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Despite writing for newspapers for more than 30 years I still have no idea how it all works, what makes a story a story.
Two musicians I hugely admired have died in the last week but for some reason neither seems to have been mentioned in the press. Let me at least give them the briefest of mentions here...
Roy Phillips, singer and Hammond organ player with legendary 1960s-1970s band The Peddlers, died on April 24 at his Christchurch home. He was 83.
The late Roy Phillips. Photo / Supplied
I was first introduced to Roy’s music by, of all people, Wellington’s king of humorous swing Andrew London, back in the mid-1980s and was lucky enough to hear him the last time he performed in Tauranga, at Baycourt, in 2017.
One of the greats
Roy suffered from emphysema and his singing at that last show was certainly limited but it was still clear that he was one of the greats. I urge you to revisit some of his classic moments. Any of the live Peddlers albums are gems and in 2002, CBS released their complete recordings, 42 tracks on an anthology entitled ‘How Cool Is Cool’. Start anywhere.
Another musician whose music deeply affected me who died last week was David Thomas. He was less well-known but was the founder and leader of Pere Ubu, a radical 1970s band who created an almost indescribable mix of post-punk rock and Avant Garde industrial noise. And that was before punk even existed.
The late David Thomas. Photo / Supplied
Crazy and inspiring
Their first single from 1975, ‘30 Seconds Over Tokyo’ is a monstrous mind-blowing howl of a song; and their debut album ‘The Modern Dance’ is one of the great rock albums. Bands such as The Pixies and Joy Division sprung from these sounds. ‘Terminal Tower’, their collection of singles and B-sides is an attack on your senses that leaves you reeling with its sustained brilliance.
There were 14 Pere Ubu albums in all; they go all over the place and contain moments of magic, moments where you are just glad that someone as individual and crazy and inspiring as David Thomas got to make music at all.
Big part of jazz scene
And, last but not least, deadlines made it impossible for me to mention the death of New Zealand jazz pianist and Tauranga resident John Key. Despite suffering from emphysema John had a residence at Jais Aben until a month before he died. He moved down from Auckland a few years back and had become a big part of the Tauranga jazz scene.
The late John Key. Photo / Supplied
John arrived in New Zealand in 1973, and worked as a soloist throughout the country. With The Rodger Fox Big Band he toured Europe and performed at the prestigious Montreax Jazz Festival and London’s Ronnie Scott Club. His own Jazz combo, Strange Fruit, were regulars on the Auckland club scene and released three excellent albums.
John also deserves thanks for his tireless work producing two volumes of the ‘Kiwi Real Book’, the first books of their kind, collecting charts for New Zealand Jazz compositions. He had many friends and admirers here. I was one. R.I.P. John.
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