THE HISTORY.
I am a Feelers fan. I believe they are New Zealand's best band, and I am not alone. Ever since I heard their first single 'Pressure Man', I have been hooked.
The Feelers are a cult, people all over New Zealand love them, love their songs. Their singles have had major time on the charts and.....they rock! Their album 'Supersystem' has not moved out of my stereo since I brought it in August. It has just gone double platnium selling 45,000 copies in New Zealand alone. One afternoon I was outside on my roof, relaxing and listening to 'Space Cadet', which was so loud my speakers were shaking. It was then that I noticed a man in the parking lot next door yelling at me, at first I thought he was telling me to turn it down, so I did. It was eventually quiet enough for me to hear him yell, "Turn it up, I love The Feelers!", so I did.
Feelers fans are everywhere,
at my school you can often hear people humming the tune of 'Venus', and
I know of at least five people who drive around with The Feelers blaring
from their car stereos. Someone at school has also graffitied "The Feelers
rule" on a desk. So you can imagine our excitment when we heard that The
Feelers Venus Tour would be going to Dunedin in December. A group of us
booked tickets and began organising transport to Dunedin (from Alexandra
where we live, it's 2 hours drive), completely forgetting about school
certificate for a few days. I had seen them play several songs in a crowded
Echo Records in Dunedin and managed to talk to them and get their signatures
after the
performance. I thought
this was a great mini-gig, but as I would later find this was nothing compared
to the massive concert they would later play at Glenroy Theatre in December.
The Concert.
Me and several friends
arrived outside Dunedin's Glenroy Theatre at 7.00pm, a whole hour before
the concert was due to start. Here we waited for an hour and a half with
hundreds of other Feelers fans, until finally at 8.30pm the doors opened
and everyone flooded inside. It wasn't long before local Dunedin band 'Mestar'
took to the stage and
played a brilliant
set of songs which had the large crowd of about 700 buzzing. At 9.30pm,
another Dunedin band 'Cloudboy' played for 30 minutes to a restless crowd
who wanted.......THE FEELERS!!! Finally after 2 and a half hours of waiting
for the main course, James, Matt and Hamish took to the stage, receiving
a massive roar from the crowd. They blasted through 'From Space With Love',
'Friend', and several b-sides, before playing an awesome version of 'Space
Cadet' where the whole audience jumped and sang, filling the theatre with
a deafening Feelers rock sound.
The Feelers were a four piece band for the night with ex-band member Tim Skedden playing a guitar, as well as a brief period on the drums. 'Pressure Man', 'Honey God', 'The Leaving' and 'Mary' were played, all sounding amazing. The Feelers gave it everything, as sweat poured off them while they played more songs from their album. The first hour flew by, and at 10.35pm they left the stage. James returned minutes later toplay several accoustic songs, 'Where do the Children Play?' (Cat Stevens), 'What does love do this to me?' (The Exponents), 'Thunder' (AC/DC) and a few others, including 'We wish you a merry Christmas. He even tried his hand at the Michael Jackson song 'Billy Jean', but this didn't last long because Matt and him were too busy laughing. Hamish came back to the stage wearing an Otago rugby jersey and received a massive ovation from the loud crowd who had been hosed down with water because of the heat. The band then played 'Arm', 'Pull the Strings', 'Supersystem', and a long version of 'Venus'.
At 11.35pm, The Feelers
said their thank yous and left a very pleased crowd wondering what more
can The Feelers do?
By David Diehl