As you will see on my website and YouTube, I have posted a video version of a new song titled ‘Will it Rain’. Against a backdrop of news clips showing the deadly rain of rockets, bombs and missiles that fall from the sky in the Ukraine and the middle east. In the chorus, the lyrics speak of living with the constant fear of the siren sounding. The verses focus attention on the international inertia, the reluctance to intervene to stop the killing of children and entire families.

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On Sat 2nd December from 11am there will be live music in the Vinyl Room Whanganui with Terry Sarten (guitar/vocals) performing songs to support a limited-edition re-release of songs he recorded 15 years ago.
These will be available in the Vinyl Room in two different formats - on CD and also as USB which will be contained in a repurposed medicine style bottle to emphasise how music can also be good medicine. Read More…

Its back to the future with Relics and Tributes in the world of music at the moment. The recent wave of nostalgia has washed up a flurry of re-released ‘mature’ albums that first saw light off day in the 60’s – 70’s and created a market for tribute bands re=enacting the songs, the sound and the look of famous bands that no longer exist. Read More…

We hear about the denigration, the snide put down of ‘wokeness’ and its supposed threat to social and moral stability. This is mostly coming from the right-wing fringe. The woke word is being used to push back against women’s rights, abortion, any discussion of inequality, race. migration, gender definitions, being gay, immunisation, covid restrictions, banning books. Woke seems to be anything that challenges a very narrow view of the world. Read More…

Hands up those readers who, as a child, had an invisible friend? Hmm. Quite a few of you. Now keep you hand up if you still have an invisible friend? Those of you turning for a quiet aside to someone unseen before lifting your hand have been counted. Read More…

I have a theory that the secret ingredient that powers Whanganui’s creative/ arts community is the Awa. There is something in the water that makes this a wonderful place to imagine and create across the diverse and various forms. Whether that is music, visual arts, fashion, developing spaces /environments in which art can flourish, these all combine into a dynamic community network that is collaborative and willing to share knowledge and experience. Read More…

I wrote the song “Reach Out and Hold On” two weeks ago following the torrential rain and flooding that came with a cyclone which devastated the north and east coast of New Zealand and the amazing efforts of locals and emergency services who rescued people from the roofs of their flooded houses. Read More…

Music is often the soundtrack to our lives. Sometimes its wallpaper, sometimes its art on the wall, decorative and lovely. We forget it does have power. Why would a regime try to ban a song unless they were afraid of its power? Read More…

Each player has a small icon representing a chosen musical instrument. Players are given credit points based on their ability to actually play an instrument with bonus points for being able to sing and play at the same time. These factors will define where on the boardgame you start.

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As the British Tory party muddles its way through the choosing a new leader like a blindfolded person trying to stick the tail on a donkey, the once upon a time Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been trying against all odds to stay in No 10 Downing Street. Meanwhile, a wild-eyed cluster of ambitious Tories are in true power- seeking mode and eyeing up the Prime Minister’s job. Read More…

I played 3 songs as [art of set recently. Two of my own with one so hot of the press I had the words on big sheets of paper on the floor in front of me. I also did a cover version of an old favourite. The song was ‘Couldn’t Love You More’ by John Martyn. Read More…

My quest this week is to reclaim, on behalf of all those aged under two years of age, the words babe and baby from the clutches of songwriters. Along with “I love you” it must be the most misused song lyrical gambit of all time. If you become the focus of someone’s affection in song would you not question why they would want to call you Baby? Read More…

Three chords, maybe four, a minor seventh, nothing more. That’s how it begins then the heartache starts. Is this tune an old familiar friend in disguise? There are only so many notes, so many sequences that can be strung together to form a melody, that the chances of cloning an existing idea are very high. Read More…

Today I put the final words together on a new song. I did a run through with John Scudder this afternoon so he can begin working on a bassline. The song sings of the ‘other’, listing the things that are often regarded as different but in fact are common across all people. Read More…

The Urban Angels will be doing their bit for May Music Month with set of all original material at the Sarjeant Gallery on Taupo Quay on May 23rd. Alongside the more well-known songs such as “Angel of Mercy”, “The Man in the Moon” and “Don’t Surrender” the setlist will have new songs written over the past few months.
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Here in New Zealand, we are fortunate to be able to play music and play sport to crowds of spectators. We realise this is a rare thing in the age of Covid. Being an island nation at the bottom of the world does have its advantages. We have been able to decide who can come into the country. This has been based on prioritising essential workers. Read More…

