Mary Seddon of Monde Marie
Mary Dorothea Seddon (1924-2000) was a person of great character and a vivid personality. She graduated 1946, B.A. Victoria University College and had an eventful life, including proprietorship of the cafe 'Monde Marie' in Roxburgh Street, Wellington, known for its contribution to the city's life and especially to folk music culture in the 1960s.She was a grand-daughter of Richard Seddon, Premier of New Zealand 1893-1906.
Internet discussion between Richard Mills, Helen Phare and Sharyn Staley, 10 Nov 1999
RM (reflectively): When I was 17, I once sang for eight hours straight at the Monde Maree in Wellington, for Maree whatsername - my own two-hour booked stint, and then covering the stints of the three subsequent artists who failed to front for their shows. Towards the end she was fortifying me with rum-laced coffees. It was all by ear - thank God for a transient audience.HP: She was Mary Seddon if I remember correctly. I used to play there in the late sixties for $1 per hour and was grateful for the work. She used to feed us afterwards on cheese and tomato sauce sandwiches. Which I was grateful for also.
RM: That's the one. Used to be a great gig, fed a lot of folkies, and I wouldn't have been that accomodating for another, perhaps. It was my choice to sing that long - I just kept on filling in at her request as singers failed to front that day - dunno what happened, just one of those days. It was later things went sour. We prolly crossed tracks, you and I - I used to live at 2 Roxburgh Street, right beside it, for a while, but I went to Christchurch in, hmmm, 67?
SS: She still is Mary Seddon! She was certainly still alive a couple of years ago when I last had contact with her - she's in her 80s (or maybe 90s by now). I used to work in her kitchen, as did many of the folkies. We started around 6-7pm and some nights we didn't get away until 3 or 4 in the morning if a good singaround session started up, however she did feed us too and allow us free coffee. We didn't mind the hours as most of us wanted to work there for the music as much as the money.
Dominion 8 July 2000:-
| SEDDON, Mary
Dorothea.-
On July 6, 2000. Daughter and devoted carer of Bea and Tom, only sister
of Richard and Derry. Remembered as a first class teacher and gardener,
battling Wellington cafe pioneer, film reviewer, and all round iconoclast
- leaving as the magnolias are in full bloom.
A Memorial Gathering will be held in Old St Paul's, Mulgrave St. Wellington on Monday July 10 at 2pm to say goodbye. |
| Monde Marie
Words: Peter Cape Tune Eton Boating Song The gramophone's playing lieder The radio's blaring jazz There's a brass band outside with its valves open wide In a hell of a razzamatazz In the flat down below there's a 'cello Above there's a whole symphonie So I'm off for a night Of the music I like Down at the Monde Marie You can blow 'til you've cracks in your cornet You can boomph your bassoon 'til it busts You can saw at your Strad 'til the catgut goes bad And your manuscript moulders to dust But don't think I'm a sucker for silence There's no scrap of the Trappist in me Far better than quiet to me is a diet Of song à la Monde Marie So keep your violas di Gamba Your clavichords, rebecks and lutes Likewise your saxophones, bongos and slide-trombones Flageolets, fipples and flutes What I want is the sound of Segovia An Ives or a Clauson-to-be And to hear them my choice is the guitars and the voices I find at the Monde Marie From An Ordinary Joker - the life and songs of Peter Cape, Roger Steele, Steele Roberts, Aotearoa New Zealand. Sung on the accompanying CD, of the same name, by Arthur Toms. |
| Coffee-bar
Blues Words & Music: Peter Cape I sit and watch my baby work a coffee machine Drinkin' cafe negro 'til my face turns green I want to hold my baby but the counter's in between I got the low-light coffee-bar blues Cappuccino, cafe negro - all the whole night through Cappuccino, cafe negro - What's a man to do? My baby sells me coffee But that's all she'll do Last night I saw my baby in a lovely dream Stretch her tender arms out through a cloud of steam Reaching for the handle of her cafe creme! I got the low-light coffee-bar blues Cappuccino, cafe negro - all the whole night through Cappuccino, cafe negro - What's a man to do? My baby sells me coffee But that's all she'll do My baby puts her apron on at half past ten Pulls espressos until two, and then takes it off again Is it love that keeps me wakeful, or just caffeine? I got the low-light coffee-bar blues Cappuccino, cafe negro - all the whole night through Cappuccino, cafe negro - What's a man to do? My baby sells me coffee But that's all she'll do I been looking at my baby now for half a year The coffee I've been drinking's got me feeling queer If baby doesn't love me soon I'll switch to beer I got those low-light coffee-bar blues Cappuccino, cafe negro, cafe latte, and more With chocolate, and cinnamon, and froth to the floor Long black, short black, two flat whites I got the low-light coffee-bar blues From An Ordinary Joker - the life and songs of Peter Cape, Roger Steele, Steele Roberts, Aotearoa New Zealand. Sung on the accompanying CD, of the same name, by Peter Cape. |
We think the coffee bar in the Coffee Bar Blues was actually the Green Parrot which was situated on the corner of Wakefield Street and Taranaki Street. The Monde was up Roxburgh Street, just off Majoribanks Street, about half a kilometer away. But neither of them exist today. I have just "stumbled" over your discussion (and the Mudcat site) and thought I'd respond. I would say that Peter Capes song could be about any coffee shop/cafe in Wellington other than the Monde Marie or (it's competitor across the road) theChez Paree. I say this because I for a number of years not only attended both places during the early folk-scene but worked there ... and the coffee was made using the Cona systems. Peter's song about short-black, flat-white, steam, espresso machine, etc simply did not exist at these two coffee houses.