Moments Like These: Moments Like These: A glance back through personal archives

I’ve always figured Rikki Morris to be the kind of kid who, expecting a kitten, probably asked for a horse. He has never been shy of coming forward and embracing life. Rikki has had a string of hit singles, been a TV presenter, a sound guy, Ian’s brother, a producer, a traveller, a father and a football freak. And he has never stopped doing music. All the best credentials for someone who now encourages young musicians to raise their creative horizons. A true gent!

Can you remember when and who took this photo?

Sometime in 1986 though which month is anyone’s guess... considering the amount of chemicals that were coursing through my veins at that period of my life, it's a bleedin' miracle I can remember which DECADE it was! Taken by my girlfriend at the time, actress Rebecca Saunders, whose brother Damien was the guitarist in Auckland Walk.

Where was it taken and what were you up to in those days?

The corner of Kings Cross Rd and Victoria St. in Sydney. I’d spent two years living in London (‘84/’85) doing a rather splendid job of abusing myself with liquor and hard drugs. After fleeing home to NZ in early ‘86 I played in a covers band for a couple of months with Andy Dickson, Tony Waine and Steve Clarkson from the Narcs called The Rocking Love Gods. But Auckland just seemed so small and incestuous (nothing changes eh?), so Andy and I decided to move to Sydney where we (foolishly in hindsight!) formed perhaps the most tragic of all Kiwi bands, The Hanks.

I’d been heavily influenced by country music whilst living in London with Mark and Paul Kennedy from Daggy & the Dickheads. I worked for a while as their live sound engineer. So it seemed obvious to form a band that combined my new found love of Hank Williams with an already huge fondness of bands like The Clash. We were Cow-Punk - we played two gigs - we must’ve been bloody horrible! Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! What were we thinking?

What was your relationship to the others in this photo?

At that time Snapper, Les and I lived in a 2-bedroom flat in Kings Cross, Snapper’s bedroom being the lounge, living on a diet of Earl Grey tea, Just Right cereal and any illicit substance I could lay my hands on! Les played bass in Th’Dudes (which my brother Ian was also in), The Dickheads and The Legionnaires, all bands that I’d previously done sound for. Snapper I’d known from my first foray into Sydney’s musical underbelly back in 1981 when I was in The Crocodiles and he drummed in The Tigers. Gary was also in The Legionnaires and around that time was playing around Sydney with Dave Dobbyn.

What are you doing these days?

I own and operate a recording studio in Devonport, Auckland called The Bus. Been there almost seven years now. In that time I’ve deliberately tried to withdraw from the music biz as much as possible, prefering to work with up-and-coming unsigned bands and artists like The Checks, Finn Andrews from The Veils and Gin Wigmore who recently won the International Songwriting Competition. I produced Graham Brazier's recent album ‘East of Eden’ and When The Cat’s Away’s platinum selling live album in 2001.

I only work on projects that I want to work on...and I’m like a pig in shit, basically! I still gig every now and then, the odd corporate rent-payer but mostly in bars with a couple of mates, acoustic guitars, a few pints, jammin’ and making it up as we go along! I also have three seriously cool and fabulous kids who I love to bits, Marlon, Gala and Oni Mae. I don’t know what I’d do without them. Get rich perhaps!

Briefly - what have you done in the time between when the photo was taken up until now?

Ummmm... worked in a florist shop, had a number one single with Nobody Else, won the APRA Silver Scroll (with Heartbroke NOT Come Back Louise!), got married to and separated from Debbie Harwood, had kids, presented some TV shows, did a bit of radio, got signed by Mushroom and lived in Melbourne for a couple of years until I realised the music biz wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be, worked with Jimmy Barnes and Diesel, recorded an album with Eddie Rayner producing, written about 100 jingles and about 200 songs, watched at least 3000 games of soccer, spent an insane number of hours in my studio working on other people’s songs, got fatter and greyer... is that enough?

If you knew then what you know now what would you have done differently?

Absolutely nothing! I have NO regrets about anything I’ve done in my life... it's been a total blast. I've experienced more than most people could in 10 lifetimes... Hang on a mo, I’m not sure I would do kids TV again in a hurry... If you really want to f**k up your music career and live the rest of your life being recognised in the supermarket then I recommend a stint on What Now or Sticky TV. But then again, if I hadn’t presented 3.45 Live! in 1989 I wouldn’t have met BB.King, which was one of the highlights of my life.

Moments Like These is curated by Trevor Reekie who you can contact via trevor@pagan.co.nz