Posts by Simon Grigg
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It’s been a while since I posted here but this was worth popping back in for. What a lovely warm post that is. You’ve said and written great things over the years and many of us owe you a great deal – I know I do and you’ve long had my back when I needed it. Thank you.
Thoroughly looking forward to that drink we managed not to have, at least not beyond the boundaries of work as great as that was, last time I was back. Next time, I promise. Have a wonderful day and let the family spoil you.
S
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If we are mentioning forthcoming events, Gareth Shute talks about his terrific Mapping Auckland's Historic Venues project on Wednesday at Auckland Library.
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Hard News: Rip It Up: A history of us, a…, in reply to Jonathan King,
Oral history-wise I could tell
The big story missing from the early years' oral history is the deadline story. MC would go into a mad frenzy for at least a week a) trying to finish the magazine, and b) trying to find the money to get it printed, or sweet-talk a printer into giving credit. Murray went through a number of printers and some were more patient than others - some (the Christian lot) would also censor the swear words.
Finding the money was a full-time job that often ended with a friendly record company boss - CBS, Festival, Virgin and WEA were very supportive - agreeing to book and pay for ads for the future issues. The indie labels and bands, who all advertised, had no money after all. (Murray gave away a lot of free space to the people that made the music - also designing ads for them for free.)
The mag would be finished after days of no sleep and then MC and a staff (there was only one for a while) would immediately drive it to a printer often in the Waikato or north. He'd then come back to the flat and disappear into the bathroom and the bath for up to 36 hours with magazines and our only phone. I would have to explain to visitors and my girlfriend that we had to use the loo next door (we had great neighbours).
After 24/36 hours MC would reappear and get in the van to drive to the printers and return with the new Rip It Up. This was repeated the next month. And the month after ...
That he did this is part of the reason RIU is so important.
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Hard News: Rip It Up: A history of us, a…, in reply to Russell Brown,
The smell of the wax comes back to me …
My flat in RossLyn (with Murray) seemed to have the wax everywhere. It travelled with him it seemed.
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Hard News: Music: Three Festivals, in reply to Hugh Wilson,
Hugh, I suspect I may well have sent that ticket your way at the time (or were you working?). Nice Celebre logo on it.
As I recall the police did everything they possibly could to interfere with the operation of that bar in an orderly manner.
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Thank you Russell - and here's a lovely piece of accidental synergy. Jamie Isaac's crew includes Sara Leigh Lewis' son (he does visuals), the same Sara who created the incredible AK79 images seen on AudioCulture.
Complete coincidence. Sara mentioned it after I said I rated Jamie's record.
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That Avantdale video is quite something, and, yep, it's great to see wonderful (at least to me, I wasn't his son in the 90s) Peter Scott in there. Such a fine bassist who seems to have come to terms with his demons.
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That Tom Scott is truly something special, and I love the played backing, ironically not a million miles away from what his Dad was doing circa 94.
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Hard News: Music: The Noisy Library…, in reply to TracyMac,
but there's no article on her on Audioculture.
Hi Tracy - watch this space :-) AudioCulture has a page on the North Shore scene that in part included Ella, but for a long while, it was almost too soon for a site dedicated to NZ's musical past to have much more simply because it's tough to tell a story that is still evolving. But clearly, it's a key story that needs to be told and soon will be in some detail, and in a way that NZers can identify with we hope. Our attachment to the Lorde story is utterly unique.
PS - thank you!
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Hard News: Friday Music: Down the Hall…, in reply to Russell Brown,
This is all a bit weird. The claim was originally made in a post on the Salmonella Dub Facebook page, which was later removed. I can’t recall all the details, but it didn’t really add up.
As Grant Smithies implies on that Peter M post, it's verging on twaddle. (You can probably remove Verging from that sentence).