Posts by Paul Rowe
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If I recall correctly, the prize money was weirdly structured. A lot of it had to be spent on marketing, rather than actually recording, which wasn't really what they needed.
Not being an expert on NZ recording facilities of the 1980s that does strike me as odd, although I do recall that we were desperate for some band to carry on where Split Enz had left off in 83-84 in terms of overseas success. That might explain the emphasis on marketing etc. (The Crowdies never struck me as a kiwi band as such, no matter how much I love them). Checked Stunt Clown last night, still sounds great. As does Gaskrankinstation...
NZ would never produce a band like Cold Chisel
I'd let off th'Dudes & Dragon (Chisel could never have written anything as [something] as Be Mine Tonite!) The same cannot be said of bands today though. After 6 years away I was amazed at how much NZ music was in the mainstream, but it had ditched any of the uniqueness of old which was ultimately holding the likes of the Chills, SJF, Verlaines, JPSE back. (__Back in my day__, etc)
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The Rheineck Rock Awards gave us Stunt Clown. Enough said.
The Chooks would have made it anyway, but with less money I guess...I must dig out my copy and see how it sounds these days (bearing in mind I only own a portable record player with a speaker the size of an old 50c piece. Great for the old Chills 7"s(how do you pluralise 7"?))
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you and the rough diamond behind the microphone will both have New Zealand accents
And that is why I love the Chills. I was listening to Submarine Bells in my Palmy flat in 1990 and my flatmate said "but he can't sing"...I thought about that for a minute and realised what bullshit that was, Martin was singing in his kiwi accent!
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Back in 1990, just after SJF released Melt, Radio Massey played a three hour show dedicated to the band and its antecedents. The ones that really hit home that night (and on subsequent listenings, oh the joy of taping stuff off the radio) were I Don't Get It (that bass line!), I Don't Wanna See You Again (I have never managed to decipher the lyric) and Randolf's Going Home (what a drummer Jeffries is).
Anyway, a year or so later, after I'd lost the tape, I was looking around for the Getting Older comp cos I knew it had Randolf on it, but I came across this weird other CD called Xpressway Pile=Up. To paraphrase the Simpsons, I recognised some of the names on the back, but they just didn't make any sense. I ended up buying the Xpressway CD and it was a revelation. Big Fat Elvis, I Don't Wanna See You Again, but also Death & Weirdness in the Surfing Zone, On An Unknown Beach, The Mekong Delta Blues. That CD literally changed my life, and it was down to Elsey & Carter on that Radio show. A few years later I found the Xpressway ep How Much Time Left, Please and that is back on my portable record player scaring the kids and the neighbours.
I was saddened to read about Wayne's death in Roy Colbert's liner notes (and in Stranded in Paradise) and it's hardly a comfort to his friends & family that he left such great music behind for the rest of us. The page at the back of that Real Groove with brief obits for Wayne, David D'ath, Johnny Pierce etc is particularly moving. How young they all were.
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Sometime in late 1993, around the time 'The Venus Trail' was released, the 3D's played the Gluepot.
Hi Jonathan, i was at that gig, man you bring back memories. Was that the same night that a heckler climbed on stage and gave David Merritt a blast before being told to fuck off in no uncertain terms? I would have seen the 3Ds about three times at the Gluey just after I moved to Auckland. Happy days...
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What's changed over the last twenty five years, apart from the view out of his office window and access to a few more corporate boxes?
Craig, you've not changed your opinion on anything in 25 years?
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Well, it is a bit of a stretch, but my best week as a single person came in the mid-90s when a friend & I drove down to New Plymouth to see Peter Jeffries, Alistair Galbraith & Sandra Bell. Peter's brother & mother were there but I most remember an empty niteclub reverberating to Peter's piano. The next day we drove to Palmerston North to see them there. The highlight was standing at the bar talking to Alistair and him mentioning how he'd heard that some guys had seen them last night and followed them down, he's was trying to track them down...
That gig in Palmy was fantastic (even better than the Chills at Madison's niteclub, 1992), the audience sitting on cushions, so it was the most hippie gig I ever went to (the only other one similar is Funny Business at Massey Uni Caf in 1989) but it was so rocking. Peter & Alistair played some Palgal Grind at the end after I had suggested the idea to Alistair. I saw Peter Jeffries about half a dozen times in the mid nineties and he was always superb, but Alistair Galbraith was a revelation all three nights.
Just in case this isn't FN enough to be in contention, I was at Squid the night that Straitjacket Fits blew the PA ("do you want us to carry on? We'll be way out of tune" Fuck yeah). and they have to be the hardest rocking band I ever saw...
A strange one, back in the mid 1980s (1985?) Hawkes Bay was a dreary rock backwater (AFAIK, the only musical prodigies from HB are Phil Judd, Michael Morley & HDU, named by my brother) but they held an all day rock festival, headlined by Hello Sailor & Peking Man. ABout halfway through the day, to little fanfare, were two bands whose energy was dissipated in the sunlight - The Verlaines & Sneaky Feelings. I'd like to say they fired an interest in me to seek out this strange "Dunedin Sound" but instead I sat in the sun & waited for Hello Sailor. Quelle shame...
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Disregard question about box set. Found it.
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It need to be said that at a time when Warners are releasing a mighty Flying Nun (tm) box set
Is there any word on said box set in the interweb? Anybody?
Oh, and I have to point out to anybody who is interested that Paul at Fundypost has linked to the Dead C's only tv appearance. Brought a tear to the eye....
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That was the sort of smug, self-serving interview that would tend to confirm unfavourable perceptions of Bassett. I'm guessing his Dom Post editors are not too pleased with him.
He was dreadful this morning, so wrapped up in his own importance (and talk about a name-dropper). Does anyone know whether claiming Hager forged documents constitutes libel? I would have thought comparing Hager to David Irving was sailing a bit close to the wind on that too. Perhaps Lange was right when he suggetsed his father had dropped Bassett on his head when he was born?