Our "First Friday of the Month" club nights, where local musicians can get up and show what they can do, is open to all ages, styles, instruments and abilities and we've witnessed some memorable performances -- from school bands through to seasoned musos. The club has acted as a place where musicians network, bands have formed and romances have blossomed.
A team of volunteers runs the club and none of us is paid, including those who perform. We do, however, pay out-of-town bands and this Friday, August 5, the guests will be The Frank Burkitt Band, an alt-country act from Auckland.
Visiting performers just love our venue. Sydney blues man Isaiah P. Blunt rated it the best venue he had played at in New Zealand and finished his act by photographing the hall and audience from the stage.
Young Life, a reggae band from Vanuatu, opened their New Zealand tour at the Savage Club hall. They had arrived in the country the day before and, on their way to Whanganui, they had just seen their first train.
While they were still on tour, Cyclone Pam struck their island nation and at our next club night we raised $1300, which we sent to the band to help towards rebuilding. They emailed back and said thanks and that the Whanganui show had been the highlight of the tour.
On the subject of savages, we occasionally get lectured by some humourless cultural studies sociologist about the politically incorrect implications of the name "Savage".
"The club was named after an 18th century 'punk rock' English playwright named Richard John Savage. It's more about fusion than appropriation," we explain to them.
They would be surprised to see the pre-war Savage Club songsheets (in Maori) of local waiata -- including spelling Whanganui with an "H".
In the past, the musicians' club has run an original song competition -- last time "Wizz" won it with his composition Ko au ko te awa.
While Wizz was having his song recorded by our sound engineer Dave Griffiths, Dave opened a bottle of beer and found under the cap that he had won a trip for two to a jazz festival in London. Dave took "Wizz" (who had never been out of the country before) and a Whanganui Maori musician found himself in the city where the Savage Club had been formed 150 years before.
The Musicians' Club, with assistance from Whanganui District Council's creative communities funding, is running another song competition this year. It is open to all club members (membership only $20) so be in to win.
�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.
