Posts by Grant McDougall
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If you were to search for a greater social benefit, you might observe that sport (sometimes) sets an example that benefits overall public health, provides opprtunities for young people who may not have any other choices as good and generates substantial economic activity. But you’re soon stretching there, and it really doesn’t matter. People read detective and romance novels, or pay to see comedy films – we don’t trouble ourselves too much with grand justifications for those.
Good call. My main bug bear with some of those that don't like sport is their hypocrisy: they bang on about how open-minded they are about minorities A - Z, or arts 'n' culture A - Z, but are utterly dismissive of sport or treat people that like it as inferior and / or stupid. It's flagrant ignorance and stupidity.
If you don't like sport, hey, no big deal: but don't rush to judge those that do.
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There's a whole heap of young Dunedin bands that deserve to be noticed by the big boys in the US, too. Trick Mammoth, Astro Children, Males, Not From Space, Space Bats Attack, Strange Harvest, Opposite Sex ,etc, etc...
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Hard News: Friday Music: Starting Early, in reply to Russell Brown,
From Audioculture’s Bored Games profile, Jeff Harford’s pic of a very young Shayne Carter, next to the late Wayne Elsey, playing his school dance in 1979. What a wonderful pic.
Jeff Harford was Bored Games' drummer, so was probably playing drums when the pick was taken. I think the pic would've been taken using his camera maybe - probably by one Lesley Z Paris.
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Lorde's going through her Anna Paquin phase: winning a big, important trophy very early on and the NZ media goes all ga-ga over it. But - hopefully - like Paquin she'll now be able to enjoy continued success without the media going ga-ga to the same extent.
Paquin's been all over TV lately in True Blood and is a reasonably big name, but I doubt there'll be a media scrum next time she flies into NZ. If Lorde's still a big name in 10 years time, I doubt there'll be many scrums for her, either.
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On RNZ Nat's 10 o'clock news last night Colin Craig said he'd have "six MPs, maybe double digits".
That's the sort of thing you'd say if you thought man never landed on the moon. Er, hang on... -
Thursday before last when I was waiting to catch the free bus out to Chicks in Port Chalmers for the Astro Children album launch gig, some young guy came up to me and said "It's really good that old guys like you are still coming out to see bands".
I stood with a perplexed look on my face for a few seconds and said "I just think they're a really good band".
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I was 10 when my mum took me to see Mark Williams at the Sandown Hotel, Gisborne, in 1978. It probably cost a couple of bucks per ticket. On Wednesday evening I walked past Knox Church, just around the corner from where I live in Dunedin. Mark Williams now sings for what's left of Dragon and entrance to see them was $75. Nope, wasn't tempted.
Went by myself to see Split Enz on the Time And Tide tour at the Gisborne YMCA in 1982. The Mockers supported, both were really good. Years later I found out that the Mockers really pissed off the Enz because they'd drunk all the rider that night and being a Sunday, no booze shops or pubs were open.
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I was at the release gig for Proteous, the debut album by excellent young Dunedin duo Astro Children last night, at Chick's out at Port Chalmers. The evening was going swimmingly until some young bloke came up to me and said "It's great that old guys like you are still coming out to see bands".
I glared at him and the little ferret scampered off. In his defence, he was a bit drunk and I kinda admire his guts to say what he did.
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Russell, get Paul Rose to tell you his story about when Lou played Auckland in 1984 and his predilection for - of all things - Uncle's hamburgers, it's really funny.
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I saw his two Dunedin shows just over a year ago.
He played for about one-and-a-half hours at taste Merchants, then for well over two hours at above-mentioned Muso's Club gig.
Russell, he opened with 'Swing For The Crime' both times, so you should be in luck.
Richard, so should you, he played 'Everything I've Got...', too.
He then proceeded to play a mixture of Laughing Clowns' classics, including a stonking version of 'Eternally Yours' and a gripping version of 'Collapse Board', plus solo classics like 'Electrical Storm'.Apart from the official solo studio albums, I also highly recommend the Prince Melon Bootleg Series of official live recordings, loads of great stuff, as he often plays longer, different versions of songs live.
The Laughing Clowns' output is best available on the 3CD set Cruel But Fair, great liner notes from Kuepper and drummer Jeffery Wegener, too.
I was lucky enough to see both the original Saints line-up and the Laughing Clowns at ATP Sydney, on Cockatoo Island, in early 2009, both were outstanding.
About half-way through the Saints' set, Chris Bailey began telling the crowd about how "in the mid-seventies, we'd come down to Sydney..." and how it all seemed so modern, etc, "...and it just showed how isolated we were in Brisbane...", etc, - he went on like this for about a minute, you could've heard a pin drop.
He then ended by saying"...and we went back to Brisbane and wrote a song called [dramatic pause]...'I'm Stranded'" - at which point 8,000 people went absolutely ape-shit.
It was one of the greatest pieces of frontsmanship I've ever seen.