Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Friday Music: The Two Sevens Clashed

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  • Tim Michie,

    Auckward • Since Nov 2006 • 614 posts Report Reply

  • Jonathan Ganley,

    So much is odd, teetering, a message from a world that changed

    It looks great. And New Years Day 1977 is as remote now as New Years Day 1939 was in 1977.

    Since Dec 2006 • 234 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Jonathan Ganley,

    And New Years Day 1977 is as remote now as New Years Day 1939 was in 1977.

    Man. When you put it that way ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Late-breaking: a murky, monochrome but awesome-sounding Talking Heads show from 1980, just emerged from some vault:

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Mike O'Connell,

    And I really cannot recommend this film highly enough

    Thoroughly absorbing! One catches glimpses of a pre-Pogues Shane McGowan in the audience in places. The comments and thoughts from the audience of Smiths was fascinating; can just imagine what Mark E Smith might have said if he had been invited?! Perhaps along the lines of

    Our government's built on expense accounts
    Once in, never out
    A step to Rowche
    Force feeding
    What are the people around you taking?
    Rowche Rumble

    Rowche Rumble:

    and

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 385 posts Report Reply

  • Mike O'Connell, in reply to Russell Brown,

    There's a comment early on in the film about 1977 having much more of a turn of the millennium feel to it than 2000 ever had - a damp squib in comparison.

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 385 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Mike O'Connell,

    There’s a comment early on in the film about 1977 having much more of a turn of the millennium feel to it than 2000 ever had – a damp squib in comparison.

    Yes, I thought that was a really interesting observation.

    Also, one thing I love about Britain and treasure about the time I lived there is how entwined its popular culture is with the social and political mood.

    I’ve always counted myself fortunate to have been there for the acid house explosion in 1988. That was in part a shucking-off of grim Thatcherite reality. Not a resistance to it, as there had been a decade earlier, but a skipping away from it.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Alastair Thompson, in reply to Russell Brown,

    That makes me feel so fucking old!

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 220 posts Report Reply

  • Gabor Toth,

    Something similar to emerge from the local archives recently is this cheap-as-chips RTP video dating from 1979 of Iggy Pop badly lip synching I'm Bored while on a promotional tour to Wellington. Again; this really is another world though with the Beehive under construction, Bowen Street looks remarkably similar to how it appears today with work currently going on around the war memorial.
    But it is invited audience at the reception (with Phil O'Brien and Roger Gascoigne in attendance) that just screams culture clash. If anyone can identify the venue, I'd love to know where it is. Now Iggy already had a bit of a reputation for sure but it almost seems like the promoter hit upon the idea of "lets trap the Godfather of Punk in a room half full of Elton John and Eagles fans and see if he bites". Being the gentleman that he is, Mr Pop duly obliges...

    http://www.nzonscreen.com/title/radio-with-pictures-iggy-pop-1979

    Wellington • Since Dec 2006 • 137 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Alastair Thompson,

    That makes me feel so fucking old!

    I know, right?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I just tweeted this, but realised Twitter was probably the shittest place to put it right now and deleted the tweet.

    Amid all the Charlie Hebdo talk about offence and expression, I think Home Brew's 'Good God' is an interesting thing to look at in a domestic context. It's extremely offensive, but also purposeful, intelligent and angry:

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Mike O'Connell, in reply to Russell Brown,

    I think you mean 1980's, not 1980? Specifically 1988 - there we go, 8 years younger already! I thought the year acid house started was 1988 but I read this may already have been the second Summer of Love? And then the Madchester / Baggy scene kicked in more into 1989?

    I do remember this being huge in '88:

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 385 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Mike O'Connell,

    I think you mean 1980’s, not 1980? Specifically 1988

    Gah! Yes. I meant 1988, brilliant year that it was for me.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Ethan Tucker, in reply to Russell Brown,

    I meant 1988, brilliant year that it was for me.

    The NZ charts weren't quite so flash - top 10 songs of the year:

    1. Holidaymakers - Sweet Lovers
    2. U2 - One Tree Hill
    3. U2 - Desire
    4. MARRS - Pump Up The Volume
    5. Billy Ocean - Get Out Of My Dreams
    6. Tex Pistol & Rikki Morris - Nobody Else
    7. Ardijah - Watching You
    8. Times Two - Cecelia
    9. Belinda Carlisle - Heaven Is A Place On Earth
    10. Timelords - Doctorin' The Tardis

    Wellington • Since Apr 2008 • 119 posts Report Reply

  • Grant McDougall, in reply to Ethan Tucker,

    The NZ charts weren’t quite so flash – top 10 songs of the year:

    So what ? That doesn't negate the fact that there was a plethora of innovative, cutting edge music being made here in NZ, US, Britain and elsewhere. The charts have always been about commerce, not art.

