SATURDAY FEBRUARY 18
Dictaphone Blues/Cat Venom, Recorded Live at Roundhead Studios (95bFM, 11.00am and Friday, 2.00pm). Dictaphone Blues used to be three chaps from Christchurch who moved to Auckland to make their fortune playing “fuzzy guitar pop with largely vintage influences”. Now they are four, and their debut album, On the Down and In, was released in 2009. It featured guitars, pianos, bells and whistles, three different drummers and possibly the kitchen sink. Cat Venom is Auckland alternative/goth pop/indie duo Zina and Maeve, who list their interests as leather jackets, graveyards, firewater, vodka and felines. They pledge to “keep with the punk ideals of old; take something, f— it up, deliver it without caring who cares”. Yikes. There will be live streaming and podcasts on 95bfm.com.
TUESDAY FEBRUARY 21
Cashel Mall, photo David White
Morning Report (Radio New Zealand National, Tuesday and Wednesday, 6.00am). For two days this week, Morning Report will broadcast live from Cashel Mall in Christchurch, one year after the most heartbreaking of the Canterbury earthquakes, on February 22. Simon Mercep will be talking to residents and decision-makers about their city after the worst year of its relatively short life and RNZ reporters will find out how the rebuilding is going, even as the shakes continue.
The Kick Drum/Special Olympics Hour (Otago Access Radio, 105.4FM, Tuesdays 8.30pm and Wednesdays 11.00am). Interesting things are happening on public access radio around the country and here are a couple of programmes worth checking out if you’re within cooee of Dunedin. In The Kick Drum, local legend Marcel Rodeka finally gets his own radio show. He did a voice test at another station many moons ago and was shown the door, which jump-started his career on the drums with Dunedin rock group Mother Goose, then Aussie band Perfect Strangers. For 15 years he shared the stage and studio with Queen; Chris Rea; Joan Armatrading; Blood, Sweat and Tears; Midnight Oil; Jimmy Barnes; Bob Geldof and other Very Famous People before coming home. Nowadays he plays with the Oxo Cubans, teaches drumming and is dedicated to showcasing local bands on this brand-new programme. In Special Olympics Hour, Thomas van der Lugt is keen to promote his organisation, spread the word about getting involved in sport and spin a few favourite tracks. The 25-year-old was a member of the Special Olympics alpine ski team at the World Winter Games in Boise, Idaho, in 2009, winning gold and silver medals and placing fifth in racing. “It was so cool to stand on the podium in my New Zealand gear with everybody cheering,” he says.
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 22
Appointment (Radio New Zealand Concert, 7.00pm). With our very own Bret McKenzie nominated for a best song Oscar this year for Man or Muppet? it’s high time someone looked at the musical side of the film industry’s most prestigious awards ceremony. And that person is Steve Danby, with May I Heave the Envelope, Please?, broadcasting from the Lido Theatre in Wellington. Here, he comes to the outraged conclusion that the judges are “all STARK RAVING BONKERS”, given how many great popular songs have missed out on a gong – if they were nominated at all.
THURSDAY FEBRUARY 23
Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan (Radio New Zealand National, 11.20am). Ryan’s feature guest this morning is Cynthia Bulik, a US psychologist and expert on eating disorders who discusses the difference between self-esteem and body esteem and what to do if your daughter decides she doesn’t really look like a fairy princess.
Music Alive (Radio New Zealand Concert, 8.00pm). In what we’re sure couldn’t possibly be urban one-upmanship, the APO launches its splendid, put-on-your-best-frock-and-heels season Gala Opening in Auckland tonight, direct from the Town Hall. The classical bash features Ukrainian pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk with the orchestra, conducted by Eckehard Stier, and on the programme is Strauss’s Don Juan Op 20, Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 2 in G minor Op 16 and Respighi’s The Fountains of Rome and Roman Festivals.
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 24
Music Alive (Radio New Zealand Concert, 8.00pm). Quelle coincidence. Tonight, direct from Wellington’s Michael Fowler Centre, it’s the splendid, etc … gala opening of this year’s New Zealand International Arts Festival 2012. With the city still full of beautiful Hobbit people, you’ll be able to enjoy the best of culture and possibly hang out with the world’s most glamorous short, furry folk with huge feet. Star-spotting aside, tonight’s concert features Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex and Symphony of Psalms, with New Zealanders Margaret Medlyn (soprano) and Martin Snell (bass-baritone) and Australians tenor Stuart Skelton and Daniel Sumegi (bass-baritone), the Chapman Tripp Opera Chorus of the NBR New Zealand Opera and the NZSO, conducted by Joana Carneiro.