Fabled NZ promoter Hugh Lynn is seen here in this rare one-minute clip, battling with the record company over Herbs wishing to launch their 1987 album in Ruatoria. A storied and entrepreneurial character. Hugh owned Mascot Studios, Eden Security and was a highy successful Auckland concert promoter. He disappeared from the scene over 20 years ago….

*Thanks to http://www.youtube.com/user/slydogmania

Why am I in Indonesia and living in the jungle of Kalimantan or Borneo as I have always known it?

Well, it is a long story…

It started in 1995, my first trip to Indonesia.

I was on my way back to New Zealand after some time up in Norway – Amsterdam –  Kuala Lumpur to hang out with Julian Dobbie, who was working for a New Zealand property developer, in Singapore, finally I landed in Jakarta.

Julian Dobbie & Hugh Lynn

I wasn’t ready for Indonesia, the heat, so many people, and the traffic.
They’re all mad, were my first thoughts. So many people squashed together, coming at you down the road, on both sides, on the foot-path, and the language?

This had been a Subud trip, right through I had hung out with Subud people, and I was heading towards Wisma Subud Cilandak, on Fatmawati Road, two hours away from the airport, depending on traffic, and the traffic rules in Jakarta, it determines the right time to go from point A to point B, and if you pick the wrong time, it can add an extra hour to your journey.

Wisma Subud Cilandak, Jl. Fatmawati, South Jakarta

Vibrant, alive this city is on fire, and nothing was the same as I knew it. The food, the people, the language, everything is different, and the damn heat. My thoughts were they’d lost control over the city. I suppose after being in places that had some order to them, Oslo, Amsterdam, Kuala Lumpur was a bit loose, and then Singapore, Jakarta seemed to be out of control. I could have been on Pluto, at times I thought I was.

I remember the first panic attacks I got with the heat; it just does not go away. I remember moving in to the guest house without air conditioning believing that it would be better If I learnt to adjust to the heat the natural way, now that was a dumb idea, but it takes me some years to figure it out that air conditioning in your room was good especially in the early stages.

Subud Guest House

Seems funny now, writing this from Kalimantan, because it is hot here, but my body has adjusted over these years.

Riza and Hugh in Rungan Sari, Kalimantan

After my first time into Indonesia, I found myself coming back. It seemed to be on the way to Europe and I was flying around a bit more now, on the way back to New Zealand, I’d stop off. My main reason for coming to Indonesia was because of Subud; Wisma Subud was the first international center, English speaking people from all over the world, coming and going.

Subud Hall Cilandak Jakarta

In 2001 I met Yanti, (Subud name, Murianti) and eventually we got married in April 2002

Hugh & Yanti Lynn Wedding Day, 13 April 2002

We brought Rafael, her son to Auckland, New Zealand in late 2003.

Rafael’s farewell family gathering

Rafael is ready for New Zealand adventure

We then moved to Gisborne, August 2004, my tribal area to start work doing tribal business, which lead on to working in The Treaty Settlement process for the Turanganui A Kiwa (Gisborne). This involved many different Iwi, Hapu and Whanau groups.

Gisborne City from Titirangi Hill out look

The Treaty Settlement Process Gisborne

Hugh with tribal elders of Turanganui A Kiwa

During this time I brought down some of our Indonesian family, first Nuraini for 3 months, then Riza for 9 months, then Elvira and Riza’s for a second trip.

Nuraini – Mt. Manganui Beach, East cape of New Zealand

Nuraini – Gisborne 2004

Riza and Elvira, Auckland 2007

Rafael, Riza, Elvira – Wainui Rd, Gisborne 2007

By this time we were making serious plans to go up to Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, and spend some time in Rungan Sari. Rungan Sari is a Subud international compound and is 36 km away from Palangka Raya.

Rungan Sari Compound, 36 km from the capital city of Palangka Raya

Wooden house were we living in Rungan Sari compound

7:30 pm Musical Chairs – Hugh Lynn

Hugh Lynn was New Zealand’s most successful rock promoter of the 1980s. The legendary concert promoter opened New Zealand’s first punk nightclub, managed Herbs, and worked with the superstars of the day, including David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Pink Floyd and R.E.M.

His outdoor concerts broke attendance records and in 1988 he was recognised by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand with an award for his outstanding contribution to local music.

