Failsafe Records was founded in Christchurch by Rob Mayes in 1983/1984. From the label's beginnings, recordings were made that captured songs from the Christchurch scene, by bands that Mayes was seeing at local venues. Failsafe provided many bands with a means to have their songs recorded and distributed, which might otherwise have never been documented at all. Further, through album and compilation releases, these bands were introduced to a broader listenership than they might otherwise have attained, and some went on to bigger things. Take ‘The Bats’, for example, who contributed the song ‘Get Fat’ to Failsafe’s ‘Accident Compilation’ (1984), prior to their debut Flying Nun release.

Mayes has some highly ambitious plans for Failsafe Records, with the intended release of 25 albums over the next 12 months. We talked to Rob about this goal; how is he going to carry it out, all while based in faraway Japan?

HUP: Rob, you have stated that you have 25 albums scheduled for release over the next year on Failsafe Records. By my calculations there have been a little over 75 items released on the label since 1984, so you are planning on increasing the labels catalogue by about 25% in a very short period of time! How are you possibly going to manage to release all these items? And what are some of the releases we should be looking forward to?

Rob: It’s an increase by 33% to be exact. I’ve done 76 releases, or 79 if you count the re-releases of the three ‘80s compilations, so 25 is roughly one-third again. How am I going to manage it? I may not manage it all, but that’s the goal I’ve set myself and I’ll give it my best shot. And it’s even grown a little bit more as I uncover material I didn’t know about. There’s a Mainly Spaniards album just added to the pile because I found a full live recording to multitrack that I hadn’t heard before, plus an unreleased studio single, and they’re quite a notable band that deserves more than a one hit wonder entry in the history of New Zealand music [The 1982 ‘That's What Friends Are For’ 7” on Flying Nun].

The list aims to tie up the loose ends of the label with remastered versions of material that hasn’t had that treatment, so there’s a couple that I’ve already slipped out with the Perfect Gargen EP, and the really successful This Sporting Life album, plus coming up:

• Malchicks – ‘Everything’ is a collected works and rarities collection that really sounds fantastic with some proper 2018 mastering technology applied, and their shoegazer sonic dream-pop sound sounds pretty vibrant in the present climate. I’ve also dug up some early recordings that no-one’s heard, so that’s quite exciting.
• The Lils – 'Lodestone' (Expanded) collection also polished up remarkably well and is really punchy. I’ve got three unreleased songs for that collection too, so it’s always good to add more to the picture.
• The Holy Toledos – 'Forget and Forgive' (Expanded) is a The Byrds influenced chiming pop album that got overshadowed by their acquisition by Sony Records, where they got over polished. Again, nice to get the full mastering on it. And there is the two EP B sides and an unreleased single, ‘These Last Days’, plus a really nice remix of ‘We Just Talked About The Weather’, and about seven unreleased live tracks. So that’s going to be a good collection to deliver too.
• The Newtones - 'New Way' collection is a big one. They were an important Christchurch band, and they released two singles independently. So once they sold out, and the band disbanded, there was no one to champion them and their legacy. So they kind of relinquished to a distant memory. They were the impetus for me starting my label because I saw them play a fantastic track called ‘Four Ships’, and I popped down to the local record store to buy it only to find it wasn’t recorded or released. The band disbanded a few months later and that song was lost forever. Until now. When guitarist-singer Tony Peake died in 2010 I was sent his collection of Newtones recordings, and there were a bunch of good live recordings that yielded some really nice versions of unreleased songs, including the ‘Four Ships’ track. So that’s going to be really nice to deliver. There’s also a small book with it containing essays by a few people on the Christchurch alternative music scene and what it was like to live and breath music as we did.
• Throw – 'Re Rememory' is a remaster collection of the band’s ‘Rememory’ album from 1995, which hasn’t been remastered before, and the 2005 ‘Dreambaby Goodbye’ collection. It was really early dreampop and the band made a good dent on student radio in the early ‘90s.
• Springloader was my post-Throw shoegazer band. We didn’t manage to officially release much at the time of our existence in 2004, but we did manage to do some really good studio recordings, and there’s a great 14 song album plus some unreleased demos for this collection, which sounds pretty relevant with the new shoegazer resurgence.
• 147Swordfish – 'Into Silence'. Also from the ‘90s, a collection of one of my favorite bands at the time who were a standout of the [1993] ‘Avalanche’ and [1994] ‘Good Things’ collections. They had aspects of shoegazer and alternative, with a really great melodic hook tinge on some songs, and that raw sonicness on others. The collection has 17 tracks by the band, including remasters of their four released tracks, plus three more unreleased tracks from the ‘Avalanche’/’Good Things’ sessions, some more studio recordings from an unreleased second session of recordings, and then I had two DAT live recordings of the band on fire, so it’s a pretty exciting collection.

There’s a few more albums in the queue, including the last album in the Pop Mechanix collection, unreleased studio material from post-punk band YFC (two basses, drums and a microphone), Auckland post-punk band Corners, who were very Gang of Four and angular before going on to pop success with a very different sound a few years later as ‘Peking Man’, The Beat Rhythm Fashion 'Rarities' collection of early ‘80s material, and then some new albums from Kimo [JPS Experience’s Dave Mulcahy], the melodic contemplative mood collaboration project Songs in the Key, the new Beat Rhythm Fashion 'Tenterhook' album, etc etc… [continued below]

​The reason for why ‘this much’ now is that I decided a little while back to ‘finish up’ my self-appointed task of writing more detail into the Christchurch perspective New Zealand music history book, as represented by releases. There are other things I’m wanting to focus on and I need to close part of this chapter off to move forward on those other things. To be honest, I haven’t been quite sure what my goal was with part of what the label has been doing, and I’ve only just recently got a handle on it, and as outlined above put in a plan to complete it.
 
I’ve felt all along that there was a hole in the local culture scene that I was experiencing growing up in Christchurch, and the picture we were being presented with as a record of our culture. I didn’t understand exactly what bugged me about that until recently, and I now think it has a lot to do with representing community at all levels, even the micro level, or a pub or club, and what happened there for the 100 to 500 people that made it their own. In the rush for globalisation, chart success, and national tours, what was getting left out of the picture was what was happening directly around us as individuals in our community, i.e., my experience. We weren’t being given access to our personal experience of music; the bands we saw around us at the local in the weekend. So my nagging question was, “why someone else’s music and not ‘ours’? And I tried to do something about that for me, or ‘us’.

I’ve tried to focus my aim a bit instead of going for the completely unachievable “colour in all alternative New Zealand bands into a world stage”, to painting in the holes in the local community I grew up and was formed in. And that comes down to the much more achievable 25 albums, released for people that were there, and anyone else that cares to seek them out. Still an unachievable goal, but at least one that doesn’t require me to promote each album and secure distribution for obscure material in small town petrol stations.

I’ll do that for a select few releases, like the new ‘Beat Rhythm Fashion’ album, which is really a part of something different. But it’s out of proportion for an obscure historical release, as the people who are interested in those ones need to be doing the leg work to find them.

HUP: When you say, “finish up”, are you saying that's the end of Failsafe? Or just the end of the retrospectives?

