Just back from a great weekend of music. Fane Flaws’ 60th birthday was an excuse for a Spats reunion - we hadn’t played together since maybe 1979, and managed to hash our way though a bunch of old songs (Tears, New wave goodbye, Already dancing, The way you get your way) and some post-Spats/post-Crocodiles songs of Fane’s (What’s the matter, Mystery...).
The band on this occasion was Patrick Bleakley on double bass, Fane and me on guitars, Peter Dasent on eccentric keyboard stylings, plus some ring-ins: Marianne on bvs, Mikey Croft on sax, Kim Willoughby singing Tears, and a hastily recruited local drummer (who had no idea what the hell we were on about, but who gamely thundered on), Hobe. Some songs crashed and burned, some went off - bloody hilarious. Thanks, Fane, for
a great night, Arthur for bullying us into writing a setlist, and Peter and Arthur for their beautiful Happy Birthday My Friend song. 
Patrick, Fane, TB, Peter
That was Saturday night in Napier. Flew back to Auckland for the Nets of Mercy debut. The choir acquitted themselves admirably I thought, notably on Save me some grace, Thandaza and Perfect Praise – in 8 weeks, we’ve achieved a lot. Thanks to all the members, especially to Rohan McMahon, who really whipped it out on Thank You Lord.
Our set list (Some of these are on YouTube - follow the links):
Run to the city of refuge (Trad.) Soloist: TB
Walls of Zion (Trad.)
O-o-oh Child (Stan Vincent)
Thandaza (Trad South African arr. Bishop Jacob Tlou) Soloist: Marianne Backhouse
Save me some grace (Tony Backhouse) Soloist: TB
Thank You Lord (Bryant Jones) Soloist: Rohan McMahon
Perfect Praise (Brenda Moore)
Nets of Mercy
Also on the program, Next Offramp delivered a finely polished set of offbeat arrangements by Wendy Moore, and one by Nina de Boo (and my arrangement of Boogie Street). They have an immaculate blend, fine soloists.and a sense of humour, and everyone dug them.
However, it was the Epsom Vocal Group just off the plane from four days singing in Wellington. who stole the show, sixteen girls who sang with great beauty, accuracy and warmth. Naturally I'd love to take some of the the credit, having taught them four of the five songs they performed, but in fact they were very self-reliant and I did very little to direct them. And having Kathy Crawshaw as their teacher they already had a good tuition. The star was Siobhan who sang gorgeously on Nobody’s Fault and That’s All Right and led the group with subtle don’t-mess-with-me gestures, but let's not forget Olivia's funky solo on Walk in Jerusalem. And it was a pleasure to see and hear them doing the great Moira Smiley arrangement of Sylvy. At the end of the night, a last-minute brainwave saw the girls up on stage with Nets of Mercy reprising Nobody’s Fault — sorry, basses, I should have given you a heads up on that one, but you did well — a joyous coda to the event.
And we raised over $1800 for Red Cross work in Christchurch.
Thanks to Kathy for the rehearsal space and general helpfulness, Next Offramp for their gorgeous contribution, the Epsom Vocal group, All Saints Anglican Church for the beautiful venue, the very generous and affable Paul Crowther for providing great sound for us, Viv’s daughters on the door, and Marianne for doing a myriad of tasks in the background to keep me and the choir functioning. Thanks to Jed, Paul and Nigel for video
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