Musical Chairs takes a trip down Lynn’s memory lane, covering his career, his friendship with Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh.

Hugh Lynn, 6th October 6, 2009, Rungan Sari

How did this all happen ?

In the beginning, when I first started doing shows, I kept a sample of all the imagery that were used for each show; poster, handouts, and t-shirts. Because at the end of each show we would evaluate the effectiveness of what we had done. This included, the way in which we had transmitted our messages to the public that the show was coming.

• How effective was the design of this poster?
• Were the colors right?
• Was it easy to read from a distance?
• Did the design stand out?
• Was the information easy to pick up?

So we kept our stuff, to talk about. Now, sometimes there were only a few samples of each item and other times there was a bit more. So that’s how it started.

502 Dominion Rd. Auckland

The items then were stored away under the house in Dominion road after each show. And after a while, a number of years in fact, and about 160 international acts later there was a large amount of memorabilia under the house, with lots of other stuff, for instance, dancing costumes, shoes, chairs from night clubs, and a number of different items collected over those years.

Now at this point, I must pay tribute to a man called Alby Carr. Now Alby had worked for me for about twenty years. He was a giant of a man, did security work, and was Maori. His early days were spent in forestry, and this work had built an exceptionally strong human being. He was the strongest man I knew; fearless. What was strange was he was also gentle. He knew he was strong, but never seemed to take advantage of it. Anyway, he was the man that handled the posters, without him they would have never up under the house. In fact I forgot that they were even there.

Dorothy Katipa Aged 16, 1936

It wasn’t until 1991 when I became aware that my mother, Da Katipa was suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer. Mother was acting a bit strange; not her normal self. When our family doctor informed me of my mother’s condition, “just at the beginning, I think its dementia, and it’s going to get worse over time. She’s going to need your help, keep an eye on her.” So I did, eventually moving back into the house. Without letting her know that I was actually doing that. Very independent woman, my mother. No one told her what to do, she would tell you. So I slept on the couch, in the front room. Part time in the beginning, when I came down from the bush, I was living in the Hokiannga at the time. A small place called Miti Miti to be precise, on the west coast. Due to the hospitality of  Tommy Ferguson, a Scotsman on fire, and later Charlie Dunn, whose family had lived there for a very long time, New Zealand middleweight boxing champion in his prime. So when I was in Auckland, I was back at the big house with my mom and after a while she got used to me being there. It was about early 93’ that I was starting to spend more time in Auckland and less time in the Hokiannga. But, still coming and going, sort of floating between the two.

Tommy, Hugh and Charlie @miti-miti 2006

Cameron Ellis, my brother-in-law had come back from Australia, he had been working for Michael Chugg, on the road with a band, tour manager, a hard gig to handle being out there on the road. Lynn Patterson, we had worked together for a long time, in fact her whole family, all the way back to her grandfather Duke Cassidy had worked for Eden security. Lynn started to help me with mother, especially when I was out of out of Auckland, or overseas, every now and then. People would come around to the big house to say hello to me or mother. Sometimes they would stay for a night or two, Or in the case of Ike Metekingi, for a year or two.

Ike Mitikingi, Lynn Patterson, Cameron Ellis

As time went on mother got worse, and I think it was Cameron who’d gone under the house to look for something. He arrived upstairs, and asked me what I was going to do with all the stuff under the house. “What stuff?” I said. “Lots of old junk,” I didn’t respond straight away and it was a week or two later that I finally went under the house with Cameron to look at all this old stuff. And there it was, couldn’t see it clearly in the dark at first, but there was a mass of stuff under there. Now it’s uncomfortable bent over sometimes on your hand and knees maneuvering your way under the house, with a mini torch in my mouth. Looking at all this stuff that had been packed away by Alby. I could never figure out How Alby got himself under the house and got the memorabilia packed away off the ground so the cardboard boxes wouldn’t rot. But he had and done a great job, thank you my brother Alby!

