Led by poet-songwriter Bill Direen, who was recently named a 2025 Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate, The Bilders will perform on Saturday, November 8, from 9pm at Dunedin’s Pearl Diver, 73 Saint Andrew St.
During Saturday’s show, The Bilders will perform tunes from two recent albums and songs from their back catalogue, and may be joined by surprise guests.
New album Neverlasting has been praised for its lyrical richness, with each song telling its own story.
A booklet of never-before-seen photos and short writings by Direen about music, entitled Apropos, will be on sale at gigs on the tour, as long as stocks last.
Bill Direen is a poet at heart and a musician by instinct, whose work has moved between rock, punk, folk, spoken word, theatre and literature over the past five decades.
Direen first made his mark in the 1980s with a string of influential recordings on Flying Nun and his own independent labels, fronting ever-evolving bands including The Bilders, Six Impossible Things and Soluble Fish.
He founded Christchurch theatre collective Blue Ladder, has published numerous volumes of poetry and fiction and continues to edit the international journal Percutio.
Direen was described by the Arts Foundation Te Tumu Toi Laureate selection panel as "an underground legend, international troubadour and artistic polymath".
