All posts by Luke

About Luke

Luke Hurley guitarist and singer songwriter from New Zealand.

Strawberry Tree- Kaikoura

Kaikoura tonight

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I’m playing at the Strawberry Tree in Kaikoura tonight. 7pm. 21 W End Kaikoura. No cover charge – come along and please tell your friends. It is an easy drive from Christchurch.

Hi everyone Hope you all happy and healthy The guy who wrote the mission impossible theme tune Lalo Schifrin ? he was told upon arrival in tinsel town that all he had to do was “Go where you’re invited” He claimed this was the best advise ever for getting established.

I figured to do the same in my own zone and cannot claim the same success as he achieved but can testify it opens some amazing doors of perception and brought me to the realisation that nothing is ever as you anticipate its gonna be and it’s probably best to say yes when you can- within reason of course.

In this instance I was invited to Kaikoura its a thriving town in paradise where even the seagulls seem to appreciate music and the locals are really friendly.

I have yet to see a UFO or meet an alien family but am told this is likely and am looking forward to an invitation.

The next big thing here after whale watch would have to be sky watch.  It’s a big sky so expect the unexpected. I saw something i could not explain and that’s just normal here if you come bring a telescope!

Anyway please come to my show tonight if you have time and are in striking distance its a nice drive from Christchurch and there are plenty of places you can stay

Iam keen to be invited anywhere just cover the travel and accom and I would be delighted to turn up in your zone and in turn invite you to mine

Be safe and God bless
Luke

A local view
Kaikoura tonight

Albatross – Song Stories

Song Stories, video,

This was my first song.  It started out as a campaign piece to support the opposition to the Aramoana Aluminum smelter can you imagine how mental that proposal was?

Building such a thing in close proximity to the only albatross colony that is close to a city it would have snapped the golden thread of Dunedins environmental appeal.  It would have been an environmental catastrophe; like the one in bluff that exudes lethal toxins over a massive area and kinda puts the kibosh on other potential industry and all for what?

We run at a loss to support the vandals – enough said.

Anyway, the song became more about comparisons between man & machine vs nature. We can fly high and fast but the envirocost is incalculable.The albatross is loyal and faithful and at one with nature and entwined with mystery.

We by contrast are living by logic and tempered by greed. It’s not logical to shit in our own nest but the ghastly fiction of LTD is our operating system and our psychopathic justifier.

It’s totally nuts but because it’s common practice sanctioned by a crooked legal mechanism – alls well that ends badly.

It’s a good song, tho i say so myself and in fact probs my best song; I should have quit while i was ahead ha ha. Here is a live version from last year. Played on a baritone guitar (Tacoma Thunderhawk) rebuilt by Steve Barkman.

The line that i was proud to find was “every day is your judgement day”.  I feel that a good song is there to be found. It’s like it existed already. All i had to do was chip away the junk around it and reveal the message that was waiting to be found.

It’s like that playing live also the audience can draw new things out of the performer and link their search (with the song.)

Anyway the campaign to stop the madmen from building a smelter was a huge success and I wasn’t directly part of it.  The leader of it was some years later gunned down by David Gray.

I really want to know more about this Save Aramoana issue and write more about it.  Anyone out there remember anyone who was involved with the movement to stop the smelter? (Comment below please.)

The people involved deserve the equivalent of the Victoria cross for environmental heroism.  Dunedin owes them a huge debt of gratitude if only there were more people willing to front up and appose the Licence To Destroy (LTD) merchants.

Listen to another version of the song and buy if you like it ( below.)

Thames

Summer Gigs – Thames & Kerikeri

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Contents
  1. Wharepuke Open Day 

Two gigs this weekend. First one is Thames on Saturday night. See

Gig Guide

One is at the Lotus Realm Thames this Saturday night   me in concert from 7pm   the Lotus Realm   main street   Thames. Tickets $20

It would be cool if we could get the message out thanks.

The other one is Wharepuke Keri Keri Sunday 10am to 3pm    

Wharepuke Open Day 

on Sunday 20th January 10am- 4pm

Free entry into the award winning garden (NZGT) and Sculpture Park (40+artist from NZ and International). The art gallery, nontoxic printmaking studio and cottages will be open to view and ask questions

Maha is offering complimentary Soda and Spoon to excite the tastebuds with their Japanese inspired food. Other beverages and some snacks available for purchase

Music legend Luke Hurley will be providing entertainment from 11am-3pm

Join us, the Booth family and Ming and Diane at:

Wharepuke

190 Kerikeri road

Can we get the message out? Do you know people in Thames or Kerikeri – please let them know

Cafe 121 – Saturday

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Nigel GavinMorning’ all. Hope you are well and happy. Just letting you know that we are playing at one2one a venue in Ponsonby Auckland.

Where.  121 Ponsonby Rd Auckland
When. This Saturday night 7pm to 9pm
What.   Mark Laurent  songwriter with Nigel Gavin and moi.  If you haven’t heard him / them you will be astonished. Masterful guitarists and great Kiwi  blokes. Photo at left is Nigel. Here is a track from Nigel

The ticket price is zero but we encourage you to donate into the hat which is in fact a teapot.  We don’t just accept money. Watches. Cars. Houses. Anything.

Come early and leave late. We will be there from 6pm.

Please do call if you have any leads. 02102592919 and don’t forget to visit band camp and check out my albums.  And of course please encourage your friends to subscribe to this site.

