The Sound / Voom - Neck of the Woods : A backstory.
--> For the right reasons.
The Sound / Voom: Neck of the Woods. A back story.
In the 80’s, The Sound was played at every party I went to. Friends’ bands covered the songs, felt them. The lyrics echoed our own struggles. Unbeknown to us, they were coming from much heavier personnel struggles the singer on the other side of the world was going through. We felt the power of his politics in ‘Missiles’, from the first Album Jeopardy. Post-cold-war-punked-up-England echoed our thoughts of growing stockpiles of nuclear weapons in a world going to hell. Down here we did our bit, waving antinuclear flags and protesting ships in our harbour. The Sound played music of an era, some songs lifted us up, and others stated how things were.
“I can’t escape myself,”
another hit from the album Jeopardy, spoke to me, as a teenager growing up and
breaking out of a depressed South Auckland, of not being listened to - it fed
on my teenage angst. The song builds up and shouts to be heard, it empowered me.
It made me feel like kicking over and smashing up all the furniture in my dark little
room. At the time I probably did.
So what makes a group practice for months just to play one show? For the right reasons, in this case, The right reasons and the right music. I put my
hand up to promote this because no-one else had; by now you have guessed I am a
lifelong fan.
The tragedy here is that of
the singer Adrian Borland who after a life fighting with depression took his
own life in 1999, a double tragedy following Max Mayer’s who passed in 93. The
beauty of this story is when a few people started doing things for the right
reasons. Step into the limelight - Mark Waltman the writer and director behind
the movie ‘Walking in the Opposite Direction’, The story of Adrian Borland.
Here is a quote from the website for the film.
“The tragedy of Adrian's battle with himself and his disease balanced with his joy and love of life and his creativity. This is the universal story of the razor's edge that so many artists walk between heaven and hell.”
The film and its
releases was a catalyst to a series of gigs in Europe and this is one in NZ.
Step in: The people who do things for the right reasons
Mike Dudley (Drummer – The Sound). ’I can only bring Adrian and Max with me in the songs’ he said in a recent post on the event.
Isn’t that the key to music? That it’s eternal, that when musicians pass, their art remains for us to celebrate. It seems all the members of this unlikely version down under are here for one or other of the right reasons. Malcolm Foster (ex Pretenders – Simple Minds) is here as a friend of Mike’s from back in the day. What started off as a simple visit to hang out with friends grew into something else. John Kempt, a friend of Malcolm’s, and a massive fan of the band is also here – he also happens to have played in one of those bands that covered The Sound back in the 80’s.
David Parry: said in social banter“I am doing this for a reason, (depression is) a subject which is too often not talked about and some of those keyboard string lines bring a tear to my eye, they are so beautiful.”
No
one is untouched by depression – and this band is not alone in that. Adrian’s loss leaves us with what he created,
and what he created was great. This need not be a sad story of a band shelved
away somewhere in the forgotten 80’s.. This can be a celebration of the music
and if it happens to bring out a bit of conversation on how some musicians do
and others don’t cope with depression, all the better. This great line-up of
professional musicians at the top of their game playing alongside the original
drummer make eternal the songs of one of the 80’s great undiscovered bands.
And, with a bloody great local band coming out of the woodwork for the night,
‘Voom’ will open, to boot.
I can’t wait. I am going to start kicking the
furniture around the room just thinking about it. I guess there is a little
teenage angst left in me yet. I am a fan who is about to have his dream band
rebuilt.
If only
for one glorious gig.
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