Murray Wood

Murray Wood

Murray John Wood was born in Christchurch on July 29th, 1954 and died tragically in the collapse of the CTV Building on February 22nd, 2011.  He began learning the piano at the age of five, quickly showing his ability as a multi-instrumentalist by belting out a tune on every instrument available in the school's collection.  At age 11, while learning guitar from Tommy Kahi, he formed his first band called Murray and The Puppets.  They played a lot of early Rock 'n' Roll and were featured at the Horizon Restaurant and the Rendezvous Dance Hall.  This was a 7-piece guitar band and often featured Murray's sister Lynda on vocals.  He was the first employee at Holden Sound Industries and worked building the famous Holden Wasp amplifiers and assembling speaker boxes as an after school job from age 12.  It was while working there that he met many musicians and many future band members.  Murray switched back to keyboards at the age of fiftenn and joined The Group which had a six-nights-a-week residencies at the The Aranui Hotel and later The Carlton Hotel.  This band also played at the Operation Deep Freeze Base from Friday to Sunday nights after the pubs closed.  In 1972 Murray was offered a seven-nights-a-week residency at the White Heron Travelodge and this gig lasted for all of 18 years.  On Sunday nights the band numbers were augmented with most of the well-known Rock 'n' Roll musicians from around Christchurch and these nights became legendary.  During that period, most of New Zealand's famous singers and entertainers performed in cabaret with Murray Wood and Harvest.

Murray Wood and the original Harvest

Murray Wood

Murray Wood and Harvest at The White Heron

Murray spent eighteen years as a Musical Director for TVNZ from 1971 working on many successful programmes including Pop Co, That's Country, McPhail and Gadsby, and Playschool.  During his years with TVNZ he was instrumental in assisting the careers of many local artists and performers.  Murray's interest in technology led to him being an early adopter of computer music on the Apple Macintosh and he was the New Zealand Demonstrator for Sequential Circuits and Emu Systems synthesizers.

Murray Wood - Master Musician

Murray Wood - Musical Director for TVNZ's That's Country

Murray Wood - Performing with Harvest

Murray has produced albums for many artists and gained a Platinum Disc for a Suzanne Prentice record.  Murray has composed and recorded many television themes and jingles, and he was constantly in demand as a sympathetic accompanist - perfoming right up until the time of his death.  He often performed with the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra or Showbiz Canterbury supplying diverse musical accompaniment for many shows on CTV.  He was the Musical Director for ROCKONZ 2007 and a additional member of The Vigilantes circa 2006.

Murray Wood - That's Country Backing Band

Murray Wood - Country Versatility

Murray Wood - That's Country Backing Band

In 2006, The Vigilantes reunited for the Christchurch City Council sponsored Spencer Street Revisited Concerts which were held in the magnificent Christchurch Cathedral on Friday and Saturday nights (September 29th and 30th).  Murray had been invited to join The Vigilantes as honorary musical director and keyboardist for their reunion concerts, and he played with the group at the SSR Concerts in Christchurch Cathedral as well as at The Richmond Working Mens Club early in the following year.

Vigilantes - SSR Concerts 2006

Finale - SSR Concerts - Christchurch Cathedral 2006

Vigilantes - SSR Concerts 2006

2010 saw the advent of a devastating cluster of earthquakes which hit the city of Christchurch firstly with a 7.1 magnitude quake early (4:35am) in the morning of Saturday September 4th.  This resulted in a series of significant aftershocks which continued on until Tuesday February 22nd, at 12:51pm when Christchurch was again hit with a huge quake (magnitude 6.7 this time, but with it's epicentre much closer to the city center, and at a very shallow depth of only 5km - half the depth of the 7.1).  The February 22nd quake caused the collapse of the Canterbury Television Building in Madras Street.  This was where Murray worked on a daily basis, and as a result he tragically lost his life along with 184 others.  Aftershocks continued to happen, as indeed they still do, and a total of 361 are reported as having occurred over a three week period following the 6.3 quake, the most significant of which was a magnitude 6.4 on June 13th, 2011.

CTV Building pre-earthquake

CTV Building post-earthquake

CTV Building post-earthquake