Rob: That's the completion of my involvement in archiving the music history stuff, yes. I'll be doing new material still, but I’m unlikely to be doing any more archival releases. And with the list above, I’m hoping people will feel I’ve given the scenes a really comprehensive going over. 

For the future I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing with music. It is still really important to me. I have a band in Tokyo called ‘At Skylines’, playing instrumental post-rock dream-pop shoegazer stuff, and that’s really rewarding and exciting. We surprise ourselves and make music I’d want to listen to. I still love the music I've been involved in, but I've got to move forward too. Wherever that may be. I will be keeping the full catalogue active; it's not the death of Failsafe, but I will be focusing my efforts on the future after this 25 push. [continued below]

​HUP: Are you still going to be releasing the music on CD, or will you be reverting exclusively to digital? Most of the bands, or artists in the bands releasing material on the label, were well known from the age of the CD, which some argue has now passed; I assume there is a demand from the fans of these artists to have the music released on this format also? 

Rob: Failsafe Records was actually from the age of the cassette, and the reason for that was because it was accessible and feasible for me to operate a boutique cottage industry label in that way on that format. It’s not because I didn’t want to make big glossy vinyl albums at the time; it’s because if I had gone that route I would have sunk the label, and my resources as an individual, in one or two releases. I’ve managed to keep the label happening by adapting to the media formats that allow me to do runs that match the reality of presenting truly independent alternative artists, keeping the music as the primary goal. I’ve never participated in the whole chart thing. I’m a complete failure at hyping artists to shift units. Once the album is complete and I’ve presented it to the public as best an individual can, I leave it at that and expect some level of effort from the listener to seek out and support the work. I know that’s not how the rest of the music ‘industry’ works, but it’s the only viable route for me. Otherwise I’m playing into the music merchant thing, and I’m not that. I’m not quite sure what I am, but it’s not a shop-keeper trying to move stock.

The CDs thing came along in the ‘90s through a deal I did with Shock Records, and a guy there Jason Reynolds who was very supportive. He covered the costs of manufacturing those early ‘90s discs in exchange for a chunk of the discs for the Australian market. So, no upfront manufacturing costs for me, but professional discs for the label releases. It worked well until he left to go on to bigger things in the U.S., and Shock slapped a huge manufacturing bill on me for the last four discs. I managed to wriggle out of that and that was the end of the CD releases ‘til the early 2000s, when CDR became a thing. I did a large part of the 2005 Retrogenic 30 abums in 30 days exponge on CDR, purely because that was the reality of what the releases could support.

Toward the end of the 2000s we got some funding support from Creative Communities to cover pressing costs, and I did a handful of releases (Pop Mechanix, Beat Rhythm Fashion, How To Kill, etc) on proper pressed CDs, but still with hand assembled covers. It was great to have that level of quality and production. Not that the CDRs were lacking in swish design and packaging, but you know, more permanent pressings, etc.
​
With this next batch the accepted delivery media thing is cause for concern. Some of the remaining shops in New Zealand are less than enthusiastic about CD, and to be honest, even I don’t have a working CD player. But I do buy music on CD to have a physical representation of the item. To make it mean something, and that’s really the consideration for me. I want to recreate the feeling of meaning to the music Failsafe presents, and if the customer isn’t into that, then they’re not a match for what I’m delivering. There has to be some level of commitment from them to the music and I’m finding a healthy core of people worldwide who support and appreciate that. 

So, for these some will still be released in hard copy format, but most will be digital with extensive liner notes. Part of the reason for that is a few of these releases are expanded editions of the compilations, and will amount to multi-disc collections; some of them ten or more CDs full of content, just to get the material from my archive to the public sphere. I’m doing that because I’m thinking I can’t be the only one who sits at home remembering the great local artists, scenes, venues and gigs I’ve experienced, and want to refresh my memory. Through hard work and good fortune, we have recordings of a lot of great material that could just as easily have been lost to the void. That’s part and parcel of small-town New Zealand, and a history of indifference from broadcasters that it wasn’t viable for this stuff to be recorded properly in the first place, let alone produced and presented to the public, apart from in a live form. It’s easy to not understand the effort and resources that it took, and still does take, to get something out there for people to hear. I totally understand why these bands didn’t make it to finished vinyl in the day, and I’m glad that I can use my skills to present them now, for what it’s worth. [continued below] ​

HUP: I have a couple of compilations released on Failsafe in my collection; the fantastic 'Biding our Time' from 1986 and 'Good Things' from 1994. These followed on from 1984's 'Accident Compilation', and along with a number of others you released, these have been described as 'scene defining compilations'. What compilations among these retrospective releases?

Rob: Part of the final push is to expand these collections to include everything I can find that is relevant to those scenes. I’m using these as a coat hanger to really flesh out the different time peroids and scenes they relate to. I’m still working out how I’m going to handle this, but I’d like to do them in a couple of different versions; the ‘Original Release’, remastered and expanded, with one song from as many bands from the scene as I can find (we were originally limited by the length of a cassette or CD, but with digital releases it can be as long as you want, so I want them to be comprehensive overviews); then, ‘Expanded’, squeezing in as many recordings as I can find from the bands on the collection that have fallen out of ‘print’, or unreleased tracks, etc; and finally, a ‘Deluxe’ bonus set that has live recordings from the period, hopefully full live concerts from some of these bands to really get a feel for the time and the scene, for the inbetween songs banter and live vibe. So, we've got:

• Accident Compilation - 1980-84; the Christchurch Gladstone, Star and Garter/Hillsborough alternative scene. I've got three expanded versions of this planned; 1) the original release in digital download form. It's only ever been available on cassette and double CD before; 2) ‘Accident Compilation – Expanded’ will have extra songs from artists that were part of that scene, but which didn't fit on the 90 minute format of the original cassette release; 3) ‘Accident Compilation – Deluxe’, with additional tracks per band. This was to address studio outtakes and singles and EP b-sides on indie releases that are never going to see the light of day by themselves, and; 4) ‘Accident Compilation - In Concert’, concert recordings from the scene. 
• Biding Our Time - 1984-86; where Christchurch was seeing a lot of Dunedin (Chills, Stones), Auckland (Childrens Hour, Bird Nest Roys) and Wellington (Spines) bands through. I’ve already got some fantastic material with seven unreleased Bird Nest Roys songs, and Martin Phillipps is looking into getting clearance for some more Chills tracks from the same on-fire concert that the I took “I’ll Only See You Alone Again” from. So again, that’s going to be a really interesting and exciting collection, including, 1) the original release in digital download form. This includes two songs left off the original CD release, but present on the cassette; 2) ‘Deluxe’ (as above), and; 3) ‘In Concert’.
• South - 1987-88. I’ve got a lot of studio recordings where only one song saw the light of day. So I’m going to get to expand the picture hugely and give a bigger view of what was happening, and a more fitting representation and remembering for those bands; ‘Original’, ‘Deluxe’ and ‘In Concert’.
• Avalanche (1993) has never been remastered and there’s some unreleased tracks to go with that, so ‘expanded’ with outtakes and remastered versions of this album.
• Good Things (1994); Expanded with outtakes, and remastered.
• Keeping Secrets (2005); Digital download version.

