History is so easy to lose. Some things almost immediately vanish into the past in a contradictory swirl of memory.

But even when history is documented it can still be lost. Graham Clark waited for two years with the manuscript of his first book ‘The Right Note' sitting on his computer, every month feeling increasing paranoia that the wealth of archival material would somehow, through some quirk of malevolent fate, be lost.


The Right Note cover.

For the book is an historical archive, an unprecedented record of Tauranga's music scene, a coffee table tome, 360 pages, 78 chapters, and more than 1000 photographs.
Graham had finished it in 2013. But what do you do with a huge draft on such a specialised local subject? You guard it carefully, get paranoid and wait to find funding. Graham waited, and waited. Then Paul Adams came along.

But let's go back to the beginning. And, since I sat down with Graham for an extensive interview and didn't even offer him a glass of red, let's allow him the courtesy of telling the story in his own words…

'The first inspiration I got to write about music was that I went to (drummer) Ali Matthews' house one day and he had these old black and white pictures on the wall of these hairy individuals so I said: ‘Who's that?' And he said: ‘Oh that was a band I was in way back in the seventies called Sons And Lovers'.

'They were really popular and were sent down to play at Ali Baba's in Wellington by Alan Judd, who was a big promoter – he also used to book Trevor Braunias' band Cloud to play all over the country.

'So Sons And Lovers played at Ali Baba's and started coming to the attention of the Wellington musicians like Bruno Lawrence, and so Ali and their guitarist Alan Moon joined the legendary Blerta.

'I saw this picture and I thought: ‘Wow these guys are from Tauranga and they ended up going to do all this really cool stuff!' I must have looked enthusiastic about it because Ali then said: ‘Do you know about the Four Fours and Rob Smith and all that?' and I said: ‘No, what about them?' And he began to tell me the story of the Four Fours. And I said: ‘Holy Sh*t – this is all from Tauranga?'”

Thus the odyssey began for Graham. 'Every time I interviewed someone,” he says. 'I got a better lead, someone else to talk to and more connections.”

And the stories poured in, whether about the early sixties and Tauranga's Teenage Club, set up by a local minister where a band was formed and kids sneaked in beer in guitar cases, or the legendary Corben Simpson's Tauranga youth. (Corben later wrote ‘Dance All Around The World' and was arrested after playing naked at the Ngaruawahia Festival).

The book mainly starts in the early sixties and run till the nineties, with stops along the way for Woody Woodhouse, Dr Jaz, the Swimgoats, the Termytes, Jane Bonn, Hit 'n Run, Dave Mikaere, the Inferno Coffee Lounge, the amazing Baker family, the Jerry Scheff/Paul Higgins connection, the singing Hammonds, Ritchie Pickett and hundreds more.

It is a mighty piece of work, taking in just about anything that had significance on the Tauranga music scene, from covering well-known bands to digging out small quirky local musical stories.

So, back to how the book got from computer to print.

Paul Adams from Carrus put up the funds. Graham says Paul took one look at the draft layout and said: ‘Yes'. And the first of the quirky stories in the book is Paul's, how as a seventeen-year-old he sneaked into the Rolling Stones' gig at the Wellington Town Hall and stood on stage directly behind Charlie Watts. Then had his picture taken backstage with the band.

And it really happened. Next to the intro is a signed Stones' programme and a faded black and white photo – Mick, Keith, Charlie, Bill, Brian, and Paul Adams.

‘The Right Note' is in NZ libraries and is available now from Books A Plenty. RRP: $125. Next week: Five amazing Tauranga stories you never knew from ‘The Right Note'.

watusi@thesun.co.nz