The current issue of New Zealand’s number one travel magazine, Let’s Travel, features my piece on New Zealand’s Forgotten World Railway. Visit LetsTravelMag.com for subscription details (including very well priced digital rates) to read the article. In short, imagine a combination of lush rainforest, remote and enormous farms, abandoned settlements and dozens of tunnels and…
Paul Simon’s Graceland Turns 30 – The Album’s Key Moments & Where It Still Always Takes Me
Ladysmith Black Mambazo & Paul Simon South African rhythms, Americana lyrics and an album that always takes me back to Malaysia, last week marks 30 years since the release of Paul Simon’s Graceland. 30-years-old and 30 years of being a mainstay of virtually every “top 100 albums of all time” list published since. And the…
Bee Gees Mother Barbara Gibb Dies – 4 Deep Album Cuts From Each Of Her 4 Sons
The Bee Gees with their Mum Barbara in 1997. What a lady. 95 years on this planet, five children, four sons, one who’d become the only solo artist to have his first three singles go to US#1, three others who’d sell 220 million records and write no less than 21 different US and UK#1 hits….
The Best Of Beijing On Foot – My Top 50 Photos
My favourite Beijing skyscraper, the CCTV headquarters. I never expected Beijing to be so clean. Sure, the air isn’t quite like Aotearoa’s, but even the infamous Beijing sky managed some genuine shades of blue while we explored. On a 9-day adventure with the outstanding Wendy Wu Tours (see more at wendywutours.co.nz), I was on assignment…
Barry Gibb’s First Solo Album Since The 80s – 6 Of His Best Ever Solo Songs
Barry Gibb. I have a theory that the tail-end of every decade is extra special when it comes to the music and successes of the Bee Gees. It all began in 1958 when the Gibb family left the grey of England for the warmth of Australia. Then after years of toil as teenage TV stars…
Hidden, Historic Luxury In The Auckland CBD – Braemar B&B
Braemar Bed & Breakfast, Auckland, NZ. For my girlfriend’s recent birthday I wanted to surprise her with a night somewhere special. Though with “somewhere special” being such a terrific / terrible hospitality cliche, I opted instead for calling my chosen location the much more creative “the secret place”. In the couple of weeks before her…
The Only Station Playing Both ‘Uptown Funk’ & ‘Play That Funky Music’ – Introducing ‘Soul’ On iHeartRadio
Listen to ‘Coast Soul’ by Tim Roxborogh on Coast FM every Sunday from 6pm-8pm. Until the station ‘Soul’ launched on iHeartRadio in April 2016 (created by Tim Roxborogh with David Brice), there was no format in New Zealand playing both Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk and Wild Cherry’s Play That Funky Music. Two of the most…
Robbed Of Her Singing Voice, 2 Of Linda Ronstadt’s Greatest, Uncredited Performances
Linda Ronstadt, 1970s. Linda Ronstadt is 70 years old today and it seems a good time to reflect on just how massive her popularity once was, particularly in the 1970s. Her birthday is also a sad reminder that it’s three years since Ronstadt announced to the music world that she can no longer sing a…
Dodging Kangaroos: NZ Herald Queensland Outback Road Trip + My Top 60 Photos, Incl 19th Century Mansions, Farm Stays, Rainforests, Mud Baths & Statues Of The Bee Gees
The view from Bunya Mountains National Park. My longest ever published travel article was in Tuesday’s New Zealand Herald – a 3000-word epic about a Queensland road trip I did in May. Given I drove more than 2000ks, it seemed appropriate to go whoppingly large for this piece – I hope you like it! The…
What Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Independence Day’ Is Really About
Happy 4th of July with a very sad song! The song is Bruce Springsteen’s Independence Day which seemingly makes it the perfect song to refer to on this day, though analysis of Bruce’s lyrics reveal a different subject matter altogether. Written in 1977 but left off 1978’s Darkness On The Edge Of Town, Bruce reportedly felt that album was…
Barry Gibb Announces First Solo Album Since The 80s
Barry Gibb. Fresh from his triumphant appearance with Coldplay at Glastonbury, Bee Gee Barry Gibb has officially announced he has signed with Sony / Columbia and will soon be releasing his first solo album since the 80s*. The performance with Chris Martin and co was the perfect launching pad publicity-wise with Barry reportedly the number…
Skiing In A City Where It Never Snows – How Auckland’s Snowplanet Got Me To Oregon
A huge thanks to the team at Snowplanet in Auckland for not only getting me ready for the ski slopes of Oregon, USA, but for probably going some distance in making sure I made it home in one piece. When I got a call from my editor at Let’s Travel magazine asking if I could…
