Black Caps vs. India

India are touring New Zealand this spring, playing the full range of formats and visiting Wellington for a match in all three. The first is T20, played at night with an 8pm start – presumably because there’s more money in Indian TV rights than there is in New Zealand ticket sales. This is the third in a five-match series, and so far New Zealand are 2-0 down, so this is a must-win to keep the series alive. Despite having lost two matches, though, it must be said that India won them with only a ball to spare on each occasion, and a held catch or two would have swung the matches completely the other way, so we’re down to very fine margins here.

The day dawned windy and rainy, but the forecast sunshine emerged in the afternoon and the wind abated to a mere zephyr. We arrived in good time to stake a place by the window in the Cricket Wellington box at Hnry Stadium, as we’ve renewed our gold membership for a second year, to take advantage of these games. Unfortunately, the next one in Wellington, an ODI, is on Election Day (7^th November), so we’ll miss it as we’ll both be working at voting places on the day.

After the usual hurrahs and anthems at the beginning of the match, we got down to it. India had won the toss for the third time in succession, and  again put New Zealand in to bat. The Blackcaps made a slow start and lost Seifert early in the second over, at 4/1. Darryl Mitchell and Finn Allen then started rebuilding, and they reached 90 before losing another wicket. Phillips gave a short cameo for 17 runs before chipping one straight back to the bowler, and Mitchell carried on to the end, finally reaching 89, nearly half of his side's total of 198.

Against most teams, and on most grounds, that would be a competitive target. Not tonight, though. The Indian batters seemed to have the measure of the bowling attack, which was, for the most part, bowled too short. New Zealand stuck at it despite the fact that they were being launched into the stands, so it seemed, every other ball. They managed to take a wicket in the eighth over, but by then India were at 133, scoring at around 20 an over. They slowed from a gallop to a canter after that, and eventually down to a walk, as they took their sweet time polishing off the remaining runs. Whilst they dropped three more wickets the result was never in doubt, as the worm shows.

 So that’s the series won for India. There are two more matches, in Auckland and Hamilton, both on grounds with short boundaries, so they may choose to bat first on those grounds just to see what kind of total they can achieve. After that comes the 5-match ODI series – we’ll be missing the Wellington fixture – followed by two test matches: again, one in Wellington at the Basin, which we’ll try to catch as much of as we can. Hopefully with better results.

 

Midge Ure

Way back in the autumn of 2025 (that’s around March to you northern hemisphere types) I bought tickets to see Midge Ure later in that year, in spring. I was looking forward to it.

In the winter, I received an email from Ticketek, telling me that Midge had suffered an unspecified medical condition, and that the tour was being postponed for a year. A year!!! I was offered a refund or to accept the rescheduled date. Well, I still wanted to see him, so I wished him a speedy recovery and changed the date in the calendar.

OK, it’s a year later now. And Midge is better! The venue is Meow Nui, and again we wondered whether in deference to his likely audience he’d be providing seats. Nothing of the sort! This is another, proper, stand-up gig. 

First up, we went to Cuba St Tavern, which is becoming a fast favourite for us for pre-theatre and gig dinners. The last couple of times we’ve been there I’ve been disappointed by the lack of oysters, despite them being on the menu: they’d already been scoffed by greedy, unthinking other diners before we got there. Anyway, this  time I reserved half a dozen on the “any other information:” box on the reservation form, and lo! Behold! Six juicy, plump oysters were mine! We also ate some other stuff.

When we got to Meow Nui the queue was down the street, round the block, and up a side street. People must’ve been wondering what all the olds were queueing for on a Friday night (we were about the median age of those in the queue). We’d engaged in some chat with our servers at CST, neither of whom had a clue who or what an Ultravox was, or had heard of Midge Ure. Young people today!

Inside, we established a spot near to the stage, and bumped into Emma, one of my fellow Toastmasters, so we chatted a bit about forthcoming gigs – there’s a veritable summer of Eighties music coming up!

