Information Station and Levin

Information Station and Levin

blog, music

Just had 5 weeks in Hokitika which was very calming; now in Wellington and on the way North again.

A lot of time spent in that buzzy little town called Hoki. I gotta write about the tour.

Finally can write another blog to you my friends who like me are interested in the state of the heart of our vanishing world of convivial places to meet and talk and play. It’s been a long time away.

The tour started with one gig in Christchurch and then just a case of going where invited. It’s a real eye opener seeing in real life the state of your own country.

Everywhere there are small enterprises closing.

Dunedin lost in the space of a few weeks three key watering holes. Nova. Dog with Two Tails and the Zuccini Brothers* and most likely more have closed their doors since. Meanwhile the corporate food giants feed on our addiction to the familiar. Don’t matter if it’s crappy just so long as it’s the same crappy. (* Eds note. Zucchini owners retired after 28 years)

Kids in our time probably don’t know the sheer joy of visiting places where the sole owner went to great lengths to create (key word there) a convivial civilised space for us to meet and greet and find true nourishment for body and soul. Real venues like Arc in Dunedin. Like The Island Of Real in Auckland.

There are still good places and I’m on a mission to find them so please if you know of such let us know.

What is going on though really?one can understand poorly patronized places going under but in the case of those Dunedin venues they were in fact thriving.

How can this be?

Could it be that the allurement of a keyboard and a screen has made the great unwashed happy to stay home on a government recreation scholarship rather than mix with our own flesh and blood Brothers and sisters in little ol real world ?

It’s astonishing.

At least my loafing experience involved something real with a box and vibrating strings and a mouth that could express my deepest longings. It involves reaching into the soul and finding your own unique take on things and not being at the mercy of an algorithm and simulations and titillating from the information stations.

I leave you with the lyrics of a song called Information Station. It’s on an album called Reha which is on www.bandcamp.com. look it up we wanna see you support this great facility and busy it up ok? Listen to Information Station – embedded below.

Anyway here’s a few key lines.i wrote this song 32 years ago and released it in 1994. It’s a sleeper. Wake it up ok?

“Meanwhile try to work at home
With a keyboard and this honky phone
Where is it written – Creation groans
Computer bureau bound to know”.

(i.e. what became Google and such)

i think I was bang on.

We really do have this option of vegetating in a simulation.i call it once removed living.
Do this or just get out more. Go to concerts. Go to the mountain. To the sea. Anything but tippy tippy and watching the devils eyeball .

Anything but tippy tappy and mesmerisation at a hopeless little screen……..to quote the late uncle Lenny

Real life is always gonna surpass these imaginings on a screen. We gotta support the watering holes that remain.

By the way I am playing at Firebird again. It’s in Levin. Saturday 7pm

The acoustics are great. Food is wonderful and it’s not only pizza…the kitchen is being renovated and extended significantly.

Support anywhere that encourages live music. Such places are very rare.

I should give up but I simply cannot do that. There is still too much to say and it’s gotta be said. Come and join in. Door charge 20. Call me if ya want a ticket and just have a chat…otherwise doorsales is fine. The good thing about being a little guy is you get to talk to all your supporters. 021 0259 2919.

Call me if I can help or if you want to chew the fat. It’s a dying art…talking on the phone.corporates hate it. They prefer you use the tippy tippy and don’t engage at all at all.
@#%÷ them.

God bless.keep us posted.communication is love. Love is in short supply in the world of humans .

By the way. A new album or four is waiting to be posted up .help the cause. It is costly to make album.very costly.

Just to give you a glimpse of how impossible it is to recover the cost of making an album. 20,000 listens on Spotikleptofy realises 20 bucks for the artist.

It takes YEARS to get that many listens for tiny acts like this. We ain’t going broke coz we got your support right?

Westport Space Tour

news, tour

Hello. Here are some thoughts with a view to gleaning your thoughts also. You can always send me some pics and videos on whats app. My number is 02102592919. Be good to be able to reply on the basis of feedback from you all in my next blog.

Feedback is rare as gold. Back in the day it was easy. Let’s make it easy again. i still love this simple blog format with its leaning toward text alone.

What a wonderful character the host is.

Playing the Black & White Westport tonight from 9pm. It’s been here since the 1850s so all the locals will know where it is…just head for Westport. You can stay at the hotel. It’s cheap and cheerful and like how things used to be .

That’s whats so inviting about Coast. People can invest time in people coz there’s no over reaching alienating commercial urgency to do and to buy. This is humbling the conceited Aucklander in me. Hubris and vanity are
Optional.

I love the so called rough pubs. Postboy in Nelson and B&W Westport.

His Scottish Space Programme is humming along. I can send videos if you drop me a line. Last night my audience of one disturbed part of the installation and it all came tumbling down.

Today there’s a board out on the footpath announcing my show. Thats it. But thats gonna be enough to draw a few characters that would inspire Dickens-if he were alive here again- to write another story.

I cannot believe the vibe here. The visitor is enthralled but be aware that the motive force is practicle and most have to work hard and me being in “the arts” don’t work at all-by comparison.ha ha

“Get a job” is one response
But they respect someone who can bang out a tune and often I get the reverse response where people urge me to keep doing what I’m doing.

What am I doing?
As little as possible.
But there are certain demands like travel. Accommodation. Vehicle and all that entails. And getting the word out.

Big thanks to Jason Kemp and Tony Parker for sponsoring this vital side of it…without them I would be toast.