Posters

Time went on, I suppose 96’ and 97’ and by that time I was with my mother twenty-four-seven. By that time Ike had moved from sleeping on my couch upstairs into the downstairs area. And I think it was Ike and Cameron who started with the idea of cleaning up under the house. So the stuff started to move into the downstairs area, slowly, bit by bit, paper is heavy. 100 posters in a package can take a bit of shifting when you’re hunched up under the house. Out it came into the sunlight, as each piece came to light, there was a story to be remembered and all the things that had happened around the show, and of course the people we had met. More and more people started to appear we’d meet down stairs, a few beers, smoke or two, and remember the stories. Most of us that gathered were in the business, that’s the music business/show business. Musicians, road crew, promoters, and others, connected with business. We all had a lot of stories, some of us went back to the Maori Show Bands. Still alive, still playing the music. I wasn’t always down there; mother was starting to get forgetful, that’s what Alzheimer’s does to you. “Who are you?” she would say. I could have been her husband, her father, son, brother, she just didn’t know.

John Dix

My mother passed on in January 2000 …..date. and that’s when John Dix and Dot appeared. They had been down to The South Island, Queensland. They needed a place to stay for a while, and they did. We started talking about “What was I going to do?” One thing lead to another and internet told us that these posters had a value. The first lot we sold was from Dominion Road. But hey I don’t want to run a shop. So finally we started to put them on the net; eBay, Trade me. John did a lot of work in the early stages, and I’ve got to thank him for that!

Pondok Gede

Jakarta – Indonesia

Story 1

by Hugh Lynn

This is my first story for my blog.

In the beginning I didn’t want to get involved in extra effort of supporting the blog.

It all seemed like hard work to me, considering that my typing, if you can call it that, five words a minute wasn’t going to get me very far. At the moment I’ve got my 12 year old son Rafael typing this letter. He’s much faster that I am.

Rafael

The idea of this blog originated from my brother in law, Riza, who ended up with us in Turangnanui a Kiwa (Gisborne) for nine months, to improve his English and hang out with the Maori and do some work around our house.

Hugh and Rafael pick up Riza @ Auckland Airport

He is a very multi talented young man, he is thirty one now. He was sleeping in the green shed out the back with all his electronics, when he started on this idea of the Hugh Lynn collection blog.

green shed

He had graduated from the Trisakti University in Jakarta with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and since then, had delved into electronics with his engineering brain, wanting to know how it all worked.

So by the time he got to New Zealand we had been interacting for some time. Although he couldn’t speak English and I couldn’t speak bahasa Indonesian, except to ask for cigarettes and coffee.

While Riza was in Gisborne an opportunity became available to attend and English speaking language course, being run by Tairawhiti Politech. Within three or four months into the course we were starting to communicate with each other in a fashion. He told me later, that he could only understand twenty percent of what I was saying. But being Indonesian he was too shy to say that to me, but as the course went on he seemed to be speaking English more easily. Soon the percentage increased to fifty percent. But now I had encouraged him to send me signals when he lacked the understanding with my words. Eventually the conversation got around to the possibility of doing something in Indonesia in regards to the memorabilia.

to be continued….!

Maui and Warrior

Promoter Hugh Lynn and singer Larry Morris purchased Mascot studios after the death of engineer Bruce Barton. Mascot had released the odd disc over the years: Barton had engineered a disc released on Europe and Morris had recorded for independents Moon and Gemini. Hugh Lynn saw a niche in the recording industry where he could focus his attention: a Maori renaissance was beginning to rumble, more attention was being paid on the stage to influences other than American music, and there was no reason why Maori couldn’t take their place in rock and roll. Lynn allowed interested parties to use his studios to set up camp, eat and record; with arrangements for remuneration made between the brothers.The most commercial record to come out of this arrangement was put together by Dalvanius Prime. In 1982, a round of concept singles hit the market. Studios would take a group’s hits and re-record them as a medley tagged with the phrase ‘on forty-five. ‘Thus we had Beach boys on 45,Hollies on 45 – and here in New Zealand on RCA,Terence O’Neill-Joyce produced Maoris on 45, a medley ot Maori tunes played by the Consorts with the publishing attributed to K-Tel. The Consorts themselves and the musical arrangements were the creation of Dalvanius Prime, who used the record as a stepping-stone to another single, this time on Huhg Lynn’s Maui label and entitled Poi E. The disc was recorded by a choir from Prime’s home town, the Patea Maori group, accompanied by the disco sounds in vogue at the time-Linn drums and synthesizers.Reviews were mixed for this combination of Maori chanting riding on a disco beat, but in February 1984 the song made number one. With writer Ngoi Pewhairangi, Dalvanius recorded a larger work-almost a Maori pera – toure successfully through Europe, once again with the Patea Maori concert party. Meantime back at Mascot studios, a Maori/Polynesian/reggae band named Herbs was releasing successful singles and albums on their own record label – Warrior. Herbs’ songs of gentle protest about French nuclear testing in the Pacific and their adoption of a reggae rhythm won them many friends outside New Zealand, and assured their attendance at Pacific music festivals. If indeed there is such a thing as a rock sound of the Pacific, then it is epitomised in the music ot Herbs.

