So many versions of "Throw Your Arms Around Me'. A good guide
here

Mark Seymour's book about H&C - '13 Tonne Theory' - is one of the best music books I've read in a long time (and I'm not their biggest fan). Great insight into the workings of a far from conventionally structured band. Very funny too... 'Throw Your Arms...' was the final straw in one of the members leaving. He has also has very fond memories of an Auckland gig (Gluepot?). Two other very good music books - Paul Kelly's 'How To Make Gravy' and Robert Forster's 'The 10 Rules of Rock'n'Roll'. Australia Day....

And Music in Parks is back with The Datsuns, The Bats and Clap Clap Riot at Nixon Park in Kingsland on Sunday afternoon.

According to the Council website this one is Saturday and Sunday is the rain day (or have they stuffed this up the way they did with the dates in the Movies In Parks flyer)

That Sex Pistols interview was hugely infuential here. I tried to find the original film in the TVNZ Archive several years ago when we doing "Give It A Whirl". Finally found the handwritten index card - listed under "Johnny Rotten and his Sex Pistols" - located the box, opened it with much trepidation and found a neatly written issue card saying it had been loaned out to D. Taite. I wonder where it is now...

The Lou Reed interview was a real trainwreck. Musy have been on Grunt Machine. I still remember it. Dylan and Lou wandering around a carpark building. It was just after Metal Machine Music came out - and it degenerated into them arguing about the colour of labels on particular records. Lou was at his combative best/worst but Dylan stood his ground. Pretty sure that footage was ditched years ago. I saw printouts of surviving Grunt Machine film - and it certainly wasn't there.

Telethons.. I worked on a scary one in Christchurch in the late 80s when the Town Hall was double booked and they did it from the old railway station. Not a good place to go outside between midnight and dawn. Think that was the Leeza Gibbons/Chris Quentin one as well... Doubly scary.

But my favourite Telethon memory is 6am on a Sunday morning in Christchurch in 1978 and the Enemy doing a fired up version of Swimming Pool. They were supposed to do another song but Chris had a seizure.

And on the subject of the Beck/Flaming Lips tour - I think on the Flaming Lips doco there's some dressing room footage from an Austin City Limits episode they did. They are releasing quite a few of those ACL episodes on DVD now so it may see the light of day at some stage (and no doubt it's around the place elsewhere).

Like Russell said

Turnout is Banks' enemy. Anyone campaigning against him should be well aware of that.

But also vote splitting if there are too many candidates ranged against him

The Androidss at the Gladstone is one my abiding memories of early 80s Christchurch. And it was always an Iggy Pop cover - but damned if I can remember whether it was "Lust For Life" or "The Passenger". Or perhaps it was both. A little while ago now - but not long enough to be losing them like this.