More Info →Winter Chills Festive Fun

This image was taken for a story that ran in The Manawatu Evening Standard on 20th July 1988.

"Died Pretty, Chris Knox, Nick Smith and band. Massey Social Hall, July 14. It was a cold night as a small but dedicated crowd trooped into the Massey Social Hall last Thursday to see Australian band Died Pretty's first performance in Palmerston North.

First up was Nick Smith, normally seen solo on the stages of New Zealand purveying his particular brand of socially and politically inspired songs to the public. What was different about this show was that Nick appeared with a backing band and the difference was immeasurable. Songs that had previously jarred their way into people's consciousness took on a whole new force. Next up was veteran of innumerable New Zealand music projects, Chris Knox, this was his first solo visit to Palmerston North and the crowd was obviously eagerly awaiting his performance.

They definitely weren't disappointed. With charm to burn and sharp wit he literally conducted the crowd on a tour of a series of mainly new but typically inspired Chris Know originals. By the time Died Pretty came on the crowd had thinned somewhat.

The band seemed to be winding the crowd up quite well by the time they got to their third song, a cover of Neil Young's Loner, however, they never really managed to reach the peak I expected. There were some individual highlights like Lost, the title track of their new album, and the fast moving Crawls Away which also featured an impromptu appearance on harmonica by a member of the crowd.

However the cold night took its toll on crowd enthusiasm, not to mention playing havoc with the strings of Brett Myers guitars. At one stage he was snapping at least one string per song. It must have been hard for a band used to playing to crowds of a couple of thousand to get extremely enthused over the prospect of playing to a small crowd in a huge chilly hall and it showed in their overall performance.

Overall though, it was a good night's entertainment and it's perhaps merely a sign of the times that the crowd was not larger.

Pictured: Nick Smith -- new perspective with additional backing band. Photo by Mark Lapwood.

Pictured: Ronald S. Peno fronts Aussie band Died Pretty at Massey. Photo by Mark Lapwood."