So, yeah, quite a lot of material for people to choose from! Historically, it’s going to really offer a different, more diverse, view of alternative music in New Zealand, and specifically the scenes in Christchurch beyond the pretty narrow picture we have now. I’m hoping it will again show how vibrant each time period scene was, and give a real feel for those times.

There will probably be some overview compilations. Maybe my label overview picks or something.

HUP: There is still some fantastic music coming out of Christchurch, such as what is being released currently on the 'Melted Ice Cream' label. Have you kept up with what is happening in the music scene in Christchurch?

Rob: I do see some of those releases, and I know Brian Feary who runs it. Christchurch music is in good hands. It's been very difficult for the city. It was battling the downgrading of live music over the decades, as most scenes were, moving it into smaller and smaller venues, but it had settled nicely with the Dux, Wunderbar, Al’s Bar, and then the earthquakes happened and pummelled it into the ground. The weeks, months, and years where the community had to scramble for a place to be. I was still returning regularly at this stage, but you could feel the pain the scene and the city suffered. It was and is heart-breaking. For me, it kind of ended what I was following. There still were some great bands doing things there, but it was hard to follow it, and I was getting more and more disconnected from it. It became so underground you really had to be there, but I'm glad there are people like Melted Ice Cream to nurture it. Music is local, music is culture, music is community. ​[continued below]

HUP: You have lived in Japan for a number of years now. With the bands on the label being from New Zealand, and New Zealand being the primary target market, how difficult is it running the label being now based in Japan?

Rob: A little bit difficult in that there isn’t enough income generated to pay anyone anything to do the manual labour of keeping it all running. It’s okay to be generous with your own time, but it’s more difficult to be generous with someone else’s, especially when they don’t have your obsession with it all. I’ve been lucky enough to have had a very supportive family; mainly my mother, who held the fort for the first few years of me being in Tokyo doing mail order for me. I’d just Skype her the orders, and she’d package up the CDs and mail them out for me. Then good pal Dave Mulcahy has been looking after it for the last couple of years. It’s pretty low-key stuff though. Just music enthusiasts who have been looking up bands and scenes they used to be part of, or heard about, and finding there are albums documenting this stuff, and then overseas scene enthusiasts googling New Zealand shoegazer, or post-punk, or following leads from videos they’ve seen or tracks they’ve heard. It’s pretty inspiring to be contacted by these people with a passion for this kind of music and getting it out to them. They’re not casual listeners; they’re passionate music fans with a purpose. Exactly the people I want to be making albums for.
 
HUP: Do you enjoy Japanese bands? Has there been any temptation of diversifying the label and market to accommodate your current life?

Rob: There are a couple of bands I like; ‘Coaltar of the Deepers’ and ‘Miaou’ come to mind. But I’ve come to the conclusion that for me, music is cultural and community based. I’d have to be more part of the scene here to get passionate about the vibrant pool of bands making great music here. I’m sure it happens everywhere on a local level. Local bands speaking to locals with local knowledge and insight. Music is communication, be it with words or with an emotive melody.

I don’t really have any interest in doing Japanese releases. They have their own networks and historical connections to service them. And I haven’t been making and releasing albums because I like the music industry exactly, and there is a massive vibrant local music industry catering to the local market. I attended a music marketing seminar a couple of years back and they said 74% of Japanese music is Japanese language, i.e., locally produced music targeted and limited specifically to Japanese speakers. So that’s the local share of the music market right there. 74%, compared to New Zealand’s struggling numbers.
 
HUP: How did you come to be based in Japan?

Rob: My partner is Japanese, and we spent some time in Europe and New Zealand, and then we decided to go to her home country and try there. It’s vibrant and I’ve had the opportunity to work in film audio here, at a level I don’t think I could have stumbled into in New Zealand. I really like the world perspective I get from living here, and it’s been good for me to grow as a person and drop some of my bad New Zealand habits. I try not to wear the same black trousers for a month, tame the swearing and sarcasm. That sort of thing.
 
HUP: What sort of arrangement does Failsafe come to with the bands releasing their music on the label?

Rob: An entirely fan and friend based one, and a partnership in the art of music for musics sake. Every artist I release is on the same wavelength of doing music for expression, communication. Not one of them is in it for the fame and money, ‘cos there’s no real path to that through a boutique record label from Christchurch.

There are the history archival releases, which are coming from a respect based angle, with me wanting to do something for them to put their music somewhere people can get it.

It’s a complex balance ‘cos you really want to see this music get recognition on one level, but then you’ve got to keep the process financed and moving, so you have to sell the results in order to fund the next ones. It’s very hand-to-mouth, and you want modern day listeners to respect the music you’re offering them. So it has to be done to the highest level it can be; throwing all the modern technology at it to restore and master it, and that stuff is expensive and time consuming to operate (but much better than it would have been 20 years ago). For me, there’s no short cuts and no team of experts and project budget. It’s just what I can do in my spare time while not running on the hamster wheel to pay the rent and feed my family.

It’s a partnership with the bands in many ways, and they’ve got to get something out of it too. And that’s often been rediscovering their own music and the bond of their band-mates, and to have a collected object of their creative talents.

Then there are the passion projects I do that pull me into the process. Like the ‘Beat Rhythm Fashion’ stuff. Initially it was a love and respect for their music. Then with this new album, it’s become a partnership where I’ve produced the album and worked closely with Nino [Birch] and Caroline [Easther], and then I took on bass duties and contributed to the new material. It was a real journey and I love how it went; a mental and emotional exercise from my side to steer it in the direction of ‘what BRF would do’ if they time jumped directly to the present.

Then there is my own music projects. I’ve been releasing my own music on my label since right from the start. It’s been really successful in terms of the label; some of the biggest sellers. And I’m really pleased with much of the music I’ve produced, so that's a win for me on a personal level and for the people who enjoy the music I’ve made with my band-mates (Dolphin, Throw, Springloader, Kimo, Songs in the Key). There’s a lot to be said for if you want something done right, then you need to do it yourself. There’s also something to be said for networking and expanding your field of contact beyond your own circle. I haven’t really been great at the second thing, as I’ve been too busy just doing stuff and hoping people notice. But for my next ventures I’m going to trying to collaborate more with others. [continued below]

​Lastly, there’s the desire to see things through. To keep the projects I’ve worked on in the public sphere and available for those that want to discover them. 

So that’s the remastered and expanding releases that have been on the label. Applying my current expertise to things like the Malchicks catalogue; polishing that up and making it sound like what we were thinking back when we did it but didn’t have the recording expertise to achieve the results. The Malchicks project is a great example of bringing these things home. Firstly, it doesn’t feel like 20 years has passed, and secondly, passing this stuff through modern mastering technology really makes them sound contemporary and next level. It’s been great being part of the conversations with the bands as they talk about what they want to say in liner notes, art work, sound, track order, etc. Hearing what they’re up to. We’ve dug up early demos and master reels. It’s great to be able to paint some shade and colour around the existing stories.

