Hard News by Russell Brown

Read Post

Hard News: Those were different times ...

184 Responses

First ←Older Page 1 4 5 6 7 8 Newer→ Last

  • Simon Grigg, in reply to Islander,

    It was good. Murray Cammick used to take us there on Rip It Up deadlines.

    Snap - it was with Mo (and Bryan Staff) that I used to go there. I think my expectations of Asian food were somewhat lower in those days though.

    Murray always knew all the best Chinese places and loved his takeaways - later in the 80s we used to have to pick the rice out of the faders at times when we were scheduled after Land Of The Good Groove on B :)

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

  • Ian Dalziel,

    fine dine ng...

    Murray Cammick used to take us there on Rip It Up deadlines.
    - Murray always knew all the best Chinese places and loved his takeaways...

    occasionally (read as 'days when lots of mail orders for Duran Duran books hit the RIU PO box') we might be treated to the Vietnamese place at the back of the Civic, facing Aotea square, if my memory serves me well...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg,

    we might be treated to the Vietnamese place at the back of the Civic, facing Aotea square, if my memory serves me well...

    The Saigon.

    I used to get taken there by Phil Warren on occasion too when he felt I needed mentorly 'advice'. The fact that he was head-tenant may have eased the fact he usually paid.

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

  • Ian Dalziel, in reply to Simon Grigg,

    The Saigon.

    That's the one ! I'm guessing it was never renamed
    to The Ho Chi Minh City, though...
    :- )

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg, in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    Probably because there was no room for a helicopter to lift off from the roof....

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

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    occasionally (read as ‘days when lots of mail orders for Duran Duran books hit the RIU PO box’) we might be treated to the Vietnamese place at the back of the Civic, facing Aotea square, if my memory serves me well…

    I think there was also the Mekong, on Victoria Street.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to Russell Brown,

    the Mekong, on Victoria Street.

    Opened in about 1978, the CBD's first Vietnamese. Initially a rather higher level of bowing & scraping than NZers were comfortable with. A friendly & relaxed place once they caught on,

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Jackie Clark,

    I remember a place in Newmarket - was it called the Jade Garden or some such? Would have been the late 70's we went there, I think.

    Mt Eden, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 3136 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg, in reply to Jackie Clark,

    the Jade Garden

    Bottom of Khyber Pass. It was maybe the first Dim Sim place, or one of them - there was a place on the corner of Victoria and Albert about the same time. It was a record label haunt in the days when they had money for such things.

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

  • Jackie Clark, in reply to Simon Grigg,

    Oh now I'm getting all nostalgic - when you talk about that corner, I immediately thought of the Italian place just down a wee bit, that always used to be so fantastic. I think it's even still there, but utter shit if my meal there a few years ago was anything to go by. One of the problems is, I think, that there was, as we know, such little choice in Auckland in those days. I mean, the Blue Parrot cafe lasagne remains a very fond memory for me, for pete's sake.

    Mt Eden, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 3136 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg, in reply to Jackie Clark,

    Oh now I'm getting all nostalgic

    I do remember a time when there was but one Indian restaurant in Auckland. That seems vaguely impossible now.

    But, then I also recall an incredible Peruvian place in High Street in the early 1980s. Their chilli bowl (various chillies shredded into some sort of sweet vinegar) was a huge addiction.

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

  • dyan campbell,

    At our school everyone agreed that disco was dead; the debate/shitfest was over whether it had been killed by punk or reggae. But this was 1979, by which time Dylan Taite was interviewing Bob Marley in NZ and the punk/reggae split had started to align along ethnic lines.

    Sorry to be so late to this (working 60 hour weeks) but here in NZ there seemed to be very sharp divisions between the music genres which didn't exist in Canada. Gordon Lightfoot, Neil Young and DOA sang about the same issues, same politics, different music style.

    I was very surprised to read the "Disco Sucks" movement had any racist subtext, as it is a phrase coined by Joey Shithead (DOA), who wrote a song of the same title to express his irritation with disco, the clothes and the haircuts the disco scene entailed. The punks were as anti-racist as you could get, and were an ever present force at the Rock Against Racism movement. The punks were pro-feminism, anti-racisim, anti-homophobia, anti-corporate and pretty impolite to just about everybody about these subjects.

