Hard News by Russell Brown

Thanks, Russell. This Hiphop holiday vid should embed....

I may be wrong, but I think I saw 3 The Hard Way in early '94 at the first NZ Big Day Out. Their name's certainly on the posters for it.

I took a pic of a rap act on the stage behind the grandstand and IIRC there weren't any other rap acts at that BDo, so I assume it's them.

I was utterly unaware they had such a complex story to their subsequent existence.

BTW, are you going to respond to Sweetman having a crack at you in his blog today, Russell ?

but the twerp who uploaded it disabled embedding

Surely nothing the Firefox streaming media download plug-in couldn't work around? Download it, then re-upload to the 'tube again, this time without disabling embedding? I'd do it but I'm at work an stuck on Ye Olde Explorer 8 (recently "upgraded" from IE6 - I was *almost* looking forward to having a 10 year anniversary party. Might start planning one for our Outlook 2003 instead...).

BTW, are you going to respond to Sweetman having a crack at you in his blog today, Russell ?

Nah. But I'm somewhat struck that he's still grieving over one tart comment two weeks ago, given that his whole thing is based on attention-seeking snark. Poor love.

Wow, that brings back memories. Auckland Uni Orientation 1994, iirc. 3 The Hard Way then Supergroove blew my mind and I mostly sat out the Muttonbirds to catch my breath.

First live rap I had ever encountered, incongrously mixed with my first ever crowd surf and fluoro pink shorts that should have been left in the 1980s.

Here's how the pop picking was done long before we had The Audience ... the two gents in the photo were working at HMV in Wellington. The year was 1957. That valve amp looks pretty cool ... and they had the New Musical Express for reference.

Thanks National Library.

HMV record factory. Hill, Morrie :Negatives of Wellington and national events and personalities. Ref: 1/2-177241-F. Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, New Zealand. http://beta.natlib.govt.nz/records/23124799

Wicked stuff, thanks Russell. I'm just thrilled we were able to get it out again as it's a hugely important NZ album long MIA. We intended to reissue it back in 2004 but as you say we didn't have a copy - none of the band had a copy and mine had been used to put together a NZ hip hop comp years earlier and never returned by the compiler. The plan was to make it a bonus with the second album but the time passed.

It had been nagging at me for years and thus when Peter said he had a copy there was no reason not to push the button and do it. It will also go out in the first batch of the new Amplifier lossless releases which should happen any time.

As to where they are now: Mike owns a flooring business in West Auckland, Chris splits his time between Te Atatu and Greece - he still does the odd vocal session for Alan Jansson - and Lance was last seen in the late 1990s in Queensland. He had no involvement in the 2003 number 1.

grant - I know 3THW played at the 1995 BDO - found a photo of me and two of them in RIU from the 1995 BDO when my band Hallelujah Picassos played....

Only distantly related to hip hop (he does some beat boxing in his music), but I’m quite taken with Kishi Bashi. Uses his violin (both in the traditional sense, and more like a guitar, strumming), vocals, beat box, and a loop pedal to create some fantastic music.

Bandcamp

And here live at NPR to get the full effect of how he builds his music up:

(Starts to fire up about 90 seconds in)

I so loved that song when I was a 17/18 yr old starting out at Uni. Was listening to RATM, Cyprus Hill, and wandering around wearing baggie black jeans and adidas jackets.

grant - I know 3THW played at the 1995 BDO - found a photo of me and two of them in RIU from the 1995 BDO when my band Hallelujah Picassos played....

Peter, help me out here. I saw Hallelujah Picassos play in about 1994, 95 maybe in downtown Auckland in some sort of warehouse/shed sort of place near the waterfront (I hope I'm not completely misremembering - a lot of booze has washed under the bridge). Playing support for Supergroove. I think the venue closed down sometime soon after. You guys played a song that was quite heavy and maybe a bit electronish and I remember thinking 'holy fuck' what an awesome song - crowd really pumping, lots of energy. Any idea what it was? On more than one occasion I've tried finding out what song it could have been but without much luck. It may have been a song that was re-worked a bit from anything recorded.

Actually reading through the posts again it was quite probably the Auckland Uni Orientation gig mentioned above.

Hey Yamis - at a guess, that venue sounds like one of BFMs legendary Private Functions at the Turners And Growers warehouses that used to be on the waterfront, before that part of town got totally cleaned up. As far as the song goes, heck, that description covers a bunch of our stuff - maybe Smokin and Fumnin?. I suggest checking our Bandcamp page - we reissued a bunch of our music recently. On Cd and iTunes/amplifier etc. http://hallelujahpicassos.bandcamp.com/
Hope that helps

Sweet, I will check it out. I'd know as soon as I heard it, but all the main stuff that I hear just doesn't gel with what I remember. This song got the crowd cranking. As I recall it was the 'energy number' of your set. I jizzed in my pants metaphorically speaking. Shame on me for not going straight out and buying all your music.

Anyhow, here's my contribution to the evening, courtesy of my dodgy mate, and my wife respectively (out of Korea).

I recommend taking some sort of mind altering substance before hand... coffee, alcohol, crack, heroin, bath salts....

Hey Yamis - at a guess, that venue sounds like one of BFMs legendary Private Functions at the Turners And Growers warehouses that used to be on the waterfront, before that part of town got totally cleaned up. As far as the song goes, heck, that description covers a bunch of our stuff - maybe Smokin and Fumnin?. I suggest checking our Bandcamp page - we reissued a bunch of our music recently. On Cd and iTunes/amplifier etc. http://hallelujahpicassos.bandcamp.com/
Hope that helps

Think it might have been a live version of Black Spade Picasso. I think I remember the "Picasso ... Core ..." part. Smokin and fumin has got a bit of down time during it, and I remember it as being more full on. And you've nailed the venue. That's exactly where it was. I guess the modern day equivalent would be 'the cloud'. :)

TBH, that was possibly the first ever live gig I went to (apart from high school talent shows haha) . I went to a whole stack in the following years but I would have been 17 years old then and living out in the sticks of W.A. with no cash money, so I'm thinking that kick started it all for me :)

I give thanks.

russell, if posters to youtube have turned embedding off, you just take the address from the bar and is exactly like embedding. a very cool cheat. hope thats kinda clear x

Three The Hard Way album now live on iTunes too... http://itunes.apple.com/nz/album/old-skool-prankstas-feat./id548210717

It wont be Godley and Creme, but Stewart and Gouldman, surely?

Kia ora Russell, I heard this story on Radio1, thanks for documenting it online. 10CC taking TTHW's money for folking up Dreadlock Holiday is like suing a busker for belting out 'Stairway...' on a Saturday night in town. There's no way Hip-Hop Holiday could have been mistaken for the original, or sold to the same audience. Like the Fugees cover of Killing Me Softly, most of the groups fans probably never knew it was cover from 10-20 years before - musically a whole different generation.

I have to say it's cheeky of Amplifier to charge $20 for a handful of MP3 files. I might pay money for FLAC files (or some other lossless open format), but probably not $20, and I'd certainly pay for a record or a t-shirt, but charging people for MP3 files is like charging them for listening to the radio. Why not just host BitTorrent webseeds on the site, so people can come to the offical site to download their preview version, and see what a good deal the paid merch is...