The Infinite Jukebox

[Hesi]

Any of these names ring a bell

AUCKLAND ROCK VENUES (2003): Pull down the shades

Graham Reid  |  Sep 2, 2012  |   5 min read

It was Joni Mitchell who said it first - and Counting Crows thought it bore repeating: "They paved paradise and put up a parking lot."

It wasn't exactly paradise which disappeared under the wrecking ball in Auckland city, but for rock fans plenty of places that took them pretty close to heaven.

When it comes to knocking down buildings, Auckland has an impressive track record. You call them historic, developers call them targets.

But did we really require a few more chintzy apartments, a furniture shop and a hair salon? That's what we got instead of the Gluepot, one of the great rock venues. Yes, a few said the old Gluepot wasn't up to much - but they hadn't seen internationally acclaimed toilets like CBGBs in New York or Oasis playing a basketball court in Manchester.

The Gluepot had history sweated into its walls, legendary concerts took place there ... and now you can buy upmarket couches and get a blow dry. Thanks a bunch.

People who should have known better said the same of the stately His Majesty's just off Queen St (where Split Enz played their legendary Radio Hauraki Buck-A-Head concert in May '74, and Elvis Costello opened by striding up the aisle singing Pump It Up). It went under the jackhammer so we could have another hotel and retail complex.

It's a little sad to try to find where rock'n'roll noise came from in this town. We looked, but they paved paradise . . . and put up parking lots.

Oddly enough in this city of cranes and construction, the place which housed one of the earliest rock'n'roll clubs - certainly the most influential - is still there.

It is Trades Hall on Hobson St, which was the location of the Jive Centre in the late 50s. It was here Raetihi-born Johnny Devlin, New Zealand's own Elvis who incited screaming and riots, played to packed houses and recorded his first single, a cover of Elvis' Lawdy Lawdy Miss Clawdy in 1958.

The Jive Centre and those who played there are featured prominently in the first episode of Whirl. The dapper Merv Thomas must have a hideously ravaged portrait in his attic - and the building doesn't look much changed after 50 years either. Now it houses a property developer's office, and where once kids jived to rock'n'roll it is a silent workplace for people bowed over computers.

The noise will come back next year. It is going to be a food hall. At least it'll still be there.

Other famous 60s rock venues haven't been so lucky. Long gone are the Beatle Inn in Little Queen St (opened by the late entrepreneur Phil Warren and where the late Dylan Taite played as drummer Jet Rink in the Merseymen). Round the corner was the Shiralee (later the Galaxie) where the Underdogs and La De Das played. That whole area is now the Downtown Centre.

The Embers in Chancery St - more a folksy club for secret dope smokers - is a parking building, the Peter Pan which became Mainstreet in the punk and new wave era is gone to developers; wave goodbye to Mojos, Monaco, Surf City and the Crypt.

Not all the Sixties venues are gone. Yes, they paved the Platterack to put up a parking lot - and did the same to the old Radio New Zealand studios across the road in Durham Lane. But the historic old stone building that housed the Top 20 (later the 1480 Village, Bo Peep and Granny's) is still there.

But the place which Max Merritt opened in January '63 and where Larry's Rebels, the Pleazers and the La De Das started their careers is now gutted and is a workers' lunchroom, and dwarfed by surrounding hotels and parking buildings. In the back of the same building was Zwines, one of the great punk clubs of the late 70s where the Scavengers held a long residency.

It's still there, broken and deserted; the guy in overalls and hard hat reckoned it's only because no one knows what to do with the place.

Developers unfortunately knew what to do with Kurtz and Frisbee's Leisure Lounge on Symonds St - they were bowled and replaced by low-rise retail and apartments just like most of the main arteries around the city. No surprises there then.

The Rhumba Bar in Victoria St made way for a bank. The Wynyard Tavern on Symonds St where the pre-Split Enz, called Split Ends, played their first gig in December '72 is gone. Don't go looking for Charley Gray's Island of Real in Airedale St where Hello Sailor, Th' Dudes, Citizen Band and Suburban Reptiles played.

The beautiful Globe up the road has gone too. It's apartments now. Oh good.

Of course the history of rock and pop in this city was written all over town: bands such as Lika Street Choir and the Hi-Revving Tongues played dances at church halls around the suburbs (just as Citizen Band would do a decade later, and D4 two decades on from them), the Blue Stars ran the Gallows on Remuera Rd next to the firestation, and the Surfside in Milford rocked with a safer kind of pop.

In the 80s and 90s a lot of places just came and went, like Punch and Judys in Fort St, the Albion, Cactus Jacks, the Dog Club, the Foundry on Nelson St, Bob Bar in DeBrett's and Pod in Imperial Arcade. The short-lived club on Queen St called The Club is now a gentleman's establishment, although a suspiciously large number of attractive women seem to go there.

Some places were only live venues on occasion (Phil Warren's Crystal Palace in Mt Eden where the Chicks opened for Australian singing sensation Normie Rowe in the mid-60s, the Esplanade in Devonport, Royal George in Newmarket) and some are deeply imprinted in the memory, from the Monmartre in the 60s to the Windsor Castle in the early 80s.