From the clutch of do-it-yourselfers who released records in the early eighties, mention muse be made of Harry Ratbag. Ratbag was Auckland’s top poster paster and made a good living in the dark of night putting up advertisements for bands on city walls. Harry had his own group, Herco Pilots, and released two double 45 discs in the most elaborate fold-out packaging. The label was called Rem records, an abbreviation for the Auckland suburb ot Remuera In the mid-eighties Harry went to New York,landed a job with Stiff records and at the end of the century was making compilation dance CDs in the States under his own name, Harry Russell. From the Wellington group with the best name in the world – Shoes This High – came Brent Hayward, who toured the country as a solo performer (called Smelly Feet) or with Julie Cooper. Brent released, pressed and sold numerous records on his own labels – a real record and Massage, plus Brent & Julie Records. In the South Island, Bill Direen produced a number of records for himself and others and appeared on numerous one-off labels, most notably Sausage, Full Moon and Southern Indies. South Island soundman Rex Visible was involved with two record label names-Deep South and Onset Offset. To sell even a minimum print run, though, you needed a distributor-and a company that looked favourably at New Zealand one – off productions was Jayrem.

British band The Police were the center of attention last night at Auckland’s Western Springs Stadium where they toped a bill of our bands and brought six hour of rock music to

a climax in front of a crowd of around 40.000.

After sets by Auckland’s Coconut Rough, Canada’s Bryan Adams and Australian Crawl, The Police took the stage with singer/ bassist/resident sex symbol Sting center front for more

than 100 munites of hits, past and present.

The crowd loved it. Meantime, outside another band of fans did not let a fence, a lack of tickets or the police (the other sort) stand between them and the music.

Dancing With Delaight by Cherie Devliotis - published 2005 -

As with Doreen O’Leary, Da Katipa’s name, sometimes shown as Dorothy,is to be found all over this book.She wanted to dance day and night – that’s dancing herself,teaching, and auditioning for every show on in town with the wish to be chosen as one of the dancing girls.

Sandra Coney, (1993) has written about Da. She was born in 1920. When only.11 yearss of age and in the pantomime Cinderella, she was able to send one pound a week home to her family bearing out her grand mother’s hope that in the young Dorothy there could be the making of family provider. In the first exams held in New Zealand in 1935, Da was the only one in her class to pass.

She was seen in floorshows at the Peter Pan.The Auckland Star shows that in November 1946 Dar and Geraldo were exhibition dancers. Her credentials in 1957 were: R.A.D. Advanced, London (1939); F.A.T.D.(Ass.AustI.B.B.;F.A.T.D.(Elem.Com.Theatrical);Member NZAP and D;holder Teachers and Judges Certicate.

She was awarded the Commemorative Medal for services to New Zealand the field of dance in 1990.

An example of one of Da’s recitals was of Thursday 9 May 1957 at the Town Hall Concert Chamber, that saw her dancing with Gerald McAuley in Tales of Vienna Woods and this had Gerald in the part of the grandfather in Peter and the Wolf. Hugh Lynn, as an intermediate pupil, had several roles.

In 1960 Da started a ballroom school for very young people at her studio in Mt.Eden, detailed in the Weekly News.Here,at 7.30pm on Wednesday nights,children as young as three Years old took to the floor in ballroom dances. Many went into championships and some one bronze medals. Her husband, Gerald McAuley, had his own premises for teaching in the city. Together the entered the World Professional Championships in Australia.

In Da Katipa we have a person who danced since the age of three and still wanted to dance when she was 80 years old. Her esteemed place among the early Auckland danceris certainly assured.

Hugh Lynn, her son, spoke to me about his late mother,

Da Katipa

Her spirit is still with us in her huge dancing studio. She was just 4’9″ tall.Hanging on rack is a row of her tiny colourful costumes. Her certificates of achievement cover one wall.Here on this this shiny floor generations of Aucklanders came to learn to dance. All of Da’s things are kept carefully in order by her son, Hugh Lynn.