I’ve done the same for the Lils, Holy Toledos, and I am hoping to for a bunch of other important Christchurch and New Zealand artists. Open the archives and let it flow. 147Swordfish, LUC, Throw, Springloader, Dolphin, Kimo, Songs in the Key, Newtones, Corners, massive compilations, etc. What month is it? I’d better hurry up.

​Visit :

• the Failsafe Records website here: ​www.failsaferecords.com/ 
  
• Failsafe Records on BandCamp here: failsaferecords.bandcamp.com/
  
• Failsafe Records on Facebook here: www.facebook.com/FailsafeRecords/

I N T E R V I E W
An Interview with Chris Thompson and Donald McLeod about the release of 'Drunken Nights in Dublin'
with Ian Duggan 

Former Hamilton folk and blues singer-songwriter Chris Thompson recorded an album while in the British Isles in 1974, as a follow-up to his self-titled debut. The master tapes were transferred to acetate by Apple Corps in London and then... it was never released. Until now. Why was it never released? How is it that it is being released now? We had a chat to Chris, and owner of Pinenut Records Donald McLeod, about the imminent release of ‘Drunken Nights in Dublin’, and how it has finally come about 44 years after its recording!

​HUP: Tell me a little about the recording of the songs on ‘Drunken Nights in Dublin’. When and where was this done?

Chris: The recordings were done in London at Bill Leader's studio in Camden Town. Bill produced The Pentangle and Bert Jansch records, amongst many others. Also, recordings were made in Dublin at a home-studio in Terenure and at Eamonn Andrews Studios in Harcourt Street, Dublin Central, a well-appointed professional studio where all the electric tracks were done.
 
HUP: You made an acetate of the recordings at Apple Corps in London? What happened to it?
Chris: I left it at the E.M.I. factory in Middlesex in England, where I had taken it with a view to getting a vinyl edition pressed. Things weren't going very well and I decided that—as I had the tapes, the 1/4 inch reels on which the music had been recorded—I would just bring the tapes back to New Zealand and try to get them released here.

I only lost the acetate because I had to leave town in a hurry. [The acetate] was the master-disc made from the magnetic tape on which the music was recorded. It was the template from which the vinyl copies were to be printed.
 
HUP: And you lost the master tapes back in New Zealand also? When and how did that happen?
Chris: Well, they were destroyed in a house-fire at my Mum and Dad's place in 1982. But not before many of the tracks had been issued on records like ‘Echoes from the Pit’ and ‘Minstrelsy’, and The Village Thing Record Company in England, who released my first album, also had copies of a lot of the tracks. Because these records have found their way into the hands of collectors and 'hi-fi nuts', and in the case of the Village Thing album have been reprinted a number of times, a lot of these tracks, but not all, are currently available on YouTube.
 
HUP: How did you track the long-lost acetate down, and how did you get hold of it?
Chris: The acetate remained in Middlesex for many years before being moved, reason unknown, to a well-known record shop in Soho, and then on to a specialist record shop in London where it remained unidentified for a further twenty or so years. Donald bought the acetate at an auction.

Donald: I got to know Chris recently, and he tipped me off on the acetate advertised on eBay. I had been looking to do a second album release [on Pinenut Records], after my first last year.
 
HUP: A number of songs from the ‘Drunken Nights’ recordings ended up on the 1976 album, ‘Echoes from the Pit’, including Fox’s Minstrel Show, Young Lust, Wild About My Lovin', Barcelona and Upstairs Downstairs, and a couple on 1977s 'Minstrelsy’. How do you feel the versions differ from one another?
Chris: The only radical difference in the versions of the numbers that appeared on ‘Echoes from the Pit’ was in 'Barcelona', which on Drunken Nights is a version with flute, castanets, bongos and a vocal chorus, which is previously unreleased. The song was re-recorded at Stebbings for 'Echoes', but that one is just a solo version. Incidentally, [Hello Sailor’s] Graham Brazier had a copy of ‘Echoes from the Pit’ and used to tell me that Barcelona was his favourite track.

Just to be quite clear about the 'recycling' issue, I have recorded 'Barcelona' on five different albums, and 'Wild Rose' on four. They're two of my more popular songs and because quite often I was involved with record companies who either asked me to record it, or were releasing to a different market than my last release, I would do it again.... and again... "You've got to give them what they want Chris!".

Donald: Two other great songs on the album are an unreleased version of ‘Down on the Old Plantation (The Blue Tailed Fly)’; the album version is a band ska/rock steady number with a Calypso style vocal. And the last song is a wonderful blues rock band version of the Rolling Stones ‘Dead Flowers’ song, also previously unreleased and that otherwise would have been lost forever. [continued below]

​HUP: So, besides Barcelona, the versions on ‘Echoes’ and ‘Minstrelsy’ were the actual recordings you made in the UK?
Chris: Yes, basically, but they were mixed with other stuff I recorded in Auckland, mainly at Mandrill Studios. I had some of the tracks that will now appear on Drunken Nights in reserve, and didn't use them at that time, so I'm very glad the acetate turned up and that now, the completed record can be heard.
 
HUP: Donald, you are releasing the album through your own Pinenut Records label. What have you released on the label to date? Where did you get the vinyl pressed?
Donald: So far, the Sneaky Feelings live LP plus HD and Bandcamp downloads, and I did a re-issue of the 1984 Sneaky Feelings ‘Live at The Windsor’ cassette. Two of my favourite New Zealand bands and musicians. The LP for the new release is being done at URP in Nashville, as was my Sneakies LP, and the 12" EP was pressed at Zenith in Melbourne.
 
HUP: What is it about this album that made you want to acquire it, and ultimately release it? Have you been a fan of Chris Thompson’s work for a while?
Donald: I have had an interest in New Zealand music and its origins since the ‘80s, at least. There is a new wave of folk music with artists, particularly from Lyttleton at the moment too. Some of the heavier folk I particularly like, sometimes called acid or psych folk. Chris Thompson was an early New Zealand pioneer in the genre, and one of the first to make it overseas. The biggest new exponent of it now is probably Aldous Harding. I have followed many types of music, and have always wanted to explore Chris' excellent early work; his first three albums in particular are rare and sought after cult classics. The new album draws from all three, plus some other and unreleased tracks. Chris is a legendary guitarist and has played with the best.
 
HUP: Was ‘Drunken Nights in Dublin’ the name it was originally intended to go under?
Chris: It wasn't the original title that I had in mind. I tossed around a few ideas for a title, like; "Memoirs of a Submariner", " Private Bin" and "Eighteen Months in the Bates Motel".
 
HUP: And is the cover design being used the original intended artwork?
Donald: I do all of the artwork and screen printing myself. The current album is also an art and design project, and one to expand my understanding of producing music on different formats. There is an LP, 12" 45 EP, 180g LP, CD, lathe cut single, lathe cut Peter King 10", and a box set in this release.
 
HUP: Chris, how do you feel the recordings on ‘Drunken Nights in Dublin’ have stood up after all this time?
Chris: I feel they've stood the test of time very well, they still sound fresh and lively and the album really rocks.
 