The support act came on and introduced himself as Cole Stacey. He said “you're expecting to see synthpop and guitar hero Midge Ure, and instead you’ve got a hairy guy from Devon playing the mandolin”, which is what he did, for the obligatory half-dozen songs, some of which were completely unaccompanied. As he finished his set he left us with the words “right, I’m off to change my shirt and learn some Ultravox songs”. Ha ha, I thought. Very funny.

 Half an hour later, and Midge takes the stage with his band, Electronica. Boom! It was no joke! There’s Cole again, bass guitar in hand! Yes, he’s in the band as well!

Midge kicked off with Dear God, then followed with a mix of songs from Ultravox, Visage, and solo works including No Regrets and If I Was. In between there was the usual banter, starting with an apology for turning up so late. There was a good mixture, including quite a lot from the Long Ago – five (count’em!) from seminal album Vienna, including the title track, which of course means nothing to me. He got us involved in the obligatory sing-a-long on The Voice, and we generally had a good time. I knew pretty much all the songs, and reminded myself how good some of those album tracks had been…including the notorious Astradyne, a six-minute electronic instrumental from Vienna, which he was once asked to play when he was touring solo with just a guitar.

The show wrapped up after a very short encore (one song – Hymn), possibly due to curfew rules on the venue? It was, after all, past eleven o’clock! On the other hand, it may just be that it was past Midge’s bedtime, because, would you believe, he’s 73! 

I’d say “catch him if you can” but other than tonight’s show in Auckland, that about wraps up his Australasian tour. He is touring the UK towards the end of the year as well. That full setlist is here (or will be when the site updates).

 

After God

Nicola was on ushering duty again at Circa Theatre, this time for After God. What’s that about? Sounds a bit God-y to me…

We had dinner at ChouChou again. They do seem to be improving after the initial hiccups and less-than-perfect experiences we’ve had with them. I had fish & chips, Nicola had the burger…both competent enough, but it’s still pub grub. Lowering expectations seems to be the way to go.

After God is described by the author as a “verbatim play”. This means that the dialogue is exactly as spoken by the characters, most of whom are real people (spoiler alert: God makes an appearance, and he’s not real). It’s mainly about the author’s (Stuart McKenzie – an “everyman” played by different actors for different parts of the play) conversations about god, God, religion, theology and related subjects. Some of his conversers are ordinary people, others are highbrow theologists, professors, and religious types.

The beauty of taking real dialogue as the premise for your play is that it allows you to shape it, give it a narrative, split the scenes up so it doesn’t follow necessarily how or when it was originally said, and to juxtapose it with others from different times and places. Now, call, me old-fashioned, but I’d’ve liked it if he actually did that. Instead, it’s a mishmash of incoherent ideas, some ramblings, cute aphorisms that fall apart on a moment’s thought, and general mumbo-jumbo. Much like religion, in other words. I don’t know if that’s the author’s intent, or not. The most significant moment towards the end comes when there is a death, but I can’t help but get the feeling that it’s thrown in for dramatic effect. It added nothing to the rest of the play, but he wants you to feel dramatised and traumatised.

So yeah, a bit of a mixed bag. I give it 2/5.

 

Razorlight

The summer* of gigs has started, with Suzanne Vega a couple of weeks ago, and now Noughties almost-legends, indie rockers Razorlight. Remember them? They had a string of hits around 20 or so years ago, culminating in the No. 1 smash, America. They released three albums in that time before splitting up. Artistic differences? I think it was mainly that the singer, Johnny Borrell, was a bit of an arsehole. And by a bit, I mean a lot.

Anyway, that’s all in the past, they’ve reconciled their differences and are now doing America: 20^th Anniversary Tour. And they’re coming to New Zealand!

But first, of course, dinner. I booked Kisa as it’s handily placed, just up the road on Ghuznee Street, not far from the venue, Meow Nui. For once we dispensed with bread and dips, as these tend to fill you up with bread and dips, and dived straight into a selection of mixed mezze – kebabs, turşu, böreks, and cured fish. Yum! Once again, the Mosaic Group (of which they are part) are doing their passport promotion, so we’ll probably visit some of their other locations over the next few months.

