Massive year for music venue

HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Mary-Jo Waterman, Polly Governor, Hana Campbell, Carl Schdroski, Alan Maxwell and Warren Maxwell.

A wall of the green room at King Street Live is crowded with the names, doodles and scrawls of the legion of entertainers who have graced the Masterton venue during its first year of life.

The boutique entertainment oasis was opened 12 months ago by Masterton businessman Carl Schdroski and Featherston musician and studio-owner Warren Maxwell. It has featured the likes of international stars Kelly Joe Phelps and Pokey LaFarge, and Kiwi luminaries The Datsuns, Tiki Taane, Dave Dobbyn, TrinityRoots, Tim Shadbolt, The Black Seeds, and The Warratahs.

Wairarapa bands and performers also shared the spotlight and appeared at the venue over the past year, which in August last year was named as one of four national finalists in the 2013 New Zealand Hospitality Association Excellence Awards for the Best Music Entertainment Venue.

Manager Alan Maxwell and co-owner Carl Schdroski said the venue remained true to its core business because "at the end of the day people seem to be quite happy with us being a venue with lots of good acts".

"Instead of trying to be diverse and trying to cater to other segments of the market in food and beverage, we're just concentrating on staying diverse with the acts we present as a venue and focus on music," Mr Maxwell said.

"Up and coming we're linking in with some youth things as well, music and musicians - it's the music the people want to see, music, music."

King Street Live was billed ahead of its opening as the first of its kind in Wairarapa dedicated to live acts and events including music, comedy, drama and fashion. The venue had now cemented a reputation nationwide as the place to play, Mr Maxwell said.

He said major New Zealand bands and acts had put King Street Live firmly on their radars and several had chosen to launch new releases at the venue. Keeping that momentum going was essential.

"We know some gigs where up to half of the audience have come from out of town. They've booked accommodation, they've spent money at restaurants, and we're still developing. We've got followers that come to shows regularly from Wellington and Palmerston North."

Wairarapa artists over the coming New Zealand Music Month will include an all-local acoustic artists evening, Pat McKenna and the Honey Truckers, and a music month Terradakdoor Presents... event featuring Wairarapa performers alongside a capital city act on May 31.

National acts also coming this month at King Street Live include The Phoenix Foundation, Warren Maxwell's band Little Bushmen, and Devilskin.

Owners Maxwell and Mr Schdroski earlier told the Wairarapa Times-Age the initial idea for King Street Live was sparked during a chat about the lack of youth music venues in the region.

The pair made family the linchpin of the operation with Maxwell's partner Ange Kalogeropoulos as booking agent, his brother Alan as bar manager, and Mr Schdroski's wife Toni handling the books - and the whanau formula has remained golden.

King Street Live will celebrate its first birthday this Saturday with the debut of Wairarapa band King Oriori & the Masterons, an "Afrobeat super-group" formed after another casual conversation, Maxwell said.

The larger than life Wellington band Shogun Orchestra last year played at King Street Live and lit the fuse for the Wairarapa group, he said, which had been formed over the past six months "swapping Fela Kuti YouTube clips, bass riffs, horn lines and pseudonyms galore".

The band features James Tait-Jameson on baritone sax, Maxwell on alto sax, Nik Van-Dyke on trombone, keyboardist Toby Mills, Jono Rees on Bass, Saali Marks on guitar, and Cody Field and Jason Kerehi sharing drums and percussion duties.

Special guest vocalist at the birthday bash will be Vanessa Stacey, from Chocolate Box, and the Los Angeles-based band Rough Church also will play, as will DJ Redbird Jnr. Pre-sale tickets cost $20 each at www.eventfinder.co.nz