Chris is touring to promote the record and CD, playing Saturday November 24 at Nivara Lounge, Hamilton, on Thursday November 29 at Cafe 121, Auckland, Saturday December 1 at Southbound Records, Auckland (an in-store performance) and, in the evening, Cafe 121, Auckland, on Friday December 7 at The Porch, Waihi Beach, and Sunday December 9 at Cafe Ninety-Nine, Taupo.

​G I G   R E V I E W
The Chills at Altitude, 14 September 2018
​Ian Duggan

It’s been a long time since The Chills last played in Hamilton—possibly greater than 20 years—so it was fantastic that they finally decided to drop by again.
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The band played an excellent mix of songs over the night, constantly moving from old to new and back again. The Night of Chill Blue was a beautiful start to the night, off their 1987 debut album, followed by the two openers off the new album, Bad Sugar and Time to Atone. Then it was back to some classics, Wet Blanket and Male Monster from the Id, followed by another new song. And so the intermingling continued. It was clear from the voracity of the dancing along the front row the songs the audience were most familiar with, though it was unsurprising that most were unfamiliar with the newest songs; this show coincided with the release day of the new album, Snow Bound. Amongst everything else, we were treated to Pink Frost, and a sequence of Come Home, new single Complex and an excellent rendition of Heavenly Pop Hit to finish out the set. An encore, politely demanded, comprised of Doledrums, the 2017 single Rocket Science, and an excellent performance of the timeless I Love my Leather Jacket. A well thought out set, featuring some outstanding songs, that few could have gone away disappointed with. [continued below]

The band were also great to watch. Besides the main focal point, Martin Phillipps, drummer Todd Knudson was highly entertaining, his left arm seemingly defying all gravitational principles, constantly flying up into the air and having to be forcibly brought back down onto the drums. Erica Scally constantly demonstrated her versatility as a multi-instrumentalist, swapping between keyboards, guitar and skeletal violin. Meanwhile, bass player James Dickson looked equal parts like the long-lost brother of Martin Freeman, and that he was fresh from flying in on his Sopwith Camel following a dogfight with the Fritz. Or was that just me that was seeing that?
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The down points? I hadn’t been to the cavernous and echoey Altitude since MSU released their ‘Best and Worst of Mobile Stud Unit’ about 10 years ago. While the venue name ‘Altitude’ is appropriate for a band called ‘The Chills’, on a tour called ‘Snow Bound’, the sound quality became especially problematic during the quieter songs, like Chill Blue and Submarine Bells, and did no favours to support act Reb Fountain. Thankfully, the bigger, iconic, pop songs like Leather Jacket and Heavenly Pop Hit were less affected. Another down-point was a lack of local support. The Scones, in particular, with their Flying Nun aesthetic, would have made for a perfect support act for The Chills, and in front of these punters would have gained some valuable new fans. Overall, however, you can’t fault The Chills for their part in the night. Come back; we need more of your kind. 

R E V I E W
'Creative Evolution' album by The Changing Same

After seeing The Changing Same’s recent performances at Future City Festival and on their album release night, many of the songs on ‘Creative Evolution’ were already strangely familiar for me on the first listen to the album. The album kicks off with one of those tracks, ‘A Boy and a Girl’, with its mandolin-infused, country feel; this one for me feels reminiscent of a composition by R.E.M.’s Mike Mills (along the lines of, say, ‘Don’t go Back to Rockville’), and it’s instantly likable. Another favourite on early listens has been the more poppy ‘Dunedin’, a song that with added keyboards wouldn’t have seemed out of place on the ‘Present Perfect’ album by Dribbling Darts (a previous band of Matthew Bannister’s). An instant classic. Another well worth checking out, if you are wanting a further taster, is ‘It All Comes Right’. Besides the music, a further highlight of the release is the cover art, which is good enough to have belonged in the glory days of vinyl; it should be printed in 12x12 inches, simply so we could appreciate it in its full glory!

It’s been seven years since the release of The Changing Same’s previous, self-titled album, and five since their ‘Make up my Mind’ EP. The liner notes state the current album was recorded at Wintec in 2016, the date on the back of the CD says 2017, but the official release was not until well into 2018! Why the delay? I don’t know the answer, though Bannister did have an album release with Sneaky Feelings last year, so I guess he has been busy!

The album is available on Powertool Records via BandCamp as a physical CD or as a digital download.

- Ian Duggan

The Chills were one of a handful of New Zealand bands that I was aware of growing up on the other side of the world. In the 1990s, my more clued-up friends had their records, and would bang on about them for ages. As was often the case, I eventually cottoned on a year or so later, once my ears had 'matured', and I too would bow to the majesty of 'Pink Frost', 'Heavenly Pop Hit' et al. I never got to see them play live in the UK, and have not had the pleasure since. That is about to change and I am a very happy human being. 

The Chills long-awaited return to Hamilton happens this coming Friday, September 14th, with a show at Altitude, the first date on a nationwide tour to celebrate the release of their highly anticipated new album, 'Snow Bound'. HUP posed some questions to chief Chill, Martin Phillipps, about the new album, his songwriting process, the state of New Zealand music, and some ideas of what Friday's show holds in store.

HUP: Congratulations on the new album! 2015’s ‘Silver Bullets’ was your first album in nearly 20 years. How would you say ‘Snow Bound’ differs from previous albums? 
Martin: It’s probably the best produced Chills album ever and it sounds wonderful but the best thing is that it flows like a real album whereas previous Chills albums have often lurched around a bit stylistically.
 
Do you find inspiration for songs comes from a different place these days? 
One of my rules is that my songs really must have some meaning and substance or I will not release them to add to the growing mountain of dubious rubbish accumulating in audio-land. The common theme I saw appearing in the new material was the more mature perspective of a person questioning their role in this time of enormous change.
 
Is your song writing technique the same as it was when you started out, or do you do things differently these days? 
I still tend to catch melodic ideas on some recording device (which is my iPhone these days) and then combine them with lyrical ideas I have written down separately or stored in the computer. I look for interesting and evocative contrasts. But these days I do make myself come up with a song title and maybe a few lyrics every time I find a new riff because the subconscious can surprise you with its perceptiveness when you look back at those ideas further down the line.
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​To what extent does technology play a part in this? (capturing ideas/lyrics/home recording etc.)
Once I have caught the initial ideas on iPhone or computer then I have the advanced Garageband home-studio program to produce actual demo versions but I am still getting my head around that because I am notoriously slow with technology. Also I am very often plagued with technical issues that people “have never seen happen before!”
 
Your last few releases have been on Fire Records. How do you find working with this label compared to the Flying Nun days?
We still work with Flying Nun Records on our back catalogue for New Zealand and Australia and it’s great to have that connection ongoing but, of course, it has again become necessary for us to have an international label actively based in the heart of the industry, as is the case with Fire Records, and they have been doing a wonderful job for us on these recent releases.
 