    Dunedin • Since Dec 2006 • 760 posts Report Reply

  • Grant McDougall, in reply to Gabor Toth,

    If anyone can identify the venue, I’d love to know where it is.

    I've exchanged a few e-mails now and again with a bloke called David MacLennan who was a scenester on the Wellington punk / post punk scene and he was there, so I'll see if he can elaborate on this.

    Dunedin • Since Dec 2006 • 760 posts Report Reply

  • Grant McDougall,

    Just remembered: David said it was filmed on the set of late '70s - early '80s NZ soap (!) Close To Home at TVNZ's Avalon studio. David's the young guy in glasses wearing the leather jacket in the background, btw.

    Dunedin • Since Dec 2006 • 760 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg, in reply to Grant McDougall,

    I've exchanged a few e-mails now and again with a bloke called David MacLennan who was a scenester on the Wellington punk / post punk scene and he was there, so I'll see if he can elaborate on this.

    The next night a couple of us took Iggy to the Cook Street Markets' mid winter Xmas party at the Mandalay but that's another whole story.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg, in reply to Russell Brown,

    Gah! Yes. I meant 1988, brilliant year that it was for me.

    Same – brilliant, challenging, innovative and rather extraordinary 10 years that gets a bad rap from those that were not listening.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Peter Darlington,

    Plastic People, the small, famous basement club in Shoreditch, London, closed down last week, after more than 20 years. Floating Points and Four Tet played the final night and have posted the recording of the whole evening (just shy of six hours of it) to Soundcloud:

    Brilliant set list, that. We all know DJ'ing isn't brain surgery but apparently neither would trouble Sam Shepherd (Floating Points) too much as, when not beat bashing, he's currently completing his PHD in neuroscience.

    http://www.m-magazine.co.uk/newmusic/featuredartist/featured-artist-floating-points/

    Top that Diplo!

    Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report Reply

  • kiwicmc,

    Heard this on the radio yesterday and was taken back to 1979…

    Auckland, New Zealand • Since May 2008 • 88 posts Report Reply

  • Mike O'Connell, in reply to Simon Grigg,

    1988 was a bittersweet year for me but it was my first full year in the UK, based in Bristol. And the bands kept on coming through. I caught the Brix-era Fall in nearby Cardiff, blown away by Mr Pharmacist.

    And Camper van Beethoven, perhaps they're a little dated now, but they performed what for me was one of the best gigs I've been to anywhere. Here's Good Guys and Bad Guys:

    Simon, would love to hear more about your night on the town with Mr Osterberg - perhaps an Audio Culture post beckons?!

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 385 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg, in reply to Mike O'Connell,

    Attachment

    Simon, would love to hear more about your night on the town with Mr Osterberg – perhaps an Audio Culture post beckons?!

    Funny thing is Mike, is that various sources place the trip as July and given that it was the mid-winter ball I think that's right.

    And, I talk about it here (where I say 1980 but that's wrong).

    But - expanding on that (and I didn't work this out until last year), the Ig had convinced EMI it was his birthday (which I now know is April 21, not mid-July) and so they gave him a cake and made a bit of a deal about it. We all went back to the Intercontinental to have the cake and then went to dinner. I can't remember exactly where we went but Auckland was sparse in those days so who knows. Then Iggy wanted to go out so a few of us (me and a couple of EMI folk) took him to the party.

    As I recall it all got a little drunken and have no real memory of when Iggy left or how?

    This pic, which has done the rounds in the last couple of years, was was taken by Chris Slane earlier in the day at Taste Records (me on the left).

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel, in reply to Simon Grigg,

    tasty...

    This pic...

    Nice to see Mr Terence Hogan (graphic designer par excellence) leaning at the back there, by the Zappa heads...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • David Maclennan, in reply to Grant McDougall,

    OK, let's set the record straight: it is me in the background, but the jacket was an old op-shop suit jacket, not a leather one. The indoor scenes for the clip were fimed in Wellington in July '79 (I could look up the exact date) at a posh restaurant called No.13 Boulcott St - a building with a long and colourful history, but that's another story. It was a surreal scene: all these media & record company liggers, and a handful of us punks who'd managed to get in. The bit where Iggy clouted that woman after she tossed wine at him was not pre-planned, I'm sure. After the filming Iggy sat in a corner and talked with us punks, totally ignoring everyone else. Later he turned up at the Rock Theatre in Vivian St when local punks The Normals were playing. He just sat in a coner by himself, but no one dared to approach him...

    Wellington • Since Dec 2006 • 2 posts Report Reply

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