Hard News: Listen to the Music
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Teenagers and young women of today kiss each other at parties. I don't get it.
A couple of years ago a friend of mine, in her early 30s, was at a work do. After a while much drink had been drunk and the 19-year-old student part-timer declared that everyone should start smooching. My friend was horrified and wandered off to drink more; the guys at the party weren't. Sadly, no one wanted to kiss the one bisexual woman there.
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Is this a good place to say how freaking amazing it was to go to a Paul Weller (Sydney) gig last night... I'd've kissed him
Lucky bastard! His new album is actually quite good (and it's a pleasure for an old Jam / TSC fiend to say that as he's got boringly rockist in recent years).
he bought me a drink once, years back...he said he liked the music I was playing. The irony was I wasn't Djing, it was my mate, I was just in the booth hanging out. I took the drink though..you do when Paul Weller buys it for you (he also bought the DJ one).
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Lucky bastard! His new album is actually quite good (and it's a pleasure for an old Jam / TSC fiend to say that as he's got boringly rockist in recent years).
He did three or four tracks from the new album, but the highlights for me where tracks from Stanley Road (oh, and 'That's Entertainment' of course). Great audience too; hard-core Jam fans seem to have aged well. I'm in my late 30s and would have been amongst the youngest of the audience.
Incidentally, for no particularly reason, I dug out my copy of Dix's Stranded in Paradise recently ... you feature in a fair bit of the '70s and '80s don't you...
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Incidentally, for no particularly reason, I dug out my copy of Dix's Stranded in Paradise recently ... you feature in a fair bit of the '70s and '80s don't you...
Christ! Does that mean we should look out for the slightly ironic Simon Grigg revival?
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you feature in a fair bit of the '70s and '80s don't you...
... by which I meant photographically
Christ! Does that mean we should look out for the slightly ironic Simon Grigg revival?
Perhaps someone in the PAS universe could do Stranded in Paradise: Redux?
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I have permission from Mr B to go off topic to tell folks about the Read While Waiting project which happens tomorrow , Saturday, 23rd August, 2008
see www.peopleppoints.co.nz for the embed video that goes with the detail, or just read on:###
Okay - this is my final Friday afternoon attempt to drum up interest in the Read While Waiting project which is happening at 3pm tomorrow , Saturday, 23rd August, 2008Basically its easy - at 3pm tomorrow , wherever you are in the world, or closer to home, New Zealand, you stop what you are doing - head to a public space, either alone or with friends and start reading for 15 minutes.
The idea being to celebrate and participate in the world wide happening, Read While Waiting project, being organised globally by the lovely people at Random Alphabets in Malaysia
The detail - Auckland - Wellington - Christchurch
You can do this anywhere - either alone or with friends. However, if you live in Auckland , Christchurch or Wellington and want to make it more of a group happening thing - then head to either Aotea Square - Cathedral Square or Civic Square -- i.e outside the City Gallery.
FaceBook
The guys from Random alphabets have also set up FaceBook pages for each location, here . As well as KL,Sydney, Melbourne, Perth etc, there are pages for Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch
http://www.new.facebook.com/event.php?eid=20394646490Random Alphabets
There are also a whole bunch of new videos and other news at the Random Alphabets site. check them out afterwards for photos etc. Even better take a camera and take some photos/videos of your own.
http://www.randomalphabets.com
There you go - spread the love!! I will be at the Aotea Square one. Hope people join in. -
Christ! Does that mean we should look out for the slightly ironic Simon Grigg revival?
After a good night's sleep I feel fully revived already today.
Like many who feature in Mr Dix's book, as fine as it might be, I'd love to see a tweaking in the accuracy of much of what is in. He's good on the bigger picture but weak on details (as I recall my interviews were done in the public bar at the Gluepot).
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Like many who feature in Mr Dix's book, as fine as it might be, I'd love to see a tweaking in the accuracy of much of what is in. He's good on the bigger picture but weak on details (as I recall my interviews were done in the public bar at the Gluepot).
Which I can understand... but, I ended up spending several hours with it reading and remembering the bands I was often too young to go see including the Meemees... I was one of the many thousands of people who couldn't buy a copy of See Me Go
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by which I meant photographically
Those two words: Dix and photographs are best not put in the same sentence, for a few of us. Even after all these years, it's a very sore point.
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You're really going to have to elaborate now Simon...
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Teenagers and young women of today kiss each other at parties. I don't get it.
Neither do I. It's just not fair eh. ;-)
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You're really going to have to elaborate now Simon...
None of the photos supplied to John were ever returned. For me it was things like the first Suburban Reptiles photoshoot, early Meeemees live shots etc etc..a huge number.
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None of the photos supplied to John were ever returned. For me it was things like the first Suburban Reptiles photoshoot, early Meeemees live shots etc etc..a huge number.
Ahhh, yes, well I'd be thoroughly pissed off about that, it'd be like losing favourite photos of family.
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Ahhh, yes, well I'd be thoroughly pissed off about that, it'd be like losing favourite photos of family.
Coupled with the fact that some have a vague historic value now, and they were then re-used in the 2006 reissue without a word of request from anyone....yes I'm pissed off still.
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Ooh, I had never heard any of the LED's stuff. I love that song, Russell. And I agree with Tom - the lead singer sounds very like Neil Tennant. That's a good thing, in my book. 80's whore that I am, Pet Shop Boys are one of my favourite bands. And thankyou Thom for that Fleet Foxes vid. What an enchanting sound.
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Coupled with the fact that some have a vague historic value now
Still with you and increasingly ambivalent about my book...
, and they were then re-used in the 2006 reissue without a word of request from anyone....yes I'm pissed off still.
Still... and also just a little curious about the '06 reissue.
