Up Front: Absence in the Arcades
90 Responses
First ←Older Page 1 2 3 4 Newer→ Last
-
Ian Dalziel, in reply to
The persistence of memory...
And the Gladstone of course; did you ever see
Toy Love there? And Tony Peake’s rowdy lot?Oh yeah, before I joined them as a roadie, Toy Love would stay with us when playing Chchch, I remember one Gladstone gig where we helped decorate the stage with dummies and old advertising paraphernalia that my flat mate Lindsay and I, had rescued from Watties where we worked - fun times.
I also recall a memorable Toy Love gig in the Town Hall, I was working at a toilet paper firm that also made streamers and I got a whole lot that Chris and co threw into the audience - within minutes the place looked like an Ocean Liner leaving port...
I was away from Chchch for the reign of The Newtones, - I mostly recall the wonderful Tony Peake with The Vandals in the Mollet Street days and at my usual haunt The Gresham, where later I used to do the door or lights for The Basket Cases/Detroit Hemorrhoids... which led on, circuitously to, well, life to date really... -
Hebe, in reply to
You were one one the cool people that I was overawed by. Hung out, danced, substanced, but didn't talk to anyone until a year or two later. I met Tony in mid 1978 at the University record shop: he was out-there punk to me and I was a nice middle-class girl who had never recovered from seeing Dylan Taite's visit to the Sex Pistols on TV the year before and looking for a set of rails to go off. Then I went to university, found the record shop and life got interesting. So when I met a man with green hair sitting on the steps of the War Memorial (is it still standing?) in the Square, what was there to be done but marry him? Tony was one of those who helped shape my life.
-
Just because I have to share this with someone--just playing the new Tom Waits release "Bad As Me" and it is so FRICKIN' GOOD!! (apologies for raising my voice)
-
Dave Patrick, in reply to
Thanks, Ian, for such fullsome information. Are the Kaiapoi and Rangiora cinemas still open?
Kaiapoi is still closed, with the building due to be demolished early next year and no word yet of a new venue. The Rangiora Town Hall was closed for about 6 months after February's quake when the lath and plaster ceiling basically collapsed, but the hall itself and the movie theatre have been open again for a few months now.
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
I think it is coming down as well, they have already removed the building’s distinctive corner dome tower…
The dome is sitting incongruously on legs in Cathedral Square. I hope this means they want to rescue it.
-
I took some photos of the dome, as it happens.
-
And again. There's a bedroom inside. You can see coat hangers.
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
Yes, yes. And the Gladstone of course; did you ever see
Toy Love there? And Tony Peake’s rowdy lot?The Newtones. I have really find memories of The Gladstone, and of Tony.
One of the best things about the earthquakes is that it’s permissible to do this nostalgia stuff sometimes without being a silly old sod.
You go for it.
It's also quite awesome that you've asked Ian if he was at a Toy Love gig ;-)
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
Tony was one of those who helped shape my life.
And of course you know you were far from alone in that.
-
Hebe, in reply to
It's also quite awesome that you've asked Ian if he was at a Toy Love gig ;-)
Made another foot in mouth have I? I never knew who anyone was because I was too shy to ask. Nodded and tried to look like I wasn't 17.
re Peake: Never even thought about him in THAT way until I met him again in early 1990s Sydney with my best friend in the world who is gay. Like your linkee Roy says cool but no snob -- I knew him as someone with a sweet nature.
-
Russell Brown, in reply to
Made another foot in mouth have I? I never knew who anyone was because I was too shy to ask. Nodded and tried to look like I wasn’t 17
We were fortunate to see a great band. Did you realise Toy Love were only together for about 18 months?
-
Hebe, in reply to
We were fortunate to see a great band. Did you realise Toy Love were only together for about 18 months?
Only18 months? Seemed like they played every other week in my memory; maybe that's because they were the most vivid nights. I know I went to nearly all of their gigs in Christchurch and when I went to Welly in 1981 converted my friends there to the true religion. (Though some of them just couldn't get past Beat Rhythm Fashion.) From following the links, I figure I must have seen Tony Peake playing in his Vandals days. I seem to remeber the Cure playing in 1979 at the Town Hall in Christchurch: did it really happen?
Roy Montgomery (in one of the TP links) and I had a mutual friend who died after one of the University band nights; he fell and hit his head on the floor, so I think of those days as a loss of innocence time, exciting but interwoven with sadness.