As Hugh describes his mother she was a woman of indomitable will. Her creed was – if you put in the work you’ve got to be a success. She proved this in her own career and imbued her pupils with this absolute belief.

When Da was litlle she and her mother got work in the circus which came over from Australia.They did trapeze acts and bareback riding.Da was atop the littlest pony in the world. It was a hard life for all the circus folk. After putting down the tent in one town they travelled by horse-and- to the next, there to repeat it all again. This continued right throughout New Zealand.

As a child Da had strong support and interest from the women around her. Living with her mother and grandmother in a house at the top of Queen Street she attended school at St.Benedict’s and because the nuns recognised her special “gift” of dancing they didn’t fuss if she was sleepy in class after having been up half the night dancing.

Da started lessons with Ruby Philips in highland dancing at the age of three. Then her grandmother made an arrangement whereby she would do housekeeping for Valeska, who would teach Da dancing in exchange.So from the age of six to when Da was 19 years old,Valeska would be both teacher and mentor to her. Very early on, due to her urge to teach. Da beceme a helper, coaching other little girls in the classes. She passed exams, her last one in balletcAdvanced, in 1939 at the age of 19.

As well as the whirl of shows Valeska put on, Da toured New Zealand with shows such as the pantomine Cinderella and she danced regularly in Auckland Operatic Society productions in company with the same “hard core” of Auckland dancers whose names feature in the programmes time again. She pursued many forms of dancing in order to qualify as a teacher in each particular discipline. Hugh says that she had an insatiable appetite for would pick one type of dancing and pursue it until she got the top honours,then she would start on another. These were personal demonstrations of setting a target and working to achieve it.

None of this effort was lost on Hugh who carries the goal setting work-ethic into what he does in life. From the time he was born he was in her studio. Earlier, (1944-1962) this was in part of the premises of Margaret O’Connor, the ballroom teacher, in Mills Lane, off Queen Street, where Da would teach by day. Hugh was put into the Competitions at the age of three and was soon winning prizes. He says he liked winning. The household consisted of Hugh, his mother and grandfather, who would live as part of the family unit until
Hugh was 25 years old.At night Da went off to the Civic to star in two late-night cabaret shows put on in the Wintergarden after the film finished.She was working day and night.

It was in 1961 that Da,with her second husband Gerald McAuley, who was also a dancer, had her own purpose-built studio in the grand old house in Dominion Road.Scores of Aucklanders know this venue had the place they took their children to her classes. As Hugh says, “She had the abaliti to see the dance in the child,and she knew how to bring it out. Her belief in you gave you confidience. For style she designed the steps and the music.

And so:liSe were recitals; there was putting lots of children into the Competitions,both on their own and in the Da Katipa dancing groups;there was the preparation of children for examination. Arlene Colbert and Colleen Tange gained their Solo Seal exams. Some of the pupil become teachers.Students,once married,brought their new children to her for lessons. Hugh merried one of his fellow-students.

He say,

“Mother had an iron will-power.There were no exceptions, no sympathy for failure,no thought that you couldn’t do it.You would be taken and trained.She pushed people mentally and physically.It opened something inside. At the finish of class when everyone was exhausted she would say,”Right,do a thousand changements now.”

Hugh was the recipient of on-going training by his mother,moving up with the age-groups.When asked if he had a particular bent towards one form of dancing he said,”No,I just did what Mother told me”. In the end he came out with his Elementary Exam in ballet and had the oportunity to go England but finances would not allow this.As Australia was more accessible for competing, he came out 6th place in the World Ballroom Championship. But he had his sights set on other things and presently looks back on 40 years involved in the promotion of entertainment,with many more ideas in the pipeline,one of which would be the creation of a fabulous book.The unique relationship of this mother-teacher Da, with her son pupil Hugh reached a poignant ending when Da became ill.After a life of total independ beholden to no-one and resting on her own efforts for everything she got,now the studio was silent and empty and she realised she could not be in full charge any longer.

Acting on a vision a tohunga arrived and stayed a tew days.He told Hugh that he had a responsibility to place her in a state ready to go upstairs. Hugh was already doing this. Her last months were a special time.A time of sharing together their intimate relationship,of the younger person shouldering the burden of his strong-willed mother’s annoyance at her inability to be feisty anymore.