There was a riot at the Pearly Gates. A bunch of those heading heavenward arrived at the entrance to find no one on duty. They sat down to wait figuring if patience is considered a virtue then that was what they could do.
Half an hour went by and no one came. A couple went over and banged on the Pearly Gates and shouted ‘is anybody there” before falling into embarrassed whispers about whether that was a bit sinful. Read More…

I have been getting around various local venues checking out the performance scene and find that on enquiry about live music I am told that they get in a DJ. Thinking a DJ is a musician is mistaking the ability to plug in a computer with being able to play an instrument or sing. DJ’s play records /sample songs / do remixes they do not compose or actually play the songs. Read More…

The Urban Angels - aka John Scudder on double bass and me doing guitar and vocals will be playing a short run of shows featuring my songs later this month. It has been great working with venues that support original writing. There are still the places that want to know what you will play things they and their punters will recognise rather than self- penned material. Read More…

I have been fortunate as a musician living in New Zealand to be able to step onto a stage in front of an audience a number of times over the past few weeks. Having been able to come out of a Covd-19 lockdown that has gained us an advantage over the virus it was extra sweet to perform my songs again. Read More…

The world has seen rule by the aristocracy, the rise of meritocracy, democracy, autocracy, anarchy, bureaucracy, not so much of angelocracy (government by angels) lots of despotocracy and now we can add Idiocracy to the list. Idiocracy is an actual a word. Read More…

This weekend I will step onto a stage for the first time in 3 months. It will also be literally a new stage in my career as the venue, Space Studio and Gallery at 18 Saint Hill St, has just built a stage in their wonderful performance space behind the exhibition area. The room has great acoustics and can seat around 60 people. Read More…

I hear that Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters called another MP David Seymour ’’Sunshine’’ as a form of put-down response to being called Grandpa. The odd thing about this is that while Peters is actually a Grandfather, David Seymour is most certainly not ‘Sunshine’ in any shape or form. Read More…

Angel of mercy / Where have you been
I’ve been under your window waiting for you to sing
I just want to hear you / call my name once more
The way you’ve called to me so many times before Read More…

As a songwriter I am always looking for song ideas. Where do songs come from? Where do they go if they never get finished? I have heaps of notebooks full of scribbled lyrical ghost that haunt the pages and homeless song titles that never found a place to live. Read More…

The world is awash with conspiracies – we know this because conspirators tell us this and if challenged say that if there is no evidence of a conspiracy then this constitutes absolute proof that something is clearly being hidden from us – otherwise we would know. Defies the gravitational pull of facts and cam cause dizziness and attacks of virtual vertigo. Read More…

After playing guitar and singing at Mud Ducks Café, with my thoughts focused on songs – remembering the words to my own songs and favourites I enjoy performing - I wrote the following patchwork of song lyrics. Read More…

This will be the last column for a while as the world of newspapers adapts to the whims and ways of market forces. I thought I should bring some class to the situation by adapting a bit of Shakespeare to play the satirical jester. Read More…

When I read about the Police website set up to record breaches of the lockdown crashing due to the number of reports being received, I was not sure what to think. Read More…

The word for today is ‘exponential’. In the way that Covid-19 now means ‘stay home in your domestic bubble, exponential has become a term we cannot ignore. It is an important concept to understand. Read More…

If aliens arrived from space today, they would discover that the world was closed. There would be nowhere they could buy Star Wars merchandise or a replacement sofa for the battered old one in the space ship. Read More…

As I go about my day, I have been hearing a variety of comments and views on the uncertainties of a world grappling with Covid-19. Read More…

For many world leaders, the Coronavirus offers both a distraction from the usual political power games and a massive incentive to get their act together. Read More…

The following satirical take on ‘How to be a Bigot’ will either make you laugh, make you cry or change your life. Read More…

National trumpeting an intention to make a ‘bonfire on regulations’ is one sure way for party leader Simon to burn his bridges. It is simply a tilt for the populist vote. Read More…

Most countries have criteria for gaining citizenship. Some require a certain level of understanding of the languages spoken. Others simply set the bar at how much money you will bring with you. Read More…

There was a story in the papers recently about a fugitive from justice getting away by hiding in music case. This was quickly followed by a worried press release from Yamaha, who make a variety of musical instruments, warning people “about climbing into musical instrument cases”, suggesting this was not a good idea. Read More…

All the tech talk is about the future wonders of Artificial Intelligence or AI for those who like to shorten everything. Depending on which side of the debate you are on, it is either being talked up as a saviour or destroyer of work, life and the universe as we know it. Read More…