Then on to Meow Nui. We’ve been there before, most recently to see Bret McKenzie. But what’s this? No seats? Yes, this is a proper, old-fashioned gig where you have to stand around waiting for the band to come on. Fortunately, there’s a bar. There was also a merch stand, but I didn’t fancy the design of any of the t-shirts so I skipped that one.

First up was local band Dropper, who came on for the traditional half-hour warm-up set. They’ve released an album on CD (yes, actual physical medium!) so I’ve ordered that.

Then on came Razorlight. They played a mix of songs, old and new, as they reformed in 2018 and have since released two albums, bringing their total to…five. Way to go, fellas! All the hits (they didn’t have enough to afford the luxury of leaving any out) interspersed with other songs, old and new material. Borrell isn’t much one for the bants between songs, they just got down and did it. He does have a lot of front-man energy, though, and loves showing of his ripped abs.

After an hour they left the stage before returning for a five-song encore, finishing up, inevitably, with America. A jolly good night out with proper rock’n’roll music. From here they’re going to Australia, then onwards to Europe and the UK. Catch them if you can!

 

Suzanne Vega

Suzanne Vega? Remember her? Marlene On The Wall and all that? Yes, she had a few hits in the mid-to-late Eighties. I even had her debut album on tape (tape!), but haven’t replaced it on CD since all my cassettes went to the great tape head in the sky, to be eternally chewed up. Nicola, though, is the proud owner of Solitude Standing, and I have 99.9F° (sic), from the Nineties. But she has a new (-ish) album out, and is “touring” New Zealand – i.e. playing Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland, which, frankly, is two more cities than a lot of visiting American artists manage. 

But first, dinner, as is tradition. We’ve not been to Wellington’s premier French-style restaurant, Le Bouillon Bel Air, for a long while – in fact, probably not since it opened! Which is (checks notes) two years ago! Time flies! Anyway, I had a hankering for some escargots, and this is probably the only place that actually does them in Wellington, so I booked it, with the proviso that we had to be out to get to the show. No problem, and I had my snails (delicious!) and confit de canard (not quite salted and aged to the extent that I would do, but still tasty), and a glass of French wine to boot. It was a rainy, windy, Sunday evening yet the place was almost full…quite a few may have been on the same mission as us as it’s only five minutes’ walk away…

…from St James Theatre. I’d misread the tickets and thought doors opened at 7:30pm (reasonable), but in fact a quick bit of Gemini-ing during dinner revealed (a) the show starts at 7:30pm, and (b) there’s no support act, so we resisted the blandishments of pudding and hotfooted it round the corner, to take our seats in the stalls.

She was prompt. None of your rock star messing about being late on stage. She kicked off straight away with Marlene On The Wall, so we all knew we were in the right place, and played a couple of other well-known songs before stopping for a chat. She told us she likes to play recognisable songs first, as if she kicks off with new material it can make people anxious! They come later in the set. She also told us the tale of landing in Wellington on the third attempt, having had to go back to Auckland after the first two failed…normal for Wellington. She introduced long-time collaborator Gerry Leonard on guitar, and cellist Stephanie Winters, who plays on most of the songs. They played a full repertoire from the very earliest song she wrote in the Seventies, through to excerpts of the new album (Flying With Angels), and finished up, inevitably, with probably her most famous, Tom’s Diner. 

They then reappeared for a three-song encore including Lou Reed’s Walk On the Wild Side, and In Liverpool, before wrapping up at – gosh! 9:15pm! Clearly she knows her audience and doesn’t want to keep them up past their bedtime!

  

Pho-Chick Sakes

What’s this? Another burger post? But Burger Wellington finished on Sunday! How can this be?

Well, some establishments are continuing to offer their burger to the end of August, or until stocks run out. Also, the five finalists in the competition are continuing with their burgers, before the final reckoning of best burger on…wait…today!

