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Steve at 17
40yrs later Steve on left performing with his
brother
See enlarged photos
Steve Robinson:
steve@voxpopltd.co.nz
www.theredherrings.co.nz
Our family moved from
Christchurch to Wellington in late 1964 to a
house in Brougham St, not 5 minutes walk
(with guitar) from Monde Marie.
As a 15 year old at
Wellington College I was playing in a school
band (Us Five) that covered The Beatles, The
Animals, The Kinks, The Hollies, The
Honeycombs and Manfred Mann.
Then I heard The Kingston
Trio, Peter Paul and Mary, Joan Baez, Bob
Dylan, Josh White, Tom Paxton and everything
changed.
I learned to pick the
guitar (thank you David Calder) and
discovered the soft underbelly of life (Monde
Marie) and stroked it.
I played at Monde Marie
on and off for 3 years. My first gig at MM
was in 1967, my first year of uni at Vic. I
was flatting with Richard Doctors who was as
much into folk music (and snooker) as I was.
I started playing at MM every week on Friday
or Saturday for $1.00 an hour (usual gig 3
hours) and a meal (Mary’s Hungarian goulash,
yum yum). I also played there regularly as a
duet with Mitch Park.
Some of the regular
performers I remember well are Max Winnie,
Val Murphy, Arthur Toms, Warrick Brock (and
The Band of Hope), Rod McKinnon & Dave
Hollis. I was a member of The Kelburn
International Airport Ceremonial Guard Band
and then Tamburlaine.
Mary Seddon was a
remarkable woman. Apart from opening the
first folk coffee bar in NZ she was
surrogate mother, manager, counsellor and a
rock to many people that made MM their
second home.
I now live on Waiheke
Island but whenever I’m in Wellington I’m
still drawn to that corner of Marjoribanks &
Roxburgh Street where MM used to be. If you
see me there I’ll be in a brown study,
remembering the heady atmosphere of those
seminal times.
Francois
Rochecouste:
frochecouste@iinet.net.au
I used to sing on
a regular basis with my brother Jean-Claude
Rochecouste at Monde Marie between 1965 and
1968. At the time I was a schoolboy at St Pat's
on Cambridge Terrace, and sent most of my
weekends singing and playing at the Chez Paree,
Monde Marie and another place in Upper Willis
Street.
We left for Perth in early 1968, where I have
lived on and off since then. Jean-Claude still
lives in Perth, but currently I am cruising the
French canals on my boat; yes I know its a hard
life!
I have fantastic memories of sitting around the
singers' table and singing the nights away, with
Mary running around dealing with the singers
and customers. I met many wonderful people
there, and shared some fantastic times.
I am looking to visiting Wellington next year
for St Pat's 125 anniversary and it would be
great to catch up with some of the performers.
I remember a beautiful young woman with a
magnificent voice, her name was Lynn Howie and
she sang at the Monde. Lynn brought out an LP
around that time. Unfortunately we lost contact
when my family moved to Perth in 1968.
Anyway, thanks for the great site, it brings
back many wonderful memories.
Dave Whaley:
jandavew@clear.net.nz
Hi
Jane. I hear from Dave Hart
that you are trying to get a
reunion of the people who used
to play at the Mond Marie. I
played there during school
holidays at various times
between 1963 and 1966. I
usually did the late night
sessions each night of the week
for as long as I was in
Wellington. I stayed with Mary
once or twice in her parents
house. Those days were very
special to me and I met a number
of excellent musicians in those
years . I was on the LP folk
session down under and later my
own group made an LP called the
Cobblers.
John Ward:
johnxward@hotmail.com
I used to frequent Monde
Marie all the time in 1964/65 and even played
there once. Just one blues number – but I’m
proud of that in terms of being a tiny part of
that history. I particularly remember the
toasted sandwiches – a great cheap snack to
break up the endless coffees. (I’d stay for
hours – and felt obliged to keep drinking
coffee). I hope you get more photos to put up. I
recognised so many faces in the photos you have
already. Fantastique! Viva nostalgia!
Richard Mills
(reflectively): When I was 17, I once sang for eight
hours straight at the Monde Marie in Wellington, for
Marie whatsername - my own two-hour booked stint, and
then covering the stints of the three subsequent artists
who failed to front for their shows. Towards the end she
was fortifying me with rum-laced coffees. It was all by
ear - thank God for a transient audience.
