The Spurs - 6 December 2020

 

One thing I wasn't going to mention to my wife after my fall on Rome Ridge several weeks back was that The Spurs was where a friend in the club had also taken a bad fall about 5 or so years earlier. I had originally signed up for that trip but pulled out after having a big day the previous day on the Atkins tops in Arthurs Pass.This club trip was lead by the same leader as the Rome Ridge trip and several of the same participants were with us. I meet the group at Windwistle and jumped in one of the cars for the long drive in to Glenthorn Station. when we arrived we had to report into the station house to let them know we were here and what our intentions were. The leader received instructions on where to park our cars and how to get to the access point to get us onto the track up towards Gargarus saddle but somehow we missed the correct spot and ended up bush bashing a while until we finally found the track we needed to be on. You can see from my track profile on Google Earth that I hadn't started recording until we were in the middle of the bush looking for the route.

We finally found the required track and continued on towards the saddle before veering northward for the climb to point 1706. It was a decent slog, sometimes on fairly loose shingle and this scribe was the last to reach the top where some food was taken in and the views enjoyed on a mostly calm day as the predicted winds managed to stay away. Then is was on wards for another 200m of ascent and things begin to get a lot more rocky and some mild rock climbing is required to get to point 1902. After that some of us dropped slightly to go below some more rockier stuff before heading on to the high point of 1985. By the time I got onto the actual Spurs at point 1964, the rest of the group had disappeared from my view and after looking around to see if i could see which way they had gone, I had to consult my map to figure the direction I now needed to go. I soon spotted the rest as the were sideling around point 1632 and heading for the saddle below. We regrouped at the saddle then plunged down the average scree to the head of a side stream of Boundary Stream. The trip down the stream was pretty tough underfoot at first and lots of bush bashing and stream crossing was needed to get us to the farm track that took us the long slog back to the cars.

The trip took about 9 hours, we walked about 16.5km and climbed about 1600M. I was knackered.

Here is a great video taken by one of the trampers on the trip.

Th' Dudes - Christchurch Town Hall - 4 December 2020

 

Iconic Kiwi Classic rock band Th' Dudes were only in existence for about three years from 1977-1980 and released two albums and 5 original singles, and yet 5 songs from that brief period have become the cornerstone of New Zealand Classic Rock. Dave Dobbyn has become one of the most celebrated NZ artists in the 40 years since their demise and the others in the band have been involved in the music industry in various roles ever since.

In support of a recent vinyl only release compiling several of their original songs, Th' Dudes hit the road for the final ever time playing the songs that made them famous over the last 40 years. 

It was to a packed out Christchurch Town Hall that the band preformed on this December evening. We arrived early enough that my wife and myself were able to find a spot at the very front of the stage and routed ourselves to that place for the night. I don't usually do that at gigs but she was keen so stood behind her.

The support band was Racing, a four piece from Auckland with whom I was familiar, as I had picked up their debut album earlier in the year and had been enjoying their White Stripes meets Electric Six dance rock. They did a pretty good set with some impressive fretwork from their guitarist that captured my attention on a couple of songs in their 30 minute set.

 Th' Dudes hit the stage at 9pm, with Rikki Morris standing in for his late Brother Ian, who passed away in 2010, but the rest of the group being the original member except a young lady on additional guitar and backing vocals.

They started in with the first of those 5 iconic rock songs " Right First Time" and instantly had the crowd singing along and fully engaged. The light show was rather impressive with the images displayed on what looked like two great stacks of amplifiers. They rocked on through their catalog of songs that I was not familiar with, even though I do have a copy of their 1st album and they sounded great and then of course they played the second of the big songs and every one is singing along again, this time being " That Look In Your Eyes". In the middle of the set, they played a solo song from Dave Dobbyn, his "Loyal" with Peter Urlich taking on the vocal duties. again, although I personally don't really dig it, the crowd knew all the lyrics and sung along with gusto and Dave couldn't stop grinning. It must be an amazing feeling to be on the stage like that and have the entire audience sing along word for word to one of your songs. Rikki Morris also do his big solo hit as well. For the third big number, a little later on, "Walking in Light" Peter Urlich, really encouraged the crowd singalong, even though they really didn't need any encouragement. Then it was straight into the biggest song, "Be Mine Tonight" and from where I was standing the crowd singing on the first line reach new heights. The set finished with the final of the most famous of their songs, their ode to drinking, "Bliss" and one of the great party songs of this country and the crowd goes ballistic. The head off stage at the end of the song, and I am thinking they have played all the biggies, what more can they do for an encore, and an encore is demanded. The Encore is played, two great covers, being "Wild Thing" and Iggy Pop's "The Passenger", great songs  and played really well but  in some ways a little anti climatic.Still overall it was a fantastic show both myself and my wife very well satisfied with what we saw.

I found this excellent Video someone made from the upper seats. You can see the back of my head just to the left of the big security guard.