Let’s take offence on road
Andrew London has swapped the vast expanse of the ocean for the wide open spaces of New Zealand. He talks Mike Alexander.
SINGER-SONGWRITER Andrew London, who gives his name to the Andrew London Trio – featuring wife Kirsten and Nils Olsen – has, since the early 1990s, carried on the tradition of Hot Club Sandwich, enabling him to gather material from the shearing sheds of Southland to the boardrooms of Queen St. My new Andrew London Trio album Let’s Take Offence. There are songs about technology, political correctness, people who talk at concerts, Lycra-clad cyclists and the hardships of working on cruise ships.
To support the album we’re touring the entire country during October under the auspices of Arts on Tour NZ, playing about 25 gigs from Coromandel to Gore. Catching a kahawai from my kayak off Otaki Beach for my wife to make ceviche out of. Then going out together to meet our ‘‘third’’ and playing a Trio gig at one of our regular Kapiti venues. Home for a cuppa and an episode of Big Bang Theory. My bass player for learning everything I ask her to and tolerating my idiosyncrasies and personality disorders. She also grows lots of things for us to eat and makes great ceviche. After her, Bernie Sanders. Impossible to answer – there are so many and they come increasingly thick and fast these days. However, that’s OK because rather than having embarrassing moments myself, my job now is to be a creator of them for my teenage kids. Some of Paul McCartney’s chord progressions. Obviously, I’m not going to confess which ones they are.
Mind you, I’m pretty sure he stole a few from George Gershwin and Cole Porter, who probably stole them from somebody else. New York December 8, 1980 – outside the Dakota building. I’d have bustled John and Yoko into a van and got them out of there for the day. Or maybe forward to the year 2500 to see if we came to our senses. Always put your trousers on before your shoes. And learn to like what you have, rather than want what you haven’t. And run away as fast as you can from anyone who tells you that you need to be saved. Archaeologist. I’ve always loved ancient history and would love to have been the guy who discovered Troy or Tutankhamen’s tomb, or the Ark of the Covenant (was that a real thing or did I just see it in a movie?) Or a train driver. No thanks. I have had an incredibly privileged and fortunate life and wouldn’t put any of it at risk by courting supernatural interference. Those genies always have a secret agenda in the Arabian Nights and it often turns out badly for the lamp-rubber. Plastic. Bags, bottles and wrapping. I’ve been working occasionally on cruise ships over the last couple of years. Some beaches in Indonesia are just covered in it and not even the locals seem to want to pick it up. Can we make a start please?
Oh, and Donald Trump and his Republican enablers. I’ve just read a book about the Jonestown Massacre, and Jim Jones’ personality traits, rhetoric and crowd manipulation techniques (constant lying, exaggeration, selfaggrandisement, paranoia etc) are frighteningly similar to those on show by the current POTUS. All the usual. Except smoking and gambling. Gave up the former for good about 10 years ago and never had enough disposable income to be tempted by the latter. Probably eat and drink too much occasionally.
Working on cruise ships is very helpful in curtailing these excesses. Not. ● The Andrew London Trio is touring New Zealand. For full itinerary go to aotnz.co.nz