My sister remained in Taranaki. In the first couple of years after she had left school she went to listen to bands in pubs even though she was legally too young to do this. When she & I talked more about the live music she heard growing up in the 70s, she said she went to any show that that came to New Plymouth that she deemed to be ‘half-decent’. She saw the Seekers, the New Seekers, the Hollies, Jose Feliciano …

Some of these shows were at the Bowl of Brooklands, which is a stunning natural amphitheatre with a lake separating the audience from the performers. Shows there were always punctuated by frog-vocals. She commented: “Opera sounded a bit weedy in comparison to New Plymouth’s breed of frogs.”

The Bowl of Brooklands was where her top-rated show was held. “Best, best, best of all was the Sweet concert where all but me tried to swim over the lake! It is entirely possible that the organisers thought it would be good publicity to have a few girls swim across the lake. But nobody had factored in the amount of frog poison in the water. Anyone who made it all the way to the stage was given a blanket & hustled into the wings to dry off. The ambulances had a busy night.”

The Sweet tour to New Plymouth in the early 70s clearly shocked that city like the Pretty Things had when they toured in 1965. She further noted: “The Taranaki Herald gave it front page every day for a week, to a lesser degree each day & then the Letters to the Editor got going. Anyone who was there had a opinion about who started the swimming & why: who was egging them on. And obviously there was a faction who wanted to cancel ALL future pop shows since the evil had now poisoned the youth of the province: some literally!”