Barry and Judy Skinner's Hector Country Music Heritage Museum on New Zealand's South Island

What is it about New Zealand’s west coast that makes it such a hub of DIY music museums? Yesterday I made a visit to the Hector Country Music Heritage Museum in the Buller district of the South Island. Another privately owned and operated museum, this one is run by musician and radio DJ Barry Skinner with the support of his wife Judy.

Elvis in New Zealand - a visit to KD's Elvis Presley Museum

Yesterday evening I visited KD’s Elvis Presley Museum, a private museum dedicated to 50s and 60s rock’n’roll. The museum is owned and run by Kevin “KD” Wasley. As the brochure states, KD “has been an avid collector of Elvis records and memorabilia since 1959. Born in Hawera, painter and paperhanging contractor by trade, but his pride and joy is the Elvis Presley Museum.” The museum can be found in the converted garage of his home in Hawera on New Zealand’s north island.

On the road in New Zealand: a visit to the Taranaki Country Music Hall of Fame

I’m currently in New Zealand doing a road trip that sees me visiting DIY museums on the west coast of both the north and south islands. I arrived in Manaia, North Island, after a somewhat harrowing journey driving the Forgotten World Highway  – 150km stretch of tight winding road complete with fallen tree and boulder hazards, unsealed stretches, and a one lane pitch black dirt tunnel. By the time I arrived at the Taranaki Country Music Hall of Fame my nerves were a little frayed!

Routledge to publish edited collection on DIY music archives and museums

A great start to the new year for the project with confirmation that my book contract is signed, sealed and delivered for the edited collection on DIY music archives and museums. The book, which I hope will hit the shelves by late 2015, will be called Preserving Popular Music Heritage: Do-it-Yourself, Do-it-Together and will be in the Routledge Research in Music book series.

Article published on cultures of preservation at the Victorian Jazz Archive

An article I co-authored with Alison Huber has just been published in the journal Popular Music History (vol. 7, no. 3, 2012). Titled ‘Masters of our own destiny’, this article presents a case study of the Victorian Jazz Archive. 

Panel proposal accepted for the Pop-Life conference

A panel co-organised with Jez Collins (Birmingham City University and Birmingham Music Archive) titled “A pile of history, found in my parents attic”: The everyday histories and archives of popular music heritage” has been accepted for the conference Pop-Life: The Value of Popular Music in the Twenty First Century to be held at the University of Northampton, UK, on 6-7 June 2014. In addition to a co-authored paper by the co-organisers, other papers on the panel will be by Lisa Busby (Goldsmiths, University of London and Editions of You) and Paul Long (Birmingham City University).

Conference presentation on archival ecologies and affective atmospheres

Over the last few days I have been in Brisbane (Queensland, Australia) attending the International Association for the Study of Popular Music Australia-New Zealand branch annual conference. This year the theme was Popular Music Communities, Places and Ecologies and the conference sought to foster scholarly engagement with the various ways in which music, people and place are connected (see the original call for papers here).

Fieldwork at the Victorian Jazz Archive

I’ve been in Melbourne this past fortnight for a stint of fieldwork at the Victorian Jazz Archive. I first visited the archive in June 2012 as part of the Popular Music and Cultural Memory project, so it has been great to be back amongst the volunteers and see what changes have occurred over the last year and a bit.

Another visit to the SAJA in Adelaide

My third visit to the South Australian Jazz Archive in as many months saw me attending its AGM and another book club meeting, as well as conducting interviews with committee member and current Treasurer, Bill Wood, and his wife and SAJA volunteer, Kerry Wood. I also met with Mal Eustice who, with Pam Swanson, founded the “PAMAL Archive Research Museum” and who regularly donates artefacts to the SAJA’s collection.

Are DIY archives sustainable?

I had hoped to make it back to Germany later this year to visit Jazz Museum Bix Eiben Hamburg and so was sad to learn of the museum’s recent closure. Once again this year (see my post from 29 January 2013) the issue of the sustainability of DIY archives has been brought to the fore.