bandstanding: music in the west with susannah bridges
Inspired by everything musical Blenheim-born, now Titirangi-resident, Rick Topp has moved around the country quite a bit, his work as a teacher taking him to Auckland and Wellington and places in between, as well as to the UK for several years. “I once held a teaching principal’s position in a tiny rural school off SH 43 (The Lost Highway of legend). It was an hour’s drive from the nearest mince and cheese pie, so you had to stock up on food fortnightly.....that was when I discovered that lettuce doesn’t freeze!” He’s worked with many a top name, including current indie-folk star Aldous Harding. “I did two early shows with Aldous promoting her first album in 2013/14. One was at my buddy Chris Priestley’s One Two One Café on Ponsonby Road, the other at the Thirsty Dog on K Road. Mark Laurent and Jono Lonie helped out. We had a trio called the Latte Cowboys. I probably would never have got the gig if it wasn’t for the fact that Hanna (aka Aldous) is my daughter, but it was nice to be involved, and even nicer to see her career take off the way it has.” Rick’s own musical career began around age 15. His earliest musical memory is of his Mum playing the piano: “Mum had only a rudimentary training in music from the nuns who taught at her school. Brahms, Chopin and Mozart were her favourites, though after a sherry or two she would often break out into a boogie-woogie medley by Winifred Atwell or Russ Conway. My first guitar was a beat-up acoustic, a Suzuki number 3 with one string missing. There was little to do in Blenheim in the sixties so music became very important to me. “After teaching myself five or six chords I joined a band. We played a lot of local gigs but also got to travel as far as Nelson, where I had my first taste of the dizzying heights of rock and roll fame when our band came second in a South Island Battle of the Bands competition.” Along came the 70s and a move to Wellington, where Ali Baba’s, The Oracle and Downtown Club presented talented local bands, but it was Chez Paree on Marjoribanks Street that lured Rick into folk. “There were some great performers there doing Dylan, Tom Rush, Joan Baez and Leonard Cohen songs. I became hooked on the poetry of the lyrics as much as the music, and I’ve never really strayed from that formula as the basis for everything I’ve listened to (or written) since. John Prine became a particular favourite, and his first couple of albums sowed the seeds of inspiration for my own first attempts at song-writing.” A move to Auckland saw Rick become immersed in the folk scene through the Poles Apart and Devonport Folk Clubs, appearing regularly as a guest, and at folk festivals around the country. “By then, my repertoire had expanded to include country, blues and my own first attempts at song-writing, with a few jazz covers thrown in for good measure. I’m not a prolific writer: I’ve only written about 30 all up, but
I try and space the gigs out and choose the venues carefully so I’m not boring the same people at the same venues. “My best songs start out with just an idea, which I quickly give a title to, and that guides me, the lynch pin if you like. I just try and stay true to the original concept. It’s easy to get off track....especially at four in the morning when you’ve been writing all night and the fourth pot of coffee has you almost hallucinating!” Rick took up the bass guitar in the early 90s: “The live music scene in Auckland was changing rapidly and many of us solo singer/ guitarists found that work was drying up. A mate and I formed a duo. We got a lot of work and the money came in handy as by this time I was at Auckland Teachers Training College and living on a student loan. After a time, we added a drummer. After I qualified as a teacher I moved to Taranaki to teach and the band reformed as a four piece. The Lost Boyz became really popular. Our mash-up of 60s through to 90s songs was fun and danceable. We had two residencies of over a year each at two different venues, playing to packed houses most nights, starting at ten o’clock and often not finishing until three. They were heady times, and a lot of fun.” Admitting that everything musical inspires him Rick reckons one of the weirdest things that ever happened to him in his musical career was years ago when crossing Cook Strait on the Aratika. “I was feeling a bit seasick so took my guitar up on deck to play some music and get some fresh air. I had a beard back in those days, and shoulder-length hair, but I was somewhat dumbstruck when a small group of teens gathered around me while I gave my rendition of Morning Has Broken by Cat Stevens, and, convinced that I was indeed he, insisted that I give them my autograph. I confess I was so flattered I signed!” Other career highlights include opening for US singer-songwriter Tom Russell at the Gluepot, going on tour with Jimmy LaFave and getting to meet John Prine, and of course opening for Aldous. Rick’s also currently enjoying being back at work teaching. “I thought it would take a lot longer to get back into the swing of things but the transition has been pretty seamless. It’s great to be out of lockdown, I’m spending a lot of time OD-ing on coffee and getting out and about to some live performances of music and poetry with friends. Music is still my happy place. All kinds...from jazz to world, indie folk to seventies prog rock, there is gold to be mined if you keep your ears, and your mind, open.” Rick says of his only three recorded songs: “They’re sad songs, of unrequited love, the tyranny of distance and longing – and not for the faint-hearted.” You can check them out on Soundcloud here at https:// soundcloud.com/rick-topp.
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The Fringe AUGUST 2020
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