Neil Finn ... & an instant trip back to my childhood

Obviously we didn't have quite the divine guest list as seen in the music video ... so many of New Zealand's greatest sporting folk drop in but this video captures so much that I recognise from my Kiwi childhood.

Those Mousetraps ... the grated cheese, egg and onion, maybe some tomato, on toast, baked and/or grilled.  Sometimes burned.  Hot milk Milo, friends over, furniture moved, mad crazy joy as instructions were shouted at the game on TV.

Martin introduced me to the song and he recognised 'home' too. 

Tim Finn, Bush Hall, London ... YES, Really!!

Sunday night and I was there, at Bush Hall in London, enjoying a New Zealand musician I've spent most of my life listening to.  Teresa Walsh, my friend and hostess during these crazy beautiful days here in London, organised a most magical evening.

Tim Finn is a New Zealand icon.  I decided this as I stood there enjoying his voice, his piano and guitar-playing skills, his stamina ... himself.  It was hot there in Bush Hall.  Really hot.  But nothing mattered really. 

Then he told the story of my favourite song ... Parihaka.  I was rapt.  He has so many songs but he performed the one I love best.  It was magical. 

The evening was lovely for all kinds of other reasons too.  We sat next to a lovely Welsh guy at dinner, before the concert.  A fan we knew ... he was wearing the tee-shirt.  Then just before we headed out, a lovely Australian family sat down on the other side and we chatted.  Then there was the English man I was standing next to at the concert.  He'd first seen Tim perform back in the 70s. 

It was a divine evening.  Magical.  Delicious.

You know ...

Today has been a busy day and all I had in my head was Parihaka.

Little Bushman, Peaceful Man - with the NZ Symphony Orchestra.

"Though some, in darkness of heart, seeing their land ravished, might wish to take arms and kill the aggressors, I say it must not be. Let not the Pakehas think to succeed by reason of their guns ... I want not war, but they do. The flashes of their guns have singed our eyelashes, and yet they say they do not want war ... The government come not hither to reason, but go to out-of-the-way places. They work secretly, but I speak in public so that all may hear, " Te Whiti-o-Rongomai III told his people in March 1880.

You can read more of the man who was rumoured to have influenced Ghandi in his peaceful resistance.  Tim Finn and the Herbs sang about Te Whiti too.

Regarding the music clip at the end of this post,  Mark Bell asks the question of Little Bushman, regarding the 2009 collaboration between Little Bushman, composer/arranger Psathas and the NZ Symphony Orchestra – did he actually manage to enjoy the experience given the enormity and pressure of such an undertaking?

His reply, over on Mark's interview, made me laugh.

I am loving all this digging around and finding New Zealand music and movies I've missed.