On the floor: Quakefest is coming

Well, this is the last On The Floor column. It's been 14 years, with a few name changes, but this piece, in this format, is gone.

It's been fun bringing you bands who from their growing up here went on to greatness; among others Die! Die! Die!, which began as Logan Park school band Carriage H.

From next week the new column, the name of which will be announced when it appears, will be more of an overview of coming attractions in Dunedin but also in New Zealand.

This column features a couple of the gigs in Dunedin raising money for earthquake relief.

Former Christchurch, and now Dunedin, musician Brett Lupton is one of a team behind a two-venue shindig which aims to raise a solid amount for quake relief, to go to a targeted area. What, I think, makes Quakefest different from other charity events is that it isn't a benefit concert in the usual sense; rather, it's a relief show in that the people of Dunedin donate the use of venues and their hospitality to Christchurch musicians and venue operators affected by the recent earthquake.

Being an occasional Canterbury resident, Lupton was particularly affected by February's fatal earthquake.

"When I first saw the images on TV, at around 2-3pm that day, I felt sick; I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I'd been in Christchurch only a couple of weeks before, to play at the premiere of a documentary (Gone With The Weird) made by Simon Ogston on my band Squirm at Al's Bar. My immediate thoughts were for my eldest daughter, Kat, and all my friends in the city."

He says it didn't take long for the news to hit home.

"As it sunk in, and the news came in that everybody close to me was OK, I began to realise that an important, defining part of my life had been devastated - the venues, the places I'd lived, the city itself and, as importantly, the sense of pride and history I'd felt in being specifically a Christchurch musician.

"I wanted to help in some way, as we all do in those situations, and Quakefest is me trying to help a community I've always felt a part of, and is an important part of me, despite having lived now in Dunedin for the last 12 years."

Lupton is grateful for assistance from Dunedin's music scene.

"The idea arose from my conversations with Christchurch musicians who, apart from all the well-documented depredations, suddenly had nowhere to play. I soon realised that this, of course, also badly affected the venue operators as well.

" I put the idea out on Facebook initially to test public opinion, and it met with an immediate and enthusiastic response from Christchurch and Dunedin alike.

"Scott Muir approached me within hours of that post with an offer of his expertise (soon followed by the Dunedin Musicians Club, Jeff Fulton of Chart, and Oscar from El Santo, a Lyttelton bar), and within days an idea became a reality."

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Quakefest
Here's the line-up for both quake relief gigs on Friday April 8:
• Sammy's: Dialtones; Undercurrents; Valdera; Piha Rescue; T 54; Gorgeous Disorders.
• Refuel: Permanence; Hayne; Anesthesiac; Killshot Medics; Lupus Lunar.

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Meanwhile, tonight The Glenroy hosts No Depression featuring Lyttelton band The Eastern, with The Unfaithful Ways, Delaney Davidson and Dunedin's Bill Morris.