This year’s More FM series of winery tours coincided with the second devastating Christchurch quakes and throughout the evening, under the raindrops, 6,500 of us banded together more than ever before at the Villa Maria finale in Auckland.
And it had everything to do with the music...
Midnight Youth, OPSHOP and Brooke Fraser joined forces to become an entity of creative brilliance and compassion – and although each explores a different genre there was a perfect synergy amongst the three acts – most effortlessly shown in an encore performance by Jeremy Redmore, Jason Kerrison and Brooke Fraser, of The Beatles ‘Let it Be’.MIDNIGHT YOUTH
Midnight Youth’s energy was electric and instantaneous, kicking the night off with ‘Cavalry’ from their debut 2009 album The Brave Don’t Run.
I stood to the left of the stage, looking out to the crowd and to the band, and back out to the crowd, for this review – loving their new song ‘Just for Once’, the solitary hints in ‘Golden Love’, their No. 1 hit ‘The Letter’ and a stellar cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love.’
By the end of their set I couldn’t stop myself and was out there jumping up and down, belting out the lyrics to ‘All On Our Own’.
They are an international rock band, without doubt. And why wouldn’t they be - we Kiwis are the best in the world. The astounding quality of Jeremy Redmore’s vocals and slick backing of Simon Oscroft on vocals and electric guitar – the entire band don’t just replicate onstage duplications of their studio tracks; they are complete and utter performers – with all the energy of ‘the first time’ but all the skill and confidence of an old hand.OPSHOP
OPSHOP is a band so synonymous with ‘us’ and are so often the first band that comes to mind when thinking of a group so ever-present in our collective culture. And it showed: as soon as Jason Kerrison and band took to the stage, the crowds came running were under their spell for such huge hits as ‘Big Energy’, ‘Maybe’ and ‘One Day’.
It was amazing watching the crowd as they performed (again, I ended up in the midst of the crowd for ‘Maybe’): everyone knew OPSHOP lyrics – fathers were singing to their tiny daughters, who were singing back to their daddies; partners danced and sang to each other, bunches of guys stood in a circle hollering out the lyrics at the top of their lungs while groups of girls formed long lines swaying their hands in the air, like they just don’t care... but the thing is, they do...
OPSHOP are Canterbury guys and have had incredibly deep emotions running throughout the tour (which Brooke Fraser spoke of during her set).Jason stopped their set midway and asked the crowd to join him in a 30-second silence for Christchurch; he sat behind his keyboard, put his hands in prayer and buried his head. Voices fell, a slight peppering of sound and then a profound silence that brings tears to my eyes even thinking about it.
There is a power in silence as there is in music – and OPSHOP’s continuation of the tour amidst personal grief has indeed been a gift to the many thousands of people who attended the concerts.
Jason also spoke to the crowd about their new single, ‘Love Will Always Win’ – the band will donate all sales from the single to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal
OPSHOP will also be sending a very special message to the people of Christchurch via their new music video, of which you can be a part – as Jason said:
“Make a video of yourself on your phone with a message for Christchurch, write on some card your name, where you’re from, a message, and hold it up while you record what you want to say. Send it to the OPSHOP website and we’ll put it in our new music video, ‘Love Will Always Win’. OPSHOP's website
And then they played their new single and the place went nuts – as with ‘Pins and Needles’ and ‘Madness and Other Allergies’. So it is an understatement to say I was surprised when Jason announced they were currently without a recording contract. The mind really does boggle, New Zealand.BROOKE FRASER
Brooke Fraser is perhaps music’s ultimate gift, weaving intensely thought-provoking lyrics into an often haunting tapestry of melodies.
It was time for the headline act – the woman Jason Kerrison said “it had been a pleasure to learn from throughout the tour.”
Opening with ‘Orphans, Kingdoms,’ Brooke was completely mesmorising – slowly building layers of sound to leave not a stone unturned throughout the vineyard setting.
What ensued was set list worthy to be recorded as her greatest hits, even though ‘Flags’ is only her third album and we know the best of her is still hiding up her sleeve.
