Category Archives: tour

Westport Space 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

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

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.

Snowing in Dunedin - cold fingers warming up

The Coast

If you haven’t really checked it out then this is a good time to do so. “Coast” is where it’s at. With a population – I am told-of just under 30 thousand there’s a spread spanning Karamea (where nobody has the time to go coz Coast trips don’t often include her on the itinerary) to glacier districts and beyond.

It’s massive and it’s beautiful and experiencing a new gold rush. At this time it’s less about primary produce and more about working remotely in paradise. Once the telco infrastructure is in place we will be able to live anywhere including in this greenies paradise. The last frontier is opening up.

Continue reading The Coast