Posts by Russell Brown
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Hard News: Fluency, ease of manner - and…, in reply to
*sigh* First, perhaps if John Campbell or anyone on the production side of Campbell Live they might like to respond to that directly. But, FFS… I know Crosby Textor is the fashionable bogeyman of the left but it’s more than a little naive to pretend ‘perception management’ isn’t indulged in by the left.
I'm not aware of any evidence that Crosby Textor are assisting in NZ. They're pretty busy in the UK and Australia at the moment anyway -- with strategy rather than mere media training. And yes, everyone does this, some more competently than others.
Edwards and Plunket's insistence that Key was merely patiently answering questions for the benefit of the public is a bit rich, though. The "I'll get back to that" technique in interviews is also practised very successfully by Steven Joyce. It lets the subject rattle out a bunch of assertions of which the interviewer will end up being able to query at most one or two. In a good-faith interview, the subject would pause to answer a question as it's asked. But Campbell was trying to trap Key too. It becomes an arms race.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Bright pastel…, in reply to
I appreciated it as much as any of the excellent Clean gigs I have seen
I feel terrible, but I was hunting for the ‘like’ link on that.
It is such a nice story.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Bright pastel…, in reply to
Awesome to see Martyn Bull (RIP) on drums for “Oncoming Day”
Indeed. I gather Chills drummers ever since have been challenged in following his drum part in that song.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Bright pastel…, in reply to
I like the sign in the background
- a world where there is a PYMCA…
that’d be the by Village Provos, right?Ha! It’s actually a watermark put there by the gallery that posted the image to plug an exhibition by a photographer called Dave Swindells.
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Day given over to reminiscence now. I think ‘Oncoming Day’ is my favourite Chills song.
And the nerd words:
This is the first of five separate attempts to record the song “Oncoming Day”, the fifth and final version being released on the Submarine Bells album in 1990. This particular version was recorded and filmed at South Dunedin’s Mayfair Theater circa October 1982 by cameraman Peter Janes. At the same time, they also recorded and filmed a version of the song “Dolphins” (an alternate live recording of which finally appeared on Disk One of the Secret Box compilation in 2000), however the said film has never been screened and still resides in the T.V.N.Z. vaults. The second version of Oncoming Day was recorded in March 1985, this particular version was scrapped and is available on Disk Two of Secret Box. The third version was recorded during the “I Love My Leather Jacket” sessions at Point Studios, London in December 1985 (with a different drummer other that Alan Haig to tackle the difficult drum beat), and the fourth was recorded during the June – July 1987 “Brave Words” album sessions, again recorded at Point Studios in London. Like the December 1985 version, this version was scrapped too.
The Chills line up at this point in time was Martin Phillipps (guitars / vocals), Terry Moore (bass / vocals), Rachel Phillipps (keyboards) and Martyn Bull (drums).
And a later version of the band plays the same song at the Windsor Castle in 1985. The sound on the recording’s pretty poor, but you have to love the crowd. It shows how electric The Chills could be:
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Hard News: Fluency, ease of manner - and…, in reply to
Key says, “Trust me”. Sorry, JK, it’s not about you. Some future PM may be untrustworthy and constraints on the GCSB’s domestic spying need not, and should not simply rely on having a nice guy in the PM’s seat.
Quite.
"Guys! C'mon ... it's me!" is not a substitute for the actual text in an actual bill. It's absolutely absurd.
Here's the link to the follow-up story.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Bright pastel…, in reply to
I was working in an indie record shop at the time of release and had a Vehicle t-shirt, which I’m assuming was a Rough Trade promotional item rather than official merch. It featured the album artwork on a white t-shirt and was much loved for many years but has long since gone the way of all such things. Would be great to get a new one.
They were great shirts. The print was really good. I wore mine until it fell to bits.
I have a wonderful memory of being bailed up in the corridor of the film studios in Wroclaw, Poland, where I was doing a story (another tale altogether) by a guy who couldn't speak English but was plainly highly excited about the shirt. I've never been sure whether he was a Clean fan or just liked the design, but he was very pleased to see it.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Bright pastel…, in reply to



