Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: Rip It Up: A history of us, a history of me

Hilary Stace

Sun, 26 May 2019 14:31:17 +1200

That was after my time, and there were some smart young students involved by then., including I think Simon Wilson? Time for a history of the SSSA.

Ian Dalziel

Sun, 26 May 2019 10:32:20 +1200

Secondary School Students’ Association
I remember those halcyon days, I was part of the Christchurch Secondary School Students’ Association (and Resistance Bookshop) – I think there was a national conference in the same year as the first Ngaruawahia Music Festival ('73), as I went to both in one trip.
But…

Hilary Stace

Sat, 25 May 2019 20:15:15 +1200

That Letraset brings back memories of doing layout for our rebellious Secondary School Students' Association newsletter calling for student democracy in high schools, the end of corporal punishment and uniforms, and marches on Parliament. Catherine Delahunty was our feerless teenage leader. My friend's father had a stationery importing business which…

Alfie

Sat, 25 May 2019 11:43:23 +1200

My Letraset days fell victim to technology when I moved to London in the early 80s. With my trusty Amstrad PC1512 (the upmarket one with twin 5.25" floppy discs) I could create a text file with a few embedded codes, save that to a floppy, post the disc to a…

Sacha

Fri, 24 May 2019 16:39:17 +1200

waxers

another nostalgic smell

Sacha

Fri, 24 May 2019 16:38:12 +1200

and the steadiest of hands

Alfie

Fri, 24 May 2019 12:31:38 +1200

What surprises me most is the smallest fonts. Sheet 190 is small but 194 looks like 8pt at best. I must have had eyes like an eagle to use this.

Alfie

Fri, 24 May 2019 12:28:14 +1200

Jeez... I didn't know I had so much of this stuff.

Alfie

Fri, 24 May 2019 12:23:36 +1200

I'm pretty sure my can is red & white, but that will remain a mystery for another day. While I know it's in a white shoe box with some BBC pens and other stuff, I just don't know its exact location. Getting old can be a bastard.

The Agfa box is…

Ian Dalziel

Fri, 24 May 2019 09:13:57 +1200

Stick It Up
Mmmmmm… cow gum.
I think it was mostly 'Bull Gum' in NZ
– here's a pic of my last remaining can- (kept with my waxers and Letraset in the "Just in case' box... where I still have a stack of blue-lined/gridded layout sheets and rolls of 'border…

Alfie

Thu, 23 May 2019 14:53:16 +1200

I'm sure there's half a can stashed away somewhere in the back of my garage. I must be getting close because last week I found a box with dozens of Letraset sheets.

Knocking out headlines, one letter at a time.

And to round off the anachronism, they were stored inside…

Sacha

Thu, 23 May 2019 11:22:04 +1200

moo

Alfie

Thu, 23 May 2019 10:08:10 +1200

But the smell of gum!

Mmmmmm... cow gum.

Sacha

Wed, 22 May 2019 18:41:22 +1200

What a bizarre way to run things!

But the smell of gum!

Russell Brown

Wed, 22 May 2019 17:49:44 +1200

But I know you did the hard yards too, writing all that great copy on a typewriter.

The irony is that the first time we used a computer, it was a disaster, because our "expert" (aka Ngila's friend) somehow managed to delete the whole issue and I had to retype…

Babs Baker

Tue, 21 May 2019 01:44:58 +1200

Hi Russell, yeah, it was Murray and Ian I was mainly thinking of – in this digital age it's so weird to think back to how those poor guys had to manually lay out everything. But I know you did the hard yards too, writing all that great copy on…

Russell Brown

Sun, 19 May 2019 17:22:41 +1200

Great to hear from you Babs!

I remember Murray coming at me after mail runs to rattle the envelopes and see who’d sent cash instead of cheques.

Oh, now you mention it, so do I ...

And I remember how sad I was a few times at Darby St to…

Simon Grigg

Sun, 19 May 2019 16:51:30 +1200

If we are mentioning forthcoming events, Gareth Shute talks about his terrific Mapping Auckland's Historic Venues project on Wednesday at Auckland Library.

Babs Baker

Sun, 19 May 2019 16:07:03 +1200

Usually dependent on how much cash from the Mail Order books came out of the PO Box at the end of the day – Duran Duran fans kept us fed!

I remember Murray coming at me after mail runs to rattle the envelopes and see who’d sent cash instead of…

Ian Dalziel

Sun, 19 May 2019 13:10:22 +1200

Speaking of nostalgia.
and the above is the night after…
Check out that line up!
(if you click through the larger poster is vertical for ease of reading)

Russell Brown

Sat, 18 May 2019 17:34:22 +1200

Usually dependent on how much cash from the Mail Order books came out of the PO Box at the end of the day – Duran Duran fans kept us fed!

Ha ha!

Which brings to mind the amazing letter from A Simon Le Bon Fan:

Angry Durannie

Your magazine is…

Ian Dalziel

Sat, 18 May 2019 16:13:31 +1200

It was usually Wun Loy, up on Hobson St, or the Mekong on Wellesley St, on the other side of the block the RIU building was in. Crucial part of deadline.
Usually dependent on how much cash from the Mail Order books came out of the PO Box at the…

Ian Dalziel

Sat, 18 May 2019 16:08:08 +1200

It’s wild how small things change the course of lives. Would I have got to Rip It Up if I hadn’t gone into the shop one day and had that conversation?
You should option that movie idea
– working title?
'Roy Division'
– of course!

