Flying Nun Moments
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Che mate, it wasn't really disco. We'll have to get you out dancing sometime. You can dance, can't you?
nah, bugger it, it was and is disco...with machines...its just that disco, the real stuff (not the Bee Gees, John Travolta, Grease stuff....that wasn't disco..the real stuff was the black urban dance music) went back to the gay clubs for a few years...it never went away, it simply mutated in Chicago and Detroit
When we first started playing house records in 86/87 at The Asylum, disco was a badge of honour.
Which brings back fuzzy memories of that huge dance party you put on in 88 or 89, Russell...that was a hell of a night....
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Which brings back fuzzy memories of that huge dance party you put on in 88 or 89, Russell...that was a hell of a night....
railway station?
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railway station?
no The Powerstation. The Railway Stn was Across The Tracks I think...put on by Grant Fell, Roger Perry and a few others...and there was another called Unity.
The first dance parties in AK were a couple put on by Peter Urlich and Mark Phillips,in conjunction with Joseph from VBG, in a couple of old warehouses. Both got closed by the cops. Russell was involved in the first legal one, at the Powerstation
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Which brings back fuzzy memories of that huge dance party you put on in 88 or 89, Russell...that was a hell of a night....
Housequake, it was. We did two of them in early 89 (I was back from London for the summer) and got 1500 people to the second, which *was* big at the time.
Grant Fell and Stuart Page did the visuals (there is video of it kicking around somewhere) and Stu ran up some amazing flouro posters based on a Clearasil ad from an old issue of Playdate. We weren't really DJs, but we had some great records, and the house PA at the Power Station was quite large, so it all sounded pretty bangin'.
There were one or two woopsies - an ill-conceived lolly scramble that left the dancefloor coated in toffee, which didn't make Mike Corless too happy, and I let a band called House Party (featuring Matty J and Phil Fuemana) do a short set that totally tanked - but it was a great experience.
A few weeks after I went back to London I discovered that Simon Laan was selling Housequake t-shirts ...
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A few weeks after I went back to London I discovered that Simon Laan was selling Housequake t-shirts ...
Now why does that not surprise me....
The House Party single, on Southside, "Dangerous Love" is a total classic though. It sold nothing, got no support, so Murray Cammick gve me about fifty which I proceeded to hand out to every touring DJ over the years. Norman Jay played it several times on the radio and still rates it, and its been mentioned more than a few times in the press abroad as a "rare groove". It got a rave in Urb at one stage too.
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Yep - pretty good record that one.
Flying Nun it wasn't!
Speaking of more Nun stories, I was lucky enough to play in 'support' bands for a few Nun bands - SJF 'Blow' era, The Bats on several occasions, The Chills...The Bats were one of my favourite FNun bands. When we set up our stuff for the gig they had already sound checked and had taped handwritten messages to their amps: "DO NOT USE THESE AMPS". This was of course directed at the support act (us) so I felt a bit down that these nice Bats guys were telling us to f-off... lol
I was only 18 at the time so I guess I took things pretty seriously.On another note, supporting the Chills in Rotovegas (I still have the bootleg I recorded - the power cut out for 30 minutes so they played acoustically)... anyway, turns out the drummer from that line up ended up joining our band about a year later in AK (the support band for teh Chills on the night) so that's kinda funny.
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oh and... once I auditioned for the Chills Mk 890, sent Martin a demo tape and never heard back.
I thought he didn't like it as I didn't hear back form him.
It must have been two years later when he he said he had just found the demo tape down the back of his sofa...LMFAO
Some things aren't meant to be :)
Turned out I married his 2nd cousin too - lol
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* are we getting that edit fucntion already? **
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Rob Stowell says... "No labelling to speak of- and so far, two or three of the films I most wanted are nowhere to be found. BUT- some distinct oddities. There's a Stuart Page reel that looks like a series of camera exercises: pan, tilt, etc- amusingly done, but most entertaing is the "model"- a youthful Ronnie van Hoot. "
Hey I'd like to see that footage myself, I can't even remember shooting it, but it could have been when Ronnie was helping out on the PROJECT 3D show I was doing– he made some home-made holograms of a coke bottle. Perhaps those "camera tests" were experiments at 3D cinema? Did you put them on YouTube yet? I suspect that even though there's mag stripe on the film, it's probably mute in that case anyway.
