The Datsuns to play Future City Festival
The Future City Festival will return to Hamilton this Friday and Saturday for its second year, after attracting a large number of underground bands and fans alike in 2017.
There’s also a Cambridge connection. Hard rock band The Datsuns, who are heading the bill, started out in the town.
Guitarist Phil Somervell said Cambridge and the Waikato still held a place in the band’s minds as their stomping ground.
‘‘Formative years playing music together and all that,’’ he said.
‘‘You have to make your own fun somehow, right? We all grew up there and went to various schools there and family are there so it’s certainly got the hometown feel.’’
The band formed in 2000, and since then have gone on to chart in New Zealand and the UK, build a venerable reputation in the British music press, and release six albums.
They also received a variety of awards, including from British magazine NME for ‘Best Live Act’.
But Somervell couldn’t recall the last time The Datsuns had played the Waikato.
‘‘Last time I remember was in Hamilton at a little bar down by where Diggers is and they were playing this outrageous Japanese action film and gave me a copy at the end of the night,’’ he said.
The Datsuns do remember playing often at the Wailing Bongo in Hamilton.
It is now a cafe, but was once a great music venue at the University of Waikato in the 1990s.
‘‘As for the Future City Fest, it’s gonna be the finale to a short week of shows for us, so it feels good to be ending in Hamilton at the Meteor,’’ Somervell said.
‘‘We haven’t played that venue for about 20 years so are looking forward to getting back there for sure.
‘‘We get together as much as we can tho, and we’ve played together so much it doesn’t take long to blow out the cobwebs. It’s great to catch up too.’’
And on top of it all, the band have another record in the pipeline.
‘‘We’re gonna be finishing off some recordings while we’re all together over here so we’ll put something out real soon.
‘‘As far as plans go we’ll just get together as much as we can and have a good time doing it.’’
The Future City Festival will take place across the Meteor Theatre, Nivara Lounge and Creative Waikato in Hamilton on the evenings of March 9-10.