Da was truly a life-time dancer.

Dorothy Virginia Mangaere Katipa passed away 24 January 2000.Some excerpts from death notices are as follows:

‘Respected former delegate to the New Zealand Dance and Dancesports Council.Da’s life dedication to dance will live on in the history of New Zealand dance’.

A dance icon in New Zealand.Her teaching talents produced numerous New Zealand champions’.

‘Sadly missed by all who loved her’.

‘Highly recognized Executive Life Member of SATD NZ.A great mentor to many Zealand champions’.

The most memorable figure in the local music business in the 1980s was concert promoter Hugh Lynn, he was the master of the mega – sized Western Springs Concert event, with over 82,000 people attending David Bowie’s 1983 Serious Moonlight Tour concert. In the same decade that Lynn had his biggest concert successes, he also set out to explore his being Maori, and as manager of Herbs he sought to take contemporary Maori music to the world. But by the end of the decade, Lynn’s 20 years of drug-fuelled, obsessive energy seemed to falter and Lynn seemed resigned to the collapse of his entertainment empire.

Hugh Lynn, who spent the 60s, the 70s and the 80s in the music business achieving the perception of being a ‘memorable figure’, now prefers the perception of the spiritual to the perception of the outwardly memorable. But ‘image’ waseverything to the young Hugh Lynn, his dance teaching mother and his own achievements in ballet and Latin American dancing (sixth in theworld in 1964) didn’t make being a teen male easy.

“I got schtick from guys at school through being a ballet dancer. I got harassed at school every day, it got so bad I had to wear army boots for the last three years just to try and protect myself.”

Just in case anybody had any doubts asto his manliness, Lynn got into martial arts, bodybuilding and motorbikes. At 16 he had a 125cc James two-stroke.

“The first group I rode with was the ‘Mt Roskill Ghosts’. I was a dancer but I could dress up, put on these clothes and everybody would treat me differently. That’s when I met two of the first Hell’s Angels, when they first came out to New Zealand. That’s when my mother sent me over to Australia, or otherwise I probably would have become a patched member.”

After six months on a sheep station in Australia, Lynn returned to Auckland and began working at the ‘Top 20′ dance club, his first job in entertainment.

Lynn then moved to Wellington where he worked at Silhouette Heath Studios (bodybuilding), and he got his first compering gig at a dance hall with a big band where, “the manwalked across the other side of the hall to ask the woman for the dance”. Lynn learned to compere from watching Wellington’s lan Saxon, who was until recently serving a long sentence in Australia for drug importation. As a 20 year old, Lynn returned to Auckland in 1963 and earnt 25 a week (“quite a lot of money at the time”) to compere at the Top 20. “I saw Max Merritt and the Meteors and Ray Columbus and the Invaders come up from the South Island. My involvement in drugs started at the Top 20. Somebody gave me a diet pill and it kept me awake. That was great. I purely only did it to keep me awake. After I’d been at the Top 20 a couple of years, someone offered me a joint in the toilet, I remember internally freaking out, this is drugs! This is illegal! I never smoked marijuana for a considerable length of time.”

In the mid-60s, Lynn started ‘bouncers for hire’ company, Eden Security.

“The first thing Eden Security did was the Pretty Things at the Top 20. I remember spending a lot of time with PJ Proby, that was probably my first international act. I remember one day, he had sex with the mother and the daughter both at the same time. I thought that was interesting.”

In 1967, Lynn managed the La De Das but when they went overseas he stayed behind and got married.

“The La De Das were the first band I got involved in. The band could go on and kickarse. We got involved in this tour that had all sorts of complications. It wasn’t drawing, the promoters hadn’t done the show properly They were blaming us and refusing to pay Eventually I brought down all the security to Whangamataand we took over and got our money.”

In the early 70s, Eden -Security did the big gigs like the Ngaruawahia Pop Festival (1973), the Rolling Stones (1973) and Rod Stewart and the Faces (1974). The Faces show had problems that frustrated the Australian promoter, Paul Dainty.

“The band had asked for a Steinway piano. [Promoter] Phil Warren had put in a Yamaha. The Faces smashed the piano and poured alcohol on Paul Dainty and he got upset.”

The next Dainty show went with promoter Stewart MacPherson, but Lynn was summoned to the tour party’s hotel.

