Hard News: #BDOMemories
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I remember enjoying myself, and I remember a couple of duds, and a couple of surprises, but generally all I really have left is… the vibe. It’s the vibe of the thing
This! I've been to most since 1994. The acts that do stand out in the mists of memory are The Flaming Lips - last act for the night & totally blowing us all away, Trinity Roots in the setting sun, Elastica in the rain, Iggy & the Stooges, Hole, PJ Harvey, Jane's Addiction, Urge Overkill, The Breeders. OK, so more than a few!
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I also remember us trying to inject vodka into various fruit for the first one....not very successfully.
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Matthew Littlewood, in reply to
Me too.
We were safely up by the East Lounge and we were gobsmacked at the way the stadium suddenly filled with kids going mental. It was an amazing thing to watch.
Yeah, just incredible. I must have been not too far away from you at the time! If I'd known, I would've said hi. I think it taps into what you're saying about the BDO at its best being something of a pop culture window. I mean, I never would've expected something like that to happen at all.
A couple of other #BDOmemories spring to mind, both from 2007, in the Boiler Room.
The Streets' Mike Skinner and the rest of his band getting a packed Boiler Room audience to all crouch down and then jump up in unison. He did it about three or four times in a row. It was a really corny move, but somehow (particularly if you're watching it from the lighting control centre), it looked absolutely awesome. I'm amazed no one else had tried that one before. Also, given how hot and sweaty it always is in the Boiler Room, perhaps it was quite sensible to slow things down for a bit.
Also, and perhaps embarassingly, one of my abiding memories of BDO 2007 was how amazing Lily Allen looked up on the Boiler Room stage. She really worked that crowd, there were dozens of Lily-lookalikes that year. That said, she really is shorter than you'd think.
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Sacha, in reply to
it's a hard road finding the perfect woman
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Kasabian really really suck. Bye bye bdo - we'll miss ya. I remember seeing a real blinder little set from David Kilgour at the very first bdo ...it was just after his debut solo album. Breeders were truly awesome at that bdo too. I like that Laneways has gone even more left field in terms of it's lineup --- the kids are taking control.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
The Mancunian Candidate…
(Fall tour poster by Chris Knox)
The peril of also having a hand drawn Chris Knox ticket became apparent after the Wellington concert, when a beautifully hand done biro version (on the right coloured card) showed up in the post-show ticket reconciliation…
I think the Zimblis tour of New Order with John Cooper Clarke may even predate the Fall, in the same year (‘82), I remember having to help pick them up at wgton airport and JCC threatening not to play (or even leave his room) unless certain needs were met… Luckily words put in the right ears in a lively Wgton scene kept everything on track…
…and if I recall correctly it was Lees and West who were the first using this ’email’ thing in the antipodean promoter business, they supplied Doug with a computer to stay in touch, spooky little green letters on a tiny little screen – its use sealed the deal on getting the Residents to play here, they were so tickled that someone here was ‘on line’. (Now can someone ’fess up to that eyeball theft!)
PS: there’s an interesting interview with Ken West here – some of which was in a video interview with the NZ Herald last year, I believe
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Chris Waugh, in reply to
it’s a hard road finding the perfect woman
Does Speight's still make ads like that?
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Sacha, in reply to
nostalgia (though perhaps not where Matthew currently plies his trade)
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Chris Waugh, in reply to
I did enjoy those ads.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
this time put a head on it...
nostalgia (though perhaps not where Matthew currently plies his trade)
I did enjoy those ads.In a country where a woman can still be barred from a beer brewing competition, we still have these ads....
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Chris Waugh, in reply to
Well, yes, I did nearly expand my "I did enjoy those ads" to include, along with a complaint about a bar in Auckland Airport's transit lounge, a comment about being unpleasantly surprised to see on the wall of a female friend's room at Knox College a Speight's poster patiently explaining that Real Southern Men were misogynistic gits. At least those old Speight's ads could be taken tongue in cheek (as I did). I remember DB ads about the same time that involved large horses and took themselves extremely seriously. And there was Lion Red's nonsensical bollocks.
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Not wanting to derail the conversation too much, but Ian Dalziel, do you remember this interview with Mark E Smith from Rip It Up's George Kay, back in 1982? The rumour goes that George, my old history teacher, actually scheduled the school's first XI football match with Christ's College to coincide with the Fall's Christchurch show. He's never confirmed nor denied that rumour. The interview's pretty fascinating, even if there appear to be some typos in the transcription.
Anyway, back to further #BDOmemories. One thing that struck with me after the first time I went back in '03 (hey, I'm a lot younger than some of you guys here!)...as soon as it finished and the lights went up after Underworld's awesome, extended version of "Born Slippy", I knew I wanted to come back the next year. I don't think you can ask for more.
On another note, I hope some kind soul has uploaded the Flaming Lips' BDO 04 performance up on Youtube. Everything about it was generous, joyous and jubilant. And it proved a real antitode to Metallica, that was one example of very clever scheduling by the people involved (most of the time, I felt scheduling was pretty good, given the constraints, although some years, 2010 in particular, were marred by clashes).
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Jonathan Ganley, in reply to
I think the Zimblis tour of New Order with John Cooper Clarke may even predate the Fall
In August 1982, Zimblis brought us The Fall, the first (and best) Hunters & Collectors show was in November, and New Order & JCC in December. ($16!)
