Midnight Youth on song with ABs

JOHN SELKIRK/Fairfax Media

ALL BLACKS: Jeremy Redmore performs with Midnight Youth.

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Jeremy Redmore has written about the All Blacks, now he's singing for them.

As a copy editor at Stuff.co.nz for two years, Jeremy used to prepare stories on the All Blacks to go online. Away from his day job, he fronted Kiwi rock band Midnight Youth.

One of their tracks, All On Our Own, is currently the No1 most played song on radio. It's also been chosen as the theme tune for the television ads promoting the All Blacks' internationals against France and Italy this month.

"It's classic, eh," Redmore told Sunday News. "It's pretty cool. It's great exposure and I'm stoked to have it on a rugby ad."

Redmore will spend the next six months living out of a suitcase after deciding to go full-time with Midnight Youth.

"It's a bit scary, a jump into the unknown really. As much as we are touring and the band is making money, there is no money for me. It all gets funnelled back into the band," he said.

"There's five of us in the band and if we all took wages we wouldn't have any money. So I have got to rely on savings. We'd rather live like paupers until we can sustain ourselves.

"We are not all about rock'n'roll. The bands we look up to like U2, Radiohead and Coldplay, they are all smart people. You go backstage at a Radiohead concert and they are all sitting around reading books".

Midnight Youth headed to Australia on Thursday for a series of showcase gigs to promote the scheduled October release of their debut album The Brave Don't Run.

They've already supported INXS, who proclaimed them one of the best bands they had ever played with in Australasia.

And among the audience at their first Australian gig at the Come Together Festival at Sydney's Luna Park yesterday was expected to be Seymour Stein, founder of Sire records.

Stein is a a serious maker-and-shaker in the music industry having discovered Madonna, David Byrne's Talking Heads and The Ramones.

He first spotted Midnight Youth when they played a low-key concert in New York late last year. He was so impressed, he sent his people to every show they performed when the group went back to the US in March and April.

"I didn't really know who he was to be honest," Redmore said. "So I checked him out on Wikipedia and thought, 'Holy crap'."

Stein was so impressed with the Kiwi band, he requested a private audience and flew to Auckland where Midnight Youth performed a one-hour set at the Backbeat Bar in K' Rd.

"It was a bit weird really playing to an audience of about four people. We had been told that he sometimes goes to sleep or doesn't even react, so we were a bit freaked out," Redmore said.

"We played the first few songs and loosened up and then I stopped and talked about the lyrics and how I had written a couple of songs in McCarren Park in Brooklyn, New York. He was like, `Ah I grew up there'.

"We had a bit of a yarn and that sort of broke the ice. From there he was chatting inbetween every song. He stopped halfway through our set and said, 'Hey look I really like you guys'. It went amazingly well. And then he sort of flew out again."

Two other heavyweight connections who want to work with the band are English-based promoter Metropolis and booking agency Helter Skelter, who have had Amy Winehouse and Kings of Leon on their books.

"There's a lot of interesting things taking shape," manager Matt Coleman said. "Our next move is to make sure the interest in Australia is as strong as it is in New Zealand. Then we'll look to build on our contacts overseas."

- © Fairfax NZ News