There was Russ Le Roc's venue called The Venue. Ever the imaginative one, eh Mr Crowe?

The Java Jive in Ponsonby just keeps going, although these days nothing like in its heyday. Then there was the The Galaxy, then Powerstation, on Mt Eden Rd, home to more concerts than anyone could recall: Everyone played there, from Shihad to the farewell of the brief two-Finn Crowded House and the Five Bands for Five Dollars nights which gave lots of big-hair 90s rockers a chance to strut their Lycra. It's now called Oracle and hardly has a band there these days. A shame.

Some venues lasted a while and became legendary (the Edinburgh Castle in Upper Symonds St, Squid and the Box/Cause Celebre on High St) but it is sad to report most of the places where the rock'n'roll noise was first made have been buried, their importance only in the memory of those who were there. But those people too are being buried.

Still, while we might have lost a number of great rock clubs and bars - and we are down to a meagre few these days - one institution has weathered all the vagaries of fashion and redevelopment: the Supertop, built as a temporary structure opened as a rock venue by Midnight Oil in February '88.

What does it say about our city when concrete and steel, historic pubs and swanky nightclubs disappear but a windy tent on a concrete pad survives for 15 years?

As that old song said, "Don't it always seem to go, you don't know what you got till it's gone ... "

Elsewhere recommends Auckland rock photographer Jonathan Ganley's recently posted photo-history of these old venues. inspired by this article he generously says: See here. And weep.

[Hesi]

PJ will love reading that stuff

In another article, I read that Mick Jagger did a free 30 min stint at his beloved Gluepot

[Dancing Show]

On 6/6/2021 at 4:45 PM, von Smallhaussen said:

Pleased I can be of assistance - let's hope it results in a champion.

No skype here- too old for that stuff and besides Mrs vS might get in the way and we don't want Maria putting her 2 cents in 😜

haha only just saw this.. what a cheek!  My words of wisdom are worth 20 cents minimum 💃

[Dancing Show]

Loose Lucy Is On The Loose  -  Rob Guest

 

[Maximus]

59 minutes ago, brown fox said:

The best version of this song I remember seeing was at a nightclub across the road from the Auckland Town-hall(forget the name)1960 Knew it was going to be good when the female singer started with *Wild thing you make my Tits swing*🤩

mercifully that woman was/is too old to be Mrs W ...but Max will be checking some of her dubious family history tonight

[brown fox]

2 hours ago, brown fox said:

The best version of this song I remember seeing was at a nightclub across the road from the Auckland Town-hall(forget the name)1960 Knew it was going to be good when the female singer started with *Wild thing you make my Tits swing*🤩

Think it was the Monaco

[Maximus]

here's an i/v from 2007 with a really famous Max ...

ROCKING TO THE MAX

SCENE MAGAZINE talks to LA-based Kiwi singer Max Merritt, who’s still rocking after all these years.

 SCENE: I bet Max Merritt isn’t your real name ...

MAX: Tell you what, it is!

SCENE: Where did you grow up?

MAX: Born in Brighton, Christchurch, 30 April, 1941. I can stil remember growing up on the small of bacon fat on bread. There was nothing to buy. My childohood, was pretty happy and carfree, though,, no traumas or dramas

SCENE: Were you a James Dean-type rebellious teenager in the 1950s?
MAX: No, I was one of those quiet, lonely kids who thought and dreamt a lot.  My parents were working class – Dad a bricklayer, Mum grew up on  a farm. What amazes me,  even to this day, is why how  and why they help me set up a teenage club in Christchurch, in our house!

SCENE: Who inspired you to get into music?

MAX: I idolised Elvis, especially in his young, more fragile and vulnerable years…I identified with his insecurities, see. We were all uncertain of our future.… and Bill Haley and the Comets. Do you get the connection between the name of Bill’s band The Comets, and mine, The Meteors? It was the closest I could get to emulating my idols. And then came Little Richard.. Wop Bop A Lula, AWop Bam Boom! It was the energy, the wild abandon of it. We’d just come from the era of ‘How Much Is That Doggy In The Window?, schmulttzy friggin nothing songs. Then all of a sudden you’ve got this maniac Little Richard screaming at you in animal tones! For a while I’d been learning guitar with ‘Down In The Valley’ and all sorts of boring gospel songs and given up as a result – Little Richard got me into guitar again! Those song still give me goosebumps!

 SCENE: Fast forward to the 70s and the song we remember you most for…Slippin Away. When did you write that song?

MAX: A lot of people ask me where it came from, because it means different things to different people, and I don’t want to say too much about it, because it would only spoil their perception of it. But I can tell you I was trying to write a Phil Spector ‘wall of sound’ kind of song, you know, like Be My Baby. I don’t know where it came from, but the words and music popped up in my head at the same time and it was all done inside 15 minutes, in London in 1972. I went and recorded the drum part, the guitar part, and dubbed the vocals over it onto a demo tape, and you know what, I kept it for two to three years and did absolutely nothing with it. And one day I was with Andrew Bailey from Arista Records, he was the former editor of Rolling Stone magazine – we used to party together – and I played Slipping Away to him – and next thing you know the music execs at Arista heard it, and I had a hit record. SCENE: When were you last in Whangarei?

