Vineyard tour de force

Promoter Brent Eccles says the line-up of Tim Finn and Dave Dobbyn, along with Bic Runga is 'part of NZ history'. Photo / Supplied

At a winery concert there are plenty of amenities and few queues. Punters on foldable chairs nibble picnics of camembert and sundried produce and clink their (plastic) glasses of local wine. The weather is usually impeccable - it's February after all. The sunsets are as essential as the sound. And when the all-star band's big songs roar through the vines, the picnic sets make way for a grand old dance floor - especially when the set includes numbers as iconic as Tim Finn's I See Red, Dave Dobbyn's Loyal and Bic Runga's Sway.

It was music promoter Brent Eccles' idea to team the three Kiwi success stories together. He sent them on a hugely successful theatre tour during the winter of 2000.

Eccles also pioneered the local winery tours, starting with Runga during her Birds tour in 2006. With no other venues available, he convinced Neudorf Winery to host her show.

"We put it on sale and it started to sell like wildfire compared to the other gigs we were doing. We thought, there's something in this, so then we did a whole tour with Bic in wineries, and that's where it started," Eccles says.

"I think people like seeing music in wineries and having a glass of wine. That's the whole idea of it, good food, good music, good wine."

Mission Estate Winery had been bringing international sensations to New Zealand since 1993, starting with Kiri Te Kanawa, who was followed by Ray Charles in 1994. But Eccles proved it was also possible for local artists to pull sell-out crowds to smaller wineries. This year he is hoping to sell 40,000 tickets across 18 shows. The Mission's Motown event last Saturday sold about 24,000 tickets.

After the success of Runga's Nelson show, Eccles compiled a list of other local artists he thought would suit vineyard tours and the More FM Winery Tour evolved into the must-do summer concert for Kiwis across the country.

In 2007 Runga and her sister Boh sold out a tour through eight estates and wineries from Matakana to Millbrook. The next year Brooke Fraser toured with Goldenhorse and Anika Moa. It was yet another national sell-out, through 13 wineries and estates. The 2009 tour comprised Dave Dobbyn, Anika Moa and Op Shop, with 17 sell-out shows in 14 venues.

And this year is the biggest yet as it marks Bic Runga, Tim Finn and Dave Dobbyn's 10-year reunion tour. Eccles says the appeal of the trio on one stage is hard to beat in New Zealand. "It's part of New Zealand history, this line-up."

Eccles' tour party now comprises 70 staff, including artists and parking wardens, and three trucks. This year Ascension Wine Estate in Matakana, which hosted the first concerts over Waitangi Weekend, cleared vines to make room for a new, improved stage location.

Escaping from the melting heat of the vineyard to Ascension's function room ("the biggest green room ever") before their first reunion show, Runga, Finn and Dobbyn agree it feels great to be back on tour again - though Runga jokes that she is just doing it for the food.

It will be an intimate month: All three are travelling in the same van, with Dobbyn as the DJ - the drive to Matakana involved some Brian Eno and Howlin' Wolf, though he says he also has some "very tasty reggae" to pop on at some point.

Finn, who later ducks out for a quick pre-gig dip at Omaha Beach, says it's the ultimate time for a road-trip and outdoor concert tour: "February is always the best month, any school kid will tell you that."

The trio have been waiting for the right time to perform together again but have been pressed to find time with their own overseas jaunts, local shows and album releases. Last September Finn released the North, South, East, West Anthology encompassing career highlights from Split Enz, Crowded House and The Finn Brothers, as well as solo hits on one album, while Dobbyn has compiled two CDs of his best-loved songs with a song book. Runga is currently writing her fourth studio album, but it's all a bit hush-hush.

The winery tour is the biggest focus of the year for all three, but Runga says she will be penning new songs during her down-time. Dobbyn has one that has been rolling around in his head for months and he would love to get that released soon - he's always got a song tinkering away in there, he says.

Finn says it feels right to tag this tour to a decade reunion, and a summer tour is a nice way to counter the cosy fire-side feel of the theatre concerts in winter of 2000.

There is a weight of anticipation after the success of those concerts:

"We underestimated the surge of interest. It happened during a wave of pride in local music. It seemed unlikely to a lot of people that we would share the stage together," Dobbyn says.

But Kiwis loved it. Extra shows had to be scheduled. And after the New Zealand tour the trio performed two sell-out shows in London and couldn't hear themselves above the crowd, who sang along to every word.

That winter tour was the first Eccles had managed since returning to New Zealand from Australia, and he says it was incredible to see the respect Runga, Finn and Dobbyn had for each other's music, and the crowd respond to their energy.

"That was huge and we managed to convince them to do it again, which is brilliant, because the three of them together is something very special.

"It's a part of so many people's lives, songs they have grown up with. And Bic attracts a different demographic to Dave and then Tim brings another element with all the things he has been involved with over the years," Eccles says.

All the favourite nostalgic, almost patriotic Kiwi singalongs are on the set list this year, with a few musical surprises for the audience - one of which (spoiler alert) involves Runga going wild on the drums.

Meanwhile Che Fu and Boh Runga, who open each concert on the tour, bring a younger hip-hop flavour to the evening. Their conversation in their tour van is mostly around the latest sneakers, they say.

They play everything from Stellar* hits of 1999, to the pair's latest charity recording Come Together, to some yet-to-be-released songs.

It's a dream for Runga to be touring with her sister again, while Fu is still reeling from being asked to to play on the same stage as Kiwi music legends - where he is from, doing the winery tour is regarded as having "made it", he laughs.

Lowdown

Who: Dave Dobbyn, Tim Finn and Bic Runga on a 10-year reunion tour through 18 wineries with support from Boh Runga and Che Fu.

When and Where: Tonight, Brunton Road, Gisborne; Friday Feb 19, Black Barn Vineyards, Havelock North; Sat Feb 20, Alana Estate, Martinborough; Sunday Feb 21, Sacred Hill, Napier; Wednesday Feb 24, Sentry Hill Estate, New Plymouth; Friday Feb 26, Arena Manawatu Lawns, Palmerston North; Saturday Feb 27, Unison Amphitheatre, Taupo; Sunday Feb 28, Wharepai Domain, Tauranga; Friday March 5, Mystery Creek, Hamilton; Saturday March 6, Villa Maria Estate, Manukau.