Fred Frederikse: Booze-free focus on music

Fred Frederikse

I MISSED the past two Whanganui Musicians' Club "first Friday of the month" club nights as we were going to and then coming back from Sumatra (Indonesia).

It was a shame to miss the Frank Burkitt Band because I heard by email that they tore the house up. I also started hearing concern about the drinking at the last club night.

Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim country and so, doing what the locals mostly do, we had an alcohol-free month.

In Sumatra, a large bottle of not-very-strong Bintan beer is about twice the price of a packet of cigarettes -- imagine that in this country. Bintan means "star" in Indonesian and they say bintans spin around your head if you drink too much.

The Indonesian stimulants of choice seem to be coffee and cigarettes -- and good food and company. One of the things I liked about Sumatrans was the relaxed way they wound themselves up into an evening of chaos.

Once we were in a large restaurant where no one was drinking. The groups at all the tables were talking to each other; people were taking turns singing along with the keyboard player; women in headscarves were line-dancing and at the end of the evening the entire restaurant formed a conga line which threaded its way around all the tables.

From the distance of Sumatra, it seemed that New Zealand has a problem with alcohol. A social worker like Terry Sarten would probably know what percentage of the 300 domestic violence cases that are reported to the police every day in New Zealand involve one or both of the participants having had "a couple of beers".

At the last Musicians' Club committee meeting drinking was discussed, and without going into the messy details it was decided to make the October club night alcohol-free to reinforce the club's position, which is: "It's about the music, not the drinking."

We are in the business of putting musicians on stage. We are not in the business of selling alcohol and we are certainly not in the business of managing drunks.

Feedback from club members is that they enjoy our family-friendly atmosphere and a handful of drunks can easily destroy that atmosphere. It also just means hard work for the volunteers working to make each night a success.

It's time to emphasise our position again. Yes, on a normal club night you may bring along a couple of drinks (and something to eat) but we expect you to behave like ladies and gentlemen and to take your own rubbish away with you when you leave.

I'll leave the last word to Willie Nelson from his biography My Life: It's A Long Story (2015): "I did see a world of difference between the two highs: booze and weed. Liquor emboldened me when I needed to be less bold. Weed took the edge off foolish boldness and made me mellow. Liquor made me reckless. Weed made me careful. And when it came to the two of life's pleasures -- making music and making love -- liquor made me sloppy while marijuana made those experiences rapturous. The good herb was the best aphrodisiac I'd ever encountered."

The theme for the (alcohol-free) Whanganui Musicians' Club night this Friday, October 7, is R&B and the guest artists will be the Tama K Band from Palmerston North.

�When Fred Frederikse is not building, he is a self-directed student of geography and traveller. In his spare time he is co-chairman of the Whanganui Musicians' Club.