Records set to smash

Busy day: Opshop's Jason Kerrison. Photo / Supplied

2010 might be known as the year of the off-the-wall Kiwi music tour. To celebrate New Zealand's 10th Music Month - as well as presenting their new material to fans - Opshop is setting out to break a New Zealand record for the most gigs in one day, playing in 10 locations on Saturday.

Meanwhile the Jordan Luck Band is setting out to perform one gig per day for the month of May - 31 shows in places as far north as Kaitaia and as far south as Gore.

Opshop's frontman Jason Kerrison says the band felt they had pushed new ground with their new album Until the End of Time, to be released on Sunday, so wanted an innovative way to release it. During a discussion over beers in a Hamilton pub, they realised no other band they knew had completed a national tour in a day. That idea developed into the 10-gig tour for Music Month, and it kicks off at Christchurch's domestic terminal at 6am on Saturday.

"You have to be careful what you wish for, I guess," Kerrison says.

How does the band take to flying? "Bobby doesn't like sitting next to me because I start talking stats of planes. I think it's just to reassure myself - I start talking about the angle the wing should be at to get maximum lift," Kerrison says.

He says Jordan Luck's 31-gigs-in-a-month effort is "what legends do, I suppose."

But as for why Opshop's effort is more hardcore, "I don't know any band that's done 10 shows in 10 different towns with a plane in one day. Don't get me wrong, I fully admire what Jordan's doing, we just like the idea of compressing time these days, I guess. That leaves the rest of the month for us to enjoy and possibly get along to some of Jordan's gigs."

Luck says his national tour will be much more demanding than his usual summer jaunt, but he is not setting out to smash any records. "I'm just hoping to remind people that there are 31 days in May. And that it's the 10th Music Month. That's all I hope to achieve. Apart from being able to leave my gardening in my absence."

He says the band will perform a raindance in places facing drought and a sundance in the areas where the problem is too much rain.