Tue 8 Jul 2008 In: Worth Checking Out View at Wayback View at NDHA
"I do look back and think there's not many of us left" - the late Mahinarangi Tocker The next episode of Maori Television's LGBT programme Takataapui will be broadcast at 9:30pm on Monday 14 July: Back in the 80s when the clubs were full of live bands, lesbian performers took to the stage. Women were using their voices and lyrics to express their politics, singing songs of protest, inequality and personal struggles – and also looked inwardly and seeing that they were political in their own right, their stories became a platform for expression. It was during this time that the lesbian music scene in Aotearoa was at its height. In this episode, the Takataapui team look at some of the women who featured on the scene, women who write and performed as ensembles or solo acts. Women who made recordings, packed out pubs and venues and who suddenly after five years of prolific entertainment, stopped making music. "I think a lot of stuff is about growing up," says the late Mahinarangi Tocker in her last interview before she passed away earlier this year. "There's a lot of stuff in our lives where, its not that they weren't important and therefore they crapped out – we just go through lots of things in our lives and if playing music is what is going to keep us alive, we do that and if we need other aspects of our lives to change we'll do that as well. "Some people changed that aspect of their lives and went somewhere else but still kept music with them others kept the music going. But I do look back and think there's not many of us left…" Artists like Mahinarangi Tocker, Black Katz, Hilary King with Red Beryl, and The Guile with Karen Kahurangi. Percussion player, Nettie Bird had a long standing relationship with many lesbian bands. These women played folk, blues and rock; Maree Sheehan kicked off a new sound – dance music, as the music landscape widened and moved into the clubs. Each of these women performs acoustically in this episode and talk about their personal views of the scene. "What we did we kind of went out there and we kicked arse and we said we're strong women and we refused to shutup and sitdown " - Nettie Bird. Takataapui is broadcast on Maori Television each Monday night at 9:30pm, then repeats on Freeview's Stratos channel at 10pm. Takataapui TV - 8th July 2008