Ged Carr  - Musical History

Pro Musician

Gerard Carr enrolled at VUW and WTC where he majored in education and music. During that period, he played acoustic café gigs and did casual spots at student shows and concerts.
While working as a teacher in Blenheim, GC and friends Mark Stubbs (Synthesisers) and Kevin Reeve (Bass Guitar), decided to form a professional band touring the national hotel circuit.
They moved to Christchurch and formed GODLEY HEAD with Robbie Chadwick and Carl Stacey. Godley Head toured NZ successfully, playing progressive rock covers and original songs.
With Kevin Thomas on drums, the band set up the legendary Auckland entertainment venue: the HeadQuarters Rock Café in Upper Queen Street.
The band ran HQ as a 24-hour café featuring live bands 7 nights a week. Every Auckland band who was anybody, and several who really weren't, played there during that era. Of course, Godley Head were the resident band. They also continued to tour nationally on the hotel circuit.
They built a strong following from there and played major concert gigs, including Nambassa and other notable festivals.
When the band line-up changed, (Chadwick and Stacey were replaced by Jos Hodzelmans on bass) so too did the name. SPHINX was a full-time touring band working the large-bar circuit, nightclubs and featuring in large public shows like Nambassa'79, Gisborne’s New Year concert, and summer Hauraki/ANZ concerts at Albert Park and Cornwall Park. Sphinx's largely original repertoire became edgier to fit with the times. And the band continued to play HQ, concert appearances and tour nationally.
Next version of the band was The Survivors with the rhythm section of Thomas and Hodzelmans and Ta Rutherford on guitar. They played a residency at The White Hart in New Plymouth before heading to Auckland to do some recording.
When the life of a professional musician became too difficult to maintain, GC looked to another side of the music industry….

Recording

The first album Gerard Carr produced was the popular kiwi children's epic, David Hollis's Enzed Musical Animals and Things.
As a result of recording there, GC became a recording engineer at the iconic Mascot Studios in Auckland. There he immersed himself in the art of (still analogue) music production.
At Mascot he recorded advertising jingles and bands. Among others he did an album with US blues giants Henry Vestine and Canned Heat, and discovered Herbs, co-producing the now classic album "What's Be Happen". This album received the Independent Music NZ Classic Record award as part of the 2015  Taite Music Prize.

GC then moved to the then state of the art Harlequinn Sudios.
There he became "King of the Budget Releases" doing the Graveyard Shift. He went on to be the main daytime staff engineer at Harlequinn doing advertising, television shows and soundtracks, as well as singles and albums, for several years.

Digital

When music technology was starting to go digital, Yamaha came knocking. GC was engaged to work with the first MIDI products and introduce them to the NZ market, doing sequencing and synthesiser demos nationwide pioneering that revolutionary new technology. The DX7, QXI, TX816, CX5M…... He was also involved in aspects of Yamaha digital R&D in Japan, and made notable contributions to the development of several synthesiser, guitar and professional audio products.

While working for Yamaha GC adopted the MIDI trio /duo ensemble technology for himself. He formed bands with singers, while providing sequenced backings, guitar and vocals.
They did regular, high profile gigs around Auckland's Pubs, Clubs and Parties for many years.
The best known of these bands were Groove Diggers, Bloody Mary and Louie Louie (with singer Louise Heperi).

Larrikin Alley

In 2010, GC moved back to Blenheim to further his writing and recording plans and set up his home studio which he named Larrikin Alley.
As well as teaching music in his studio and working at the local music store, he started the Party Band WattFour.
Recording during school holiday breaks, a mini album "Original Trials" appeared as he familiarised himself with the new medium.
A 16 track album of cover versions using his band WattFour was compiled next in 2012.
After that work started on the BeaverTown Hellhounds Album which comprised mainly blues classics with a handful of original tunes intended to be used as a demo for the Hellhounds band.

The Space Captain

During 2016, GC decided it was time to make a full album as a singer songwriter.
Starting in October he began the groundwork by upgrading software and studio facilities etc. In December initial ideas started to get demo-ed.
While on a North Island road-trip in January 2017 the basics of several songs formed and “The Space Captain” song was written and recorded as a result.
More songs arrived and were recorded during term breaks in 2017 and when the tracking of “Just Like An Elephant” was complete in Feb 2018 it was clear that the album was full.
Mixing finished in July and "The Space Captain" was released in October 2018.

Pearls Of Wisdom

All of the songs were written between December’18 and February’20. Recording started in November’19 with GC once again playing all instruments. Kirsty Chalmers guested on some songs as backing vocalist.
Mixing was finished in August’20. The cover had been created accidentally while experimenting during lockdown in April’20.
Pearls Of Wisdom was released 11.11.2020.

Deepest Darkest Daze

After completing Pearls of Wisdom, GC started writing the next album. The final selections were chosen from twenty-five songs that "arrived" during the summer of 20/21. The title was arrived at when the content of the lyrics surprised the writer with their degrees of darkness. This was presumed to have been influenced by the difficult times caused by the C19 pandemic at the time. Recording and tracking occurred over the next twelve months then mixing and mastering from March 2022. Release date was set for streaming as 11-11-22. Lyric videos previewing each track started late September and were released on this site, one per week, in album order.

Special Operations

Work on Special Operations started in May 2023. The songs are written narrative style and form an opera. The arrangements are acoustic and are centred on the vocal and guitar parts. No synths or electric guitars.....The album was released to streaming on 25/2/25. Videos were made for each song and appear on this site.