It's Pat On The Back Time

As NZ Music Month comes to an end I heave a (slight) sigh of relief. Presenting the "Live On The Beach" series has its challenges, not least overcoming the technical issues that arise when you're trying to broadcast live music from a studio that could be charitably described as rustic and no-frills. And then there are the musicians. Actually this years line-up gave me no problems at all, but in the past it has been a little like herding cats.

What makes it all worthwhile are the performances, and this year for the first time (causing even more headaches and anxiety) these are posted on the internet for you to download or listen to again. There's a podcast list in the sidebar to the right.

I want to thank all of the musicians - Chris Orange; Ian Simpson; Mamacan; and Rattleshack. Also, thanks to the Gulf news for the great ad, Dave T, Chris, Ian & Andy for the use of gear and the family for putting up with me spending so much time on this.

Series 5 of "Live On The Beach" concluded with Harry Nicklin and Andy Lewis, who together are Rattleshack. Take a listen to their performance here.

And now, as promised in an earlier post, I have a historical "Live On The Beach" post for you. This one's for the obscurists amongst you and has a little back story.

Fatal Jelly Space were a great Auckland band who released one great EP, titled Hole, on Flying Nun in 1990. They were a staunchly feminist outfit and a ferocious (if not somewhat scary) phenomenon live striking fear into the hearts of many.

In the early years of the twenty first century Bob Dylan played the god-awful North Shore Events Centre in Takapuna, Auckland. Ordinarily that wouldn't have grabbed me, but supporting him was none other than Patti Smith. As soon as I heard that I was there. She was better than I can describe here and I went away very happy but that's another story.

Anyway, on the way back into town to catch the last ferry to Waiheke we saw someone hitching we recognised as coming from the island. We picked her up and got chatting and it turned out this fellow Patti Smith fan was Frankie Bodi of Fatal Jelly Space.

In 2003 I was putting together the first series of NZ Music Month live-to-air performances on The Beach and I was trying to put together a line-up. I remembered that late night hitch-hiking encounter and approached Frankie about performing. She agreed, playing a short solo set of originals. To my ears the highlight was one of the tracks from that Hole EP, Miseriah.

Take a listen, Frankie Fatal, Live On The Beach 99.4fm, May 2003

Look out for more "back catalogue" posts in coming weeks. For now, however, I'm looking forward to going in on a Sunday night and just playing CDs