Hard News: Friday Music: Christchurch, Legacy of Strange
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Didn’t even hurt. Without a pause we continued til we’d pushed them out the door.
I did find on the odd occasion that just asserting authority worked reasonably well with boot boys who were spoiling a party. They could be surprisingly biddable.
This, of course, probably wouldn't have worked so well with yer actual psycho skinhead.
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Hebe, in reply to
yer actual psycho skinhead.
They could be surprisingly chivalrous. Had one in Welly who for an unknown-to-me reason appointed himself my protector (and I was inhabiting a completely different world). Often when trouble arrived this feared bootboy seemed to appear out of the dark, grumbling volcanically and suggesting to the perp that they might like to toddle off and have a cup of tea. Was very grateful for this more than once. Never was a price to pay; in fact he would vanish afterwards.
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One for Ian D.
Finally got the Flying Nun anniversary card set proof framed. Nicely double sided for easy viewing. I’m stoked. :-)
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Joe Wylie, in reply to
I did find on the odd occasion that just asserting authority worked reasonably well with boot boys who were spoiling a party. They could be surprisingly biddable.
That biddability was demonstrated when Mainstreet enforced a policy of boots being required to check in their Docs as a condition of entry. An eyewitness account from back then had massed boots rushing from a Spelling Mistakes set to the foyer, where they fell over one another retrieving and scrambling into their hardware. Once they got out onto Queen Street the reported King Cobras who'd sparked their frenzy were nowhere to be seen.
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Mike O'Connell, in reply to
Ah, the Axemen
They played at the protests for homosexual law reform in 1983, with member Little Stevie McCabe being severely beaten up in theChristchurch Cathedral Square toilets.
Presumably those dingy underground ones. I was vaguely aware of this. Not that much later in history we got the Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986. More on the Axemen at Spacecase records, the Sac Tap Nut Jam LP
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Mike O'Connell, in reply to
Impressive! I have found mine too though they remain in the cassette case. My daughter couldn't work out how to open it!
What's come out on this thread is a bit like trying to find the last prime number; discoveries keep being made and stories come out.It's been thoroughly enjoyable.
Some of this may not be new news but anyway, I’ve found this The Dark Stuff - The Voyage of Discovery of Tom Lax - from Ohio to Christchurch, NZ a great Richard Langston interview with Tom Lax from Siltbreeze Records in Ohio. How he was ‘introduced’ to kiwi music in 1985, being told by a sales rep
‘I’ve got this stuff from New Zealand that nobody else wants, do you wanna give that a shot?’ nd I said ‘what is it?’ and he said ‘I have no idea ‘. He started listing off these names like the Tall Dwarfs, The Puddle, Victor Dimisich. I didn’t know what it was either, none of that stuff had broken into the American lexicon of underground music.
...Ohio, Cleveland, Pere Ubu…
RL: Those Scorched Earth Policy records are dark and quite something…it was a very rich period of music making…
TL: I mean remember going to see Pere Ubu in ‘78 or ‘79 and it was the first time I’d gone to see a band that was under the aegis of punk but they were dressed in flannels, jeans, work boots, beards maybe.SEP - one of my favourties. Often short and snappy songs like Too Far Gone
And this site by local (photographer) Chris Andrews thebigcity, It's active on and off - and includes this: The Pin Group: Article on Ambivalance and The Pin Group: Complete Interview with Roy Montgomery.
Here's Roy, on a typical Pin Group performance:
Typical audience reception to the Pin Group was bemusement as far as I could tell. I remember Bill Direen doing headstands on the dancefloor of the Gladstone to one of our songs but I think he was making some sort of Dada anti-art statement.
This short piece on the PG has been in circulation for a while now but worth watching again - Ronnie van Hout’s mini-film The Pin Group.
No-one’s mentioned Kevin Smith and Say Yes to Apes. I remember a crazy free-form performance in the University Ballroom ca. 1984. No live footage but there's this:
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Russell Brown, in reply to
No-one’s mentioned Kevin Smith and Say Yes to Apes. I remember a crazy free-form performance in the University Ballroom ca. 1984.
I have very fond memories. But strictly speaking, they're a Timaru band.
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Mike O'Connell, in reply to
strictly speaking, they’re a Timaru band
True. Tom Lax at Stillbreeze is a bit of a fan of SYTA.
Jackson's FN 42 card array made me think of local institution Galaxy Records (and their cool comic strip - should be attached.)
BTW the all-black card #30 is still relevant to the local scene - there's a fair amount of Dark Matter still about in this fair city!
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Russell Brown, in reply to
I personally think Siltbreeze et al should fly me to America to talk about the old days when when I had SYTA play in my back yard.
And Matt Goody had a bit of moment when I told him I lived in the house where Beard of Bees was recorded :-)
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Good talk. Thanks Russell! And it brought people out – a room full of faces that told stories. Plenty of strange in that theatre – if someone could get people to cough them up, you’d have a decent sackful of Chch strange stories :)
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Trillion airs...
Another Chchch musician still plying their trade is Jody Lloyd/Trillion
(albeit from overseas now) his new album is being previewed in Chchch this saturday:Special outdoor event in CHCH, NZ
SAT 14th MARCH 6 - 8pm
on the grass: Gloucester //
Manchester St corner.
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Hebe, in reply to
Plenty of strange in that theatre – if someone could get people to cough them up, you’d have a decent sackful of Chch strange stories :)
How would we get those stories? A Tardis with voice-to-text transcription?
It was a very good talk: true to the era.
