Posts by stephen walker

Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First

  • Flying Nun Moments,

    one of the best FN gigs was my first...

    7th form. April 1984, and a strange-looking new guy who had just shifted up from CHC was in my economics class. i thought i knew quite a bit about post-punk music, but his perspective was quite different and he swore by all these South Island bands i'd only just started to hear on Radio b (sorry kids, bfm was still several months away from being born).

    so he said, "are you up for the gig on the weekend?" i said "sure". so off we went to Mainstreet for an all-day, all ages gig (it might have been Easter Monday, can't remember). i'd been going to all-age gigs at Mainstreet since 1980, but this was frigging unbelievable. The Doublehappies were on a new level of raw power.

    And this incarnation of the Chills was one of the coolest, the "Lost ep" line-up before Martin Kean left. When they played "Hidden Bay" he and MP swapped guitar and bass. It was blistering. I was totally converted to the Dunedin sound that day.

    Other memorable moments:
    - orientation 1985 AU caf: Chills, Verlaines, et al. a standout gig i'll never forget.
    - many, many Loony Tours gigs at the Windsor Castle in 1985 especially. LBGP, Sneaky Feelings, Tall Dwarfs, Verlaines, Bats....thanks Uncle Doug!
    - favourite FN album: Send You (Sneaky Feelings)
    - many, many Headless Chickens gigs over about ten years c85-95
    - getting caught trying to bring my walkman professional into a FN gig at the Power Station in 1987. Bouncers said to come with them, oh shit! Taken back stage to promise to send a copy of the tape to the bands and not to sell it as a bootleg, "oh, and while you're here lads, have a toke". heh.

    nagano • Since Nov 2006 • 646 posts Report

  • Hard News: Something up with Apple?,

    Warner NZ and Universal NZ don't even have web sites...

    LOL!
    (so the short anwer is, i won't hold my breath)

    nagano • Since Nov 2006 • 646 posts Report

  • Hard News: Something up with Apple?,

    ah, maybe a dumb question but...
    if all this nz stuff gets put into the local iTMS, won't it then be really easy to offer it globally through iTMS?
    or do the aggregators have to negotiate a separate agreement for every regional iTMS?

    what i'm getting at is, won't the people using iTMS in the UK or wherever eventually get access to the nz music catalogue made available to iTMS customers in nz?

    nagano • Since Nov 2006 • 646 posts Report

  • Island Life: How to smoke an MP,

    i couldn't stop laughing when i read this pythonesque sKetch this morning. not least becuase a certain roll-yer-own MP i can think of was head prefect of my year at a certain well-known school. seemed like a nice guy. only spoke to him a couple of times in the five years we were "inside". but i was amazed at the time that he knew the name and face of every 7th former. all 200.

    personally, i've seen U2 only once, in the 7th form, but couldn't possibly comment on who smoked whom... or what.

    nagano • Since Nov 2006 • 646 posts Report

  • Hard News: Citizen Key II: The High…,

    Williamson ranks up there with Max Bradford for successful sector reform.

    nagano • Since Nov 2006 • 646 posts Report

  • Southerly: The End of Lake Ellesmere?,

    nice little essay, David. i haven't read the linked material yet, but after seeing the comment of your acquaintance about turning the lake bed into dairy farms, i have to ask, do these people really think dairying is sustainable in Canterbury? surely, in 20 years time, all of the aquifers will be buggered and it will be all over. no lake, no cows, no water and no human ecosystem.

    talk about discounting the future...

    nagano • Since Nov 2006 • 646 posts Report

  • Speaker: The Hollow Men: Initial Impressions,

    no, no. it only seems bizarre if you don't know that Bassett has a Special Free Pass issued by The New Zealand Media Inc., which allows him to Make Shit Up Whenever He Feels Like It.

    Tse Ming might be able to point out another one of those lucky pass-holders, if you ask her nicely ;-)

    nagano • Since Nov 2006 • 646 posts Report

  • Speaker: The Hollow Men: Initial Impressions,

    how does Bassett continue to score these media gigs after being so utterly discredited? surely a reflection of the clubby nature of media in nz and the fact that no matter how much you manage to rub your name in the mud accountability is nonexistent. carry on camping, eh?

    nagano • Since Nov 2006 • 646 posts Report

  • Island Life: I have aspirations going,

    "... Mr Key defended the right of the United States and its allies to have invaded the country."

    on the grounds that the US has the right to trash any coutry it feels like?

    is this an example of the core National values Key says he stands for?

    nagano • Since Nov 2006 • 646 posts Report

  • Island Life: I have aspirations going,

    That's false... your opening remarks were not principally a general lament. Rather you tried specifically to do a sort of silly, pretend-whimsical undermining of Key's seriousness

    eh? if you want to criticise David's tongue-in-cheek parsing of Key's oratorical style, be our guest. but the above criticism doesn't really cut it IMHO because you seem to have imgained something that is not there.

    i took David's main point to be that the speech we had all been waiting for for months was somewhat of a fizzer because it was rather thin on substance. seems like a valid opinion to me. but just an opinion. others will have herd it differently. fair enough.

    but i can't find any "goal-post shifting" in David's comments. so maybe i just lack vision going forward, eh?

    nagano • Since Nov 2006 • 646 posts Report

Last ←Newer Page 1 61 62 63 64 65 Older→ First