Hot on the heels of 'Splore', the 'eco-reggae' festival comes Hayley Westenra and Dave Dobbyn's "In tune with nature" winery tour. Well, I guess that's how you make a buck when no one buys cds. But please, must it be so fucking dull and twee?
Then we come to Salmonella Dub touring with the NZSO. Oh NZSO, say it ain't so! ENZO was dubious enough, but why prostitute your integrity like this, consorting with a reggae act five years past its prime and never that good to start with? That's not a worthy artistic collaboration. God, even working with that charlatan Campbell Kneale would be more relevant and interesting.
OK, so I know why you're doing it: a) to get some revenue, and b) to give the impression you're at least trying to 'expand' your audience. Though you'll be waiting in vain for the Salmonella Dub fans to return for a bit of Mahler or Webern. But maybe that's not the point, maybe you just want to exist solely to do these collaborations from now on. What good are Mahler and Webern when you could get much bigger audiences as the backing band for Haley Westenra or Dave Dobbyn?
Posted by stuart at January 27, 2008 4:54 PM