Labour weekend already? The year is rushing to a close.

Only a week until an American election. The world is on a knife edge. We finally learn whether being a convicted felon is an impediment to becoming US president. Your guess is as good as mine.

Back in Tauranga, November is rapidly arriving; this week I’ve got a grab-bag of stuff including a highlight reel for next month.

Thanks Dean

First up I wanted to acknowledge of the passing the passing of Tauranga drummer and friend of many on the music scene and at the Historic Village, Dean Crossley, who played with Dead Man 6 and, as recently as last month’s Loserpalooza, with The Metrognomes and The Knids. Thanks for the music and the laughs Dean.

On to new music, and that Somacaine EP I mentioned recently – Glutenfree Bedtime Stories – is now available in all the usual places and on this week’s playlist. And a veritable veteran of the Bay scene has a long-awaited career retrospective album out now. Corben Simpson, resident in Waihi, currently playing with jamming collective Together, has a bit of history ...

Dean Crossley.

With band The Movement he won the 1971 APRA Silver Scroll for his song Have You Heard a Man Cry; with Bruno Lawrence he formed Blerta and his Dance All Around the World was a finalist in the 1972 Loxene Gold Disc Awards; in 1973 he famously appeared naked at the Ngāruawāhia Music Festival.

Musical recluse …

Corben has since continued his place as something of a musical recluse and eccentric: a fantastic singer, a fine if not prolific songwriter and a great interpreter of others’ songs.

Last time I saw him he was playing a unique hand-tooled guitar with two bass guitar strings instead of the bottom strings and a “scalloped” fretboard, making it possible to “bend” notes by pressing the strings harder. For anyone else it was unplayable, but Corben made it sing.

Corben Simpson. Photo: Lloyd Godman.

The new collection – simply called The Collection – contains 19 songs, including both the original and the 1985 remake of Have You Heard A Man Cry, the bulk being covers of Van Morrison, Stevie Wonder and other early 1970s artists. Musically it is very much a document of its time.

Now November. It’s insanely busy. Head Like A Hole, Tadpole, Rehaab and Pieces of Molly are at the Smoke festival; Crowded House, Ladi6, and Rikki Morris, are coming, as are genuine UK punks The Buzzcocks. As it happens, the last night I spent in England, all those many years ago before flying to New Zealand, I spent drinking vodka with late Buzzcock Pete Shelley. Funny old world ...

Pete Shelley.

Finally, two shows I will return to in greater detail: on November 8 take your pick of great gigs: at The Holy Trinity Church the Nairobi Trio is playing slick swinging jazz in a great setting; at Totara Street the band Ozi Ozaa promise an celebration of Afrofunk and highlife, a night of horns percussion and dancing, all led by Ghanaian master musician Yaw Asumadu.

Hear Winston’s latest Playlist: