“The place is in recovery mode. Will be for some time,” he told me a few weeks later.
“Assessment of damage still taking place. It has started raining again too. Yay … ”
Jordan Luck’s Little River property overwhelmed by flood Waters. Photo / Supplied
Luck has been stalking New Zealand stages for five decades through his time in The Exponents, Dance Exponents, Jordan Luck Band, and other various projects. But he never forgets a face. He recognises me instantly after we spoke a few years back in Napier before The Exponents headed down for one of their 2023 reformation gigs.
These days, the rock star spirit is still well and truly alive, albeit in a different form.
“It’s never been as raucous or as dangerous as it was when we started in the early 80s,” he says of Exponents gigs.
Because who can forget their 1982 Napier show with The Screaming Meemees that resulted in a riot? Fellow Exponent Harry Harallambi said it was one of the biggest fights he’d ever seen.
“The fight started breaking out before the end of the Screaming Meemees’ set. It was a riot of a gig, and the crowd was fantastic. The bar people shut it down, and kicked everyone out, but it ended up going into the street,” Harallambi told me a few years back.
“Cars were overturned and set on fire,” Luck adds today.
Jordan Luck (second from left) says while The Exponents’ rehearsals today can be a wee bit trepidatious, he loves it all the same.
While life is not as chaotic these days, Luck says the allure of the stage and the pull of the crowds still make him want to keep going. There are also, surprisingly, physical benefits to bashing out the band’s hits night after night.
“Live performance actually is what sort of keeps me alive,” he says. “It’s like doing this 90-minute plus tai chi workout kind of thing. It flippin’ keeps you healthy.”
He says he’s been “ripped off” a few times in his career (although “luckier than most”), but it hasn’t dented the air of positivity that surrounds him.
I ask Luck about his fears and regrets. He admits he thinks about his own mortality, but that music is a powerful vessel, keeping him optimistic.
“You lose friends, a lot of younger friends too, as well as people my age and older. A song might bring back memories of someone who’s gone. But often at times it’s in a good way.”
Some of those friends include former bandmates, Chris Sheehan and Dave Barraclough. Sheehan died from cancer in 2014. Barraclough died in 2018, also from cancer.
Luck says Brett Adams from The Mockers has been a great asset, helping play the parts previously filled by the pair.
He’ll be on stage this month, when The Exponents perform at the Mānuka Phuel Synthony Festival.
The Dance Exponents 1986. From left, Eddie Olsen (drums), Chris Sheehan (guitar), Jordan Luck (vocals), Dave Gent (bass) and Brian Jones (guitar). Photo / NZH Archives
Luck describes the process of getting back on stage as “a wee bit trepidatious”, with a fair bit of rehearsal involved.
He says the group have not played a gig this big since something like opening for David Bowie at Western Springs, way back in the 1983.
“It’s reaching 40,000 [people], and there’s only a handful of gigs I’ve ever done bigger than that really.”
Does he get nervous? “No, I don’t believe I’d be involved in this industry if I was nervous about it. Not after 50 years.”
That’s a long time to be performing, and it’s this longevity that has amassed them plenty of fans, both young and old.
“A lot of the songs were written when I was in my late teens, early 20s, so it’s understandable that younger people would enjoy them just as much as older people,” Luck says.
Jordan Luck says performing helps keep him alive.
And surely 50 years is also worthy of a biography of some sort. Who wouldn’t want to read the life and times of Jordan Luck?
“At some stage, a few years back, there was an interest. It’d be quite an intriguing read,” he says.
From Keith Richards eating shepherd’s pie to Alice Cooper playing with a knife, rock stars are known for pre-show rituals. Luck doesn’t have any, but he does have two things he’ll always do.
“Go to the toilet. Not a ritual, but if it’s 90 minutes to go or plus, you’ve got to make sure your bladder’s empty,” the 64-year-old laughs.
“Oh, and I don’t eat before a show.”
Before I can stop him, the conversation turns back to gardening and where he’s grown the best brassica. It’s the perfect metaphor for Luck: growing, changing, recovering, and thriving as The Exponents enter a new era.
“I mean back in Geraldine and even before that, in North Otago, we always had tomatoes or spuds or broccoli or cabbage. I love cabbage,” he says.
You heard it here first, folks, Karamea is the best place to grow cabbages.
The Exponents will perform at the Mānuka Phuel Synthony Festival on March 21 at the Auckland Domain.
Mitchell Hageman joined the Herald’s entertainment and lifestyle team in 2024. He previously worked as a multimedia journalist for Hawke’s Bay Today.