Sir Bob Geldof is coming to New Zealand. Photo / File
Sir Bob Geldof is coming to New Zealand. Photo / File
Music royalty will go head-to-head next month when musician and activist Sir Bob Geldof and drummer-extraordinaire Mick Fleetwood meet on stage in Auckland.
It's all to help aspiring young Kiwi songwriters through the Play It Strange charity and NZME is giving away a ticket to one lucky winner for the September 23 show at the Vodafone Events Centre in Auckland.
Playing It Strange, Geldof v Fleetwood, hosted by Kiwi artist Mike Chunn and Herald editor Murray Kirkness, will include a Q&A session with Geldof and Fleetwood debating the history and future of popular music.
Featuring some of the pair's favourite songs, the set will be performed by a hand-picked list of New Zealand's top artists, including Don McGlashan, James Reid and Jason Kerrison, alongside school-aged performers from the Play It Strange charity stable.
The high school musicians will include soloists, choirs, rock bands and an orchestra from several schools, including Manurewa High, King's College, Papatoetoe High and St Cuthbert's College.
Sir Bob, best known for forming Boomtown Rats in 1975 and his hit single I Don't Like Mondays, as well as his charity work founding Live Aid, said he was "delighted to be returning to Auckland again and meeting up with Mick".
Mick Fleetwood was previously in New Zealand for the Vodafone New Zealand Music Awards in 2015. File photo / Norrie Montgomery
He and Fleetwood, co-founder of the legendary Fleetwood Mac, would choose their favourite songs to play with the Kiwi artists.
Duco Events director David Higgins said it would be an unforgettable evening for those lucky enough to attend.
"To bring together such massive names as Mick Fleetwood and Sir Bob Geldof and have them speaking in an intimate setting is incredibly rare.
"We're talking about two international music icons chatting about the history of music, recounting untold stories and anecdotes from their incredible careers, and then presenting what they feel is some of the greatest music ever created."
He came up with the idea when he attended the world's pre-eminent charity concert, the Grammy organisation's MusiCares Person of the Year – a black tie dinner in Los Angeles for several thousand people.
He saw Bob Dylan receive an award from former US president Jimmy Carter and watched "probably the greatest line-up of musicians ever assembled each perform a Bob Dylan song", Higgins said.
"I realised New Zealand had few, if any, high-end annual charity concerts – a fantastic dinner, with topical discussion, followed by a curated concert set list featuring some of the world's greatest music.
"So when Mike Chunn, the chief executive of Play It Strange, approached us looking to partner on an annual event we set out together to create something quite unique and special."
Sir Bob Geldof is coming to New Zealand. Photo / File
The event would raise money for the Play It Strange Trust, a charity formed in 2003 to help aspiring Kiwi songwriters.
The funding boost would "enhance and expand" Play It Strange's songwriting programmes, Chunn said.
"Play It Strange promotes the ethos of song writing by young New Zealanders – as a buoyant, vibrant craft of the imagination, and so that the national voice of our youth is propagated from their words and music. Their songs are unique and engaging.
"This event is unique in New Zealand history; we have never before seen a format of such scope and quality. The plan is to create a legacy event, still going in 20 years' time, featuring giants of music history on stage in candid discussion."
• Tickets for the event, which also features a four-course banquet dinner and charity auction are available from www.eventfinda.co.nz
