Verlaines live at Windsor Castle, 1986 due from Schoolkids Records

The 17-track double live album captures Graeme Downes and crew performing at their peak in Auckland. 

Here's the scoop...

Schoolkids Records is releasing a double album from New Zealand's legendary Verlaines entitled Live at the Windsor Castle, Auckland May 1986 for the first time ever, exclusively for RSD Drops 2021 on June 12th.  

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 Graeme Downes: “ 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.  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.” Limited to 1200 copies Worldwide.

Watch The Verlaines video for "Doomsday" from 1986 followed by the track listing and the actual 1986 tour poster which served as the model for the album sleeve design. 

 

The Verlaines – Live at the Windsor Castle, Auckland, May 1986

Makes No Difference / Just Mum / You Forget Love / Take Good Care Of It / Lying In State / Fuck It Alf / Only Dream Left / For The Love Of Ash Grey / Icarus Missed / Pyromaniac / Lover Armageddon / Slow Sad Love Song / It Was Raining / Doomsday / You Cheat Yourself / You Say You / The Ballad of Harry Noryb

Graeme Downes previews The Verlaines' 10th album Dunedin Spleen

Here's Graeme Downes discussing a few compositions from Dunedin Spleen due May 10th. 

The Verlaines, Flying Nun turn 30

Believe it or not, three decades have passed since Roger Shepherd started up New Zealand's fabulous Flying Nun label. Coincidentally, it was also in 1981 that Graeme Downes founded The Verlaines in Dunedin. With word now that Downes is putting the finishing touches on a new Verlaines album, it seems worthwhile to look back at the development of the Dunedin scene which spawned many of the amazing groups that helped launch Flying Nun globally, inspiring countless artists, from Pavement to Guided By Voices and Barbara Manning to the late Jay Reatard. Here are a couple of clips which document the South Island origins of New Zealand's influential musical exports The Clean, The Chills, The Bats and The Verlaines whose members are still musically active today.

Friends Of The Enemy



Getting Older by The Clean 1981



Flamethrower by The Chills 1982



Pyromaniac by The Verlaines 1984


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