Trevor Reekie can't wait to get back to Dunedin this weekend.
The Radio New Zealand Hidden Treasures producer and presenter played in seminal Dunedin band Prometheus in the early 1970s.
This weekend he and Prometheus return to their old stomping ground at the Captain Cook Hotel.
"Legends Rock the Cook" is a reunion of old-school rockers, including Stash, Argus, Noah, Prometheus and The Jack Nicholson Trio.
"When I was told that the band was re-forming for this legends gig it seemed near-on impossible that such a thing could happen," Reekie said from Auckland this week.
"I mean I haven't even seen a couple of the guys for three decades.
Connections at all kinds of levels have endured between us over 30 years, but the question of relearning to be a sum much greater than its parts looms with a great deal of trepidation.
"We never recorded anything back then.
"Hardly anyone did. Only the big bands did that.
"How are we meant to relearn songs that were weird in the first place?"
"I can't remember the names of the songs, let alone how they are structured.
"But, these sorts of opportunities don't present themselves often.
"The best one can do is just play what sings in our collective head and enjoy the ride."
Reekie left Dunedin for the big smoke in the late 1970s and went on to establish Pagan Records and Antenna Records, tour and record with Car Crash Set and the Greg Johnson Band, release a solo album as Cosa (Nostra) and still records with Trip To The Moon.
"It's kind of hard to assess the time that you live in at the time that you are living in it.
"But I remember Prometheus as being slightly out of sync with everyone else that was around," he recalls.
"We played originals because we couldn't learn covers, except for the Pink Floyd track Set The Controls for the Heart of the Sun.
"Most bands were either doing Grateful Dead-type stuff that I hated or playing Wishbone Ash covers.
"We were so original we made up songs with cassette loops of odd music playing over open-tuned guitars and electric violins and layers of early synths and would tell the audience it was a cover of a Can song.
"It was a good band but the mid-'70s was a very hard room to work.
"We did a lot of gigs with bands like Ragnarock and Mother Goose.
"We kept clear of the surfies and V8 guys.
"No-one really dressed that much different from how they do now, except we had long hair.
"In fact, no-one really had any concept of image."
The reunion was the brainchild of Dunedin promoter Rob Fitzpatrick.
"I left Dunedin in 1976 and was away for 20 years, so I missed out on the whole Dunedin Sound thing in the '80s," he says.
"When I got back, people would mention bands like The Chills and I'd be like: 'Who?'.
"Dunedin bands, to me, were bands like Stash and Argus up the top of the Cook.
"Last year, we did about four Argus reunion gigs at Bennu and every time they got bigger and bigger," he says.
"This was the first time the band had stood on a stage together since 1975.
"Yet, all four shows were sold out before a note had been played.
"The 40-60 punters are a good crowd, because they're good spenders and they don't cause trouble, compared to the young kids."
Fitzpatrick got a taste of the bright lights through his Los Angeles car business, when he befriended singer Tina Turner's manager, Roger Davies, and tour manager, Robbie Walker.
"We became good friends and they took me on Tina's 'Private Dancer' tour in the early '80s," he says.
"Here was this little Kiwi guy getting dragged around on a multimillion-dollar tour."
Nearly 20 musicians are confirmed to appear, from as far away as Hong Kong and Australia, including former Stash bass player and Warner Music Asia-Pacific manager Lauchlan Rutherford, Noah guitarist Richard Lindsay and Jack Nicholson Trio guitarist Jimmy Taylor, while even Dunedin artist Ewan McDougall is picking up drumsticks again for the Noah gig.
"They're all buzzing," Fitzpatrick says with a grin.
"Some of these guys haven't seen each other for years.
"They've been getting their old outfits out and digging up old photos."
• Be there
"Legends Rock the Cook":
Today:
9pm: Prometheus.
10.30pm: Noah.
Midnight: Argus.
Tomorrow
4pm: The Jack Nicholson Trio.
5.30pm: All-night jam.
Tickets available from Alibi, Begg's Musicworks, Rockshop and Filadelfio's Andersons Bay, or Rob Fitzpatrick on (021) 951-655.
