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In rock history news, latest Mojo magazine has a Talking Heads retrospective story based on drummer Chris Frantz’s forthcoming memoir which cites Waitangi Day Christchurch audience as a factor in the split between David Byrne and the rest of the band which led to its split ...
"The breaking point had been the Sweetwaters South Festival in Christchurch, New Zealand on February 6, 1984, where Talking Heads were headlining a bill featuring Simple Minds and The Pretenders.”
“Ahead of their set, says Weymouth, Byrne had agreed to allow a couple of campaigners on-stage to talk about Maori rights.”
“By the time Talking Heads walked on, the air was filled with boos and projectiles were being lobbed stagewards. Byrne stomped off after five songs. “That’s when the shit really hit the fan,” [bassist Tina Weymouth] says.”
More on Sweetwaters here at Audioculture http://audiocultu.re/1cjKMAH
When David Byrne played NZ at the end of 2018, I got his support act, Kimbra, to interview him for the @nzlistener (he did no other interviews) and asked her to ask him about Talking Heads’ Sweetwaters shows in the 80s. Here’s that exchange...
K: “You’ve been to New Zealand a few times over the decades – Talking Heads toured here in 1979 and was a headliner at Sweetwaters in 1984, so at quite different times in the band’s evolution. What do you remember of those early band visits?”
DB: “I don’t remember the shows so much but I remember the extracurricular activities. One tour we went swimming, possibly not too far from Auckland, and I got caught in a rip and was fairly terrified. Nothing bad happened, but I learnt my lesson....”
And a confession. At Sweetwaters 1983, the year before Talking Heads, my teenage band from Whangarei played on the amateurs Aerial Railway Stage. We played a very awful cover of “Crosseyed and Painless“. Couldn’t reach the high notes then, still can’t now...
Our set went curiously uninterupted by protest action.
