Posts by Simon Grigg
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And we have the former head of the GCSB saying that we either play their game or unnamed enemies ("a very generic grouping of straight-out jihadists and terrorists through to nation states who may have some evil or incorrect intent against New Zealand") will take away our freedoms, or –worse – turn off the sewage system.
Either way, he says we will be in a power of shite if we don't do as we are told.
You'd be forgiven for thinking, at least from the evidence on display in this story, that Sir Bruce Ferguson is, at the very best, deluded.
I guess he's still not over the Skyhawks.
I was reminded of Muldoon's 'the Russians have a presence in the Pacific' meme of years past.
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Our General Clapper (good name) from the NSA has quite a history of his own:
The official, James R. Clapper Jr., a retired lieutenant general, said satellite imagery showing a heavy flow of traffic from Iraq into Syria, just before the American invasion in March, led him to believe that illicit weapons material ''unquestionably'' had been moved out of Iraq.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Schooling Up, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
I’ve been fossicking away up in the north 40 of the Silverfish Ranch, and have found some gems I’ll send thru to AudioCulture soon
wow, Ian...
how loudly can I say yes please!
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Hard News: Friday Music: Enter Audioculture, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
I always think of them as a Christchurch band
Me too actually but on investigation discovered they were from (and returned as a band to) Rotorua as per that link. I think both cities can claim parentage.
I saw them once - in 1974 supporting Average White Band at the Auckland Town Hall. It was the mismatch from hell. They played ponderous prog including a seemingly interminable take of Stairway to Heaven before the deft Scots funksters saved the evening.
Another record about to be reissued - the 1972 album by LittleJohn which UK mag Record Collector called the most obscure major label release in the world ever. And he's still playing too it seems.
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Cheers Chris.
What hit me so powerfully is how much extraordinary music has come out of these small isles over the past 75 or so years. You tend to forget stuff and then it hits you again. In the last week my soundtrack has been dominated by the new P-Money album, the impending reissue of both Larry's Rebels albums and the Howard Morrison Quartet (who I'd never really appreciated before) plus a thousand YouTube and Spotify tracks which I played as I embedded. It was beyond eclectic, but a wonderful experience. I guess we are trying to convey a little of that.
One really important sideline to all this is a related drive by RIANZ to get every New Zealand album released over the past 50 years online, so that they are available and we can also embed. Chris Caddick, the CEO, has personally been performing miracles, tracking down owners, finding masters, pushing labels and working with us to ensure that we can show off the music and people can buy it. There are records going up that have not been available since 1972 or so. No matter how obscure. Want the 1973 album by Butler (a forgotten band from Rotorua)? It's on its way.
All remastered by Chris Chetland at Kog.
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Already have the story Sacha - from Gary Steel who is a longtime big fan. Not sure when it will go live but soon-ish
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Hard News: Friday Music: Enter Audioculture, in reply to "chris",
Hi Chris,
Thanks for the comments. A few things:
- all of the above artists are on a priority list and most have actually been allocated to writers. Some we already have (there is a great John Rowles story for example due to go live next week, written by Adam Gifford who knows both his stuff and John). For my sins, I wrote TrueBliss 'cos I have insider knowledge that few have.
- as we've always said the site is a work in progress and it was never the intention to go: bang - here it is, the complete history of New Zealand music. We are building it slowly and, hopefully, respectfully and we want ensure each of the above is presented properly. It's not that the above don't matter, it's more that they do.
- contributions are welcomed - see http://www.audioculture.co.nz/about
- each page may not win a Pulitzer but some, especially the major acts, take a great deal of informed work. I point you towards Andrew Schmidt's Chills page which was the result of 2 decades of his research into NZ popular music, then interviews and more solid recent research. Or Russell's Exponents story (linked above) or Gary Steel's Shayne Carter, both of which indicate intimate knowledge of their subject. That doesn't mean that other stories are not valid and we've built the site so we can painlessly add as many as possible - as an example if you look at the OMC page, a story I wrote is added as a second feature.
- being highly graphic, each page needs images, and we have some amazing ones. I have personally scanned some 2000 images, many of which were in a pretty poor state so they needed lots of post scan TLC, and I have another 2000 on a harddrive supplied digitally. That takes time.And quite importantly, I'm as intrigued by the small stuff as much as the big stuff. We all know who Supergroove are - important as they may be - but I get a buzz from things like this, a tale of an guy, born from a WW2 relationship in Wellington, brought up in Florida, who arrived back in NZ in the mid 60s, wrote one of my favourite New Zealand singles of all time, then disappeared as quickly never to return.
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Hard News: Friday Music: Enter Audioculture, in reply to George Darroch,
[ETA: I hope there's some thought to pulling in some of the history of music in South Auckland, which is under-storied and under-documented. It's large, important, and it's who we are.]
Don't worry George, we have a large Dawn Raid story coming from Phil Bell, Peter McLennan's Phil Fuemana story is on hand and will go up in a few days and there is a lot more, including the deep south (as in South AKL) country scene, on the way.
I'm also intrigued by Alan's post-punk South Auckland mention above. We are talking.
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Thanks Russell - and from those Cammick archives came a great image of the author of The Exponents story with Jordan, which I'm guessing is late 1980s?
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Hard News: Friday Music: That Hammer Time, in reply to p_money,
That honour belongs to my friend Savage and his 2008 release 'Savage Island' which reached number 25 on the RIAA Rap Album Chart.
Whoops, sorry Peter, that was the word that was buzzing around social media a couple of days back.
Either way, wonderful album and extraordinary feat.