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Hiya Stu!
Sorry it's taken time to reply- had a great holiday tho.... but can't seem to upload vids to youtube from home- our very fickle "broadband" is too slow (128 upload and always seems to fizzle out before it's done). Anyway, the two reels mentioned are at (hope that's right...). Not great quality, and perhaps not that interesting to anyone else... also, I was wrong about Ronnie being the model- you will know who it is!- I was confused as I watched it go through, by the fact that there's a shot of Ronnie at the end just before a number of shots of trains....
Anyway, if you want that reel- reply and it is yours. Also possibly others: one static shot in black and white, I think from K St- has the appearance of being a "mistake"!- and another reel, largely underexposed, which looks like a drama segment shot (I think) in a flat in New Regent St and coming out onto the street. There's also a reel of the Methven rodeo- not sure who would've shot that! No idea how they ended up in my box of old films.
Hope life is treating you well- cheers- Rob. -
Ooops- it's "embedded" itself.... still, probably all for the best. Links are also automatically converted I guess.
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Hmmm, watching bands in Wellington at the Last Resort, Rock Theatre days. Going to see the Gordons, going back the next day after school, and offering to be their roadie! Arriving at Sweetwaters and meeting them again early one morning but none of us had any money to buy their single from them so they could buy breakfast....helping Alistair later to find the river.
Much later, hearing that Doug Hood, bless him, had frequently helped out my little brother after he had vanished and hitched to Auckland to see FN bands. Thanks Doug, I have always wanted to say cheers for that. -
Just a little disappointed...
I just received my collectors' edition of the FN boxed set, carefully delivered to these parts of the world by friends from NZ holidaying here. Carefully opened - even preserved the shrink-wrap because I wanted it to become a family heirloom...opened the beautiful box, read the beautiful booklet, opened the first CD and on taking the CD out, the jewel case breaks...same thing happened on each of the four CDs. So my nice family heirloom has four broken jewel cases where the centres that hold the CDs disintegrated. .mp3s don't have the heirloom status, but the also don't fall to pieces in your hands. For an expensive box set, you'd have thought they'd use decent quality packaging. The music's great though. -
Interesting...I had exactly the same problem with three of the four jewel cases when I bought mine back in December.
I realise it's a minor quibble compared to the lovely music, etc, but there's clearly been a packaging snafu somewhere, somehow.
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Er ... okay ... I know this thread is dead but ...
I remember seeing Toy Love perform at Sweetwaters and being enthralled/horrified by Chris Knox's onstage antics. He had a can of pineapple rings and he would slowly dip his hand in and pull one out and eat it - but his hand had been cut on the tin and was DRIPPING WITH BLOOD!! And he kept doing this until the tin was finished. Oh the humanity - there was so much blood!
About a decade later I had an epiphany. It wasn't a tin of pineapple it was a tin of beetroot; and it wasn't blood it was just beetroot juice.
That's what you get when you're young, stoned, and stupid - and don't stand close enough to the front ...
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I'm willing to be told I'm wrong, but isn't it true that Knox used to self-harm whilst on stage around that sort of time?
I can't think which is more extreme rock'n'roll - cutting yourself on stage, or eating beetroot on stage!
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I'm willing to be told I'm wrong, but isn't it true that Knox used to self-harm whilst on stage around that sort of time?
for dramatic effect, yes, quite often.....indeed, that's how he survived the first Enemy gig in Ak, at Zwines...the skinhead element were going to beat the crap out of these hippies from Dunedin until Chris' show stopping antics during "Iggy" caused them to rethink.....
