The Year of the Sailor

Rip It Up, Issue 9, 1 March 1978, Page 4

The Year of the Sailor

Alastair Dougal

If 1977 saw a resurgence in NZ rock ’n’ roll (and I think it did), it was also particularly Hello Sailor’s year. In my reckoning of NZ rock awards for last year, they'd take best single choose either “Gutter Black’’ or “Blue Lady” and walk off with best album too. Touring through the last few months of last year broke them to a wider audience but also took its toll on the health of singer Graham Brazier’s voice. Voice trouble developed on the beach tour early this year and Graham confessed that the problems had depressed him so badly that he almost quit. But the success of their set at the Great Western Music Festival soon dispelled any such thoughts. Brazier's voice had largely recovered and they went down a storm. Since that time, they’ve taken a well deserved holiday and this, together with the decision to quit constant pub gigging, has allowed Graham’s voice to recover and also given the band a chance to review their repertoire reworking existing material and introducing new songs. They've now accumulated more than enough new material for an album. A single will be recorded first though, and most likely candidate is "Son of Sam”, already an established stage favourite. “Blue Lady" has been released in Australia and they're working on video clips to back up the promotion of the single over there. All in all, I'm prepared to bet 1978 will be Hello Sailor's year too.