Parachute Festival

Preamble

Here are the pictures of the Parachute Festival, 2010, which is held yearly in Mystery Creek, Hamilton, NZ. We were invited by Steve Apirana to play in his band at the festival - The Steve Apirana band - and The Velvettes. The gigs were awesome!! So check this out!

The journey
So me and Donna flew up on Wednesday morning from Christchurch. Here we are in Auckland airport, the start of it all.



The reunion
The Apirana whanau at Te Rangimarie Marae, Hamilton.
They are a beautiful whanau.


Front: Aroha, her daughter and moko, Donna Next: Ainsley, Steven junior, Steve, Molly, Rueben Apirana. Top: Ozzie friend...i forgot his name...all round good ozzie!

Practice
It was really good to hook up with all the guys again. I think it was something like 20 years since we last played in the both bands. Here is the original line up for both bands rehearsing the materials... it was a longtime, but we got it going in the end. Awesome it was!!

Kit Grenon - - Me - - Steve - - Graham Flaws


Molly Apirana
We added Molly, Steve's girl. She is an amazing singer, songwriter. I love listening to her singing.
She writes deeply touching songs -moving, moving, moving!!

The mantle has moved, Steve bro!! - your girl has the mana!! Ka mau te wehi - Awesome!!

The Steve Apirana whanau

You know about Steve. Ainsley is a lovely singer who plays the flute and writes her own songs. She has released an album of her music. Steven (next to mum) plays the guitar, piano, sings and writes his own songs. Rueben, plays the guitar, drums and always supports his family. You know about Molly. An increbily gifted and talented family. Their family is so tight and loving and Ainsley is just an amazingly loving and kind mum. It was just awesome being with them.

Playing at the Parachute Festival. Saturday 30 January, 2010.
Onstage with the Steve Apirana Band

So, here I am onstage with my kit, this is minutes before the band started.

I took shots of the crowds from my drumset. Yeah, the crowd went off!!

These are onstage shots ... I look cool, eh!~~~Okay, then...you can't see me, but that's me, honest!!

More onstage shots of the Steve Apirana Band with Kit, Steve and Donna playing flute.

So like, I'm playing with my best friends and my wife in the same band. It can't get any better than this!! All goooooooooooooooooooooooooooood, eh!!!

Molly Apirana in the house!! Oh, there's Derek Lynd and Steve on big screen...choooice!!

Onstage with The Velvetttes
These guys are the cool in music. Awesome band, awesome guys!!

These are the band shots - The Velvettes, nothing but the best!!

Does that look like Ray Charles on drums or me?

The Velvettes together again onstage after 20 years...wooah, too much cool, dude!!

Family and friends at Parachute

I took my older brother, Delmond and his partner, Muriel to the festival.

Alex lived with us for 3 years in Chch while she was going to art school at Canterbury Uni.

We think of her like our daughter. She is a lovely person and special to us. She now lives in Auckland is married to Darren and has 3 children. She came down to see us at the festival. It was so nice to see her. God Bless her.

That's Heidi and Ann Warren, dear old friends of ours. When we were young, we used to hangout together in Chch. They have both been living in Rotorua now for many years. It was so good to catch up with them at the festival. Heidi is also a great singer songwriter and guitarist. He was in the 70's Maori band called 'Butler' with Steve.

Tino harikoa te ngakau me te wairua i te kitenga o ratou oku nei hoa rangatira

Our spirits lifted with joy at the seeing of all our great and chiefly friends

Konei te korero mai rano: Te mea nui rawaatu he tangata he tangata he tangata
This is our ancient saying: The most important thing of all is people, people, people!!

Tena ra tatou katoa

Greetings to you all!!

To read more about my drumming career - check out my archive:

The little drummer boy