But that Fall tour was before the Birthday Party, so I’m wrong there.
As pointed out above, you can't remember everything.
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Sacha, in reply to
we still have these ads....
you have to wonder who's been lobbying for even lower standards
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kris_b, in reply to
So if I read the article Ian linked, Lees quit BDO because he didn't like what the nasty people on Facebook said about the shitty sub-par lineup?
Wow.
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stephen walker, in reply to
thanks for putting up that poster. i was too young to go to Mainstreet (R20), and i had no idea who New Order were (but was about to find out in a couple of months time). but i remember those posters plastered in a row on a building site fence up Khyber Pass. i looked at those posters through the bus window many times, wondering what it all meant...
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Rich Lock, in reply to
not a Gotye fan? I thought *everyone* was a Gotye fan.
Depends how much of a nostalgist you are. If his album was any more influenced by the 1980's, I'd expect to see Michael J Fox driving past in a DeLorean every time I (or rather, my wife) sticks it on.
Despite her background, Kimbra’s doing some really good and innovative stuff. Lady’s a beast.
I am very kindly disposed towards Ms Kimbra, but the kindest thing I can say about the album is that it shows a lot of potential and that album 2 is worth waiting for.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
I wouldn’t call putting Fatboy Slim at the peak of his popularity in a tiny tent ‘well connected’ either. Munterish, really.
To fair, Sacha, putting together a schedule doesn't always mean things fit together the way you'd like. Know it's not a precise analogy, but at the Film Festival last year they could have sold out twice as many screenings of the Herzog and Wenders 3D docos. And I wasn't the only person who had a raised eyebrow over their being scheduled after the festival closing night.
Basically, they had to do that because it was the only window they had for a 3D theatre.
And the year before, left-field Cannes Palm O'Dor winner Uncle Boomee Who Can Recall His Past Lives was conspicuous by its absence. Simply couldn't secure a print until well after the ship had sailed.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
So if I read the article Ian linked, Lees quit BDO because he didn’t like what the nasty people on Facebook said about the shitty sub-par lineup?
Wow.
Well, yeah. Maybe he just couldn't do it any more. Possibly he's a 58 year-old human being who was a bit ground down by day-upon-day nastiness from people he didn't even know.
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Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Far from crazy pavements...
As pointed out above, you can’t remember everything.
ta for the proper chronology Jonathan, I do wish I'd kept a diary back then and what with the planet's collective memory, wikipedia, blacked out last night, well...
...but I do remember being stunned that The Birthday Party were knocking back bottles of whiskey at their afternoon soundcheck!
I am hoping all my old posters are still ok, stuck in my lock up (nestled against the port hills) that I haven't been able to get in to since the February earthquakes...
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Sacha, in reply to
putting together a schedule doesn't always mean things fit together the way you'd like
While I admire your fairmindedness, it was quite deliberate. The organisers put one of the biggest recording artists in any genre at the time - and certainly in their lineup that year - in a tent that could hold 1000 people jammed next to the 'supertop'. In a timeslot that extended beyond the main stage's final performance.
The resulting crowd crush was simply dangerous, to say nothing of unneccessary and disrespectful to both performer and fans. Now if Mr Cook had been playing electric guitars to an old-style 4-4 beat one could be pretty sure he would have graced a bigger stage. Like I say, munters.
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...but I do remember being stunned that The Birthday Party were knocking back bottles of whiskey at their afternoon soundcheck!
That explains a lot about their performance. I caught a glimpse of Johnny Clarke at the BDO Lilypad in 2007. I said to my accomplice: "You've got to at least see this guy". JCC looked embalmed.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
…but I do remember being stunned that The Birthday Party were knocking back bottles of whiskey at their afternoon soundcheck!
They were falling apart – Mick Harvey had already cried off, hence Des Hefner standing in on drums – and Nick Cave told me when I interviewed him that they were only doing the NZ tour because they felt they owed it to Ken and Vivian, who they regarded as friends.
The tour manager had certain, er, habits and the whole roadshow, with hangers-on, seems to have become increasingly chaotic as it got further south. I met a couple of the Marching Girls entourage, still driving their rental car days after the the tour was supposed to be over.
Cave said later he thought New Zealanders were privileged to have seen a group in the process of collapse – comparing to Elvis’s final show, iirc.
I’m not sure if Annabel and the other nice people at Virgin’s NZ office felt quite that privileged.
I am hoping all my old posters are still ok, stuck in my lock up (nestled against the port hills) that I haven’t been able to get in to since the February earthquakes…
Oh lord. Any idea when you might be able to get in and check?
BTW, that Birthday Party tour poster, with all the Posada imagery, was an all-time classic.
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JacksonP, in reply to
In August 1982, Zimblis brought us The Fall
Thank god, or whomever, for people like Jonathan and Ian. Seriously hope your posters are Ok Ian. These would make a great coffee table book. Or submit them to some free online encyclopaedia, provided they still exist.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Cave said later he thought New Zealanders were privileged to have seen a group in the process of collapse – comparing to Elvis’s final show, iirc.
Cheers, Nick. I’d respectfully submit that at the time if I wanted to see belligerent junkies implode I didn't need to pay for it.
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