Category: History

Capital Blues Inc. has a long history and it’s getting longer! Some of those people involved in shaping the club from behind the scenes have also kindly contributed their stories.

The year Pip Payne got the blues club off the ground in Wellington was quite a year for music all around. An ad in the Wellington Evening Post shows that the first ever Roomfulla Blues show was at The Venue, Thursday 6 June 1996!

In November 1997 the first BluzNuz newsletter for the Roomfulla Blues gig, sponsored by the Lion’s Club at Bill Direen’s, announced the following acts:

• Kokomo Blues CD release party
• Bullfrog Rata
• Billy TK Junior
• Darren Watson

December 1997 :

• Capital Blues Xmas Party with Kayte and the Barflies and Neil Billington Band
• John Hammond and Duke Robillard @ the James Cabaret
• Roomfulla Blues jam set

Next followed a series of events; Zebos hosting Kokomo Blues, Summer City Jazz and Blues Series (Darren Watson & the Overnight Sensations, the Ronnie Taylor band, Roomfulla Blues house band Dougal Speir, Dave Murphy, Neil Billington and Marg Layton), Byron Bay Festival, Hamilton Blues Club, a Sunday 2-3 Radio Active Blues Show, and a Radio Access Blues Show.

Other gigs featured and advertised by the BluzNuz around the same time were:

• Ben Harper @ the Town Hall
• The Velox Bros at Bill Direens
• Neville Bros- MFC
• Tony Joe White- James Cabaret
• Marg, Bill lake, Andrew, Chris @ Kapiti Live
• BB King
• Amazing Rhythm Aces
• Julian Dixon and Matt Hay
• Shayn Wills
• The Behemoths (Darren Bob Smith, Richard Te One, Darren Hancock)
• Pip Payne
• Dave Murphy
• The Pauas

As we said- it was a great time for music!!!!

The club’s weekly CD raffle was started and there was an NZBS contest for the best guitarist. The prize was a trip to Hamilton’s Bourbon St Blues Festival plus a Dobro guitar, 2nd prize was a Marshall amp!

The Queen’s Birthday Blues Bash featured Hammond Gamble and Kokomo Blues, and Midge Marsden and Bullfrog Rata were playing at Vincent’s, Newtown, with the Amazing Rhythm Aces, at James Cabaret.

To continue at the Roomfulla Blues were the bands

• The Windy City Strugglers
• Tin Pan Alley
• Velox Bros
• Bullfrog and the Alligators
• The Behemoths
• Whitireia Blues Experience

At other gigs in town at the time

• Laura Collins and Dave Murphy
• Winnie Winston (banjo Peddle steel–) Richard Klein
• Grassroots Jill Brassell and Lisa Beech

Recollections from DOUGAL SPEIR

It was about September 1995 and we were playing at Cactus Jacks, an establishment long since disappeared from the Wellington music venue scene when we were introduced to this bubbly fellow with what sounded to me like a “Sowf Lundin” accent. His idea was to first play at an afternoon concert we had arranged in a couple of weeks time and second to start up a sort of a jam night at any local venue that might accommodate on an early week night. After a couple more brackets and a few drinks it sounded like a good idea so Pip Payne, Dave Head and I made it our mission to search out a suitable venue. Ironically the venue we were able to talk into letting us carry out Pips’ idea was called “The Venue” which was situated in Manners Street above the Dukes Arcade (a site infamous for the patronage of the establishment that used to reside there).

Pip Payne was the real mover and shaker of the three of us whereas Dave and I saw it as an opportunity for another night out and a chance to enjoy ourselves under the banner of “Band”. As I recall the venue owner Tex (it just gets better doesn’t it!) agreed to let us have our musical way on a Tuesday night and he would throw a couple of drinks at the musicians (in our case this turned out to be taken literally at a much later date) and so the Blues Club was born. We provided a scant array of backline gear such as drums, bass and guitar amps and a bit of a sound system helped by the fact that we were playing there a lot and didn’t have to move the gear much. Musicians were invited through word of mouth to come and have a play either on their own or with friends (yes musicians have friends, I think). This proved to be a reasonably popular night by all accounts. There never really was a forecast of longevity at “The Venue” and for one reason or another it was decided to look elsewhere for another venue.

