2016

Greetings, folks - hope you are all fine and fresh and feeling frisky after fabulous festive frolics... We have been here, mostly, ensuring that you are spared the deafening silence when the music ends. In fact, we only closed Xmas and New Year's Days, and have been visited by all manner of folks from all around New Zealand and the rest of the world - people have been very kind, telling us how much they dig the store - you do tend to forget sometimes that there are plenty of places where an independent record shop is no longer represented... Anyway, the big news has obviously been the death of the great David Bowie. One of the most iconic artists of this (or any) era, his death, from liver cancer, came just days after the release of his 28th, and now final album "Blackstar", on the occasion of his 69th birthday. We have been stampeded with people buying the (excellent) new album (on both CD - still in stock, and LP - should have more soon), and his formidable back catalogue, and you are reminded just how much his music means to people, across a huge age range and different demographics. He was both popstar, and serious artist, both to the casual fan and to the obsessives. He dabbled in disco, glam, soul, hard rock, dance music, folk. He was both a magpie and an innovator, and a brilliant collaborator with talents such as Brian Eno, Nile Rodgers, Robert Fripp, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed. RIP, David Jones. What an extraordinary life and career. Other than that - a handful of new releases instore (they will start to increase in number from about now!), plus new posters, tee shirts and a great swag of excellent music books - come check it out!! Happy New Year, everybody - hope to be seeing you soon!! XX The Slow Boat Crew XX