-
Ian Dalziel, in reply to
Shoes this high…
Made another foot in mouth have I?
only 18 months?Not at all, I was only with them for approximately ten or so, of those months and in a support position, it isn’t that common knowledge, but some here would know that, as we traversed and crossed similar paths, ie I worked with Russell at Rip It Up, I met Joe through Toy Love and the joy of comics, others through the early days of helping out with Flying Nun (while at NBR in Wgton) and later doing the door at the Windsor and so on, NZ is very small at times…
I'm glad you had the chance to enjoy them...
Here’s a wee idea of what those early days were like:
of course Toy Love only had 3 crew (and helpful partners, friends and Record co people like Terry Hogan) and there were none of those moustaches or perms…
I also posted this video in a comment to The Press today to correct another glaring error in the On The Beat column (I’ll try not to get hoist by my own petard again this time like I did with that Herald jibe) where in a piece on Lisa Crawley they say :Who should ironically be doing the sound when she kicks off her release tour in Auckland on November 17 but none other than former The Dudes guitarist Ricky Morris.
I mean that’s a hat trick of mistakes right there!
1: It’s Th’ Dudes
2: It’s Rikki Morris
and
3: He was Th’ Dudes soundman
his brother, Ian (RIP), was the guitarist
- along with some geezer named Dave Dobbyn :- )
sheesh some respect is called for in the journal of record
and checking ain’t that hard…they haven’t run the comment, or corrected the story, I notice
or am I just getting old and curmudgeonly?
-
3410,
(I’ll try not to get hoist by my own petard again this time like I did with that Herald jibe)
You were merely another innocent victim of Muphry's Law.
-
Simon Grigg, in reply to
And of course you know you were far from alone in that.
Just looked at that and my page linked to there and realised it's been a year. In those twelve months I've had about 35 emails from all over the planet responding to that piece, arriving steadily (the most recent was a week back).
He's much missed and it's incredible to hear from people in places like Germany and Chicago who still regard Tony as part of the reason they are who they are.
Seemed like they played every other week in my memory; maybe that's because they were the most vivid nights.
You'll perhaps enjoy the first two videos linked here then.
-
Sacha, in reply to
Muphry's Law
excellent
-
Lilith __, in reply to
Muphry's Law
excellent
I just posted about this on Facebook, only I misspelled it, and then I pointed out my misspelling and in doing so misspelled misspelling.
-
Tamsin6, in reply to
Oh my god The Puzzled Dragon! I had forgotten that place. Thank you for that little reminder - brought back a few lovely days - sights, smells, the feeling of being 19 in Christchurch for a few little seconds there...
-
Kumara Republic, in reply to
Oh my god The Puzzled Dragon! I had forgotten that place. Thank you for that little reminder – brought back a few lovely days – sights, smells, the feeling of being 19 in Christchurch for a few little seconds there…
Ah yes, they later transmogrified into Mind Games. They also had a Wellington branch as well some years back.
-
What happened to La Boheme, the little restaurant down Bedford Row? Used to wash dishes there in my university days, and hang out with the chef Leon in greasy spoons in Manchester Street in the early hours. He let me drive his MG a few times. La Boheme was owned by same Hungarian who had a coffee bar down Chancery Lane, which featured raw sugar in boxes on the table. Seemed tre sophisticated in those days.
-
Puzzled Dragon...
ahh! Tantrix, that reminds me of the old Chinese Tangram - hours of fun and pattern recognition...
-
Ian Dalziel, in reply to
What happened to La Boheme, the little restaurant down Bedford Row?
Well prior to the Earthquake the upstairs front and downstairs was The Greens office, and then they moved to Durham street and then there was a funky co-operative boutique downstairs with an artspace & design company upstairs, The restaurant space out the back was Sammy's Jazz Review - but I suspect it may all have been pulled down - this map (from June) shows buildings around it slated for demolition and I know buildings behind it in Lichfield street have gone...
-
JacksonP, in reply to
I just posted about this on Facebook, only I misspelled it, and then I pointed out my misspelling and in doing so misspelled misspelling.
So was it an added consonant or just the straight 'ti' inversion?
<coat>
-
Lilith __, in reply to
Hah!! I'll invert *you*, Mr JacksonP!
[yeah, that's all I got]
-
Sacha, in reply to
..the P'Jacksons of Nantucket
Post your response…
This topic is closed.