What do you think of the state of New Zealand music today, and who, if anyone, do you consider to be a ‘must-listen’?
I think there is so much wonderful new music being made that I can’t keep up and it would be wrong for me to start picking favourites. But along with that there is a lot of very average and weak material where people are constantly re-inventing the wheel and are not even aware of it.  Sometimes it seems the whole ‘X Factor Has Talent’ approach has squeezed much of the excitement, originality and spontaneity out of what is happening - but then there will always be that unexpected new direction and rebellious attitude appearing somewhere. I often feel sorry for those of my age-group who say that the music scene is not as good as the old days when, in fact, they don’t actually make any effort to search for the exciting new artists that are always out there.
 
It’s fantastic that you are coming back to Hamilton, and on the day new album is released too, September 14th. What should we expect to see on the set-list for the Hamilton gig; primarily new songs, or a mix of old and new? 
When we finalised the basic touring set recently we were thrilled to find it is all A-Grade material that we love playing (no filler!) and that it is almost exactly half old classics and half new classics. The older fans have been telling us they love the new songs and that they fit seamlessly into the whole Chills sound so we know we’re doing the right thing and we don’t need to try and be some sort of nostalgia act. We perform live with the confidence of a band that knows this is an exciting ongoing saga.
 
Do you have any favourite songs to play live? 
Any band loves to play newer material as a rule but we have carefully selected only the older songs which still excite us and some, like ‘Pink Frost’, are a joy to be a part of each and every time we perform them. They always change a little but they always carry you away with the atmosphere. 

​Do you have any specific memories of past shows in Hamilton, good or bad?!
We’ve always enjoyed playing in Hamilton. There is an energy there unlike any of the main centres and we’re looking forward to a great night. See you there!

Kia ora to Martin for taking the time to talk to us. HUP has a double pass to giveaway for the show at Altitude, this coming Friday September 14, with support from Reb Fountain! Head on to the post below on our Facebook page to answer a simple question and enter the draw.

The Changing Same are releasing their second album, ‘Creative Evolution’, with a release party on September 5 at Nivara Lounge. We had a quick chat to Matthew Bannister about the points of difference between this and his other band, Sneaky Feelings, the evolution of The Changing Same through time, and more!
 
HUP: It’s been seven years since the release of The Changing Same’s self-titled debut, and four since the ‘Make up my Mind’ EP. While there was a lot of continuity between those releases, can you explain what has changed for the band between then and now, both member- and sound-wise?

Matthew: There’s four of us now, with Mef Storm on vocals and acoustic guitar. He’s also writing songs. So that adds a new sound to the band, vocals and composition-wise. At present we also have John Maydon on bass and Bruce Dennis on drums (bass and drums on the recordings are Albert Bannister and Stan Jagger).

HUP: You have been working with both Sneaky Feelings and The Changing Same over the last few years, with the Sneaky Feelings’ album ‘Progress Junction’ released just on a year ago. How do the two projects compare, or differ, in your mind? And how do you decide what song should go with which band?

Matthew: With the Changing Same I had plenty of time to try out different songs and see which worked. With Sneakies, it was more of a gamble, given that we had limited time together. I chose stuff that I thought was pretty straightforward, or that would benefit from a dual electric guitar line-up. It worked out well. We’ve started a new Sneakies album, but this time I chose songs that were a bit weirder, which didn’t work so well. Should still be able to make my quota though – the deal is three songs per person, making 12 in total.

HUP: The album is titled ‘Creative Evolution’, while your band name is ‘The Changing Same’ - continuity within a changing form through time. Is the album name a play on the band’s name, or was it devised independently?

Matthew: ‘Creative Evolution’ is originally a book by philosopher Henri Bergson. There is a continuity in that both names allude to ideas about time and change, which is a preoccupation of mine.

HUP: I really love the cover art, featuring the bird and the boy. Is there any story behind the cover choice?

Matthew: The artist is a friend of mine, Margaret Silverwood, from Wanganui. I just like her stuff and trusted her to come up with a cool image.  I didn’t brief her other than tell her the title.
 
HUP: What are your aspirations for The Changing Same, overall?

Matthew: To keep going, basically. I just like being in a band with other people. I look forward to recording some of Mef’s songs. I don’t want to be in the spotlight all the time. I have another Beatles cover project, Rubber Gold, that I’d like to promote with gigs, next year.

HUP: What are you doing to promote this album?

Matthew: We’re doing a show at Nivara Lounge, Hamilton, on Wednesday September 5, and in Auckland on Saturday September 8 at UFO.

HUP: How can we get hold of the album, and what formats is it available in?

Matthew: CD from Powertool Records. It’ll be on Bandcamp too. 

I N T E R V I E W 
MSMR101: An Interview with Dr Mesmer's Private Army
with Ian Duggan

It's only a few days until the 10th Annual Circle Jerk! One band making its first appearance at the event is Dr Mesmer's Private Army. We talked to Kent Macpherson (Octave guitar/synth/field recordings) about the concept behind band's performances, aspirations, and the story behind their name.

HUP: You are not a typical band. Explain to us how a Dr Mesmer’s Private Army performance works.

Kent: Every show we do is improvised. We have been together for 2 years and had our first rehearsal last week! That was because we needed to figure some riffs and motifs from other bands to weave in to our set. Every show we have done has been in the key of A minor. It provides us with a simple framework to escape within. Our shows are freeform with no breaks. There are ebbs and flows, dynamic shifts. Slow and hypnotic.

HUP: The concept of the band appears in many ways similar to that of ex-Hamilton band ‘Grok’, with the improvisational nature of the recordings. What was your inspiration for the concept?

Kent: Jeremy [Mayall] and Kent [Macpherson] spoke about this concept of live ambient improvisations influenced by the avant classical soundscapes of artists like Nils Frahm and Olafur Arnalds, utilising pianos, guitars and electronics alongside field recordings. Both of us have been interested in the idea of incorporating a visual aspect to a somewhat static onstage musical performance. Yotam [Levy; cellist] is a rare breed of classically trained performers who is comfortable with this chaos and calm.

HUP: You have released a number of recordings via Bandcamp this year, made up of different live performances, and a studio album called ‘Introductions to the Cosmos’. For someone wanting to experience the band, what track would you suggest for them to go and experience first?

Kent: Dawn 1 is a very good introduction to what we do. It's an early recording for us but captures us in fine form.
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HUP: The band has been active for just over two years. How many performances have you done in that time? Is the project becoming more serious through time? 

Kent: We have done about 15 shows we think. It is semi-serious as all of us have our professional lives outside of it. We all love to hang out and do shows. We don't take ourselves too seriously and truly enjoy the challenge of being in the moment and taking an audience with us on an audio-visual journey through space and time.

HUP: Do you have aspirations for the band?

Kent: We are very keen to take the group to the regions, and in particular, primary and high schools. We recently played to around 100 year 4-6 students at Woodstock Primary School in Hamilton. Their minds were totally blown! We did a Q and A after our performance and the students asked some truly inspired questions. We love playing art galleries and outdoors. We are looking at playing through water at some stage, whilst our audience listens whilst floating above underwater speakers.

HUP: What is behind the name, ‘Dr Mesmer’s Private Army’?

Kent: ​Paul's (visuals) partner came up with it. The word mesmerise is named after Dr Mesmer, who was actually a real person! None of us really know what it means but it does have a certain cryptic nature to it, which we love.

