Music boosts winery rebuild

When Vilagrad Winery was gutted by fire on June 28, local musician Phil Walsh made it his mission to help raise money for the rebuild, and what better method, he reasoned, than with music?

He set off on a mission to track down original Hamilton bands from the 80s to make an compilation album - and so, Hamiltune was born.

Phil describes the album as a bit of a Doctor Who story which was only made possible by the convergence of several different time lines.

"Back in the day there were lots of venues, heaps of bands, lots of recording, and it's always been in the back of my mind to record what was happening," he said.

Phil has been going out to Vilagrad since the 1980s, and launched his own album, Scenes From The Movie In My Head, there the day before it burnt down.

The day after the fire, Phil contacted Zeb Brookes, a sound engineer he met in the 80s, when he was touring with Echoes, and Zeb was touring with Step Chant Unit.

"We started to track down all those old musicians. Everyone we contacted jumped on board straight away. Within two weeks, we had 30 songs we could pick and choose from," he said.

The final cut features 15 songs from bands including The Bronx, Knightshade, Paul Martin, Tim Armstrong and The Politicians.

Zeb said finding the original song masters was nigh impossible, so many of the songs came by the way of well-used and possibly badly stored records and cassettes.

"After the audio equivalent of filing off the rough edges, plastering up the cracks and slapping on a new coat of paint, they all managed to recapture the milieu of Hamilton rock in the 80s.

"This is an incredible snapshot of Hamilton's essential musical culture," he said.

Vilagrad winemaker Jacob Nooyen also features on the album with his band Illegal Green, who won the Smokefree Rock Quest back in the 80s.

Jacob said it was nearly impossible for Kiwi bands to get on the radio back in the day.

"So these guys were making amazing music and no one ever got to hear it - until now," he said.

With Zeb covering the editing, and Phil's company Doublebass Productions covering the printing and distribution costs, all other proceeds will help with the Vilagrad rebuild.

The album has so far raised more than $450 in hard copy sales alone.

Hard copies of Hamiltune are $15 from www.doublebass.co.nz, or visit the site for a link to the album on iTunes, where it sells for $17.99.

We have a copy of the CD to give away. To be in to win, email your name, address and daytime telephone number to hamiltonnews@nzme.co.nz by 4pm, Thursday, August 20.