Kim Salmon Reflects On Favourite NZ Artists — Touring This Spring

Bona fide legend of Australian punk / swamp rock, the inimitable Kim Salmon's first ever tour of Aotearoa begins this week and you better be there to experience these historic gigs. On the eve of his seven date solo tour, the frontman of The Scientists (cited widely as "the first grunge band"), The Surrealists, Beasts Of Bourbon and more shared his firsthand reflections on a medley of NZ guitar slingers that have moved him over the years — from undisputed rock 'n' roll greats, to under-heard locally-raised giants, to plucky psych-fuzz titans of today. Read his words and grab yourself a ticket immediately to catch the Antipodean icon at the following dates...

Kim Salmon (solo)

Friday 30th September - UFO, Auckland (all ages)*
Saturday 1st October - The Wine Cellar, Auckland*
Tuesday 4th October - Paisley Stage, Napier*
Thursday 6th October - Valhalla, Wellington*
Wednesday 12th October - Space Academy, Christchurch*
Thursday 13th October - The Crown, Dunedin*
Thursday 27th October - Jam Factory, Tauranga Historic Village Centre

*Tickets available HERE via UTR

Some New Zealand musicians whose work has touched me in some way.

Max Merritt & The Meteors

One of my earliest cognitions of a rock band was a New Zealand group who’d become resident in Australia called Max Merritt and the Meteors. The thing that first marked them out to me was they had an old man with long grizzly white hair as their drummer. That was the legendary Stewie Spears. Not that Max’s great voice and band’s awesome chops didn’t mark them out... but I knew nothing of such things back then. I wasn’t even aware of them being ‘foreigners’! As I got more into music I’d see them and think “Those guys! They’re funky!” and really dig them. Here’s a link to a TV special they did as their response to when the 1970 Rock and Roll revival was in full swing!

The La De Das

Another Kiwi band that I’d assumed was Aussie was The La De Das who featured the guitar and vocal talents of Phil Keys and Kevin Borich. By the early '70s the band was resident in Australia. Keys went off to front Band Of Light whose hard slide guitar driven bluesy rock sound was, in my opinion, the blueprint for Rose Tattoo. Indeed, bassist Ian Rilen was in the original Tatt’s line up and penned their signature ‘Bad Boy For Love’. The La De Das became practically the archetype for Aussie pub rock with their bluesy guitar driven sound and deserve as much recognition for paving the way for ACDC as Vanda and Young.

Mike Rudd

Soon after delving into the world of pop circa 1971 I would hear on the radio a curious pastoral ‘prog’ song with a catchy harmonica hookline. It was Spectrum’s ‘I’ll Be Gone’ which became a firm favourite of mine. They and their alternate version, ‘The Indelible Murtceps’, had a slightly weird and lateral take on pop rock which was typical of the ‘Progressive Rock’ genre. They were often featured on ABC TV’s counter culture buzz show GTK. Their singer Mike Rudd had quite an influence on me artistically, musically and fashion wise. Any bio you’d care to find refers to ‘New Zealand Musician Mike Rudd’ or as he also liked to be referred to, ‘My Crudd’. I met him recently and when he found out my name said he’d actually heard of me!!

Dragon

Dragon’s ‘Still In Love With You’ gets heard in Oz incessantly in an Arnott’s Biscuits ad. I don’t mind as I always had a soft spot for these Kiwis who Australia pretty much claimed as their own... to the point where Scomo, our former PM, tried to get fun loving Aussie bloke kudos by performing ‘April Sun In Cuba’ with a ukulele. That song was destroyed for most of us by this event that once seen could not be unseen [watch HERE if you dare — Ed.]. Regardless of that, these stylish chaps deserved INXS’s mantle in my opinion.

Sharon O’Neill

Sharon O’Neill’s best known song title happens to be my partner’s name. My Maxine always hated this song. People would sing it when they met Maxine and it irritated her as much as a lifetime of fish jokes (don’t worry I perfected the smile early in life). I knew this singer from Countdown, our pop auricle throughout the '70s & '80s. She was projected as a bit of a teenage boy’s wet dream but her well crafted song-writing and production had a complexity that belied that. I’ve directed Maxine’s attention to this aspect and she’s now a convert.

Shayne P. Carter

Maxine has long championed to me the Flying Nun sound, and none more so than Shayne Carter! I read his biography. The parallels astounded me – Bored Games / Cheap Nasties; Straightjacket Fits / Scientists; Dimmer / Surrealists... all to the point where when I finally saw him performing with Straitjacket Fits and Dimmer, I was spooked by his left handed guitar playing as though I was looking at counterpart from a mirror universe.

Earth Tongue

I’ve always liked ‘spacey’ music — Holst’s ‘The Planets’, Sun Ra, early Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Hawkwind. One day on RRR drivetime radio I heard something very ‘spacey’ and Shazam’d to discover ‘Astonishing Comet’ by Wellington’s Earth Tongue. I immediately ordered their album Floating Being from Round and Round, my fave record shop. Eventually it arrived, I went in and took it home to quickly discover it was on 45rpm! Singing, heavy riffing and drumming in unison with very primitive electronic fuzz guitar sound coupled with titles like 'Microscopic God', 'Probing the New Reality', 'Unseen Tormentor', 'The Well of Pristine Order' and the aforementioned 'Astonishing Comet' quickly gives the picture! Nice trippy artwork on the cover too!