MORE than 40 years after five of Fiji’s top musicians released what has been described as a groundbreaking album in New Zealand, plans are afoot to re-release it on vinyl again this year.
Mantis, a band forged out of the Dragon Swingers in the early ’70s, one and only album become a collectors item on LP record.
Unfortunately, there are only three surviving members of the group — percussionist Rupenu “Rupsanji” Davui who now resides in Australia, keyboard wizard Ronnie “Paspatu” Samuel who lives in the US and bassist Joe Heritage who resides in the Jetset Town of Nadi.
Drummer Paul Steven and guitarist Waisea Vatuwaqa have both passed on.
Heritage said the re-release of their one and only album — Turn Onto Music — originally recorded on the Vertigo label in 1973 under Universal music, was exciting for a band that just loved playing music.
“The whole thing was not planned, from how we were invited to go to New Zealand right through to the recording and how well the album was received,” the renowned bassist shared.
“We just loved playing music together and that’s probably what was captured on the album.”
Heritage, together with Steven, Vatuwaqa, Samuel, Davui and Ken Janson, were performing at the Golden Dragon in the early ’70s when the band was approached by two members of a film crew from New Zealand.
Bill Benn and Patrick McKenna asked Heritage if they were interested in doing a few gigs in Aotearoa.
In 1973, the group departed, minus Janson who opted to remain behind because of nightclub and music shop business.
Renamed Mantis, the band took the New Zealand live music scene by storm.
After auditioning for a stint in the circuit, Mantis secured gigs at Ali Baba’s on Cuba Street and Ziggy’s on Jervois Quay.
Because the band was relatively unknown in New Zealand, word spread quickly that some Fijians had scored gigs at some of Wellington’s prime clubs.
Heritage said it was through their live gigs that they met freelance producer Eddie O’Strange.
“Eddie invited us to record some tracks and we really freaked out when we went into the studio because he got us to go into separate booths.
“Wise (Waisea Vatuwaqa) got very nervous and said to me ‘E caka vacava oqo?’
“I told Eddie that this was not going to work because we had to be able to see each other and he was very understanding.
“He got the engineer to arrange us as if we were performing live and this was something new for him because every other band recorded in separate booths.
“Once the first few tracks were done, he was so excited because the sound was very different from other recordings.
“And I think that’s what contributed to the novelty of our album.
“We played just as we would have done in a live setting and he managed to capture that energy and reproduce it.”
Mantis recorded their rendition of Booker T and the MG’s’ Time Is Tight and covered The Wackers’ Night And Day with Heritage on lead vocals in the first sessions. Both songs were recorded in one take and were released as the group’s first single. The album began to take shape with Wilson Pickett’s In The Midnight Hour, Mountain’s Mississippi Queen, Jo Jo Gunne’s Shake The Fat and four original instrumentals — Island Suite, Firewalker, Back at the Village and Hurricane making up the rest of the tracks.
Heritage said the instrumentals were developed out of jams they used to do to warm up before gigs.
“Eddie helped us to put them together and gave us a lot of direction when we recorded the originals but most of the stuff that you hear was recorded on the fly, we never discussed how it would go or anything like that. We just played how we felt and how we read each other and I believe that was the magic of Turn Onto Music.”
Former The Fiji Times journalist Bharat Jamnadas, who now lives in New Zealand and has worked extensively on television there, visited Fiji last month and caught up with Heritage.
“Bharat brought along news of the reissue of the album and brought a copy of the album that a friend bought in Belgium,” Heritage said.
“DJ Tora called us to go on air on FBC and the feedback from the public was very positive.
“I’m glad that the music we recorded more than 40 years ago has been recognised and is still appreciated today.”
John Baker, a researcher from New Zealand, says the reissue of Mantis Turn Onto Music was fitting for a band that caught the attention of the music scene in a relatively short time.
Mr Baker has been instrumental in organising for the album to be released officially through Universal Records NZ, who now own the rights to the tracks.
Mantis Turn Onto Music will be released on LP as a collectors item in November this year.
