Phil Warren

Phil Warren. Pic: Audioculture

Chris Bourke has written a great piece up now on Audioculture about music impresario Phil Warren, a hugely important figure in New Zealand nightlife. Go check him if you've never heard the name.

Bourke described Warren in 2002 as a man who "believed show business and politics were natural bedfellows. Both require the gift of the gab – and a natural charisma to encourage people to get out and vote for you. He knew the old gag – “politics is show business in drag” – and once put it to use when he booked Diamond Lil for a Labour Party conference. 

"Besides all the acts he booked, all the local body meetings he chaired, in the early 1970s he altered the social fabric of New Zealand when he acted like a one-man lobbyist to change archaic laws that prevented licensed drinking after 10 o’clock. “I always vote for Phil,” an Auckland friend once said. “He’s the only politician who believes people should be allowed to go out at night.”

Outside the Ace of Clubs, Cook Street, Auckland 1985, Aotea Centre
and carpark under construction in background.
Credit: Phil Warren collection