Next port of call, back in my sweet baby's arms

Thursday music corner: Dave Dobbyn, born in 1957 and knighted for services to music in 2021, released two albums with Th' Dudes, three with DD Smash, and has released nine solo studio albums to date, the most recent of which was 2016's Harmony House. All nine of his solo albums have charted in the New Zealand top 20, with eight charting in the top 10. He has released 11 New Zealand top-20 solo singles, including the 1986 major hit Slice of Heaven in collaboration with Herbs, which also topped the charts in Australia. 

Whaling was originally released on the 1984 DD Smash album The Optimist, which also features Magic (What She Do). This live version is from 10 years later, commemorating a veteran Auckland rock venue. Dobbyn released this 1994 live recording from Ponsonby's Gluepot pub (a famed 600-capacity music venue that closed in October of the same year) as track 2 of the opening single Language from his Neil Finn-produced album Twist. The single, helped by the inclusion of this classic live performance, reached no.4 on the New Zealand charts.

'Let's just do a real laid-back version of this old shanty...'