place. Come on either Friday 13th (heh!) or 20th and you’ll get the Wellington Heads thrown in for free!

See ya there or somewhere soon.

What's goin on

Bill — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:00:00 +0000

Well it’s been a while since the last time anything went here. Since then a myriad of things have been happening, including a way cool gig at Southern Cross (once again, thanks to all the good folks there!)and additional recoding adventures. These included having the one and only Alan Norman (Windy City Strugglers, Warratahs etc) play some wonderfully atmospheric accordion on one of our songs. The album’s all but ready to go now, just gotta get those backing vocals on there (Geoff & I getting all angelic haha). We’ve got a rough mix of the tracks-spent AT LEAST 5 minutes on each track for the mixdown and already we’re thinking what do we have to do to improve on that?? Looks as though Andrew has done a fantastic job in capturing the band en flagrante so ta speak! The songs are the best we’ve written (but I WOULD say that wouldn’t I?) and the recorded sounds are as they should be.

Anyhoo, we’re a bit distracted by the work we’ve all put into the upcoming Neil “Shy Guy” Worboys & The Real Timeliners album. This has come up beautifully-once again, big ups to Andrew & Mike at Trident. Ode records have picked it up so hey. CD release is actually tomorrow night at Bodega, in case you haven’t been listening. A splended time is guaranteed for all, so see you there.