Alicia Keys. Alicia Keys is returning to New Zealand for the first time in five years and I would still rate that December 2008 concert as one of the top 10 I’ve been to. Auckland’s Vector Arena felt like the Apollo Theatre that night as Keys delivered a show looser, rowdier and more gospel sounding…
Katy Perry Responds To PETA Criticism – A Homage To Hall & Oates?
Katy Perry from the Roar video. On my Facebook page the other day I posted the following message about how PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) are diluting the validity of many of their battles by so often picking the wrong fights. According to PETA, the video for Katy Perry’s Roar (her eighth US…
Linda Ronstadt Diagnosed With Parkinson’s – Beautiful Uncredited Duets With Art Garfunkel & Paul Simon
Linda Ronstadt, 1970s. A couple of weeks ago Linda Ronstadt (67) announced to the music world she can no longer sing a single note as result of Parkinson’s disease. Diagnosed late last year, the sad news has only just been made public. In thinking about it all, I realised there is a case to be…
Herald On Sunday Travel Article To The Waipoua Lodge, Waipoua Forest, Northland – 15 Favourite Photos
Tane Mahuta, NZ’s largest kauri tree. If you can get beyond my almost unforgivable use of the cliche “tastefully appointed” in describing what was indeed a very tastefully appointed suite, here is the link to my latest Herald On Sunday travel article. The Waipoua Lodge sits on the edge of the greatest Kauri forest in New Zealand,…
My Dream Bruce Springsteen Concert Setlist
Bruce Springsteen, 2007. In August Bruce Springsteen wasn’t only in the news for announcing his largest ever Australasian tour (for February and March 2014), but because Bruce himself sent out his first ever tweet. Obviously one of those stories made more headlines than the other, but nevertheless, when @springsteen said on August 20th: “Bruce here… looking…
When David Frost Took On Margaret Thatcher – My Tribute Plus A Poignant Bee Gees Song
Sir David Frost with Richard Nixon – 1977. Just 15 minutes before the end of last night’s episode of The Two we heard the sad news that one of the finest British broadcasters of them all – Sir David Frost – had died of a heart attack aged 74. Pam and I were already planning…
Kenny Rogers’ 75th Birthday – 2 Songs The Bee Gees Wrote For Him Just As Good As ‘Islands In The Stream’
Barry Gibb & Kenny Rogers, 1983. A quick post to say Happy 75th birthday to Kenny Rogers for yesterday and to draw your attention to two of the other songs (aside from Islands In The Stream) from his Bee Gees’ written album Eyes That See In The Dark. 30 years ago Rogers teamed up with…
Why Bruce Springsteen’s Never Released A Real “Greatest Hits” Album
Bruce Springsteen in the mid-70s. Bruce Springsteen is coming back to New Zealand for the first time in just over a decade so I thought I’d use this opportunity to sort out my hero’s track-list for a compilation which has oddly never been released. Throughout a 40 year recording career which has given him critical…
How Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ Speech Inspired 1 Of Elvis’s Greatest Songs
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, August 28 1963. AUGUST 29 2013 UPDATE: Today in the States marks 50 years since one of history’s most famous speeches, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s I Have A Dream. Delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on August 28th 1963, the “I Have A Dream”…
The Other Bee Gees Song About Staying Alive – How The Early 70s Were Their Most Underrated Era
Bee Gees in the early 70s. I had an email from a fellow diehard Bee Gees fan yesterday reminding me about arguably the most overlooked period in the Gibb cannon, the early 70s. Sandwiched between the brothers’ first wave of 1960s Beatle-esque hits (though that is a too simplistic descriptor) and their enormous R&B hits…
The Dark Gospel Of Johnny Cash – ‘God’s Gonna’ Cut You Down’
Johnny Cash Sometimes I need only the most tenuous* of links to select a brilliant song to play in closing on Newstalk ZB’s The Two (Pam Corkery / Tim Roxborogh – Fridays and Sundays from 8pm) and last night was one of those occasions. Pam had mentioned “ramblers and gamblers” in passing and it made…
My Upcoming Adventures In Myanmar With Intrepid Travel
In a little over seven weeks I will be on a plane to a place I have never been before and more than that, a country which has been virtually closed to the outside world for as long as many of us can remember. I figured it was time to go somewhere new and to…