A sketch of
peter taken while performing at the Monde Marie
Peter Cape -- Listen
to Peter
http://folksong.org.nz/taumarunui/index.html
He is best known for his songs 'Taumaranui On The
Main Trunk Line' and 'She'll Be Right Mate.' He was the voice of
those rural New Zealand men who had been transplanted to the big
city suburbs. He expressed their yearning for that lost way of
life with its physical and emotional simplicity, where men may
have been socially inept, but were proud of being physically
self reliant.
How much of Peter's own life was in these songs? He was born
in1926, at Helensville in the isolated Northland province of New
Zealand. From 1931 to 1943 Peter was educated by Correspondence
School while his father Irwin Cape travelled all over Northland
selling cloth door to door
Helen Phare:
She was Mary Seddon if I remember correctly. I used to
play there in the late sixties for $1 per hour and was
grateful for the work. She used to feed us afterwards on
cheese and tomato sauce sandwiches. Which I was grateful
for also.
Dave Hollis: I
had a group playing PPM stuff, Max Winnie played a
variety of music but mainly Blues/Jazz, Val Murphy
sat around singing beautifully (Kumbaya) and looking
sexy, Arthur Toms was there, and also a tall
ginger haired and bearded guy who sang a variety of folk
and tried other stuff including semi flamenco from
memory. I cant remember his name, possibly because he
didn't like me. May have been Rod, or something similar.
Rod MacKinnon & Dave
Hollis
e-mail Rod at:
barbnrod@gmail.com
(Currently living in
Great Brittain)
What a
great surprise and pleasure it was
to come across your 'Monde Marie'
website. What a
wonderful time and place it was.
Mary was so incredibly dynamic,
full-on and larger-than-life and we
all admired her immensely. Being
part of the Monde Marie culture was
one of the richest and happiest
periods of my life.
One of my
favourite recollections was when we used to
close at god-only-knows-what hour in the
morning, Mary would make thermos' of rum &
coffee and we would go down to the bakery at
Newtown and share the coffee with the bakers
over freshly baked hot bread.
The 'Monde'
became so popular that one night I arrived
to play and the crowd outside was so dense I
had to ring Mary from the pub on the corner
to come out and bring me in. All the very
best with this project. It truly deserves a
significant place in Wellington's history.
Sharyn
Staley: e-mail:
s.staley@xtra.co.nz
Photo taken
by Mitch Park at a "Blast from the Past"
party at Wellington Folk Centre in the
80's. Duilia Rendall on the left,
Sharyn Staley and Frank Scaglione
playing and Val Murphy on the right.
Great to get
your email. I had just recently been
asked to send a "member's profile" to
Wellington Folk Centre and some of
that deals with Monde Marie days. I am
attaching that for you to edit.
Article
Other people
I remember from the early days were
Hilton Paul, Mike Stebbings, Ronnie?
(Italian, had a great voice and worked
at Wellington Hospital on prosthetics),
Gresham Clacey, Jon Woolf (brother of
Michael), Howard Harris, Jae Angwin,
Miles Armstrong. Not all of these were
singers, but regular audience and a
little later, probably during Port
Nicholson Folk Club days: Paul Saffrey,
Horace, Dave Kidd, Joy Cleaver, Sam
Sampson, Dave Knox, Mitch Park, Bev Alty,
Steve Robinson, Denis Leong and more I
will be able to think of later.
Also
there were the staff; Chloe, who was
Mary's daytime manager for a number of
years. She married Vern King and Mary
held their wedding at her home - Mary
had the bath full of ice and bubbly and
we were all having a great time when she
realised that Rod (McKinnon) and Dave
(Hollis) were supposed to be performing
at the Monde in about 10 minutes I was
conscripted to get them there and packed
them and their instruments and a few
others into my Series E Morris with
guitars hanging out the windows and
everyone singing! The traffic cop angel
must have been watching out for us as
although overloaded and not exactly
sober, we got from Wadestown to the
Monde safely and Rod and Dave did their
stint. Mary Fyfe was daytime manager
for a while until Frank took over the
Balladeer from Don King and there was
also someone called Di, whether after
Mary or between Chloe and Mary I'm not
sure.
I worked
in the kitchen for a couple of years as
well. I don't think I have any decent
photos from the Monde, but I will check
at a later date. I have a heavy work
schedule over the next 2 months.
Another time
I remember was when a couple of bikies
came in and started causing trouble.
Mary didn't hesitate - she got a staff
member to call the police, grabbed the
fire extinguisher and filled them in.
Two extinguished bikies were trying to
recover on the footpath outside when the
police arrived!
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