The exact time escapes me but I would think it was around mid 1996 when Bill Direens was brought in as the next club venue and it would take place on a Thursday Night. During this time the club attracted a lot of top class musicians who gave their time for free and really made the night a memorable gig for not only the punters but also other musicians. It also became necessary for a management structure to take shape. Other stuff started becoming apparent as well, such as a sound person, booking agent type of person and it was obvious that eventually people’s good will would cease and some form of monetary reward would be sought hence the move to the Hotel Bristol.

A lot of people have put a lot of time and effort into the club and a lot of musicians have played for a lot less than they would expect to get normally and it has been this kind of effort that has kept the club going. Unfortunately all three of the venues mentioned in this little blurb (apart from the Bristol) have bitten the dust and that’s sad as it means there are three less live music venues to visit and enjoy the particular type of artist that can be seen at the Bristol every Thursday night. I have not mentioned specific people as it would double the size of this blurb. Suffice to say that from small beginnings the club has survived over ten years in a sometimes ambivalent market and with the support of club members, committee members, the Hotel Bristol and Joe public. I reckon there is no reason it can’t survive another ten years.
Cheers
Dougal Speir

Recollections from SKYE ANDERSON

I have been a member of the Blues Club from the start. Member #1 was Pip Payne, #2Trudy, #3 Phil Raynee, and member #4 was me. When the club moved to the Hotel Bristol, Barry Saunders and Caroline Easther had a CD launch there. We have had bands like Kokomo Blues and The Nairobi Trio. Trudy Benham set it up. She was doing everything: the band bookings, the payments, the raffle etc. We called her Trudy Blues. Once in a while I took over and gave Trudy a night off.

Aside from Trudy, the working Committee over the years has changed, morphed and evolved: Pip Payne, Kayte Edwards, Stephen Upston, Skye Anderson, Al Witham, Sarah Duckworth, Dougal Speir, Richard Caigou, have all done heaps of work to keep in running AND Tony from Buzz Audio did the sound for years.

Recollections from KAYTE EDWARDS

The club has taken many forms over the past years from the seedy upstairs bar we started in where we played around the pool table, to Bill Direen’s Bar when we had evolved into a loose incorporated society.

At Bill Direen’s we had a house band that folks could play with – and what a house band it was with Darren Watson, Richard Te One, Darren Hancock and Bob Smith. The blues just howled there some nights and it was with distress that we heard the venue was no longer available. Trudy, Stephen and I walked downtown thinking of possible venues.

After a bit of a pub crawl we called into the Bristol and a new era for the club began.

SOME OF THE BANDS WHO’VE PLAYED THE CLUB OVER THE YEARS

PIP PAYNE AND RHYTHM METHOD
MIDGE MARSDEN
THE PAUAS
HAMMOND GAMBLE
BRANIGAN KAA
KOKOMO BLUES BAND
THE WHITIREA BLUES EXPERIENCE
MIKE GARNER AND DOC SPAN (AUS) – BLUES FROM THE HEARTLAND TOUR

BILLY TK JUNIOR
NEIL BILLINGTON BAND
JULIAN DIXON AND MATT HAY
KAYTE AND THE BARFLIES
JAN PRESTON
BARRY SAUNDERS AND CAROLINE EASTHER
WAYNE MASON BAND
DOUG MACLEOD (USA)
PUGSLEY BUZZARD (AUS)
THE JOHN O’CONNOR EXPERIMENT
SHAYN HURRICANE WILLS AND THE ZEPHYR HUNTERS

THE WINDY CITY STRUGGLERS
TIN PAN ALLEY
VELOX BROTHERS
THE BEHEMOTHS (Darren Bob Smith, Richard Te One, Darren Hancock)
DARREN WATSON
DAVE MURPHY
RED DOG SALOON BAND

GREENY AND THE MAC
HENPICKED
AL WITHAM BAND
LONDON UNDERGROUND
THE BUSINESS
LAURA COLLINS BAND

THE MUSIC WAREHOUSE JAM NIGHT
FRANKIE AND THE BEE
RODGER FOX & the NZ SCHOOL OF MUSIC
BULLFROG RATA AND THE ALLIGATORS
THE LEGAL TENDER BAND
THE PICKUPS

CAROL BEAN & BLUE HIGHWAYS
BLUES BUFFET WITH ERNA FERRY
SILVERLINE
ADAM WALDRON & FRIENDS
BOB COOPER-GRUNDY & FRIENDS
HUTT RIVER RAMBLE
EL BASTARDO BANDITOS!
WELLINGTON HEADS
THE CATTLESTOPS
THE KEMPTONES