    Here's Joey "Shithead" Keithley & DOA playing Disco Sucks in Stanley Park (downtown Vancouver) in July 1978, The Groucho Marxist Party burns the Canadian Constitution and the flag, and the police get involved, though not because of the flag burning, but because the cars and trucks carrying the band's equipment are blocking road access and other park users get annoyed,. In those days Joey (who was very cute in a big dumb palooka kinda way) used to play wearing a WW2 Nazi hemet with "RACISM SUCKS" painted across the front.

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 595 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock, in reply to dyan campbell,

    I was very surprised to read the "Disco Sucks" movement had any racist subtext

    From the wiki on disco demolition night

    Nile Rodgers, producer and guitarist for the popular disco-era group Chic said "It felt to us like Nazi book-burning. This is America, the home of jazz and rock and people were now afraid even to say the word 'disco'."

    According to the book A Change Is Gonna Come, "The Anti-disco movement represented an unholy alliance of funkateers and feminists, progressives and puritans, rockers and reactionaries. The attacks on disco gave respectable voice to the ugliest kinds of unacknowledged racism, sexism and homophobia."

    It's also a subject covered in some detail in (if memory serves) the book 'last night a dj saved my life'

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie,

    Around 1978 there were a few brief letters re. disco vs. punk published in Rip It Up. "Donna Summer" wrote that disco was all about loving one another. When "Captain Starlight" or some such took a mildly dismissive tone towards things punk, Sid Somebody-or-other threatened to "slash him with my razor blade" if he attempted his "shadow pouncing around my sister."

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Joe Wylie,

    When "Captain Starlight" or some such took a mildly dismissive tone towards things punk ...

    Captain Starlight!

    He had a mobile disco and played out at least into the late 80s. I know this because our floor manager recently bought a box of his old 7"s on Trade Me. It's full of all the other records released by various one-hit wonders from the 80s ...

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel,

    Discos with diss...
    I remember there used to be the odd altercation between punks and discoers outside places like The Liberty Stage (bands upstairs and disco downstairs)...

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie, in reply to Russell Brown,

    Captain Starlight!

    He had a mobile disco and played out at least into the late 80s.

    So he was real, more or less. Nice.
    I'd like to think he drove a Bedford Jumbo with mags.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha, in reply to Joe Wylie,

    shadow pouncing

    heh

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Ian Dalziel,

    Proof that time is mutable

    Sacha, in reply to Joe Wylie,
    About 12 hours ago

    which was actually 13.02 Sept 7 - ie about ten minutes ago !! So I'm just wondering why the auto-assessment of when things were posted is half a day out of whack?

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report Reply

  • Simon Grigg, in reply to Rich Lock,

    It's also a subject covered in some detail in (if memory serves) the book 'last night a dj saved my life'

    Also in the recent hip-hop history The Big Payback, which examines the racist overtones - blatant - of the US anti-disco movement. The irony being that disco, after The Bee Gees and Robert Stigwood's takeover (you can blame Australia) was mostly white after 1978, at least chart-wise with awful Barbra Streisand, Olivia Newton John and Andy Williams releases, amongst many, which were worth rallying against.

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

  • Sacha, in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    So I'm just wondering why the auto-assessment of when things were posted is half a day out of whack?

    It's accurate at mine, so maybe only your end. Of course, just displaying the actual date/time would solve that problem..

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • 3410,

    So I'm just wondering why the auto-assessment of when things were posted is half a day out of whack?

    That'll likely be your clock that's out, Ian. Same has happened to me.

    Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle, in reply to Simon Grigg,

    Simon, you can pry my goddamn Olivia Newton-John mp3s from my cold, dead iPod.

    (You can't deny that pink lurex belted tunic. I defy you to.)

    Also, I hope you were all aware that Ethel Merman did a disco album.

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

  • Rich Lock, in reply to Simon Grigg,

    Yeah Simon, leave Babs aloooone!!!11!!!

    back in the mother countr… • Since Feb 2007 • 2728 posts Report Reply

  • recordari, in reply to Danielle,

    Ethel Merman did a disco album.

    No, I did not know that. And still don't.

    Step aside, the gates of Moroder are opening.

    AUCKLAND • Since Dec 2009 • 2607 posts Report Reply

First ←Older Page 1 4 5 6 7 8 Newer→ Last

Post your response…

Please sign in using your Public Address credentials…

Login

You may also create an account or retrieve your password.