Link for the gig is: if you want to share that would be great thanks.)

https://www.lukehurley.co.nz/2018/11/17/auckland-auckland-17-11-18-cafe-one2one-new-zealand/

Tiny town

Gold Streets In Tiny Town

blog, news

It was great to visit Dunedin and play at the K&Q. Lovely venue.  Made me realise that it’s important to have a place that’s purpose built for a show. Not a venue that’s purpose built to sell grog. Ha ha.

All you performers out there and this includes anyone with a message of any kind to deliver. My unsolicited advice to you is this.  If you gonna do an event then put yourself and the people you invite in a place free of  distractions.

Another venue of note was Players Theatre in Marton.  Pleeeeeeease if you are in the game of putting it out there…..please do a gig there.   Fantastic room and pa /lights and top notch  management    They put the word out and made me feel totally at ease.

Barrytown Hall.  Soooooooooooooo Cool. They totally care for the performer and their audience. It’s like coming home to family for Christmas.  And if you do a show there be sure to have a very long interval.  People like to catch up. They yak and yak and yak.  Let them. And don’t play canned music in the breaks. That’s why it’s called a break.  You have a break from any distractions and let people convivialise.

No such word ay? not in big cities anyway.

Invers has great venues.  The back packers on the Main Street.  Try that.  Ok there are the usual distractions of alcohol and food but they are smart.  They allow for this by getting a great sound system and put the word out real well.  Puts to shame the venues of the big smoke.

It has one of the worlds best transport museums and a super successful company called Richardson.  3000 trucks and 7000 employees and a very generous community spirit. i.e. their wealth gets shared with the town of origin.  If Fletchers did this in it’s town of origin South Dunedin’s streets would  be paved with gold. Family business any day.

And that’s the essence of it. Think family.  You do a show with people who treat you and your audience like family.   That’s the way of the past and that’s gonna be the way of the future ay brothers and sisters?

Happiness is more important than 💰 and fame but being happy won’t necessarily exclude them either.

More to come about venues in NZ but enough said for this blog except to say please support the cause and get me to play at yours or something. Phone me now 02102592919.  I promise to play like a bastard.

Coming up. If you are in Auckland there is a showing of the short movie mentioned a few weeks back.

Lopdell House Titirangi Flicks

Robin has the movie ‘To Be Or Not To Be’ and it’s screening on the 12th. He runs the cinema In Titirangi. He is a serious film maker and he wants to screen it.

Robin


Wednesday 12th September, a series of short films including two from this year’s Doc Edge Festival, details of all films out soon already booked ‘To Be or Not To Be’ a short film about musician.songwriter Luke Hurley and ‘In Search of the Bone People’ ‘Sailing Away’ and others. Showing at 10-30am / 6pm / 8-pm Lopdell Theatre .

There is a very high chance that I will be at one or more of those screenings (TBC) to support Jing Chen so come along and say hi. More details here

Adult: morning screenings $12 Senior/Student: $10 includes Tea/Coffee/Biscuits 10-30am
Evening Screenings Adult: $14 Senior/Student $12  5-30pm or 6pm depending on film duration and 8-15pm
14 years old and under $7 (with an adult) dependent on film rating.

Flicks at Lopdell says: Text bookings to 0210 222 5558 (they text back to confirm)
Telephone bookings 09 818 2489
They take EFTPOS on tickets sales as well as bar sales… (finally !!) at the venue

Thank you Dunedin

news, tour

It’s been fun. Especially good in the old capital. Dunedin is a place I wrote most of my best songs in. The ODT preview for the show was a really pleasant surprise. The show itself was huge fun. I think I managed to pay the heating bill…

Thanks to all who came out at night in Dunedin last week. Thanks to those who shared on social or told to your friends about the gig. Thanks also to Lee Vandervis and all the others who wrote on their timelines such kind words.

Thanks also to the ODT who wrote this.

“Luke Hurley was once a fixture in Dunedin, busking in its streets and playing its halls, but after leaving in 1992, he’s hardly been back. That’s about to change.

What have you been doing since leaving Dunedin?

Since moving to Auckland in the ’90s I have been practising, writing and recording. I’ve been releasing the odd album. Much of the time that has involved getting nowhere, but then discovering a new way of approaching it all. But I’ve never understood the art of marketing.

It’s possible to have the work ready to share but it isn’t easy to find a way to share it effectively, unless you play like crazy wherever you can, from on a bus to at a Tedx Auckland event; which I have done and was fun, by the way. The Tedx event was quite literally 15 minutes of fame (and is still up on YouTube).

But a turning point for me was in 2007, in Dublin, when this amazing man gave me the best advice ever. “Just play,” he said. `”Play like a bastard.”

From then on, it made sense to forget the remote and futile goal of making the grade, whatever that means, by surrendering to something way greater. Just playing and growing by accident rather than by design. It’s the blues approach and I am an old blues man, qualified with dues paid many times over.

The music industry has changed a lot. No-one buys CDs any more, for a start.

As a result, I invested in playing live. It works. The live presence is vital, the rest is virtual. Literally.

That’s why my new album is called one take one voice one guitar. There are no gimmicks, just organic music from a certified music nut.

It’s not available yet. It has taken ages so far and may take ages yet, but I’m in no hurry.”

The read the full story see here. New approaches from an old identity

Lee Vandervis