Chch will get pop, but no Iggy

Press, 16 December 1988, Page 25

Chch will get pop, but no Iggy

Noteworthy I

Nevin Topp

Christchurch will get the pop, but without Iggy, next month. Pepsi-Cola, the soft drink brand, is sponsoring a New Zealand tour by Jimmy Barnes, his fellow Australians, The Choirboys, New Zealand’s Knightshade, and the legendary Iggy Pop, but Iggy will not be at Christchurch’s outdoor show, unfortunately. The “Barnestorming” tour will open at Addington raceway on Saturday, January 28. Iggy Pop will join the tour at Athletic Park on February 1, and continue to Mount Smart stadium on February 3. Tickets for the shows went on sale on Wednesday- * A number of people have got together to form a group called the Christchurch Music Lobby (C.M.L.) to support and promote the city’s music scene. The lobby is not a constituted body, but consists of musicians, promoters, equipment hirers, and others interested in music. The C.M.L. has held a number of meetings, and one of the first priorities is to help bands who are seeking Just Juice recording grants from the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council. Alison Dalziel, a member of the arts council in Christchurch, and also a member of C.M.L., says that concern has been

expressed about the declining number of artists seeking grants in Christchurch. There were no Christchurch bands in the latest batch of grants. One problem is that local groups have not put together distribution deals, so the C.M.L. will be working on that, she says. Those interested in either seeking further information on the recording grants or joining the C.M.L. can get in touch with Alison Dalziel at Christchurch 665-451. Meanwhile, Grant McDonagh, who called for a meeting to discuss the music scene in Christchurch, says he has been misinformed over some of the matters that he wrote about in the editorial in the magazine “Sunburn” No. 3. McDonagh, who runs the small indie label, Passage, says that the meeting on Monday evening has helped clear the air about the music scene and he has withdrawn the magazine from circulation (which makes it a collector’s item).

McDonagh says he will be attending a Community Arts Council meeting to meet some of the people in the Christchurch Music Lobby, one organisation that came under fire in his editorial. * * * The Chills are continuing to get exposure in Britain following the release of the import single “Wet Blanket” last month. Everett True has done a feature on the band in the December 3 issue of “Melody Maker,” after his enthusiastic review of the single in November. The feature consists of an interview with the founder member, Martin Phillipps — after 11 reincarnations of the group. * ♦ ♦ Rua, a Scottish folk group, will start a second tour of New Zealand next week when they play at the State Trinity Theatre, in Christchurch, on December 23. The concert will be the band’s only Christchurch show. ' The Christchurch concert is part of a twomonth tour before the group tour for a further month in Australia.