Schoolkids Records Announces the Worldwide release of “Live At The Windsor Castle, 1986” by The Verlaines 

CHAPEL HILL, NC (xx, March, 2022) -- Schoolkids Records (Raleigh, NC; Dublin, IR) Legendary New Zealand band The Verlaines are proud to release Live at the Windsor Castle, Auckland May 1986 on May 20th, 2022.

Packaged in a beautiful gatefold jacket, the artwork is a replication of the vintage gig poster. Sky Blue vinyl, complete with download code and liner notes from singer Graeme Downes: “This album may end up the hands of people who weren't even born when these performances took place, so, let me tell you what it was like. The Verlaines. at the time, were Graeme Downes, Jane Dodd and Robbie Yeats. We lived in Dunedin at the near-bottom of the South Island of New Zealand. We were at University. These gigs were recorded to try to capture a live version of Slow Sad Love Song for the upcoming Birddog album that we recorded later that year.”

Biography

The Verlaines are a New Zealand rock band from Dunedin. Formed in 1981 by Graeme Downes, Craig Easton, Anita Pillai, Phillip Higham and Greg Kerr.

The band was named after French poet Paul Verlaine—not, as is occasionally suggested, Tom Verlaine, who also took his stage name from the poet. "I had just been reading some of his poetry," Downes told Paul A. Harris in 1993, "and threw the name at the head of the row, and we thought it sounded cool." Their recorded debut was on the seminal Dunedin Double EP, which was released by Flying Nun Records and was the debut of several bands who would go on to be central to the mythology of the Dunedin sound.

The Verlaines are noted for their angular, "difficult" song structures, wordy and downbeat lyrics, unusual subject matter, all contained in often frantic up-tempo playing. The Verlaines are led by songwriter and vocalist/guitarist Graeme Downes, although many other New Zealand musicians played guitar, bass, drums and brass instruments during the different stages of the band. Downes is an academic at the University of Otago, where he is head of the Department of Music. He teaches contemporary music and has research interests in Mahler and Shostakovich. He has released one solo album, Hammers and Anvils, which came out on Matador Records in 2001.