Hard News: Every scene needs its stars
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I'd heard that techno-meister Derrick May was a bit up himself too. Then he pulled off one of the most masterful gigs I've ever experienced and I thought "fair enough".
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I'd heard that techno-meister Derrick May was a bit up himself too. Then he pulled off one of the most masterful gigs I've ever experienced and I thought "fair enough".
I've spent a fair amount of time with Derrick and, yep, he can be a handful, but mostly it's a bit of a front. Once you get past that he's kinda ok. Some unbelievable stories. Those first generation Detroit techno wizards are, when one considers that parts of the planet tag them as deities, all pretty cool.
The only DJ I've ever dealt with who was a complete dork was Paul Oakenfold.
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Some unbelievable stories
Your book/doco...
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Simon, never having had to deal with the man, I have no idea what he's like as a person. And with that voice? I don't know that I care too much. (Although thank you for not dissing him. Everyone else around me seems to have great disdain for his music.) He has oodles and oodles of soul, and he put on a show tonight. A really splendid show. The musicians were impeccable, and he just let the audience in. We sang, and sang and sang. And his voice made me cry. It was fantabulous. And sad, saying goodbye.
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Everyone else around me seems to have great disdain for his music
I'm not a fan, but I really appreciate the fairly large cheques he's put in the pockets of people who I am a fan of. His taste is often impeccable.
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3410,
The only DJ I've ever dealt with who was a complete dork
On the Zoo TV tour?
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the first song by a Kiwi band to reach No 1 in their home country for 20 years
Out of interest, how does that chart stuff work nowadays? I remember the system from the UK when I was a kid, when basically it was the record company that could shift the most stock through the chart return stores. And I remember using a web proxy to help get "Killing In The Name Of" to #1 in the UK last Christmas.
But how does it get done in NZ? Single sales? Downloads? Airtime?
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The only DJ I've ever dealt with who was a complete dork
He played for free at Burning Man - I'll give anyone respect for doing that.
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Out of interest, how does that chart stuff work nowadays?
I would be interested to know too. Like other measurements of media (TV ratings; radio ratings; magazine readership etc), I suspect there is more than a pinch of truthiness or wishful thinking to their claims. Apparently music charts now include downloads, but exactly how is not clear.
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From the RIANZ website:
The Top 40 Album Chart is based on retail sales both physical and digital from music retailers throughout the country.
The Top 40 Singles Chart is compiled based on both physical and digital singles sales from music retailers throughout the country.
The chart not only features albums, singles, compilations and DVD, but also a top 10 airplay tracks.
An independent agent Radioscope collects the raw retail sales data on which The New Zealand Music Chart is based. Radioscope compiles the charts using the sales information it has collected.
The singles chart used to have something like a 40% airplay component, but it's now solely sales, with airplay in a separate chart.
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Truthiness, 5 years on.
This Sunday marks the fifth anniversary of the premiere episode of "The Colbert Report," Stephen Colbert's endlessly entertaining sendup of political pundit programs. On that episode, Colbert introduced the word "truthiness," which has proved so popular that it has entered the latest edition of the New Oxford American Dictionary.
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BZ: Why do you say "truth" wasn't dumb enough?SC: I wasn't talking about truth. I wanted a silly word that would feel wrong in your mouth. You know, "truthiness" sounds wrong, because truth should be absolute — even though we all have truths and mine isn't the same as yours. "What is truth?" said Pilate. But even though we all have our own truths, they are absolute. By saying "truthiness," you're implying that what you're saying is only an "ish" of the absolute.
What I liked it about it was, it names that what I'm saying is not accurate. It names that what I'm saying is not really true. But what's really true is not important. The "-iness" overtly states that.
BZ: That "-iness" has now been called the Colbert Suffix. I don't know if you've seen that.
SC: No, I have not. That's wonderful. I've got to tell my English-major wife that.
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On the Zoo TV tour?
Twice. On the Zoo TV tour I had him on my radio show and he simply refused to talk and offered up a copy of his remix of U2's Lemon for me to play. I had, over the years, dozens of DJs on the show and they were, without exception, a joy. DJs love to play records. Paul was the only exception. Maybe it was a mood.
Ironically the night he played the Box he got really drunk and ended up hanging off me telling how much he loved NZ.
The next time he came to NZ, the notorious show where he played only half a record before he passed out in public, the promoter rang and pleaded with me to have him back on. I relented and he came up with a few more records then spent the next half an hour telling me how much he didn't like NZ and that he was only there for the money.
He has something of a reputation for being difficult.
Bizarrely, I saw him DJing in London at a private party around the same time and he said the Zoo TV aftershow party (at The Box) was his favourite gig of the whole tour - he said the same thing to Urb mag.
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Truthiness, 5 years on.
Not that we get to mark the anniversary on New Zealand television or anything. GRAR.
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He played for free at Burning Man - I'll give anyone respect for doing that.
Well it's not like you can charge a cover - for those who don't know Burning Man has a strong non-commercial ethic, there are no concessions - even barter is looked down upon - giving stuff to random strangers is considered OK (my kids always made out like bandits). Selling drugs openly is likely to draw a lynch mob long before law enforcement show up.
There is no organised music - some people provide venues, people show up and play or spin - there are a lot of DJs and oontz partly because bringing cherished instruments to an alkali mud flat is a bad idea. On the other hand for an up and coming band it's a great place to be seen by a large chunk of 50,000 people
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And sad, saying goodbye.
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Remembering Tony Peake in Christchurch...
Michael Daly has organised a night at Al's Bar
....since the sad news of Tony's death many of us here have been talking about getting together in some way to remember him. I think that for many of us it is important that we do that, and before too much more time has passed.
Having spoken today with Al Park we propose
a gathering in remembrance of our friend Tony Peake at Al's Bar in Dundas Street
from 7 pm this coming Tuesday,
November 23rd.
We'll have a sound system there and a way of playing records (and CDs I imagine) so we can air some favourite songs - by all means bring one or two or let me know some suggestions and we'll try to locate them.
There will be a mic for those who may wish to speak.
Shall we have a photo wall? I think that would be good. Bring a photo if you can, or anything visual, a band poster perhaps.
Of course there'll be a bar there! Anyone who cared to could bring some sort of edible something but certainly no-one should feel obliged to.
Really it's just a bunch of us getting together to remember a friend, a celebration of someone who touched our lives in no small way.
Short notice this definitely is, so please tell all that you think should be there and make sure that they do the same.xxxx
Michael Daly
ps any thoughts or suggestions, holler -
Re CeeLo Green, when I first heard the song "Fuck You", well the first few bars anyway, I thought it was a song I may have missed from the 70's. And then the chorus started. I love that song, and I was most amused to see him on Letterman the other day with the lyrics sort of not there.
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