Posts by Simon Grigg
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Hard News: Friday Music: Right back in there, in reply to Geoff Lealand,
As a happy coincidence, I spotted the album cover for the Pretty Things "Get The Picture" LP in the window of the excellent Vinyl Countdown second-hand record store on Devon Street in New Plymouth
Ah, cool Geoff. I'm seeing you in early March so I can arrange a swift scan.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Right back in there, in reply to Russell Brown,
and his bands were truly terrible.
I've mentioned to Trevor Reekie that I hold him personally responsible for Les Misérables
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Backstage covered two stories and worked on a system where an entry fee of $7 covered the night’s drinking. It was the height of the disco era and the dance floor hustled with over 200 people a night. It was also an illegal venue and its opening hours, until 5am in the morning, were a novelty for Auckland
Can't walk past the back of The Classic without looking down at that door and smiling.
One of the things I'm most grateful for, and something hugely influential in the way I've seen and interacted with the world since, was living in that wonderful flat with seven gay guys in Parnell, yourself included, in the late 1970s. Best time of my life.
And, let's not forget, Backstage also had the best tunes in town...
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The odd thing is how poorly-identified everyone is
Although my other half managed to identify a very young herself at 3.52 getting down to Russ and crew (she would've been 14..)
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Hard News: Friday Music: A Year of It, in reply to Grant McDougall,
Can't say I've bought a lot of albums this year
I'm the same, but I've listed to vast amounts of music. I blame Spotify mostly as I tend to listen without buying and then only buy when the playlist has been on rotate for a while.
I did a brief blog on the records I liked this year if anyone is interested.
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Hard News: The Velvet Underground Etc., in reply to kiwicmc,
Titch
Died a few years back. He was in a (road crew) van that went off the road down Taupo way.
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Hard News: The Velvet Underground Etc., in reply to Rob Hosking,
You know the thing I miss most about record stores? The smell
I miss the conversation. Phil Bell (Sir Vere) and I were talking about this a few weeks back and we both miss the hangout at the counter talking to likeminded nutters. In Auckland you still find it at Conch but largely it's a thing of the past in NZ as stores disappear.
Gotta say, as a person who buys far too many vinyl records still, I think both SlowBoat and RPM have far better prices (and stock) than Real Groovy. Some of the RG NZ stock is outrageously priced.
I bought this for a tenner in SB a few weeks back, in almost mint condition. It's so bloody rare and goes on TradeMe for three or four times the price.
The chances of finding it in a bin at Real Groovy are about nil.
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Capture: A Funky Good Time, in reply to Robyn Gallagher,
Note a Mr S Grigg in that Screaming Blamatics tour pic.
Forgotten Mo took that! It was unbelievably cold if memory serves. However, it got waaayyy colder as we drove south without adequate heating in the vans.
As we all know these are but a minute fraction of the extraordinary Cammick archive.
There are more MC North Shore Netball shots on the Meemees pages here and here.
If this is the tour they played the all ages at Whakatane Memorial Hall
No, SBMatics was a follow the Springboks thingy, dates here.
The Whakatane SHOW was just Meemees wasn't it? Or Meemees and Newmatics?
and the very sweaty man in a suit
His name was Frank as far as I recall, and he was a helluva nice guy. Anything else is lost in time....
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Hard News: The Velvet Underground Etc., in reply to Sacha,
Am I along in really liking Songs for Drella?
Umm..no.
Marbecks queens arcade #bye
Man, isn't that just awful. I could say all sorts of things about some people not ever being allowed near running record stores, however I won't - but the idea that the very best classical store in NZ, perhaps Australasia and Oceania, *plus* a legendary shop that once breathed formidable customer service, not being able to survive is just bullshit.
Angry. much.
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For a cult album, the Velvet Underground and Nico was never actually that hard to obtain
It was unavailable in New Zealand from about 1970 through to 1979, and in those days there were no imports allowed courtesy of Rob's import licensing schemes. There were only a handful of vinyl import licenses in the country and they were mostly used for 'real music' = jazz & classical.
So, yes it was really, really, really hard to get and went for silly money at auctions.
It was reissued in 1979 by PolyGram (along with Nico's Chelsea Girl) after we (being myself and couple of other record store employees) decided we'd had enough of asking for it to be repressed and went up to the offices in Grafton Rd and presented a formal letter of demand. Our store alone had about 40 long standing orders for it.
It sold really well (Nico didn't) and PolyGram took the credit for 'taking the risk'.