NZ stars cover the classics
FIRST, THERE WAS The Last Waltz: 40th Anniversary Concert Tour, a live re-creation of The Band’s farewell concert performed here in 2016 by the likes of Delaney Davidson, Tami Neilson, Kevin Borich and original member of The Band, Garth Hudson. Liberty Stage promoter Simone Williams took on the ambitious project because, "The Last Waltz was my all-time favourite music documentary. To actually put it together, with [music director] John Simon and Garth Hudson – the originals – was pretty special.”
That has evolved into Aotearoa Come Together, the umbrella for stellar New Zealand musicians joining to perform albums from the canon – plus “a bonus set of deep cuts and classic hits” – in their entirety. Last year, Neil Young’s Harvest, Dire Straits’ Making Movies and Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours were performed.
In Christchurch on May 8, Jon Toogood and Julia Deans, among others, will perform U2’s The Joshua Tree before taking it on the road to Wellington and Auckland. Later this year, Led Zeppelin IV and Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band will get the same treatment with more big names.
“What makes these shows different,” says Williams, “is that all of the musicians involved are artists and producers in their own right who come together three times a year to work on these iconic albums and recreate the sound of the album. It’s not like a covers band who are trying to impersonate. This is quite different. It is extremely accurate.”
All those musical egos in a room together. It must be awful? “It is so collaborative, and just so professional. They know what’s expected of them and what the audience is expecting, so they want to deliver.”
One who delivers with relish is Shihad’s Jon Toogood. “Simone Williams reached out to me about 10 years ago,” he says. “I really liked her vibe, but I think I was a little bit scared.
"She came back a few years later and said, ‘We’re going to do Neil Young’s Live Rust.’ I’m a massive Neil Young fan, but it was actually the fact that she got Reb Fountain and Delaney Davidson and Liam Finn, and all these people I knew and respected that got me across the line.”
Toogood is now a Come Together regular. “It’s a really nice family. Although we come from slightly different backgrounds, we’ve all gone through the music industry and survived, and everyone brings all that experience to the table. And we get to be kids with each other as well.”
There have also been spinoff benefits.
“I’ve literally just finished my first solo record. And I honestly think if I hadn’t done the Come Together things, the record I’ve just made wouldn’t be as good as it sounds. It’s taught me so much about song arrangement and it's been beneficial to me as a writer.” ▮