But seriously, it is interesting to know how you, and I'm assuming your experience wasn't unique, feel about the publication 'cause it occupies/d a central place in my kiwi-cultural store; it, a beautiful piece of Maori art (I wish I could think of a better descriptor that this however) and a battered first edition copy of Keith Sinclair's encyclopedia of NZ plus a couple of other things... Dix sounds like his rush to publish burned the people he wanted to celebrate. Sad that.
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and increasingly ambivalent about my book...
No, don't be. John may have his flaws as he is the first to admit but I still like the man a lot (and when I was a club co-owner the sight of he and Bruno Lawrence staggering through our doors always bought a smile) but at least he did it.
It's a wonderful book in so many ways and, despite a few rather good regional histories (and a great hip hop one from Gareth Shute), no-one has come within a mile of it as a wide ranging, funny, smart and essential history of NZ popular music. The more recent rather lightweight attempts don't even sit in it's shadow IMO...although I'm hugely anticipating Chris Bourke's forthcoming pre-rock history.
But mostly SIP deserves it's reputation even if there are some grey edges.
Apparently the pictures got stolen from a car, but I was only told that at a funeral a couple of years back when I pressured John for the 20th time..so who knows but somehow they arrived in a new edition of the book??
'cause it occupies/d a central place in my kiwi-cultural store;
you do those things when you're not there..I have a few little items around to remind me, including a few bits of vinyl that I have no way of playing right now.
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Katy Perry's mom isn't going to like this one bit ...
To raise money for a breast cancer charity, she's had a cast taken of her torso (on YouTube!), which will be painted by her boyfriend then auctioned to some lucky fan.
Seems that everyone's doing it, even the boys.
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I did an interview with Blair Parkes from the band for tomorrow's Public Address Radio
Ok, excuse my ignorance, but what station and frequency is this being broadcast on and at what time, please ? Also, is / will there be a podcast of it ?
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dixies book is "a" view of music in nz and deals specifically with the 60s-early eighties.
the problem with nz is that we really are a small country and if one were to pick a definitive book that captured the detail and vibe of a music scene or any other scene in nz well you've not exactly got many to choose from so you end up with a few flawed personal slants rather than a wide choice from which to pick the best.
the post punk genre is particularly weirdly served with a couple of prolific independent scribes busily re writing history in the way they want to see it, gleefully omitting detail they don't favor and focusing on the minute and unimportant making, and the sad thing is that may well be the history we are let with because it is all that is written.
Wade Churton and Andrew Schmidt are 2 such guilty scribes. The Gladstone was never as boring as these guys wrote it, or maybe there is a parallel universe version which they inhabited.New Zealand is still a small enough country where you can easily re write history by simply being the one or 2 people to actually 'document' it in your own image. Its not like the competition is tough or anything.
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New Zealand is still a small enough country where you can easily re write history by simply being the one or 2 people to actually 'document' it in your own image. Its not like the competition is tough or anything.
Agreed, mostly, Rob. To my mind the history of the those punk and post punk days remains to be written. I've not read Wade Churton's book but those who have, and who were, in Auckland anyway, a part of the era, don't regard it highly.
Andrew's work is different. I think he's made an amazing attempt to document the times and is very good with the detail (places, times etc) but, despite making a real attempt to fill in the bits in between, misses the shading in between those details a little..partially because he is too reliant on "the one or 2 people" sometimes and their POV can be, as we all can be, personally skewered. For example there are lengthy pieces in his fanzine which rely heavily on information provided by people who, amusingly, many of us know, would have little chance of remembering much, day or night, from the era.
the post punk genre is particularly weirdly served with a couple of prolific independent scribes busily re writing history in the way they want to see it, gleefully omitting detail they don't favor and focusing on the minute and unimportant making
I do think Andrew does his work a disservice by succumbing to these tendencies and thus the shading I mentioned above is askew or less than definitive. But as said, his detail is amazing at times.
Incidently, though, Andrew recently re-ran an old piece from Metro from the early 1990s which I'd forgotten. It captured the club scene and the era extraordinarily well and bought on a tear of nostalgia for me.
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Did anyone (especially Jackie Clark) see the Jackie Clarke vs Jaquie Clark punch-up on The Jaquie Clark Diaries last night?
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Duh!! That is a real demonstration on just how complex life has become...The Jaquie Brown Diaries, of course!
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You modernist music buffs might find a letter to ed. in NZ Listener, 30/8 to 5/9 amusing.
Roy Montgomery describes his efforts to persuade Sam Hunt NOT to buy a Bob Dylan LP.
"I really can't sell it to you -- why not buy the new John Cale or another copy of Blonde on Blonde; you must have worn out a few copies by now."
You'll probably like the punch line, too.
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But as said, his detail is amazing at times.
almost spooky, which makes things like his pop mechanix article disappointing where he attempts to end the story on a high note in australia when in fact there were a good 4 extra years of interesting events in the bands history.
in his apparent effort to fill in the detail and make bands more than one note entries in history he's cherry picked his details in order to write a more interesting yet less factual version of history. a bit of a contradiction in itself, and disappointing because of it.Churton's writing is valid for his personal perspective as much as anyone else's but hi 20 page essay in mysterex on the gladstone was practically unreadable and bore little resemblance to the actual happening at the venue. loser nights with 10 people were painted as the happening events, and the actual big nights were forgotten. I guess everyone has a personal perspective on history.
tony mitchell wrote a paper called flat city sounds which was submitted as a university thesis giving it even more cred than it deserves. having lived through a number of these periods its sometimes hard to recognise the picture painted an the actual events. I'd be great to have 15 versions of history writing to choose from and then we could say this one is rubbish and that one really captures the time, but as I said we've got a couple, and its great that we have what we have cos otherwise it would be silence, but most of this is amateur work, as relevant as blogs are to serious journalism.
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