Till last night I'd never thought the late 70s/early 80s music days in Chch were in any way noteworthy. It was weird and kind of affirming to meet them again at a talk organised by the Christchurch Art Gallery and have Russell talk about people on the other side of the world who rate it highly enough to collect the records and ephemera.
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Rob Stowell, in reply to
How would we get those stories?
Beer maybe :) But yeah, not simple.
It was grand to meet you and Greg and Russell. I felt strangely shy.
Or maybe it’s not strange :) (Always been a bit shy). I’d love to have taken photos, but it wasn’t the right moment.
There were a few old mates, but also a lot of people in the room I’ve known as faces and seen play music or in an audience or round Christchurch but have never bowled up and jumped into a good conversation with.
I regret that. But maybe there was always an odd stand-offishness-cum-shyness that’s a part of the ‘scene that wasn’t’.I’d never thought the late 70s/early 80s music days in Chch were in any way noteworthy.
Me too. I’m still not sure :)
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Plenty of strange in that theatre – if someone could get people to cough them up, you’d have a decent sackful of Chch strange stories :)
How would we get those stories? A Tardis with voice-to-text transcription?
It was a very good talk: true to the era.
Thanks, guys. I'm quite touched by the reception. And it was nice to acknowledge Bruce Russell's vision with Time to Go while he was in the room.
The good news is that it will be going online as text, pictures and video. I need to talk to the gallery about whether it makes more sense for them or me to publish, or even both.
The text needs a little tidying up, as do the photographic permissions, but it'll turn up before too long.
And no offence to my fellow older persons, but was also nice to get an appreciative email from someone who was four years old in 1981.
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Matthew Goody, in reply to
I most certainly did have a moment about TKOP! I hold few records in higher regard than that one.
Two things:
#1. While Tom is originally from Ohio. Siltbreeze and his shop are based in Philadelphia, PA. If he could get some SYTA reissues together the world would be a better place.#2. RE SYTA. As Stu pointed out to me, Kevin Smith makes a guest appearance in the drawing accompanying Russell's interview with the Axemen in RIU which i've always loved.
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Mike O'Connell, in reply to
It's a great little venue that one. Two of those luminaries in the audience on Thursday were recorded at the Auricle in Dec 2013 Roy Montgomery, Bruce Russell and Guests. It was (video) recorded but hasn't had I don't think a public release yet.
Bruce's 'set' downstairs was pretty wild, Roy's 'set' upstairs was stated subdued, a slow-burner which got more hypnotic as it went on - about 25 min if I recall (Sister Ray-ish at the end).
A heavily bearded Jody Lloyd visually is reminiscent these days of a latter day James K Baxter!
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Hello. I haven't been in NZ long but am enjoying finding out about the NZ scene from the 80s (although not managing to hear much as everything is so darn rare). I see mention of Ronald Wade Churton in the comments here. In Bruce Russell's "Nuncast", he mentions that Mr Churton played on the Riptoids' "In The Pocket" EP on Onset/Offset (hope this link works): https://www.soundcloud.com/flyingnunrecords/and-the-maggots-dance-1-2-3
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Hebe, in reply to
It was grand to meet
It was indeed!
But maybe there was always an odd stand-offishness-cum-shyness
Oh yes.
What I reckon Russell did the other night was to persuade us that the story is worth telling by everyone, from the musicians to the audience.
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Mike O'Connell, in reply to
The link works Mark. What a great find! I had to listen to it straight away.
BR (re)introduces to us to a heap of those 'NZ independent minor labels of the 1980s': Sausage, Onset/Offset, F-Star, etc. There really are some obscure gems in there - a fav is The Wasp Factory track. Cue Audioculture:
F-Star Records was a little known label based in Gisborne in the mid-1980s. It was centred around a small handful of local musicians, most of whom rarely played outside of the East Coast of the North Island. In just under three years the label managed to release six records, including Wasp Factory’s brilliant ‘Steel Blue Skies’. But as fast as the label and those behind it sprung up, F-Star was gone, and has been largely forgotten since.
I imagine someone somewhere is (hopefully) compiling stories of those other small and in some case long gone minor labels?
Re: 'When the Moon is Strong', another cracker track, I'm pretty sure Toerag was/is one Stephen Tobeck (who grew up in Burnside, a couple of streets away from me).
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Rob Stowell, in reply to
Toerag was/is one Stephen Tobeck
Reckon :)
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Shameless self promotion
I'm not trying to compete with Russell, but as it happens I'm giving a talk at Canterbury University on the Thursday before Easter on music in Christchurch, based on my book chapter and a couple f other publications. That's Thursday 2nd April at 1pm in the Music Department. Details attached.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Shameless self promotion
Always encouraged :-)
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Chchch music gems unearthed…
an old friend of Oliver Scott (RIP) has been uploading some of Olly’s live recordings including early Detroit Hemroids ' aka the Basket Cases (Paul Kean and Jane Waker pre-Toy Love and the first band I was a roadie-of-sorts for – fun nights at the Gresham and elsewhere), Playthings Live (Paul Kean, Jay Clarkson, Janine Saundercock, Dave Toland) The Dregs (cover of Bill Direen’s Girl at nightcheck it out at: https://soundcloud.com/raznz
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Russell Brown, in reply to
Chchch music gems unearthed
The gems I blogged about last year, you mean? :-)
The nice thing was, those recordings gave me a context to fit Olly into the talk in question. I met Olly back in the day – I didn't know him well, but I recall him being a real character. I think, like Tony Peake, he's one of those outsiders who come in and have a vital influence on a scene.
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