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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Teams podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks at Me.

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Speaker 2: Keep this love and sold. We meet these memos for ourselves.

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Speaker 2: We were as never closing hearts when times forever cross.

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Speaker 3: So you can keep me sup Park.

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Speaker 2: Jeez. Clubs have.

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Speaker 3: Let us each yearn and photograph. He opened his series

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Speaker 3: of New Zealand shows and his world tour at Mounts

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Speaker 3: Mart's Go Media Stadium last night. Chris Schultz, our music reviewer,

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Speaker 3: was there a man who gets to more big gigs

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Speaker 3: than anyone I've even known. Good morning, So happy New Year, Jack.

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Speaker 4: Thanks for having me.

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Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, tell us about the show. It sounds sounds fantastic.

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Speaker 4: It was a bit.

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Speaker 5: This is a big show. This is the biggest kind

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Speaker 5: of stadium spectacle. I think he took it to levels

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Speaker 5: I haven't seen before. And he did that in a

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Speaker 5: couple of ways. One was with this huge screen. I

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Speaker 5: haven't seen a screen of this size set up in

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Speaker 5: a stadium anywhere before. It's so big I can't even

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Speaker 5: really describe it to you, Like I took a few

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Speaker 5: photos and it doesn't capture how big this thing is.

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Speaker 4: It's approximately ten stories tall.

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Speaker 5: And I was in the I was in the queue

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Speaker 5: for a burger, was am waiting for my burger, and

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Speaker 5: I heard each Aran's voice come out of the loud speaker.

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Speaker 5: He obviously starts at eight. It's very early for a

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Speaker 5: stadium show. So I ran in there and there's his

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Speaker 5: face on this big screen.

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Speaker 4: Ten stories tall.

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Speaker 5: It's intimidating, and it's kind of overwhelming because his face

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Speaker 5: is just hovering up there the whole time. You can

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Speaker 5: see every bead of sweat, every poor It's it's a

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Speaker 5: little bit terrifying.

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Speaker 4: Actually, But he's got that.

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Speaker 5: He's got the other trick he's got He's installed this

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Speaker 5: bridge into a stage, this bridge that comes out of

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Speaker 5: the main stage and then grows out over the crowd

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Speaker 5: to another stage in the middle of the arena. I've

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Speaker 5: never seen this before. It must have cost hundreds of

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Speaker 5: thousands of dollars. So he walks out over this thing

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Speaker 5: and he performs in the middle of the arenas, which

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Speaker 5: is it.

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Speaker 4: It's kind of cool. I got it, met.

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Speaker 5: I was incredibly impressed when this thing just started coming

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Speaker 5: out of the stage. But of course, you know, look

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Speaker 5: each year and he's so humble, he's so down to worth.

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Speaker 5: He has played probably to more New Zealanders than any

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Speaker 5: other artist to ever.

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Speaker 4: He's kind of up there on his own and it's

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Speaker 4: sort of lonely at the top.

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Speaker 5: You know, there's no one threatening him at this point,

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Speaker 5: at a time when artists aren't really touring stadium, he's

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Speaker 5: just casually filling five of them on this jaunt. And

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Speaker 5: he's done that by connecting with so many people. You know,

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Speaker 5: he writes these songs that are played during life's biggest moments.

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Speaker 5: He writes songs that are played at funerals and weddings

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Speaker 5: and proposals, and that's how he's doing it. I think personally,

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Speaker 5: I like a little more edge to my stadium shows,

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Speaker 5: a little more the story, and this is very much

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Speaker 5: him and him alone. He's got a band for like

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Speaker 5: about five songs, and to me, that was the best bit.

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Speaker 5: He had a band up on stage. He seemed really

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Speaker 5: happy because the pressure was off him. It wasn't just

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Speaker 5: him and his guitar up there. There were all these

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Speaker 5: other people to connect to, to jam with, to create

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Speaker 5: that kind of alchemy that a band gives you.

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Speaker 4: But for the most part, it's just him.

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Speaker 5: Which when I think about that, when I think about

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Speaker 5: forty thousand people staring at me and my face up

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Speaker 5: on a ten story digital screen.

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Speaker 4: That gives me a panic attacks. That's not even one

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Speaker 4: who can do that, you know.

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Speaker 3: So how polished did it feel? Given this is the

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Speaker 3: first show of many? You know, if he was a

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Speaker 3: bit further through the tour, I guess, you know, he'd

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Speaker 3: be kind of into more of a rhythm with everything.

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Speaker 3: What was your sense?

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Speaker 5: He admitted he had nerves for the first time, and

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Speaker 5: I think he said over ten years, and it did

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Speaker 5: show a little bit. I did think the first sort

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Speaker 5: of forty five minutes, you know, the sun was still setting,

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Speaker 5: so it was quite bright, and so the stage wasn't

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Speaker 5: in full effect. He made everyone pull out their phones,

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Speaker 5: but that didn't kind of work because it.

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Speaker 4: Was still quite light. Yeah, so you could sort of

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Speaker 4: see it a little bit. And then he admitted too

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Speaker 4: that the bridge timings weren't quite working as he wanted

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Speaker 4: them to.

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Speaker 5: He wanted to be I think playing one of the

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Speaker 5: songs up on the bridge and it hadn't come out,

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Speaker 5: so he'd been stuck out on the podium. So there

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Speaker 5: were a few little moments like that. I think the

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Speaker 5: nerves actually showed more on how much time he spent

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Speaker 5: talking to the crowd. Almost every song was followed by

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Speaker 5: a story and anecdote something yeah, yeah, and.

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Speaker 4: It kind of killed the momentum.

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Speaker 5: I would love to see him just pick up that

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Speaker 5: momentum a little bit and bring people along with him

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Speaker 5: a little more.

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Speaker 4: And by the end he did it. I think he realized.

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Speaker 4: And I think you will see some changes.

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Speaker 5: If this was the third show or fifth show or

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Speaker 5: tenth show of the tour, I think all of that

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Speaker 5: will have been ironed out.

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Speaker 3: Yeah right, it sounds like an epic kind of spectacle, though,

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Speaker 3: you know that. I mean that that screen alone is

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Speaker 3: just ridiculous.

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Speaker 4: The screen and the pyro. He had more pyro than

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Speaker 4: I have ever seen.

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Speaker 5: And I saw Metallica and they had plumes of flames

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Speaker 5: going up behind the stage.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 4: At one point I thought someone need to call the

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Speaker 4: fire department. The stage looked like it was on fire.

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Speaker 5: And even I'd share enough towards he went bright red

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Speaker 5: and he's like, that was probably too hot.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a lot of pyro involved. Yeah, yeah, you

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Speaker 4: wouldn't want to be too close to it.

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Speaker 3: A fantastic all right, Well, I'm envious of those who

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Speaker 3: are heading along this evening or over the next few days.

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Speaker 3: Thank you very much, Chris. Glad to hear your voice,

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Speaker 3: Glad that you enjoy it last night, and hopefully this

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Speaker 3: is only one of many dozens of shows you'll be

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Speaker 3: attending this year. Seems to usually be the case. And

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Speaker 3: of course you can find more of Chris's stuff on

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Speaker 3: his sub stack. That's boiler room. I think there are

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Speaker 3: two shows in christje at the Apollo Projects Stadium, what

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Speaker 3: next Saturday and Sunday. He's got aucland tonight and then

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Speaker 3: Wellington on Wednesday at Sky Stadium each year, and that

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Speaker 3: is what probably Chris as well, actually knowing Chris right now,

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Speaker 3: it's seven minutes to twelve on Newstalk's EDB.

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, Listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talks EDB from nine am Saturday, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio