Welcome to our second edition of Community Champions, celebrating the remarkable individuals who make our communities special. Today we feature Alexandra's Martin McPherson.

He was a renowned Christchurch event promoter and king of PR, schmoozing over lavish, three-hour champagne lunches during the heydays of a booming, 1980s, pre-crash sharemarket.

Rubbing shoulders with music greats, Martin McPherson was destined to organise events.

From the tender age of 10 his mum recalled him making his stage promoter debut, capitalising on the family of dancers next door.

“The two girls did ballet, and the boy did tap so I organised a concert, dragging the furniture into the driveway, and charging the local kids to come.”

It's a skill that Martin’s honed for over 50 years, and one that’s ensured the survival and success of the Alexandra Blossom Festival, now in its 67th year.

Born on Christmas Eve, 1956, Martin was given up for adoption but that fell through leaving him unwanted and destined for an orphanage at 10 months old until his adopted mother, who’d fostered him as a newborn, brought him home.

Martin celebrating his Christmas birthday, last year. PHOTO: Supplied

His mum sent a telegram to his father, a shoe factory manager who was overseas for work, and said, ‘You know that baby we had at Christmas, we’re keeping him.

“Dad didn’t have much choice,” Martin grins.

He went to St Albans School then St Andrews College and Mairehau High School where he was elected prefect only to be vetoed by the principal.

“I had a dubious academic career. I was above average, but my school reports said, ‘could do better’, ‘easily distracted’.”

Leaving school in 1972, Martin worked in retail for Symon and Lowther, then menswear boutique Mathew & Son selling “seriously flared trousers, platform shoes and seersucker shirts”.

Martin the male model in 1982. PHOTO: Supplied

He had a “brief flirtation” with a modelling career and downtime was spent surfing.

The family’s colour television had arrived in 1974 in time to watch the Christchurch Commonwealth Games.

Martin hitched around New Zealand before breaking into the music industry, as the Canterbury University Students Association’s culture and entertainment manager, attracting bands like Chris Knox and The Enemy.

He was flatting with the designer of Flying Nuns’ logo and always putting posters up for pub gigs.

“I was active on the fringe of Christchurch music scene.

“I’d always wanted to be on stage but had no talent. I wanted to bathe in that reflective glory and the best way was to organise other people.”

Christchurch’s music scene was pretty spartan.

Bands did gigs in halls, charging $2 admission, events frequently turned over by police.

It was the beginning of punk rock, so Martin started his own events.

“We were breaking new ground.”

He was a booking agent for the likes of Toy Love, The Androids, rubbing shoulders with Iggy Pop and Tom Jones.

He earned a reputation and gravitated into PR, working for renowned American company Hill & Knowlton in Christchurch.

“It was pre-1987 sharemarket crash. The champagne was flowing. We wore $1000 silk suits and hosted three-hour long lunches.”

The events were grand affairs, requiring grand entrances.

Martin’s most embarrassing moment came after his Trustbank Canterbury 25th anniversary event in the Christchurch Town Hall.

The history was portrayed through four nights with bank uniform fashion parades and hits of the previous 25 years played by the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra, led by leading NZ conductor Sir William Southgate.

“I had my ‘cans’ (headphones) on backstage and he called me out on stage. Mum was in the fifth row, centre. The chord got caught and my cans went flying off my head one way and I went the other in front of 3000 people!”

His next role was more anonymous – Ronald McDonald for client McDonald’s, opening a new Christchurch outlet - Ronald’s entire 1000-page manual had to be memorised.

However, in 1987 Martin’s whirlwind world came to an end with the sudden shock of the sharemarket crash.

“PR was the first to go. The American company pulled out of NZ, and we tried on our own, but PR had dried up,” he says.

“Overnight, friends who were millionaires on paper, ended up losing their homes and their parents’ homes. The late 80s and early 90s were terrible times,” Martin says.

Martin at Canterbury Cup Day in 1985, a highlight of his PR career. PHOTO: Supplied

Christchurch Mayor Sir Hamish Hay asked Martin to manage a youth facility aimed at unemployed street kids with glue sniffing rife.

“It was horrific. There was a lot of pain. On dole day afternoons we had Kiwi bands play by the Avon for free and we ran dances.”

Herbs played and Martin called favours on the local Black Power and Mongrel Mob gangs to man security, ensuring they were on ‘neutral turf’.

The Christchurch City Council entrusted him with grant funding to help street kids.

“The only ones who turned up to help were the Salvation Army, so they got the money.”

Martin has helped them in return every year since.

Martin and his dog, Alfie, collecting for The Salvation Army. PHOTO: Supplied

He’s worked in radio promotions with big names like James Daniels, Gary McCormick and Simon Barnett, organised Summertimes Festivals and boosted hospitality takings, staging successful music events.

The HART (Halt All Racist Tours) protest promoter from the 1981 Springbok Tour was doing Rugby World Cup promotions for the NZ Rugby Union by 1991.

But Martin had, had an epiphany while organising a 1989 New Year’s Eve party at Oliver’s in Clyde for Fleur Sullivan.

“I looked up at the stars and knew in my bones I’d end up in Central Otago.”

His brother lived in Letts Gully and in 1993 Martin scored a job as Alexandra Promotions manager organising events like the Alexandra Blossom Festival.

“I was the slick kid from the city and the town literally stood back with their arms folded.”

Martin with one of his favourite acts - Lady Killers (from left) Tina Cross, Jacqui Clarke and Annie Crummer at the 65th Blossom Festival in 2022. PHOTO: Supplied

His proposal to change the route of the festival parade had one woman threatening to leave town.

“I volunteered to help her pack, but there was no animosity. People thought I would fall over but I earned their respect.”

In 2002 – the year his mum died, and his ex-girlfriend discovered she was pregnant, he was made redundant only to be invited back in 2009 with the festival in financial strife.

Those preceding years were tough, Martin working as a Stop & Go man and in an orchard packhouse, but daughter Sophie, now 22, became his shining light.

“I had her for her first sleepover at 10 days,” he says, proudly.

Martin and life partner Christine brought Sophie up from age 9.

A Central Otago District councillor for over 20 years and former chair of the Vincent Community Board, Martin reckons he does his best work in the supermarket.

He’s proud to have turned the Blossom Festival, costing $250,000 a year, around, through sponsorship and gate sales, with market stalls bringing in $20,000 and a Food and Wine Festival introduced.

“It’s like a giant jig-saw puzzle. I start in January and do the sky, corners and bottom and by early August I get concerned as I think I’ve lost a couple of pieces,” he says.

And well, the weather’s out of his hands.

Even a bid for prayer from Father O’Brien, concerned that Martin’s Catholic mum had married a Protestant, once prompted the cheeky reply: “Son, knowing your history I could only go down on one knee for you,” Martin grins.

Read more: Big read: Our Community Champions

Read more: Funding to help promote blossom festival nationwide

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