The unusual name Nankervis is of Cornish origin from the parish of St Enoder, an unknown saint first mentioned in the doomsday book. In modern Australia the Nankervis we know is Brian Nankervis one of the creators of popular SBS TV show Rockwiz who continuing in the footsteps of that unknown saint aims to pitch celebrated musicians against relatively unknown ones. I caught up with Brian for a chat earlier this week.
Brian tells me it’s time for the Rockwiz gang to hit the road again for a series of live shows, this year the theme of the show is saluting the ARIA Hall of Fame recipients, four of which will be at every touring show but Brian says revealing the names would ruin the surprise! As it does every 2 years, the live show is visiting Hobart. It’s a massive or as Brian says a major mission to bring the show to Tassie with both himself, host Julia Zemiro, Vika and Linda Bull, Dugald McAndrew and band all taking the trip across to Tassie.
Brian always welcomes visits to Tasmania, for one, he says the venue is excellent with the performance room at the Wrest Point only a 5 minute ‘sheltered’ walkway ‘away from the cast’s rooms.
Brian says he has a long history and many happy memories of Tassie calling it ‘fabulous’. A particular memory was when he was hiking around the state starting from Hobart and on one particular day arriving in Launceston for lunch with his parents. Brian is continually amazed at how close everything is.
Brian has had an eclectic career, he attended teachers college and spent six years in that profession and going on to pursue an interest in community radio and working at the Last Laugh Theatre and restaurant stage show as well as a stint in the soap opera ‘Let the blood run free’. Perhaps he is best known for his poetry reciting on ‘Hey Hey its Saturday’ a gig which went on for 10 or 11 years. Brian still does one hour poetry performances in schools as a nod to his first job.
Rockwiz saw its genesis in Brian’s warm up act for Jimeoin’s shows where one of the warm up exercises included was a quiz. This proved the most popular part of the warm up and so it was decided to base a show on the quiz concept. The format of a pilot for SBS was nutted out by Brian and the other two co-creators.
Brian says the live shows of Rockwiz have a different, alternative energy to the TV show with the absence of cameras they are a bit ‘dangerous’ and ‘improvised’, which the audience love and while the TV show falls into a pattern,the live shows are fresh and encourage evolution with the cast meet and greeting the audience for signings providing chat and feedback forming ideas for future shows. Brian says it’s fabulous!
I decided to pose to Brian one of the questions given to contestants on Rockwiz ie, in what was his first concert he attended?
Brian most graciously tells me he grew up in a loving but conservative home without much exposure to the arts or music so when he became a little older he gravitated towards music, but his first ever concert was one he wandered in to by accident. He was nine years old and it was the scout hall where a group called ‘MPD (Mike Brady, Pete Watson and Danny Finley) Limited’ were playing. What resonated with the young Brian was the song ‘Little Boy Sad’ and being overwhelmed by the boots worn by the singer. Bring Brian’s concert attendance to the modern day and the most recent concerts Brian attended were a concert by Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell at the Palais Theatre and a concert by Jimmy Cliff.
On tour and in Hobart, Brian will choose members from the audience and ask them 4 rounds of questions and those that do the best will become the Rockwiz contestants for the evening.
Brian says the key factor of why Rockwiz resonates with people, it’s the nostalgia of a ‘good’ or ‘happier’ time in their life, a time of freedom and secondly, people also love a quiz and it’s a chance for Fred from Sandy Bay, says Brian, to compete against household names or music heritage artists and maybe win!
You can see Brian and team of Rockwiz on 13th November at Wrest Point Entertainment Centre at 8pm.
Paula Xiberras