I used to like the gaffer taping of the audience more, or the mike leads tied around the front few rows at the Windsor, and the smashing of watermelons on head was a visually more pleasant that the blood.....
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god - that was my life!
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My wife googled my name and found this:
[Russell Brown] A few weeks after I went back to London
I discovered that Simon Laan was selling Housequake t-shirts ...[Simon Grigg] Now why does that not surprise me....
It's sad for two reasons: [1] That's all she found - my existence is reduced to a single entry in Public Address!!, and [2] it's wrong.
Sorry Russell but it never happened.
It's weird for me also because 'back in tha' day' our paths would cross from time to time and whilst you were always polite we never really clicked. I always sensed there was something but I never knew what it was. Now I do. I wish you'd said something so I could have told you then it never happened.
There have been many myths about me over the years (many worse than this one) and it always took me a coupla years to hear about them, which was disappointing since it was usually too late to correct them.
But thru the power of the internet I do (17 years later!) have the opportunity to set the record straight on this one. Any chance you remember who gave you this mis-information?
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It's sad for two reasons: [1] That's all she found - my existence is reduced to a single entry in Public Address!!, and [2] it's wrong.
Sorry Russell but it never happened.
Fair enough: I take you at your word. That's just what I was told at the time.
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Fair enough: I take you at your word.
Yikes! The Hilary Clinton response ...
Er, you never thought it odd that you never saw a Housequake t-shirt upon your return? Given that it was such a popular/successful event I shoulda sold some T-shirts surely?Anyway, to put this story to bed (since PAS readers are thinking WTF are they talking about?) I was in charge of BFM T-shirt sales a zillion years ago and at a BFM staff meeting I suggested that revenues could be improved by the station selling T-shirts with designs more relevant to what our listeners were into ie the recent sold-out Housequake party ie to date we hadn't done anything reflective of our 'dance' audience (it was circa 1990 from memory). I even floated the idea of selling a Housequake T-shirt but at the same time suggesting we could pay Mr Brown a royalty on each t-shirt sold. (Although during the royalty negotiation we would undoubtedly have pointed out that Chris Knox and others donated their designs for free, and asked 'Just how much do you love BFM Russell?').
But it didn't happen because the idea was shot down (everything was decided by committee back then, and everyone could be on the committee), because rap is crap and dance music isn't real music anyway and we should be supporting live music. Ah, those were the days!
In hindsight I'm not surprised some mischief makers chose to report it back to you they way they did. Ah, those were the days!
(I can't stress that enough...) -
Yikes! The Hilary Clinton response ...
Hmmm, bad link. Here it is again:
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appart from the Chills , flying nuns catalogue is vastly overated ...flying nun & chris knox are responsible for some of the most under produced crappy sounding music in the history of new zealand music..
production wise, defunct!Chris Knox never invested in good sound production all the bands on the flying nun label suffered meteorically because of this..
so thx but NO thx for a free box set of flying nun stuff.. -
Yikes! The Hilary Clinton response ...
Patience Simon,
Russell's got a case of the fonz about him.
He just can't brimng himself to say the " I was wrong I'm soorr,.... sorrrrrrr, sssssssorrr,....................sorry word.
he's working on it though, possibly -
As I stated earlier, Russell was always cordial with me, and as he's made clear, he was only acting on what he'd been told so no apology is necessary.
But how sad is it that I actually remember the Happy Days episode you're referencing?
Ah, those were the days ... back in the mid 70s ... :
Dad was home around six in time to watch the 6.30 news, mum made dinner, we all ate it, and by 7.30 (after watching a half hour regional news bulletin) we were all watching TV together as a family.
These days one or both parents aren't home for dinner, which is served from mainly pre-prepared ingredients, and afterwhich the kids have retreated to seperate rooms to do one thing or another, with all kids complaining bitterly about their woeful lives.
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