Blog

Gosh it has been such a long time since I last blogged/wrote anything here.. That seems to be the way I tend to start blogs. Right, new years resolution to stop mentioning how I mean to blog more..

Re-start:

Hello people! Do you like the new website? (you can comment here, I think… I’m still getting to know my way around this) Marc Fairbairn has once again done such a wonderful job! Thank you Marc…

It has been an absolutely crazy wonderful, surprising, baffling, inspiring and awesome few months! And I thought it was time to write about at least some of what has been happening..

I have fallen into a family… They are wonderful.. It started when I was working on ‘Rattle my bones’ with Toby.. He recommended this great team of musicians who became ‘House of Mountain’ the band.. who then also became my backing band somewhere along the way, and we’ve been touring all over the south island.. House of mountain also back the brilliant ‘Happiness Stan’ and together, we’ve been working with a number of amazing people, on some awesome stuff..

(I don’t know if it’s a bad thing but I’m fast running out of descriptive words that say ‘this is wonderful’)

Anyway… As you might have seen on the Facebook page, and even here in the gallery section, I’ve just come back from the Fledge music Festival in Wanaka..

*this part is a very hard thing to describe but basically I went to a beautiful place for 8 days with amazing people to do awesome stuff… (Again, repeating myself..)

Mostly, we were recording and making music… along the way I also got the opportunity to PLAY GUITAR IN A BUBBLE ON A LAKE! How rad is that! We got some great photos during the trip of the many adventures that took place, attaching a few here.

 There will be some sneaky snippets out soon to see and hear, but Fledge is sort-of the company, that embraces the family…  More about fledge in the next blog…

Amanda Palmer came back to New Zealand! You might know if you’ve read earlier blogs or been on the mailing list, that I joined her on tour in NZ in 2010,  and she was meant to play in Christchurch last year with Jason Webley – but that turned out to be the day of the earthquake and the show never happened… but this time she was here with Brian Viglione on a Dresden Dolls tour! And we opened here at the Aurora Centre in Christchurch.. There are a whole lot of photos from the show here, and here… and on the day before the show, there was a Ninja gig at ‘Occupy’ in hagley park! Lots of photos from there online too.. I’m posting a few here below.. (sorry if they are your photos and I’m not putting the right credit on them, tell me off and I will fix it.. *promise)

 

These pics from the Ninja gig are by the lovely Karel Robbins 

I ended up playing ‘Sing’ with them, then learning ‘Creep’ by Radiohead on the spot…

 We have a fun show coming up this Saturday too.. Feb 18^th at Riccarton House – as part of the Belgian Beer and Mussel Festival!

I also can’t recommend this show enough, it’s ‘’the complete history of Christchurch – abridged’’ by the Outwits… it’s so funny and awesome it made me cry! You have one week left to see it…

It’s on every night at 7pm in Hagley park (best to get there a little earlier to score a good place to park your picnic blanket – it’s an outdoor show) and there are 2pm and 7pm shows on Saturday and on Sunday..

I think that’s it for now.. there are just too many things to say… xoHera

Kiwi’s rejoice!  The Dresden Dolls reunion will be making another stop on the New Zealand leg of the tour.  The cabaret punk duo will be visiting the Aurora Center in Christchurch on January 25th.  This was the site of a devastating earthquake in February 2011 which thwarted an Amanda Palmer solo performance.  Proceeds from the show will be donated to the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal. We’re also pleased to announce opening acts for all three New Zealand shows.  Joining The Dolls onstage in Auckland and Wellington will be Princess Chelsea, while Hera with House of Mountain will be the opening act in Christchurch.

This blog has been such a long time coming… What a crazy few months it’s been! We are still getting the occasional aftershock but things feel like they’re finally settling down a bit (fingers crossed)

If you missed it, we had another pretty scary earthquake on Feb 22nd and that changed a lot of things in Christchurch. Town is still cordoned off and there is rubble absolutely everywhere in the city centre… But it finally feels like things are opening up again – and we’re rediscovering some of our favorite places opening in new locations and there are some lovely new places opening too, though it still feels a bit barren here and there are so many places that were the heart of this city, that we won’t see again for a long long time.