Anthonie Tonnon will embark on a conceptual new tour this holiday season, to release the new song and video, ‘Old Images.’
Rail Land is a tour of Aotearoa that will take both performer and audience out of the city centres, via some of the world’s most beautiful and miraculous passenger rail lines.
Watch ‘Old Images’ at www.anthonietonnon.com
Rail Land 2018
Tickets, itineraries and more at anthonietonnon.com
Friday, November 23 - Waitati Hall, via Dunedin Railways*
Thursday, December 13 - The Globe Theatre, Palmerston North, via Capital Connection+
Friday, December 14 - St Peter’s Hall, Paekakariki, via Metlink
Saturday, December 15 - Aratoi Wairarapa Museum of Art and History, Masterton, via Metlink^
Friday, December 21 - Ellerslie War Memorial Hall, via Auckland Transport
*round trip included in ticket price
+overnight trip required if taking the train both ways
^afternoon show
In the long twilight of the summer holidays, Rail Land will travel all of the railways that offer public transport in Aotearoa, and will recreate a public transport journey for one night in Te Waipounamu. With the help of sponsor Dunedin Railways, Tonnon will charter a train from Dunedin Station to a show at the Waitati Town Hall.
All shows will finish early, with the Auckland, Greater Wellington,and Dunedin area events timed to allow return travel by train, while the Palmerston North show will cater to audiences who live locally, and to those willing to embark on a magnificent overnight holiday by rail.
Tonnon and team are sourcing railway ephemera to display at the venues, and longtime collaborator Daniel Blackball is designing a collectible program, available at the shows, that will include reading material, maps, and music - including Old Images, alongside other unreleased music.
Tonnon says, ‘I think it’s important to note at the outset - the song has nothing to do with railways. It touches on the long shadow of the 20th Century, and childhood in the Cold War, but really, it’s a love song.
However, an invitation to film a music video in my home city, Ōtepoti, led us to a new story, one I felt compelled to tell - the story of the last suburban train network in the South Island. The more I learned about it, the more it consumed me, until eventually, I decided I couldn’t stop there.’
The show, and the experience of the journey to get there, will be a poetic and practical exploration of passenger rail, and a meditation on what it means to us in the modern era.