MAX: Hey, when was the last time I was in Auckland? You know, I’ve been trying to get back to New Zealand for nearly 40 years. A lot of people wanted me to play back home but I always wanted to come back with my band and at last we can do that now. When was the last time I was in Whangarei? Let me tell you, I came up there once or twice with the Howard Morrison Quartet, and with Bill and Boyd – do you remember Put Another Log On The Fire? – so that’ll give you a clue! It’s been a long, long time. And I’m really looking forward to rocking Whangarei’s lights out! 

Edited June 9, 2021 by Maximus

[von Smallhaussen]

 

[von Smallhaussen]

 

[Maximus]

you are a man of many talents, PJ ... and remember, tis always better (in The Book of Maximus, anyway) to be a Pharaoh than a fairy.

MM

[Maximus]

1 minute ago, PWJ said:

One of the guys on Racing Radio NZ used to love this tune and play it a lot- who was that ? Peter Earley ???

yes....Peter...'ah...there....ah....' Earley. Great voice for radio, but infuriating mannerism(s)

[von Smallhaussen]

I'm in you - Peter Frampton

[pete]

Great song by Mazzy Star.

[LookingForValue]

8 minutes ago, PWJ said:

Had my Astra Zeneca vaccine yesterday at 11.00am and by nightfall I felt like I was suffering from the worst 'flu imaginable. Unable to move, sleep and even played hell with my blood pressure and heart rhythm. Slowly receding now so hopefully will be fit enough tomorrow to score the comp. Very nasty side effects.......

I had the AZ too on Monday. Sore arm and felt crap the day after. Took a couple of days to recover. Fiancee had the Pfizer and it knocked her around too though she has a compromised immune system. 

[Dancing Show]

9 minutes ago, PWJ said:

Had my Astra Zeneca vaccine yesterday at 11.00am and by nightfall I felt like I was suffering from the worst 'flu imaginable. Unable to move, sleep and even played hell with my blood pressure and heart rhythm. Slowly receding now so hopefully will be fit enough tomorrow to score the comp. Very nasty side effects.......

It can be nasty - one of my PhD student's upper arms where she had the injection became so sore she couldn't move it and she was delirious with a high fever.

 

[Hesi]

Probably a bad batch of Bill Gates microchips

In all seriousness, sorry to hear that, I don't like needles, so those comments have probably done it for me, I'm becoming an anti vaxer

[Dancing Show]

You better leave that whiskey alone  - Mungo Jerry 

 

[Dancing Show]

1 minute ago, Hesi said:

Probably a bad batch of Bill Gates microchips

In all seriousness, sorry to hear that, I don't like needles, so those comments have probably done it for me, I'm becoming an anti vaxer

Well if it helps the Mothership had hers and nothing happened at all.. on she went with her week  🙂 

[Maximus]

7 minutes ago, Hesi said:

Probably a bad batch of Bill Gates microchips

In all seriousness, sorry to hear that, I don't like needles, so those comments have probably done it for me, I'm becoming an anti vaxer

come on Hesi dont be a flockin' sookie-bubba..even the scaredy-Kat Mustelid Max showed up at the Vaxinator today and let someone he didnt know from a bar of soap stick some liquid he didnt know into his weasely right paw. That was 12hrs ago ..and there are no side effex ...unless Max has a SHOCKA TOMORRA in the Comp, in which case I'm suing!

 

PJ ..if you want Max to score a match tomorrow, happy to help out mate

MM

Edited June 11, 2021 by Maximus

[LookingForValue]

I hate needles but nothing to it Hesi, hurts less than missing a punt. I am picking up ACR Chinese Radio in Brisbane, seems to be coming from my arm. 

[LookingForValue]

https://mashable.com/article/vaccines-will-not-make-you-magnetic/

[Hesi]

4 minutes ago, LookingForValue said:

I hate needles but nothing to it Hesi, hurts less than missing a punt. I am picking up ACR Chinese Radio in Brisbane, seems to be coming from my arm. 

Hahaha....classic

They've got a NZ version of that, get the vaccine here and it links you straight to a Labour Party political message

[Turny]

Jerry Garcia - Ripple

Magic music from days gone by, guitar work incredible

[Hesi]

4 hours ago, barryb said:

I am not having the vaccine either Hesi, dark that I hate needles, have to get the wife to take a day off work to hold my hand for blood tests. Although nowadays I am getting too old for a sticker and lollipop.

The hatred of needles stems from an inbuilt survival mechanism in that a puncture wound would often see you die. I guess Hesi you and I just have a greater survival instinct than these pussies getting stabbed with toxic vaccine sticks.

Well aren't you an interesting fella, and I thought you ate people for breakfast

I can handle a needle in the arm, vein in the hand for a drip when I had a hole in the retina fixed, three times in the thumb to get a fish hook extracted, but not where they do it for blood, so have never been able to give blood

So will psyche myself up and get the vaccine

This thread is turning into a bit of a Crocodile Dundee, that's not a knife

[Maximus]