‘Betty’ got us all in some sort of crazed celebratory rain dance – shortly matched by Brooke and band’s engagement into a highly rhythmic, almost tribal, chant that entranced and enthralled, and my only wish is to know what it was called.
Between these sat the ‘C S Lewis Song’ – very much a story of hope set in a series of verses that almost carefully unveil themselves, culminating in the moment – just like in the best stories – where everything will make sense; the keyboard chimes and the story wraps itself tightly and is sent straight into your heart: “For we, we are not long here / our time is but a breath / so we’d better breathe it...”
It was an honour to see it live last night. The ‘C S Lewis Song’ released into the crowd a poignant reflection of hope, which Brooke later spoke of in reference to the title track of her new album, ‘Flags’, that we are all beacons of hope for Christchurch: that ‘reality has left you reeling / all facts and no feeling / no faith and all fear / I don’t know why a good man will fall / while a wicked one stands / and our lives blow about like flags on the land.’
She sang ‘Deciphering Me,’ ‘Shadowfeet,’ she launched into a series of ‘Do-do-do-do-dos’ and the place became a Brooke frenzy, with the microphone turned on us to sing the ‘Ah-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah’ bits – we were brilliant, I must say. And she spoke of being a 17-year-old student at Nge Nge College in Lower Hutt (cheering from various parts of the audience), writing her first song ‘Better’, which she then performed to people who she said “Wouldn’t even have been born when it was first released”.
Brooke Fraser’s sense of humour is classic: she speaks of playing mean jokes on her band (finding a $1 coin in a Port-a-loo and putting it on the table as a gift, all “covered in wees”); she reads out a sign from a 5-year-old fan in the crowd that says ‘I love you Brooke’ and tells him almost in a Beyonce-put-a-ring-on-it style: “It’s all about buying her the rocks first, buddy”, as she points to her already wedded finger – and then reminds herself he’s only five and “ooo, that’s sick”. She even laughs at herself as she uses shakers for rhythm in the song ‘Jack Kerouac’.
But the best joke of the night was when she told us she was off to Texas in just a few days to perform in front of industry folk and that “They probably won’t care and I’ll think I suck.”
Then she looked out to the crowd and heard the overwhelming clapping and screams of love from the entire audience, myself included – more than I have heard (or done) at any concert in a very long time – and she said “…and when I think that I suck I will look back and remember this night and all of you, and I’ll remember how wonderful this is and how good I can be.”
She was – is – incredible. She promised to always come back home to New Zealand, to always tour here and always release her albums here first – and she bid us farewell.
She couldn’t even leave the stage before the crowd erupted into encore calls.
As she walked back to the microphone and let out an almost echoing set of “Oooo, Oooo” … my album favourite from ‘Flags’ had just begun – ‘Coachella’ – and I’d been so spellbound throughout her performance that I hadn’t even missed hearing it. It is a song that we can all be thankful for, as the music festival Coachella that Brooke attended is what inspired her to start writing again.
Without that evening we may never have heard her album Flags.
The evening ended with just Brooke and her keyboard, and the beautiful song ‘Arithmetic’, and her best wishes for all of us for 2011.
Says co-promoter Brent Eccles, “It was a culmination of an 18 show tour; the only challenge being the light rain that fell for most of the performance, but a very memorable night for all of those who attended. And thanks to the generosity of the fans, $6530.20 was collected towards the Christchurch Red Cross Earthquake Appeal, bringing the overall total collected since 22 February to almost $42,000”.
When the 2012 More FM series of winery tours get underway, Christchurch will still be rebuilding its place and people. And when the 2013 More FM series of winery concerts begin, Christchurch will still be rebuilding its place and people.
For 2011, the space between those on stage and those off simply dissolved last night. Thanks to Midnight Youth, OPSHOP and Brooke Fraser for a magical evening.We’re all looking forward to next year.
Watch Brooke Fraser's 'Betty' here:
Watch OPSHOP's 'Madness & Other Allergies' here:
Watch Midnight Youth's 'Just For Once' here:
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