Curtain calls and a standing ovation (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
The Southern Sinfonia warming up in Dunedin Town Hall (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Martin Phillipps, Shayne Carter, Graeme Downes, David Kilgour before the big night (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
The Southern Sinfonia's concertmaster, Sydney Manowitz, now retired (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Anna Leese (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Anna Leese (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
David Craig of Strawberry Sound was the live sound engineer in Dunedin Town Hall (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Radio New Zealand's recording equipment: on the left, Sadie LRX multitrack system; on the right, Sound Devices PIX270 (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
David Kilgour (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Robert Craigie (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Molly Devine, Kylie Price, Lani Alo (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Lani Alo, David Kilgour (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Molly Devine (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Molly Devine (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Molly Devine, Kylie Price (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Shayne Carter (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Shayne Carter (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Shayne Carter (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Graeme Downes (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Graeme Downes (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Molly Devine, Kylie Price, Metitilani Alo (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Molly Devine, Kylie Price, Metitilani Alo, Martin Phillipps & Anna Leese rehearsing 'Submarine Bells' (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Martin Phillipps, Anna Leese (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Anna Leese and Peter Adams (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Anna Leese in rehearsal - "That's not sounding right!" (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Kylie Price (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
Metitilani Alo and Martin Phillipps (PHOTO: Radio New Zealand / Tim Dodd)
“Dunedin Sound is part of Dunedin’s identity – our distinctive story, our talent, innovation and creativity,” writes Dunedin’s mayor Dave Cull, “It was a sound so many of us in the south grew up with. At a time when New Zealand was establishing its own identity, musically and culturally, Dunedin led the way.”
Anna Leese Photo: Wikimedia
‘Tally Ho!’, a concert put on by the Southern Sinfonia, celebrates that story and creativity. Graeme Downes, the leader and songwriter of the band The Verlaines, has orchestrated 23 songs by bands such as The Clean, The Bats, The Chills, Look Blue Go Purple, Straitjacket Fits and others. And the Southern Sinfonia performed them at this concert with the help of four of the original vocalists: Downes himself, Martin Phillipps, David Kilgour and Shayne Carter. Also joining them was opera singer Anna Leese and three young singers from the next generation, Kylie Price, Molly Devine and Metitilani Alo – all students of music at the University of Otago.
Downes says that, by taking these songs into a whole new musical environment, the idea was to prove that they transcend their ‘garage band’ origins and their time of creation – the 1980s. It’s a chance to show that the songwriters had created micro-masterpieces that too few people acknowledge.
Tally Ho! was recorded in the Dunedin Town Hall in February 2015 by Andre Upston for Radio New Zealand
1:25 PM.Is adapting those sparse, dark and brooding Dunedin Sound songs from the 1980s into operatic versions genius or sacrilege? Arranger and member of The Verlaines Graeme Downes reckons it's the former… Read moreAudio
