With loc­al music­al insti­tu­tion Fly My Pret­ties tour­ing the coun­try this month, Fish­Head caught up with front men Mike Fab­ulous and Barn­aby Weir while they were in Europe tour­ing with The Black Seeds to find out their favour­ites back here in Wellington.

Mike Fabulous

If it’s been a hard week at work and I’m in need of a drink I’ll be at… my house, drink­ing and still working.

Then the next day if I need a slap-up feed and a cup of Wellington’s finest cof­fee I’ll be at… Pre­fab or Maranui.

I always find if you need some cul­ture you can’t go past… Lucien John­son [sax­o­phon­ist, bandlead­er, lec­turer and record label head]’s house.

My favour­ite Wel­ling­ton land­mark has to be… the island in Island Bay. My grand­fath­er fam­ously sun­burnt his bot­tom while skip­ping school and spend­ing the day on it.

The Wel­ling­to­ni­an I would take to a pub quiz is… my friend Rory Hack – arbor­ist, handy­man and gen­er­al know­ledge cham­pi­on. Or my eld­est son, Sai. His gen­er­al know­ledge seemed to out­strip mine years ago.

I am most ashamed to have nev­er vis­ited… I know it’s not in Wel­ling­ton, but the answer is Fiordland.

I know I shouldn’t, but Wellington’s best-kept secret is… the Japan­ese antique store in Kil­birnie. While they have increased in pop­ular­ity in the last couple of years, they have kept their prices dirt-cheap. You can pick up all sorts of things between $10 and $30.

Wel­ling­ton is dif­fer­ent to play than oth­er towns because… apart from occa­sion­ally feel­ing more pres­sure to rep­res­ent, it’s my home town.

Wellington’s best ven­ue to play in is… well, I like the Town Hall! But ser­i­ously, where is Wellington’s range of dif­fer­ent-sized ven­ues that are actu­ally good? Per­haps I just don’t get out enough. The old Bodega has nev­er been replaced to my mind for a ven­ue that was small enough that you could put on a gig, have it feel full with a small crowd and not have to advert­ise the shit out of it. Wellington’s inner-city noise con­trol laws are too restrict­ive; stay in the sub­urbs if you want to live in peace and quiet, and let there be music in the inner city!

When the zom­bie apo­ca­lypse arrives and I can save only one mem­ber of Fly My Pret­ties, it would be… Jarn­aby – a mix­ture of Jar­ney and Barn­aby. Jarn­aby could still keep it run­ning and rule the drum kit at the same time.

Barnaby Weir

If it’s been a hard week at work and I’m in need of a drink I’ll be at… Mighty Mighty on Cuba Street.

Then the next day if I need a slap-up feed and a cup of Wellington’s finest cof­fee I’ll be at… Duke Carvell’s.


I always find if you need some cul­ture you can’t go past… Cul­ture, the band.

My favour­ite Wel­ling­ton land­mark has to be… the buck­et-bong fountain.

The Wel­ling­to­ni­an I would take to a pub quiz is… sing­er Lisa Tomlins.

I am most ashamed to have nev­er vis­ited… any strip club, ever!

I know I shouldn’t, but Wellington’s best-kept secret is… still Wellington’s best- kept secret. The less top secret is Little Pen­ang on Dix­on Street.

Wel­ling­ton is dif­fer­ent to play than oth­er towns because… it’s my home town, so there’s little travel involved, which helps. Also there’s that extra com­mit­ment to slay­ing a good show.

Wellington’s best ven­ue to play in is… either the Opera House or the Town Hall.

When the zom­bie apo­ca­lypse arrives and I can save only one mem­ber of Fly My Pret­ties, it would be… ummmm, I’d save Jar­ney Murphy. The post-zom­bie-apo­ca­lypse world needs a good drummer!

Fly My Pret­ties are play­ing two homet­own gigs at the Opera House in Wel­ling­ton on 18 and 19 Septem­ber. Tick­ets are avail­able from ticketek.co.nz