And here’s to you my wonderful subscribers. Please don’t desert me. The best is yet to come. Would appreciate it if you steered your friends toward bandcamp.com wherein resides my albums for Koha. Its a huge blessing when people support me by downloading my albums and attending my shows.

See you tonight

Off the radar in Nelson

Off the radar in Nelson

news, tour

Off the radar in NelsonI’m in Takaka. Playing at the mad cafe in Collingwood. If you know someone in or near Nelson send them along thanks.

Don’t mean to be off the radar but with travel and touring often bookings are only confirmed late or last minute.

Gig is today the mad gig starts late arvo.
The tours gone well considering how little there was to go on. I would be keen to write a blog about the state of the country.

Heaps of places are going outa business. My way of touring is designed for these times. I am the dystopian song and dance roadshow. New song is called Dystopia.

In Takaka is the herb. In Westport it’s meth.everywhere it’s beer. Families broken. Mistrust abounds. No one wants to work. Ai is about to take over.

And yet…..there’s a kind of hope emerging out of these desperate times. There’s a sweet sound in the cacophony….

( Editors note: I hope there is more to this post :)?

The CEO's PA

South & Otago Tour

news, tour

I’m in the South Island another 20 days especially Otago and Southland. let me know about opportunities to play ok?

Playing at the Grainstore in Oamaru on 12th of March from 7pm Koha

Lumsden from 3pm Koha 3 March

Invers From 7pm Koha 4th March

Blueskin in Waitati .7pm onwards Koha 11th March

Keep an eye on events for any updates and additions. Expecting to add some new dates and venues soon.

Bye for now and please let us know about possible places to play. Can play anywhere at anytime. Conditions apply. Call/txt me on 021 0259 2919

I lost some info about possible gigs so please write to me again if I didn’t get back to you. House concerts a specialty.

Have to head to the lofty spires of Lumsden now. Bye for now and please remember to
Take time out

God bless Luke

PS. Need space between the bars to create meaningful music.

The ceos pa. Seen below. New strings and set coming up for this recently sold masterpiece at Peter Stephen guitars.

Need work breaks also…for the same reason. So! Don’t overdo what you do do.

Peter Stephen has his workshop in Lyttelton. It’s on the corner of the first street on the left as you come into Lyttelton coming out the tunnel. Can’t miss it.

He’s been a luthier for decades and he works on an art for arts sake basis…the business is secondary to him as he tends to give people amazing service for ludicrously small amounts of money. But that’s changing as it has too. Big overheads to cover.

One guitar I bought off him in the 80s turned up in Alistars Music Wellington about 30 years later . I walked in and played it despite the owner telling me the shop was closed.

I conversed with a guy who the owners were talking to. He was interested in what I was playing and the history of the swamp kauri parlour guitar I used to own. I introduced myself and asked his name to which the owner said “you obviously don’t know who you’re talking to” it soon was obvious he was Billy Connelly.

A question I always wanted to ask him was “did comedy ruin your chances of being taken seriously as a musician.” And he replied that it certainly did. He was in a duo with Gerry Rafferty once. Comedy was probably the best bet and more profitable…but who knows?

Peter’s much loved by the people he serves and he needs more commissions to make his masterpieces. The fix it jobs are his bread and butter I guess. but he loves to make instruments. Double bass to mandolins and to date a big focus on guitar. Support him please. In Dunedin you have Steve Barkman equally capable so don’t forget him either.

These guys work real hard for their sustenance. Hope to see you all at a gig soon.

Hello Friends

Touring Feb 2023

news

Hello friends ..It’s great to be free for the time being isn’t it?people are coming out of their rabbit holes and it’s time to explore hence the planning of the next tour starting Feb 22 and heading South (South Island) and back with three confirmed gigs so far. We can do better so please call me if you are serious. Just say where and when and Ill be there with cowbells on ? 021 0259 291 text or talk…always up for a chat.

Also planning to play in London in May so again please book me someplace. So far no confirmations there. It’s so far away from Waterworld Auckland.

Speaking of which we had a great time at the Auckland International Folk Fest. On the first night it was possible to have the barn for a gig where we encountered a superb player. Bill Angus. He’s been writing for 45 years and it shows. The big surprise was Ensemble Sangenito. Super!

Check the videos in the links.

And now for one key reason for writing this blog. Let’s discuss the attitude still alive and well in NZ…the attitude that musicians and artists generally should not be paid.
This guy I’ve known for many years who is supposedly a keen endorser of my stuff tells me that musicians should not be paid. It’s his firm belief delivered from the comfort of his “I work and you don’t” bastion of ignorance.

Has he any idea what’s involved when it comes to writing recording promoting and performing original stuff across an area the size of UK with a support base at least 15 times less and a cultural attitude that sees the arts as somewhat superfluous and self indulgent and in the “why bother when we can go fishing” category.

It’s amazing when one reflects upon the expenses involved and how near impossible it is to break even. The attitude is just plain wrong.

The advantage of having an art culture cannot be denied. In the absence of a thriving art culture we have instead a thriving mental health system that can’t keep up with the psychosis that develops when a place offers no outlet for creatives.

Let’s change the script.
Start with me!
Visit bandcamp and buy my sounds. Call me and book me up. I can play.you will like. Just book me! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeees!
New York to Paris! Let’s make it a world tour this time. Let’s enjoy the freedom while we have it.