Visit Dr Mesmer's Private Army's Bandcamp page HERE

A number of years ago I bought the compilation “It's Bigger than Both of Us (NZ Singles 1979-82)”, and one of my favourite songs quickly became ‘Danny Boy’ by ‘Alms for Children’. But, like I imagine is the case for many others, that pretty much became my entire experience of the band. A little later I bought another wonderful little compilation called ’Biding our Time’, released by Failsafe Records, which included a song called ‘Point to Point’ by ‘This Sporting Life’; that cassette got well and truly thrashed in my Walkman and, again, ‘Point to Point’ was a favourite. It wasn’t until I received the new release, ‘This Sporting Life - Alms for Children’, that I finally made a connection between the two intimately connected bands. This release compiles the released, and previously unreleased, recordings from these bands into a single CD or digital download. We talked to members Ben Hayman (bass) and Daron Johns (drums) about the release of the compilation, how they feel their songs have stood the test of time, memories of their time together, Hamilton gigs, and more!
 
HUP: You started out as ‘Alms for Children’ in 1980, disbanded, and then reformed as ‘This Sporting Life’ until 1984. Both bands largely had the same personnel, except for a short period in the transition period. Firstly, how have you come to be releasing the new CD, compiling all these recordings?
TSL: Rob [Mayes] from Failsafe tracked us down and said he had always wanted to do a release of all our material. A bit of a bookend to the Failsafe label and the fact that he named the label after a song on our first 7” [Fail Safe off Alms not Arms].
 
HUP: It has been 34 years since ‘This Sporting Life’ disbanded. When you listen back to the songs on the compilation, how do you feel about them now, all these years later? Which songs do you feel stand up the best?
TSL: The first 7”, [Alms not Arms], is probably the release we are all most fond of. It’s a less thought through approach to making our music because we were that bit younger and had less of an idea of what we were aiming for. It was just a bit more energised maybe. Back in the day though, we all felt a bit sheepish about the song Danny Boy that’s on that first record. Maybe because it’s the one that was seen as the A side, and then was the one that got air time as it charted. All these years later I think we feel ok about even that track now. 1981 is a long time ago…
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The songs we played with two bass guitars, or when Paul and Ben [Fogarty] swapped bass and guitar duties were always memorable because we shook the sound up. ‘Total Loss’, with the two basses, being a bit of a favourite out of those.
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Sometimes we wish we had recorded the This Sporting Life album on something bigger than four track, but at the time, it was the right thing to do. And if it hadn’t been for studios like Lab and Chris Knox’ trusty Tascam, a load of us would never have made vinyl at all. Some of the live tracks that have come out of the woodwork we had totally forgotten about. They were recorded by people in the gigs on cassettes or off the mixing desk to cassette. It is unfortunate that there are no more Alms for Children recordings, but we are just grateful we have managed to save this lot. [continued below]

HUP: What was behind the name change? With name recognition being important, do you think in hindsight it was a good decision to make the change, especially considering ‘Danny Boy’ had charted, and the  ‘Alms for Children’ moniker would have been fairly well known?
TSL: We never really thought anything much through in those days to be honest. We simply started a band, played, got some people that liked coming to see us and then stopped. The concept of recognition or building anything ongoing was never in our minds. We played because we kind of had to. It was important to having a sense of being part of something - anything. AFC stopped for a bunch of reasons that happened at the same time - Daron wanted to move back to Christchurch for a while, we might also have been over doing the gigs a bit (I recall it was pretty full on), and we’d started to become ‘a band with a sound’. What I mean is that we had created something and I reckon we needed to work out if it was a thing we wanted to continue. Paul and I were listening to quite different stuff and I reckon we were trying to figure out if this band was the right container for whatever happened next. We spent some time not playing and then decided to try a different thing for a while with a different drummer. That led to us creating a new band in our heads that we then called This Sporting Life. Then a while later [AFC vocalist] Gary [Charlton] joined, and then after just one show Phil Jackson who was drumming with us left and Daron joined to pickup the sticks. So in many ways it was a new band rather than a name change – its just that all of AFC eventually signed up for it!
 
HUP: I’m sure the release of this album has led to a lot of retrospection. What are some of your favourite memories from your times together?
TSL: Yeah a ton of things are coming back. It’s been the best part of doing this. We’ve connected with a few people and a bunch of stories that had been lost.

Playing with The Chills and The Clean and so many others at places like the Rhumba Bar, [Auckland]. Getting to play at Christchurch Town Hall and Christchurch Uni, and Mainstreet in Auckland with The Fall is a big one. A venue that was always a bit intimidating and strange was the Reverb Room at the Edinburgh Castle pub on Symonds Street. Pretty sure we played there with Nocturnal Projections and Childerns Hour. We had a rehearsal studio in the cellar under it that you could only just stand up in and was shared with Dance Macabre.  

A New Year’s visit to New Plymouth sticks in the memory as well. The New Year’s Eve event was in a huge warehouse. [The Herco Pilots’] Harry Ratbag was MC and a bunch of people played including Fetus Productions, Verlaines, Childrens Hour, [and] Chris Knox. It was a bit chaotic in the crowd but a great weekend.
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It was a really productive time for New Zealand independent stuff; Bands, Comics, Design, Radio, Venues all sorts. It seemed everyone was starting something. We all had jobs as well as the band. And sometimes that was super useful like the fact Daron was a printer – posters and covers resulted. Ben worked in a stationary warehouse so an envelope was used for the covers for the first 7”.
 
HUP: Both bands were based in Auckland. Did you ever make it down to play in Hamilton, and if so, do you have any particular memories of playing here?
TSL: Memory is in short supply about a lot of that time. So long ago, but yes we did play in Hamilton. At a farm. It was a day time gig in the outside if I remember right. We also played Hamilton Uni with Childrens Hour, and think that was Children’s Hour’s second ever gig. [continued below] 

HUP: How well have the band members kept in touch since the split of ‘This Sporting Life’?
TSL: Gary, Paul and Ben all moved to the U.K. in the late ‘80s and Daron to Sydney. Paul and Ben saw Gary a couple of times in the first few years in the UK before he moved to Australia and everyone lost contact. Fifteen years later Paul and Ben reconnected. Being in the UK they had the chance to go see some of the bands that influenced the early sounds of AFC – Wire, Magazine, Gang of Four and a bunch of newer bands. The odd jam session was had as well with Paul’s son playing drums. The two reconnected with Daron - who is based in ChCh now - around 2010, and then with Gary - still in Aus -in 2015. We have Rob Mayes at Failsafe to thank for giving us a really great reason to start talking again and its great – thanks Rob!
 
HUP: Failsafe are releasing a lot of material over the next year. Included among this is ‘Beat Rhythm Fashion’, who are playing some shows to support their release. Are you planning on doing some shows to support your release?
TSL: No plan as such; more a vague notion. We live on four different land masses now. It needs to work for everyones lives as well. We’d definitely all like to get together sometime as mates. If making sound was also involved then that would be great. If it’s looking like more than just a vague notion we will certainly let you know.
 
