Weekly Roundup: Friday 14th August

Unless you've been sealed inside a concrete bunker and have only just re-emerged, you'll be aware Aotearoa’s thriving gig community was hit with dismaying news this week. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will announce upcoming Covid-19 restrictions at 5.30pm this evening, we’re crossing our fingers that restrictions this time won’t be as wide-ranging as the first time around. As mentioned in our news story on Tuesday evening’s announcement, we’ll keep you updated as more information comes to hand, as we did the last time around — all ticket holders to UTR events will be contacted via email of the updated event info.

How to help support our music community:

- For those who have the means to do so, we encourage ticket holders to consider opting to hold onto tickets, opting out of refunds and opting out of booking fee refunds.

- If you haven’t done so already, now is the time to download the contact tracer app and use it — download it here.

- Here are the health and hygiene guidelines to help prevent the spread of Covid-19. 

- You can keep supporting your local record stores by ordering online. 

Looking ahead in the spirit of optimism — announcement highlights for the week included The Phoenix Foundation are embarking on their first nationwide tour of Aotearoa in five years this November celebrating the launch of their seventh studio album Friend Ship, Arch Hill rap phenomenon Diggy Dupé has a pair of North Island album release shows lined up for September and October, Aotearoa hip hop pioneers Upper Hutt Posse will join forces with Tāmaki Makaurau performance trio Whaea & the Rumble and rising Tūranga-nui-a-Kiwa (Gisborne) songwriter Miss Pou at Pōneke's Moon this September, East Coast groovers SOJØURN are hitting Lyttelton’s Wunderbar and Dunedin’s Dive Bar (formerly known as The Captain Cook) for headline gigs in September, and veteran Pōneke folk-blues artist Darren Watson (Chicago Smoke Shop) is jumping in the van for an extensive musical journey across the nation in October.

We were stoked to share the latest instalment of our ongoing UTR Interview Relay series of artist-driven interviews, this week featuring Pickle Darling’s illuminating chat with Lil’ Chief Records co-founder Scott Mannion (The Tokey Tones), read their conversation here. We also featured what may well be the world's first ever all-animated GIF album review! Take in the splendour of Amelia Berry’s “animated GIF fantasia” inspired by the music of Eyeliner’s first album in five years Drop Shadow right here.

While it’s looking fairly bleak on the gig front for Auckland this weekend, numerous live events are still happening throughout New Zealand this weekend under Alert Level Two restrictions. Check out the UTR Gig Guide and don’t forget we also accept livestream show listings (NZ only) — more details here.

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