;- )

Sacha

Sat, 18 May 2019 10:42:58 +1200

Murray Cammick and Chris Bourke natter with Kim Hill (53m clip).

linger

Sat, 18 May 2019 02:34:05 +1200

Seems roughly commensurate, actually. NZ newsrooms mostly switched to computer layout during the mid-1980s. (Allan Bell was able to carry out studies of the process of news editing in 1984, based on physical drafts, that by 1988 had become impossible to replicate.)

Kumara Republic

Fri, 17 May 2019 18:46:47 +1200

When did the typewriters switch to computers? Given how expensive computers would have been in those days, the switch would probably have come quite late in the game.

Russell Brown

Fri, 17 May 2019 15:56:10 +1200

Food is essential to any fringe creative endeavour that can’t afford to pay people properly. Nothing’s more bonding than a late night dash to a quality dodgy restaurant. You’ll do anything for people that feed you.

Testify. I put a ton of time into a big British Council event years…

Russell Brown

Fri, 17 May 2019 15:52:24 +1200

In my day it was Shahi Indian on Jervois Rd. Murray didn’t have to say what his order was he’d say “Hello, Murray here … 15 mins? OK, thanks.”

I now feel I need to know what his standing order was.

Ken Double

Fri, 17 May 2019 12:57:55 +1200

God I remember getting a job at The Listener by writing a pompous letter. Embarrassing really. Why do they never tell you to do that at school careers evenings?

The other part there, from a staff point of view, is that Murray felt that food was extremely important on deadline…

Jonathan King

Fri, 17 May 2019 09:21:48 +1200

Murray felt that food was extremely important on deadline and we'd down tools and go eat.

In my day it was Shahi Indian on Jervois Rd. Murray didn't have to say what his order was he'd say "Hello, Murray here ... 15 mins? OK, thanks."

Sacha

Fri, 17 May 2019 07:27:32 +1200

Fortunately their servers were ready.

Russell Brown

Fri, 17 May 2019 07:23:34 +1200

The big story missing from the early years’ oral history is the deadline story. MC would go into a mad frenzy for at least a week a) trying to finish the magazine,

The other part there, from a staff point of view, is that Murray felt that food was extremely…

Janet Dawes

Fri, 17 May 2019 00:43:26 +1200

I love that Murray remembered your formatting and the imprint of your typewriter.

Russell Brown

Thu, 16 May 2019 21:52:43 +1200

This site can’t be reached paperspast.natlib.govt.nz’s server IP address could not be found.

Not just you.

It may be that their servers weren't quite ready for this.

andin

Thu, 16 May 2019 18:08:00 +1200

Trying all the links at different places I get this.

This site can’t be reached paperspast.natlib.govt.nz’s server IP address could not be found.

nzlemming

Thu, 16 May 2019 17:55:05 +1200

Kudos to Cammick and all the elves that made RIU happen. It was such good reading (most of the time) even when I didn't agree with the reviews.

And more kudos to Simon for getting hold of it and letting go again, into the national memory. Well done, that man!

Simon Grigg

Thu, 16 May 2019 15:38:39 +1200

Oral history-wise I could tell

The big story missing from the early years' oral history is the deadline story. MC would go into a mad frenzy for at least a week a) trying to finish the magazine, and b) trying to find the money to get it printed, or sweet-talk…

Simon Grigg

Thu, 16 May 2019 15:20:33 +1200

The smell of the wax comes back to me …

My flat in RossLyn (with Murray) seemed to have the wax everywhere. It travelled with him it seemed.

Jonathan King

Thu, 16 May 2019 14:07:00 +1200

Speaking of waxing, cutting and pasting — not to mention bromides and dark rooms etc — I pasted up my first issue at Rip It Up as designer … and thereafter had the honour of being the one who dragged RIU into the digital age. Murray was skeptical … but…

Russell Brown

Thu, 16 May 2019 13:31:08 +1200

Ah, I’ve just noticed that Murray’s side of the pompous-letter story is in Gareth’s Rip It Up oral history on the Spinoff:

At one point, I received this anonymous letter saying that Rip It Up used to be brave, but had just become an advertising rag for the music industry.…

Peter Darlington

Thu, 16 May 2019 11:14:07 +1200

Jeez, how's a man meant to get any work done if you keep lobbing this sort of stuff at us! :-)

Well done to all!

Simon Armstrong

Thu, 16 May 2019 11:10:12 +1200

I started with earliest issue I could recall – September 79 and had a browse. I was 12 and had already learned to never mind the bollocks that was music industry journalism but the ads are still gold and trigger lots of great memories.

tony j ricketts

Thu, 16 May 2019 11:08:16 +1200

Congratulations. New to NZ in 1980 Rip It Up was crucial to my getting to grips with the scene. And as part of my first job I had to edit/design/lay out a technical college monthly paper, printed by the Rodney & Waitemata Times, so I know about the waxer too, as…

Russell Brown

Thu, 16 May 2019 10:23:34 +1200

What an unexpected pleasure and awesome achievement by all concerned. Back when “cut and paste”, “waxer”, and “lightbox”, all had rather different meanings!

The smell of the wax comes back to me ...

Russell Brown

Thu, 16 May 2019 10:21:36 +1200

Simon has a post on the National Library website with his memories of the time and an explanation of how all this has happened.

Alec Morgan

Thu, 16 May 2019 10:21:34 +1200

What an unexpected pleasure and awesome achievement by all concerned. Back when “cut and paste”, “waxer”, and “lightbox”, all had rather different meanings!

Rip It Up ‘preserved’ confirms all sorts of things if you were lucky enough to have been there at the time.

Russell Brown

Thu, 16 May 2019 09:43:26 +1200

For everyone else's memories, allow me to recommend The Spinoff's excellent new oral history of Rip It Up.

Public Address

Thu, 16 May 2019 09:43:25 +1200

Discussion from blog post.