Finally

Listening to: Music for nature Documentaries-Rhian Sheehan remixed

The drought has properly been broken, and there is the sound of rain on the roof. Had to happen sooner or later....

Finally getting around to cogitating and ruminating about the Split Enz concert a few weeks ago.

About finally getting to see this band live.

I was too young to get in on the act in the bands heyday in the seventies and eighties. I didn't think I was cool enough to go to the 1993 reunion tour (seriously, thats how dumb I was). So for the 2008 reunion tour I was in.

I can't say they are my favourite band, or even my favourite New Zealand band, but they have always had a presence, from the earliest time I could remember music. The synth line of 'I got you' triggers memories of being a four year old in Avalon (along with Meatloaf's 'You took the words right out of my mouth oddly).

I remember seeing the video for 'Dirty Creature' in 1982, and knowing the song was about a Taniwha, being somewhat disappointed when there wasn't one in the clip.

I remember 'Six months in a leaky boat' being banned from UK playlists due to the Falklands War.

I remember arriving early at school one day and hearing the haunting tail end of that song floating out of a dorm on a still summer morning.

I finally got a copy of the greatest hits on tape sometime in late 1993 I think. It became one of the soundtracks to that summer for me. Hot summer days and nights, forming new associations with familiar tunes.

In early 1998 another hits collection was released, and more hot summer nights had an eclectic soundtrack. The live version of 'Time for a change' on this collection (Spellbound) is one of my all time favourite live recordings. Recorded at one of the reunion gigs, the song starts simply and quietly, but when the drums and guitars kick in for the mid song instrumental, the crowd erupts, and atmosphere pours from the speakers.

It made me wish I was there.

So was it a good gig?

Yes it certainly was.