HUP: How can we get hold of the album?
TSL: The Interweb has got loads at Failsafe. Theres a download only version or you can get the CD package mailed to you. Please do – we need the encouragement.

Also, if you are in Auckland and fancy a shop then Flying Out have some. In Welly, Slow Boat Records has some and there will also be some in Christchurch and Dunedin soon, and we will update our Facebook page once we know which stores.

R E V E I W
‘This Sporting Life – Alms for Children’ compilation
 
Former Christchurch, now Japan-based Failsafe Records have some pretty ambitious plans for the next 12 months, with the intended release of 25 albums. Having ‘This Sporting Life – Alms for Children’ among the first of these releases is highly appropriate given this is where the label’s moniker originated, and the Alms for Children song ‘Failsafe’ fittingly opens this compilation. While Flying Nun have been getting the press recently for archiving their master tapes in the Alexander Turnbull Library, the release of compilations like this – bringing together the collected works and live recordings of these inextricably intertwined bands from the early ‘80s – is every bit as laudable for its safeguarding of our musical taonga.

Alms for Children and This Sporting Life existed in the ’81-’84 period, considered by many to be the golden age of New Zealand music. The opening tracks on the compilation belong to their Alms for Children period, with songs from the 1981 ‘Alms not Arms’ 7”. Following the B-sides ‘Failsafe’ and ‘Mother’, the original A-side ‘Danny Boy’ is included at track 3; this highlight will be familiar to many New Zealand music fans not around for the original release, due to its inclusion on the 1988 music compilation ‘It’s Bigger than Both of Us’. Most of the compilation is dedicated to ‘This Sporting Life’, beginning with tracks from their two Flying Nun releases, 1982s ‘Show me to the Bellrope’ mini-album and 1983s ‘In Limbo’ EP. If you are familiar with The Mekons 1981 single ‘This Sporting Life’, from which the band took its name, you will be in familiar territory among these songs. The compilation winds up with a series of live recordings, including one of the highlights for me, ‘Point to Point’ – again, familiar to many a New Zealand music fan through its original appearance on the fantastic early Failsafe compilation, 1986s ‘Biding Our Time’.

Overall, this compilation provides an excellent document of a band whose music has slipped from public consciousness somewhat over the last 35 years, but whose songs are well worthy of both preservation and to be brought back to the forefront of the minds of lovers of New Zealand's post-punk music. While Failsafe are doing their thing, wouldn’t it be great if something similar could happen for Hamilton music? The seminal Orange Recordings 1989 cassette-only compilation Surf Music, for example, certainly forms a gaping hole in my Hamilton music collection; how great would it be if someone could delve into those music archives and release our music from that period digitally? In the meantime, I can’t wait to see what Falisafe brings us next!
 
The ‘This Sporting Life – Alms for Children’ compilation can be bought via their Bandcamp or from Failsafe Records, as a digital download or physical CD.
​- Ian Duggan

HUP caught up with James Harding of Rangiora rock n' rollers Best Bets ahead of their show at Nivara Lounge this coming Friday, July 20th, with The Situations and Elephant Facelift. Read on to find out more about the band's history, the burgeoning Christchurch scene and James' love of The Situations!

HUP: How did the band get together, where are you based, and what is the music scene like there at the moment? I'm digging Wurld Series a lot, and of course there's Salad Boys and T54...and the always-popular-in-Hamilton, The Bats!
James: Olly and I were in a band called The Transistors for about fifteen years. Our bass player and best mate Colin decided to hang up his bass a couple of years back and it seemed like a good time to wrap things up. Ol and I wanted to keep writing songs together so we started Best Bets and drafted in my brother Luke on bass and our friend Matt on guitar. We started jamming in late 2016 and it felt good right away. We are based in Otautahi, Christchurch. Although we all came from Rangiora, in North Canterbury originally. I guess there's a scene in the loose sense of the word. Aside from the bands you mentioned there’s also Nervous Jerk, The Ruling Elite, The Fluffies, Contact Rock, Motte, Pavlov’s Puss, Cowboy Machine, The Teasers, Ben Woods Group and PGX, to name some more. Joe from Salad Boys and T54 is actually filling in on bass for us on this tour.

Are any of you involved with Melted Ice Cream at all? It seems like a really great and supportive label. Yeah well speaking of Joe, he’s actually the founder of MIC, but it’s now being run by our mate Brian Feary (who plays in Wurld Series and about a million other bands). It’s a fantastic label, the last Transistors release came out on MIC and we’re stoked to be releasing the Best Bets EP on cassette through the label too. It’s really sounding like a scene actually now that I think about it.
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How do your songs come to be/who does what bits? Initially it was just me and Olly writing songs as a two-piece, that’s how three of the songs on the EP started out. As soon as we got Luke and Matt in the mix the songs became what you hear on the record. They added so many great ideas to the songs which really lifted them. Matt is an incredibly melodic player, those two are definitely the most musical in the band. Olly and write the basis of the lyrics, probably about 50/50 each.

You only released the Life Under The Big Top EP in February this year, but are there any more recording sessions in the pipeline? Yep, we’re just about to put out a new single online. It came out some recordings we did with Joe over the past couple of months. We’re in the very early stages of recording an album.
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​Any favourite songs to play live? We've been writing a lot of new songs and it’s always fun to try them out live. We’ve been doing a cover of a Flying Burrito Brothers song called Older Guys which is a gas. It’s kind of hard to pull it off and sometimes we don’t, so it’s a fun challenge.

Tell us about the show with The Situations, are you guys pals from way back? 
​We first met The Situations in January 2008 in a tiny spot in the Coromandel called Kuaotunu. We were both supporting a band called Pierced Arrows, which featured Fred and Toody Cole from Dead Moon (RIP Fred). There was a bit of sizing each other up at first but by the end of the night we were best mates. It’s been that way ever since. Countless tours and shows, they’re our brothers, some of the best people I know, and they’re legitimately my favourite band.

Have any of you had previous experiences of Hamilton music/shows/bands? Good or bad! Transistors played in Hamilton a few times, once really early on with The Mint Chicks at a place with a glass stage...I wanna say Yellow Submarine? We did a show there with Guitar Wolf at Static which was great, except that we broke the stage from jumping around too much. We also opened for a band called King Cannons at some massive sports bar. The less said about that one the better. Our mate John said it was “TEDIOUS”.

Haha! Ok we need some fun facts about the band...Who is the best cook in Best Bets? I actually don’t know who the best cook would be...I feel like it might be Matt, although I’ve never tried his cooking so I'm basing that more on the rest of the band's established mediocrity in the kitchen.

And the most sporty member? That would be Luke, but he’s overseas at the moment and his replacement Joe detests sports.

And who is the most likely to get arrested? Any of us could get arrested when The Situations are involved. ​

Catch Best Bets with The Situations and Elephant Facelift this coming Friday, July 20th at Nivara Lounge! HUP has a copy of The Situations ltd edition double A side 7" single 'Island Fever/You Are What You Are' to give away - to enter, just drop an email to us by 8pm Wednesday, at hamiltonundergroundpress@gmail.com, telling us about the best bet you ever made. It's a great record, have a listen here...