Hard News by Russell Brown

Obligatory:

Beat me to it ...

Obligatory:

You had to, didn't you?

I'd forgotten that tax: it was like a declaration of war on the the young and the those with any artistic sensibility in the racing, racism and beer years.

Quite excited about New York based internet stars Scott Bradlee’s Postmodern Jukebox coming our way in August. A revolving ensemble of 50 musicians and singers doing re-arrangements of modern pop songs as old school genres, of a quality and sass you just never get to see in this country. viz:

or here is Haley Reinhart (one time third place getter on American Idol, the mind boggles given the talentless dross we got here) fantastic cover of Radiohead’s “Creep”.

Bit of thread hijack, but they are a live act and they'll be in NZ.

I was told that when the sales tax was abolished and replaced with GST the very next day the record companies put the price of LPs up so that the retail price didn't change.

I also remember that roleplaying games all came into New Zealand without dice, hence were books with low sales tax (10% ?) rather than games with high sales tax (40% ?).

Of course. No choice in the matter whatsoever. :-)

I remember back in about 1974 my flatmate's girlfriend going on holiday to Fiji and bringing him back a Akai Cassette deck!! For half price!!!!! Talk about bells and whistles! Similar to the piccie.

Man was that a moment in time. It was an era where every technician in DSIR spent hours emptying D J Reid of components and building Electronic Australia's Stereo Amplifiers, preamplifiers, speakers (C8MX were cheap and king) and even building compensated turntables from scratch.....pun intended.

The party guy with a reel to reel was also of a Princely stature. The ability to dance the night away without changing cassettes, 45s or LPs made the drinking and girl chasing a hell of a lot easier.

That Knobz advert in the Audioculture post thanks Peter Blake. The yachtie or a different dude?

The yachtie or a different dude?

Different. The musical one was director of RadPics for some years and a well known keyboard player in Wellington.

I remember back in about 1974 my flatmate’s girlfriend going on holiday to Fiji and bringing him back a Akai Cassette deck!! For half price!!!!! Talk about bells and whistles! Similar to the piccie.

I remember my grandfather getting a huge portable radiocassette deck from a man down at the docks. I spent a lot of time with that thing whenever we came to stay.

Man was that a moment in time. It was an era where every technician in DSIR spent hours emptying D J Reid of components and building Electronic Australia’s Stereo Amplifiers, preamplifiers, speakers (C8MX were cheap and king) and even building compensated turntables from scratch…..pun intended.

An old friend had a celebration on Waiheke this weekend and I played a DJ set through the 1970s NZ-made Pye Pro Lab speakers he’d got from a skip – like the ones in the picture. Those things are incredible. His house was literally vibrating at one point. (There’s a pair on Trade Me at the moment.)

Those nostalgic for 70's British punk won't have to wait long. Recently there was mention of The Slits and their upcoming doco film Here To Be Heard - which is still crowd-sourcing for the funds to 'make it to the finish line', later this year.

Over the line already though is the Damned doco, premiering in a coupla days in London: The Damned: Don’t You Wish That We Were Dead. Powerful looking stuff from the trailer, can't wait - but Captain Sensible doesn't want a bar of it!

Shouldn't be too long before it shows here, probably at the NZIFF - which in Christchurch this year, is back in the CBD at last at the beautifully restored Theatre Royal. Further on the NZIFF, Chch finally gets (now with two capacious venues) a long overdue expanded programme. And with new projector equipment installed, Chch will again be able to host any gala premieres coming this way