Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: He might be crazy, but he's not dumb

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  • Che Tibby,

    a lasting summer memory is walking into manners mall here in wellington, and there outside 'sounds' (?) was the exponents. they were fresh back from their london hiatus, filled with new and varied songs, and wearing those loud shirts we all eventually came to associate with ecstasy.

    a crowd had formed, and off they went.

    about a year later, when they were in every pub in the nation it seemed, i thought, "man, lucky to have seen them then. they'd be mobbed these days!!"

    the back of an envelope • Since Nov 2006 • 2042 posts Report Reply

  • Hadyn Green,

    I saw the exponents at Auckland Uni in 97, most memorable part was the roadie throwing a beer (DB Bitter) into the crowd and me catching it and sculling as much as I could before the security guard retrieved it.

    Then, naturally, the music and a rock-n-roll Jordan Luck.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report Reply

  • stephen walker,

    in 1982, it seemed like the majority of the very large boys' school i went to wanted to be Jordan Luck. we were intensely jealous of the guys who had Jordan Luck-lookalike haircuts.

    in 1984, the Dance Exponents and the Mockers filled the Logan Campbell Centre to capacity.

    nagano • Since Nov 2006 • 646 posts Report Reply

  • Graeme Edgeler,

    I know it's already been posted in OurTube ... but dreary?!

    Wellington, New Zealand • Since Nov 2006 • 3215 posts Report Reply

  • Jason Kemp,

    Andrew Fagan should be next!

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 368 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Beard,

    The song, as if you couldn't guess, was 'Why Does Love Do This To Me?'.

    Sorry to be a troll, but words cannot express the intensity with which I loathe that song. That's mostly due to a traumatic experience in the early 90s after being dragged along to a work ski weekend, and after a day of getting very expensively wet and bruised, being pressganged into the local pub. Hordes of drunken commerce students, with white polonecks under chambray shirts with Dockers and boat shoes, clutching their Corona and limes and belting out that wailing chorus...

    I guess I'll never be a proper Kiwi.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1040 posts Report Reply

  • Rob Stowell,

    Corben Simpson and Geoff Murphy had come to APRA to request a change to the writing credit on Blerta's 'Dance All Around the World', which still earns rights money. In the middle of the song, there is a poem by Margaret Mahy.

    It's a little more than that. There's hardly a line in the song that isn't lifted directly from MM's picturebook "The Procession." But hey, that was almost the 60s, and noone really cared.
    Nice gesture though.

    Whakaraupo • Since Nov 2006 • 2120 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    Corben Simpson and Geoff Murphy had come to APRA to request a change to the writing credit on Blerta's 'Dance All Around the World', which still earns rights money. In the middle of the song, there is a poem by Margaret Mahy. They wanted her to have a songwriting credit, which means she will also derive income from performances of the song. She is, apparently, chuffed about it.

    You're scholars and gentlemen, Messers Simpson and Murphy and it couldn't have happened to a nicer lady. I think there are a few people around who could pay tribute to her generosity. I'll have to rack down the source, but I remember her once saying her least favourite word was 'no'. :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    When I was a nipper, my mum was in the Values Party with Jordan's dad Jamie. Jordan was just older enough than me to be the perfect object of a little-girl crush which was only briefly swayed by Andrew Fagan's dress sense. The Dance Exponents were the soundtrack of my 80s bogan teen years, and every time I see a rugby crowd full of people who weren't born yet belting out 'Why Does Love Do This To Me' or stand in a cricket crowd doing same, my heart fills with sixteen-year-old joy.

    Take that, Tom.

    Seeing Jacqui Browne trying to beat him off with a stick on C4, I did manage to resist the urge to use him as a 'see, this is what happens' object lesson for my kids.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Heather Gaye,

    I heard a story about Jordan Luck a while ago...apparently one new year a friend made a bet with him, for an obscene amount of money, that he couldn't go a year without drinking. And he did. Nary a drop for a full 12 months, then new year's day the following year, he collected on the bet, got utterly plastered and he's been drunk ever since.

    Morningside • Since Nov 2006 • 533 posts Report Reply

  • Felix,

    ...Jacqui Browne trying to beat him off with a stick...

    Is it just me? Oh it is? Again?
    k, never mind.

    Raglan • Since Nov 2006 • 26 posts Report Reply

  • peter mclennan,

    Heather, I think the bet was with the rest of the band, who bet him something like $2000 each.

    AK Central • Since Nov 2006 • 159 posts Report Reply

  • Robyn Gallagher,

    I've gone through periods of being in love with the Exponents' music, to thinking Jordan Luck was a dick, and back to being a fan again.

    But one thing is certain: the Exponents wrote a whole lot of really good pop songs that have had a lasting effect on not just New Zealand music, but New Zealand's cultural identity.

    And I like that there are all these wild rock 'n' roll stories involving Jordan Luck, but whenever I've shared them with people who know him, they usually go, "Nah, that doesn't sound like him."

    Seeing Jacqui Browne trying to beat him off with a stick on C4

    I watched this and was so disgusted at the time that I promptly wrote about it. But now I read back and I think, "Hey, that's what I want to be like when I'm that age."

    Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    I remember a bunch of obnoxious kids on stage at a grotty little Chch club called PJs, with a lead singer in a kilt, circa July 81 I think.