“Dainty pulled me off into a side room at the Intercontinental Hotel and in 10 minutes sitting there, did the deal with me and changed hispromoter. He decided I could do it and he told me to go and get a telex machine, two telephone lines and wait. The first telex I got through was to do with Rick Wakeman and I sent a telex back asking ‘Rick who?’ Dainty rang me and suggested I find out very quickly That’s how I started. Basically Dainty trained me. We did Rick Wakeman and then WishboneAsh, Joe Cocker, Bryan Ferry and David Bowie. Dainty took me over to Australia, I toured all of Australia with Fleetwood Mac in 1977, Dainty showing me what to do. He never skimped on the act. If we couldn’t fulfil the rider, we let him know so he could bring it in from Australia or at least communicate with the act. We made sure that we covered the riders whether importing strange fruit in, or getting drugs for the band or the management.”

But Hugh wasn’t only promoting, he had Eden Security, Crazy Shirts (t-shirt design & retail) and nightclubs. After meeting promoter Robert Raymond at the Ngaruawahia Festival, Hugh with the Festival’s promoter opened Levi’s Saloon, an unlicensed rock night club in Customs Street, where even Split Enz played.

But Hugh’s first nightclub was the memorable Mojo’s, with drag queen act Les Girls and sly grog.

” I had Guns N’ Roses at the Suportop and the lead singer come on and talked about buying some heroin in Australia and said, “This is the drug”. I was standing on the said of the stage and I had this overwhelming feeling of regret that I was part responsible for bringing this attitute into the country.”

“We had it as a drag show right from the start. We lost a lot of money initially and then we put sly grog in there and then we got a base of people who wanted to go out and have a drink. At Mojo’s we tried selling alcohol in a glass and it didn’t work. So we started selling half bottles, because people could take them and put them in their pocket and go through the process of taking the bottle out under the table and pouring it. That’s what they were used to, hiding it and drinking it.”

After Mojo’s the venue (opposite Planet Hollywood) became Auckland’s first punk night club Diamond Dogs for a few weeks.

“We were the first punk club to open. I sat there for two weeks and I had difficulty under standing everyone’s attitude. Everyone was sopissed off and angry and I couldn’t relate to it. We went from punk rock to Gobbles Disco and that went through the roof.”

When I first met you, I thought I was going to meet ‘Mr Big’ in the drug trade.

“A story circulated that I was importing drugs with the rock acts. When we brought Fleetwood Mac in they pulled all the Customs people from around the Auckland area out to the airport, and when the band arrived they pulled all their equipment out on the tarmac and started searching it all. We weren’t bringing in drugs, I tried to explain to them there was more money in rock ‘n’ roll than bringing in drugs. Authorities really believed that as well as bringing in the act you made a deal to bring in heroin or acid.”

1983 was a big year for Lynn and it was to end with a full page colour advertisement in the USA industry magazine Billboard proclaiming: “Nov 26, 1983… David Bowie makes history Down Under”, with a photo of the massive Western Springs concert.

“When I did the Moonlight tour and we did 82,000, I became flavour of the year down here and everyone wanted to use me and everyone wanted to come through New Zealand.”

But the middle of 1983 had not been as much fun.

“I got busted on my 40th birthday. They found me with some packets of speed. We went to depositions and I felt really annoyed because they’d spent such a long period of time saying I was an international drug dealer, bringing it in by submarine, and now they were getting up in front of a judge and saying I was a street dealer! When they arrested me for supply, the law stated that you had to have 56 grams of methamphetamine to be considered a dealer and I had five grams. The police when they arrested me for supply knew that they had no case, but they did the damage, it went in the newspaper.”

After the success of the David Bowie concert, Lynn was asked to also represent Frontier Tours.

“Australian promoter Michael Chugg, who Imet as a tour manager for Dainty, approached me about doing Frontier in New Zealand. It went along quite well for a bit and then Dainty became uncomfortable, they’re in direct competition in Australia, at each other’s throats and it became too complex to do.”

Were you in agreement with the Police decision to remove a gang from the 1987 ZZ Top concert at Western Springs?

“Yes, I was, because they’d come and talked to me. The Police got worried that the Black Power were getting too close to the Mongrel Mob and that confrontation was starting, so they moved in and split them and pushed Black Power out purely because they were closest to the fence. They actually hadn’t caused any trouble. The Black Power went and I gave them their money back, I paid out $5,000.”

