Nambassa

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May 21, 2018 by Simon Sweetman

The Ghost of Electricity: War Stories by Jon McLeary # 206 Split Enz

I saw them at some key gigs in their strange career. At the Great Ngarauawahia Music Festival when they were Split Ends. I was fourteen and like most people there to see Black Sabbath but I do remember they were interesting. Dressed pretty much like everybody else there – a much different spectacle than what […]

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May 29, 2017 by Simon Sweetman

The Ghost of Electricity: War Stories by Jon McLeary # 164 Me and the Don

The first time I saw Don McGlashan, well it might have been in the Plague or the Whizz Kids. I saw the Plague several times in the late 70s as they played some of the same gigs as Negative Theatre – Nambassa, Christchurch students’ art fest and I saw them in Hamilton and Wellington too. […]

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May 8, 2016 by Simon Sweetman

The Ghost of Electricity: War Stories by Jon McLeary # 110 New Zealand Music Month

It’s always slightly depressing to me somehow – why we need one at all and who it’s for exactly. Growing up as a kid in the sixties most of the ‘homegrown’ music we heard was local cover versions of overseas artists songs – almost like a karaoke country or lamb dressed as mutton. There were […]

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April 7, 2014 by Simon Sweetman

The Ghost of Electricity: War Stories by Jon McLeary # 2 Nambassa

I met Louise Loft in Hamilton in 1978 and we started singing together under the name Negative Theatre. We played a few parties and supported Sam Hunt and Gary McCormack at a gig. Through some sort of hippie grapevine we got the word that it was OK and we hitchhiked to organiser Peter Terry’s home […]