    You walked in and couldn't move, transfixed by the sheer joyous energy and bratty noise.

    The next evening I spent with Jordy. Harry and Dave in their house listening to With The Beatles over and over again all night. I don't know how many bottles of DB Brown went down that night but it wasn't good.Jordan just kept on saying "listen to the chords", over and over again. He'd ripped part the song construction on that album and reassembled it all in his head.

    The next year I took them on their first national tour, supporting The Screaming Meemees (and I found a venue placed paper ad from Tauranga for that tour the other day..The Screaming Meemees with support The Dance Explorers....they were hardly household names then and records show they were living on per diems and not much more, they were not a crowd puller and they cost us money, at least for the first part of the tour). Half way thru the tour Victoria was released and you could feel the swell beginning as student radio picked it up and the buzz began.

    He's one of New Zealand's greatest songwriters, perhaps the greatest 'pop' writer we've ever had, and, no matter his state, and I've seen him in a few, as have many of us, the ultimate performer....New Zealand (and I mean the parts out there beyond Ponsonby and Cuba Street and The Kings Arms) just love him.

    I love him big time and as cynical as I am about this "Hall of Fame" thingy there are few who deserve to be in there more.

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

  • Felix,

    I know it's already been posted in OurTube ... but dreary?!

    A wonderful example of how the eyes can fool the ears.

    Raglan • Since Nov 2006 • 26 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    ...Jacqui Browne trying to beat him off with a stick...

    Is it just me? Oh it is? Again?
    k, never mind.

    D'you mean the slightly smutty double entendre? No idea what you're talking about.

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    Heather, I think the bet was with the rest of the band, who bet him something like $2000 each.

    Yep, it was and he did it. His attitude was "I don't have a problem with alcohol, I just like it". He stopped cold turkey the moment he took the bet (about 92/3 I think) and started the day he got paid.

    I do remember Jordan drinking about 18 low alcohol beers in a row on a tour about 91, driving from Napier to Wellington or somewhere...he said he liked the taste. The downside was the excessive number of loo stops the rest of us had to endure.

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

  • Michael Savidge,

    I remember The Dance Exponents ( a clue to my age there) played at my high school for a lunchtime gig. The band rocked and wouldn't stop playing and when they went overtime the principal pulled the plug on them.

    Jordan went OFF at the guy in such a tirade of relentless profanity that we all just stood there dumbstruck - a new hero was born.

    Afterwards we couldn't stop talking about his energy and dedication to the cause. It's a fine thing that he has been honoured by his peers in this way.

    Somewhere near Wellington… • Since Nov 2006 • 324 posts Report Reply

  • Ben Austin,

    When I saw the title of the post it reminded me of an Ian Brown interview I recently read in the Guardian. Now that guy is old rock star crazy, although he does make a good point about hoodies.

    Oh and I also saw the Exponents on one of those late 90s university tours, but sadly I can't remember a thing. But that goes for any Dunedin concert from first year.

    London • Since Nov 2006 • 1027 posts Report Reply

  • Richard Irvine,

    Yep, I saw the Exponents for the first time in an early 90s gig at Hamilton's Roxoff nightclub (they were great).

    They're one of the few bands where you can drink 12 cans through a beer bong before the gig and still not be as messed up as the lead singer.

    Auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 242 posts Report Reply

  • Bob Munro,

    I know it's already been posted in OurTube ... but dreary?!

    A wonderful example of how the eyes can fool the ears.

    I'm one of the three climbers on the top of La Perouse as the helicopter pans around the west face of Mt Cook (as we called it then) and the upper Hooker valley, in one of the shots near the start of this piece. The cameraman was Mike Single from the Natural History unit in Dunedin. I remember being chuffed at being dropped off in that spot because it meant I'd got to the top of another 10,000ft peak without having to do any effort.

    I think this would have been in 1985 and all the footage looks like it's from about then and possibly from only a couple of sources. - maybe the Natural History unit and perhaps the tourist branch of the National film unit.

    It's interesting to see how dated it appears after only 20 years. I should think that if you looked at a similar effort from say the mid sixties it would be like this - glorifying nature and rural life, with a minimum of people. In the last 20 years social change has accelerated so much that could we assume that even in 10 years time the promo efforts of today will look equally as quaint?

    Christchurch • Since Aug 2007 • 418 posts Report Reply

  • Craig Ranapia,

    D'you mean the slightly smutty double entendre? No idea what you're talking about.

    I prefer unintentional vileness, myself. I still have burned on my memory a Herald gig review that cheerfully declared "Iggy Pop blew the band off-stage." Well, I guess that's one way to cut costs - be your own groupie. :)

    North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report Reply

  • Graeme Edgeler,

    A wonderful example of how the eyes can fool the ears.

    I disagree. The video adds to the experience, but I started playing it, and then read something in another browser tab, and it still worked its magic...

    Wellington, New Zealand • Since Nov 2006 • 3215 posts Report Reply

  • Emma Hart,

    "Iggy Pop blew the band off-stage."

    I'll be off to scrub out my own frontal lobe now. Damn this vivid imagination...

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2006 • 4651 posts Report Reply

  • Tom Beard,

    "Iggy Pop blew the band off-stage."

    I'll be off to scrub out my own frontal lobe now. Damn this vivid imagination...

    Too late: I've seen Velvet Goldmine.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 1040 posts Report Reply

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