Before I get into that, however, a round-up of some misses. On Sunday, the last official day of the competition, I wanted to go to One80 to try Porteña!. No joy, however, because I couldn’t find a park on Oriental Parade, and I was under a little bit of time pressure. Ah well.

On the WOAP site page there’s a handy list of places still doing burgers, so I checked that, and today we went to Lazy Juan’s to try Marites; but Juan was feeling too lazy to cook. Possibly because he’s a finalist and is busy at the cook-off, but it wasn’t available. Nul points. We went down Dixon Street to try another well-favoured burger at The Old Quarter – Squeal The Deal – but there was a fifteen minute wait for a table…clearly it’s still very popular! Over the road, Pho Viet was enticingly half-empty, so we crossed and sat ourselves down there. I ordered the Pho-Chick Sakes burger, while Nicola had a duck pancake of monstrous proportions.

It's described on the Burger Wellington website like this: Buttermilk fried chicken thigh, with American cheese, South Asian pickled vegetables, Manuka honey-glazed bacon, iceberg lettuce, and smoked sesame yum yum sauce in a Volco coconut-infused milk brioche bun, with Thai fry seasoned chips and phở broth.

It looks like this: 

There’s no DVB beer match so I ordered a Tuatara Hazy Pale Ale to accompany it.

Straight away you can see you’re not eating this with your hands. Before I tucked in with the cutlery, I had a taste of the broth, which is a good, flavoursome accompaniment. The fries were well-cooked and well-seasoned. The burger was impressive! Lots of flavour, good crunch on the chicken, I didn’t mind the lettuce so much as I was pulling the burger apart anyway. The sauce had quite a kick to it – sweet and spicy. I didn’t notice any coconut in the bun, largely because I wasn’t looking for it, and the slice of cheese was only a few molecules thick, and could have been more generous. But all that aside, this was a tasty burger, and a good way to finish (? Who knows?) the competition. I’m scoring it 8/10, even though voting has closed and it won’t count for anything.

 

Dublin Drip

We’re coming in to the final stretch of Burger Wellington, and I have two opportunities to try burgers in the final weekend. I asked the WOAP Burger Wellington group over on Facebook – where I’ve also posted my reviews (in cut-down form – they don’t like blog posts so I’ve sent a shortened version) – for their advice. I specified what I wanted and narrowed it down to two burgers: Dublin Drip from The Green Man, and Mixed Messages from The Malthouse. These are two of Wellington’s oldest and finest pubs.

I went to The Green Man today, finding parking on Featherston Street and walking from there. First thing to note: The Green Man has the stickiest floor and carpet the world has ever known. Walking up to the bar made a noise as I unstuck each footstep, and when I tried to move the chair back from the table, it only came away with the most grudging of slurping sounds.

Their burger is called Dublin Drip, and is described thusly: Beef patty, with bacon, aged cheddar, stout-braised onion, wholegrain mustard, and whiskey peppercorn sauce in a Pōneke Bakery milk bun, with beef tallow roasted potatoes.

It looks like this:

There's no DVB beer match, so I chose a Tuatara Interstellar IPA to accompany. 

It looks like the picture on the website, although the bacon was a bit underdone. The sauce was in a small pot rather than a jug. I used it to dip the potatoes in. The burger itself was pick-upable, and was quite dry – no squirt of juices or sauce as is usual with many burgers. The onions were generous, but the cheese less so. The patty was quite thick, but not wide – it didn’t occupy the burger real estate to the full extent. This leaves bready edges with no burger meat, which is less than ideal. Make the patty a bit bigger, and maybe a bit thinner, to fit the burger to the available area (I don’t mind if you err on the generous side and overflow the bun, but being too small is a burger crime). The potatoes were…ordinary. Yes, they may have been beef tallow roasted, but not to any great effect. Some seasoning may have helped. The sauce itself was very forward on the whiskey flavour, but the peppercorns had done a vanishing act; there wasn’t even a hint of pepperiness.

Overall, not a flavour bomb, but a fairly standard burger. I can only score this 6/10.