‘The Right Note' is the massive new book about the last 50 years of the Tauranga music scene; I talked about it last week. Written by Brilleaux frontman Graham Clark, it is now available in all its coffee table-filling glory from Books A Plenty.

And last week, after running through the turbulent history of its production, I promised to find five amazing things you didn't know about the music world here.

Brilleaux Unplugged.

But the book is filled with amazing things so I thought it best to get Graham to help.

'Okay,” I said to him.

'Tell me something I don't know about the early days of Tauranga music...”

And he did. Here we go – five bits of surprising history from ‘The Right Note':

1) There was an illicit late night jazz club in a tin shed, called the Sample Rooms, along The Strand towards Harbourside Restaurant.

Businessmen, car dealers, contractors, Police, et al would go there after-hours. It was not licensed, but sold drinks tickets. It was closed when an intoxicated punter was arrested with a pocket-full of tickets.

He spilt the beans to the chief of police, who warned them to stop or face action. The club ceased operations immediately.

2) The music that radio stations were allowed to play was censored.

To eliminate all possibility of error, deep gouges were made across specific offending tracks on vinyl records to stop DJs playing them.

3) Tauranga's Radio 1ZD was the pilot test case for talk-back radio in New Zealand. Elsie Lloyd came back to Tauranga from a trip to the United States after hearing it for the first time. Mary Moodie was chosen to introduce ‘Telephone Time' during her afternoon Women's Hour programme. And 1ZD was also the only recording facility for musicians and bands. Delay was added to the recordings by placing a microphone at the other end of a long hallway.

4) Tauranga band Cloud, featuring Trevor Braunias, played at the Matamata High School social. The headmaster shut the event down because the music was 'too far out” and in danger of causing a riot. Cloud was playing Hendrix, Cream, Jethro Tull and Santana covers.

5) When Radio Hauraki was in its conception they poached two DJs from 1ZD. The Hauraki boat, The Tiri, was moored at the bottom of Queen St and their head office was at the top. The Government, in its efforts to prevent Hauraki from operating, refused to give them telephone service or even a CB Radio licence to communicate between the ship and the office. But one of the Tauranga DJs was a pigeon fancier, so Hauraki communicated via carrier pigeons. True story.

Now…back to the present day. And more Brilleaux news since the band are, in their own way, making Tauranga history. Come June this year they are about to tour the UK for the third straight year, and due to the success of previous tours, this time they have also been invited to play at the Red Moon Festival in Fossalta in Italy.

The band will start with an unplugged show the night they arrive in England before playing in Bedford, where they have now got such a profile that fans come from all over the UK to see them.

Then it's straight to the airport after the show and off to Fossalta, which is half an hour north east of Venice. They've got three days and another show in Italy then it's back to the UK for two gigs in Somerset before headlining the 25th anniversary of the Blues On The Farm Festival in Chichester.

Brilleaux was so popular there last year they got a special 'fan-favourite” invite to play at the anniversary festival. They'll finish by playing at a beer festival in Kent. Pretty damned impressive if you ask me – again, I'm reminded that we often don't appreciate how good our homegrown music is...

In the meantime, you can catch Brilleaux performing a special acoustic set at Drivers Bar on Saturday, May 7. They'll be supported by both blues/soul band The Velvets and up-and-coming acoustic duo, Ashley & Sharni. Tickets are $20 from Drivers.

watusi@thesun.co.nz