In 1988, also at Western Springs, Mick Jagger showed us how to take a beer can to the head and soldier on.

“Jagger was a pro alright, but unfortunately Mick Jagger is not the Rolling Stones. It was one of the few shows we lost money on. The only Dainty show we lost money on.”

In Sydney, Lynn met the legendary San Francisco concert promoter Bill Graham, of Fillmore Theatres fame.

“They played a joke on me. Bill Graham came in and he looked like one of the cleaners and they told me to go and tell him that he couldn’t come in here, but he must have twigged at the time because he didn’t deal to me verbally. I remember sitting there having dinner listening to his stories of the violent arguments he had with Led Zeppelin.”

Lynn’s worst concert experience was the free show in Aotea Square for Radio Station 89FM in December 1984.

“When the inspector came up on stage and said, ‘Stop the show!’ I said to him at the time, ‘That’s the worst thing you can do!’ When you stopped the music, the attention diverted away from the music to this other show which was the riot that was building. So 5,000 people immediately turned and faced the other way and now there was a new entertainment going on. I noticed people becoming excited when the riot was on and joining in. I saw Friday shoppers, watch people throwing bottles into buildings and look at each other and join in. It was mass behaviour. It was fun for lots of people.”

The Aotea Square debacle led to positive changes in Police attitudes to concerts and concert promoters.

“There were major changes.Inspector Tim Masters came in and it was his job to get it all together.With concerts,people had to work together-policemen,traffic, City Council-but no one was talking to each other.So what we did was, we had a pre-production meeting and then after the show they sat down and went over how everything worked, and it started
to become smoother.”

Was owning your own recording studio a good move?

“Mascot Studio was good, but from a technical point of view we spent far too much money going from 16 track into 24. It was a business where I didn’t really understand the chnical part of it. We spent 100,000s. It was probably the wrong move. I enjoyed learning about it all and we were instrumental in assisting a lot of Maori acts.”

Did you lose the money you made on international tours on your involvement in local music?”Yes. You deal with overseas acts,they come in and after a while it became like supermarket.There seemed to be something much more important in dealing with New Zealand acts. I had studied what had happened overseas with the negro and how they used
music to climb through society. Now negro own the cool.

“With Herbs, it was a part of me being a born-again Maori.There were a lot of social issues with Herbs as well as music, dealingwith an indigenous band that was starting to
write their own music. I saw the band as having a social message, a two-edged sword for me.There hadn’t been a contemporary Maori band that had emerged.”

Was it a political message? “When we were travelling around the Pacific, we were saying, ‘You can do it!’Meaning, the man in the street, the indigenous person, the tribal person, the Fijian, the Tahitian… can do it. There’s something to say.This is a way of getting your message across,by music.”

By 1990, Lynn didn’t represent Paul Dainty or Frontier Tours.An ambitious showcase of New Zealand music from the 60s to the 80s at Carlaw Park looked dodgy. Was it the last
straw for your company or was it you choosing to get out?

“It was both. I was having a series of strange experiences that I later identified as being spiritual experiences, and it was partly me wanting to smash up the businesses and get out and partly the last straw as well.Probably I’d seen New Zealand music as being far more important than it really was.

“I hadn’t been feeling happy for a couple of years. By 1990 I wanted to get out of the business. I had Guns N’Roses at the Supertop and the lead singer came on and talked about
buying some heroin in Australia and said, ‘This is the drug’. I was standing on the side of the stage and I had this overwhelming feeling of regret that I was part responsible for bringing this attitude into the country.”

You say “Drugs, Sex and Rock ‘n’ Roll”. Was that the order you liked it?

“For me they all intertwined. Drugs kept me awake to do the rock ‘n’ roll and when you’re popular you get more sex. That’s a simple equation isn’t it? I don’t get too many women offering me a blowjob now to get a backstage pass.I worked out an equation, my popularity was indirect proportion to the show that I was promoting and I used that as a way of monitoring… the depth of the promotion. I never tried to hide that I took drugs.I took speed to keep awake. I didn’t. realise the damage it was doing,because speed is a very powerful drug, it ends by taking you out into spaces of times that are very unusual.”

“I felt really annoyed because they’d spent such a long period of time saying I was an international drug dealer, bringing it in by submarine,and now they were getting up in
front of a judge and saying I was a street dealer!”