Molly Pardoe is the oldest artist in Rhythm and Vines history, set to perform her first live DJ set at the three-day Gisborne festival later this month. She talks to Alex Casey about changing perceptions around older women.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Prior to this year, Molly Pardoe\u2019s only interaction with Rhythm and Vines had been warmly welcoming her bedraggled grandchildren into her Gisborne home whenever the four-day festival was hit by wild weather. \u201cThey would come over with all their friends, have a shower, drop off all their muddy clothes, have something to eat and a nice nap,\u201d she explains. \u201cThen off they go back again. That\u2019s only ever been my experience with R&V.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That is, until now. Along with the likes of Kid Cudi, Mozey, A-Trak and Fcukers, Pardoe will soon be taking the R&V stage in front of 25,000 young people to perform her first live DJ set at the age of 81. Her stage name? DJ SuperGran.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Molly Pardoe aka DJ SuperGran (Photo: Supplied)<\/p>\n
Born in 1944 in Tolaga Bay, Pardoe says music has always been a big part of her life. She recalls singing around the piano with her family during the festive season \u2013 \u201cthat\u2019s how ancient I am\u201d \u2013 and listening to Elvis Presley in the heyday of rock and roll. Tina Turner was another important artist for her. \u201cA fabulous example of a woman who had a tough life but rose above it all,\u201d says Pardoe. \u201cI remember dancing to her through the night when I was younger.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside of her love of music, Pardoe has had many passions in her 81 years. She worked for most of her adult life in farming and shearing contracting, while also raising her children. She started Gisborne\u2019s YMP netball club in 1969<\/a>, came third in Mrs East Coast in 1977<\/a>, and has volunteered in Vanuatu and Indonesia, as well as at home in Tair\u0101whiti. Twenty years ago, that volunteer work led her to the charity SuperGrans<\/a>, and eventually her burgeoning DJ career.\u00a0<\/p>\n SuperGrans shares life skills between generations, including financial advice, gardening groups, parenting support and cooking classes. \u201cWe\u2019re always thrilled to see people come and ask for help, because that\u2019s not easy,\u201d says Pardoe. \u201cThere\u2019s probably two or three generations of families now who actually don\u2019t know how to cook because life has changed so much with the fast food places\u2026 some people have never even peeled an onion.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n After sharing her skills with the community for two decades, the flow of intergenerational knowledge has now turned in the other direction. With SuperGrans chosen to be the official charity partner for Rhythm and Vines, Pardoe will be stepping up to the DJ decks to deliver a 10-minute set in front of a 25,000-strong crowd. \u201cWhat is there to be afraid of?\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019ve always taken up challenges all my life. And this is just like, \u2018oh well, here\u2019s another one\u2019.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Collaborating with local DJ Jamil Sabda, the son of Mara and Beto from BrazilBeat, Pardoe has recently spent a bit of time in his Gisborne studio learning the ropes and assembling her set \u2013 and insists she isn\u2019t doing it by halves. \u201cI\u2019ve been learning how to put it all together, because it absolutely is the whole real thing.\u201d she says. \u201cThe main thing is, if I\u2019m going to put my finger on the wrong button, I\u2019m not going to show anyone. I\u2019ll just keep dancing and smiling.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Pardoe cannot be drawn on what hits punters might be in for, although she does reveal she\u2019s a fan of Celine Dion and Shania. \u201cThat\u2019s all a surprise,\u201d she says. \u201cYou never know what I\u2019m going to do when I get up there. All those thousands of young people might rev me up.\u201d What she can reveal is the vision for her wardrobe. \u201cFriends have had all sorts of suggestions because I definitely don\u2019t want to go look like an 81-year-old\u2026 I\u2019m going glittery and outrageous.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n And while a glittery and outrageous outfit might be par for the course for many at R&V, for Pardoe it represents a kind of rebellion. \u201cWe really wanted to break down the stigma. Grandmothers don\u2019t just sit and knit and crochet, they do heaps of things and are really great and interesting people,\u201d she says. \u201cWe want to tell a bigger story about how we love to learn, we love to share, we love to have fun and dance and sing, so don\u2019t write us off just yet.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Pardoe hopes her performance doesn\u2019t just change perceptions around older women, but reminds people to connect across generations. \u201cThe better we can enjoy each other\u2019s company, whatever your age is \u2013 young, old and everything in between \u2013 the better we\u2019ll all be,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m going to have thousands of young people looking up and saying, \u2018what\u2019s this old lady up to? And I\u2019m going to show them.\u201d And will DJ SuperGran keep partying until midnight?\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOh, I can\u2019t be going off to bed early,\u201d she laughs. \u201cI\u2019ve got a reputation now.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Molly Pardoe is the oldest artist in Rhythm and Vines history, set to perform her first live DJ…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":188714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[10791,1977,492,118406,156,592,12506,111,139,69,1066,118407,14625,118408],"class_list":["post-188713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-ageing","tag-charity","tag-comments-enabled","tag-djing","tag-entertainment","tag-festivals","tag-gisborne","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pop-culture","tag-rhythm-and-vines","tag-summer","tag-supergrans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/188714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Molly Pardoe on the decks in the SuperGrans kitchen (Photo: Supplied)<\/p>\n