If the past is, as they say, a different country, the New Zealand music scene in the early eighties was a different planet.

Those were days when Kiwi music was not played on radio, when rock music appeared on television once a week in the form of Radio With Pictures, when recording studios only really existed in Auckland and Wellington, and CDs were just a glint in the eye of some engineer at Philips.

And one day, over thirty years ago, a fifteen-year-old schoolboy auditioned for a local band and started one of the most fruitful and long-lasting musical collaborations in the Bay.

This Saturday, at the Marchwood Blues Picnic, that original band are doing it again, nearly twenty five years after their last gig. It'll be a little slice of Tauranga nostalgia or all those who remember but also – and I can confirm this after hearing them a couple of weeks back – after all these years they still sound bloody good.

Here's the story...

It's the early eighties. Graham Clark, singer and harmonica player, had just put together his first band, Beasley Street. 'None of us had any idea of how to play in a band,” says Graham now. 'We didn't know how to set up up a PA. In fact, I didn't even know what a PA was.” There were no YouTube videos back in those days to tell you what to do, no books on 'How to Start Your Own Band.”

(For the uninitiated, PAs are 'public address” systems, the big speakers at the side of the stage along with their respective amplifiers and microphones.)

So the Beasley Street boys – eventually with bass player Ross Shilling and guitarist Alan Crowe – set about learning. They put together a bunch of songs and went out to play in local restaurants and the like so they could learn the mechanics of being in a band, setting up gear and the other various facets of doing the bizzo.

Then came a challenge. They were booked for a wedding. Unfortunately, their drummer couldn't play waltzes, an essential prerequisite for wedding bands. The frantic search for a new drummer began.

Graham sought advice from Trevor Braunias, even back then considered the town's leading guitar maestro, who worked in the old Mayers Music shop on Grey Street (now Music Planet at The Mount). Trevor said there was a school-kid who played really well but his mother might not let him join a band. Graham went and talked to his mother; she gave it the OK. So Ian 'Beano” Gilpin went to an audition with the fledgling band and, as Graham puts it: 'He was amazing!”

A success

The band went on to be probably Tauranga's most well-known band through the eighties, even supporting blues legend Koko Taylor. They were a cover band primarily, playing a thousand functions, but also with a swag of original tunes. After they disbanded in 1989 both Graham and Beano joined an outfit put together by ex-Tauranga blues guitarist Doug Bygrave, Austin Texas. Chris Gunn (appearing at Marchwood with his band Gunshy) was also there for the ride. It was Graham's first real stab at playing the blues and it stuck.

When Austin Texas disbanded Graham and Beano put together another blues outfit, The Sensational Gutter Brothers. When that came to an end Beano decided it was time for the traditional Kiwi Big OE and headed off to England.

But that was only part one of the story. Graham also visited the UK, seeing Beano and making plans. They both went to a gig by ex-Doctor Feelgood guitarist Wilco Johnson and an idea was hatched. Back in New Zealand Graham recruited bass player Brian Franks and when Beano returned they put together Brilleaux, playing 'Maximum R&B” in the patented English style of Doctor Feelgood. That was in 1999. They have since gone from strength to strength. Later this year Brilleaux head to the UK for their first English tour.

And this weekend they relive the old days. Beasley Street are back together, albeit briefly, playing at the Marchwood Blues Picnic in Whakamarama along with guitarist Anton Tipi Elkington, Kokomo, Chris Gunn and others. It should be a great day! A little Tauranga history and a whole bunch of kick-ass music. You can find out more at www.bluespicnic.com.