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Real—istically Speaking

Reedl to Real have now played at two Sasracs and even to those who have not had the chance to hear them at least the name will mean something. Reel to Real was formed at the beginning of this year, and with the exception of a few students concerts have been confined to suburban hotels. The scant publicity they have received (often due to financial reasons) and the few opportunities that they have had have all been influencing factors in prompting me to write this article.

What has been the musical background that has brought you together as a group?

Geoff: Well, we all played together in a group called 'Maranatha' for about three years where we tried to do original music; trying to be a distinctive type of band on a part-time basis. Then at the end of '77 Chris Norton our keyboards player and Marayan Street our lead vocals both left. The rest of us then decided to re-form the next year as a professional band. So, at the beginning of this year we got together and began practising. We've been going ever since.

Graham: There was a real change from being a keyboard based band to a guitar based band, so things have changed quite radically in style. In [unclear: terms] of numbers, we play a lot more unoriginal material, though we are still working at playing our own stuff...

Geoff: We initially had to get a big repertoire together, so we've had to learn a lot of commercial type music. But it has been encouraging as we're finding a lot more time now to do work on our own compositions and select out a more distinctive set of songs.

Let's return to your personal histories, Ash?

Initially I started off with folk-style guitar (you know, doing rag-time and sort of strumming styles). Then I did a couple of years of classical guitar with a private tutor and another at Vic doing Music Performance. In '74 I picked up bass and travelled around schools with old Maranatha, and in '75 I started to play 6-string guitar with the new Maranatha which had changed a good deal by then. We played a lot of our own compositions then, more so than we are doing now...so anyway...I found it quite hard picking up an electric guitar and doing original stuff, it is harder than simply copying in a lot of ways.

Question - Dave?

Dave: Well, basically I'm a folk singer.

(laughter...He's changed a bit... he used to be...)

I concentrate more on vocals now, though I do play rhythm guitar. I played with the old Maranatha, mainly sax and occasionally keyboards.

Graham, didn't you try the academic musical life for a while?

Graham: Yes, I did for two years in a percussion course at Polytech. I started playing when I was about 16 in various school bands....nothing very substantial in terms of any group staying together for any length of time. It was only when I joined Mananatha in '73 that I began to play seriously. I have been played in various combinations of that group up until the beginning of this year, that's when I joined Reel to Real.

Geoff, what about you? I can remember you playing in groups around Nelson when you were at school.

Geoff: I guess I have always been a bit of a doodler; doodled on piano and acoustic guitar, played a little bit of bass at school (but not much), and when I first went to University I mucked around on electric guitars It really wasn't until 1975 that I began to play in any disciplined kind of way, that was when I joined Maranatha as a bass player. Since then I have concentrated on bass playing and now backing vocals. So really I'm an untrained rock 'n' roll barbarian.

Where's the group been playing mostly this year?

Graham: Definitely pubs, though mostly in the suburbs. In fact, this job at Varsity will be the first in town for nearly...how long have we been playing...well, since the last time we played at Polytech 3 or 4 months ago. We hope to do more concert work in the future.

Why the name Reel to Real?

Graham: I guess one of the things we are trying to do as a band is to play music that is realistic in the sense of being true to life as we see it. In other words, we're trying to bring our songs to bear on the real situation around us in the world.

Geoff: You could read into the first 'Reel' the things of music like tape reels etc., and the second 'Real' the things of life as we see them - which for us does have some distinctive features. We want to bring our music and composition in some way to bear on our Christian way of looking at life, and that for all of us represents the base line from where we begin. We've found ourselves out on a limb really.

So, in your music you are not wanting to take people into a fantasy world but rather you wish to present life as you see it, contrasted with the purely commercial group caught up in chasing the elusive dollar bill?

Ashley: There's more to our basic purpose than just to entertain people, though we want to do that as well. We don't want to take people away from their real situation which involves real joy and pain.

Dave: We enjoy music that is good to listen to and fun to play. We want to entertain people and maybe say something more.

What style of music do you play?

Dave: We've all had different backgrounds and influences - Potter, Ash and Geoff are all dregs from the ′60s. I'm still trying to convince them that James Taylor and Dave Loggins are good musicians; they're still trying to get past the Rolling Stones and the Beatles. But mainly the music we do best is stuff like Johnny Winter, Boxer', and Lynard Skynnard - music with simple basic backing.

Graham: We do play a large variety of styles and some of our own material. It's hard to compare ourselves to any other band around really. Obviously with our line up - two guitars, bass, drums and Dave doubling on sax and blues harp - we are quite limited as we have no keyboards player (though Dave can double on that in the studio).

Any possibility of a keyboards player coming into the group?

Geoff: We're open to that possibility, though we aren't looking.

Dave: They would have to have all their own gear, a Bedford truck and enough money to support us all.

As for the problems you are facing, are they a product purely of the NZ situation or just the hard road of professionalism ?

Graham: Making it in NZ means different things to making it overseas. Even if you did get a record to the number one slot in NZ, it would only mean a national tour and then you would be back playing in pubs - maybe a higher class pub which pays more. Basically that's all the venues there are. That is why so many artists and bands go to Australia. But it depends on what you mean by 'success' or 'making it'.

What about future plans?

Dave: Lunch.

Graham: Three weeks at the Royal Tiger starting the 14th of June which will be our first central city pub and we have concerts at Sasrac and Polytech. We also hope to get out of Wellington later in the year. There is the possibility of some TV work in the future.

Geoff: We hope to go to some place like Nelson or Gisbourne during the summer, and next year we will be touring on a limited basis. Till then we are available for gigs in Wellington.

This year has seen the group develop a m much tighter sound, higher energy output and a far smoother stage performance. Their traditional rock'n'roll line up has expanded greatly over the weeks, moving from a fairly limited repertoire to one of reasonable variety. At times they seem to suffer from the lack of some intergrating and co-ordinating influence, perhaps being the absence of a keyboards player. Their vocals have improved vastly over the year as the group has grown in confidence, though at times it is still difficult to pick up lyrics. Individually they are all excellent musicians with the capacity of playing a number of styles well. Their own [unclear: material] is distinctive and easy to listen to, they have a single that may be released, [unclear: inance] permitting, in the near future).

Considering the experience of the group [unclear: nd] their improvement during the year, I [unclear: eel] sure that they are a name and sound [unclear: hich] we will hear a lot more of.