Hard News by Russell Brown

Ah, Playdate. Part of my yoof!

Ah, Playdate. Part of my yoof!

Not mine, but gee it was good.

Be sure to allude to Southland's Ranfurly Shield loss when you talk to Mr Paris.

I swear, my eyes brimmed as I read the opening paragraphs of the preface to Chris Bourke's new book Blue Smoke: The lost dawn of New Zealand popular music 1918-1964.

How does it compare with Stranded in Paradise?

For a chief executive of a major broadcasting network, he admits it might seem strange that he doesn’t get the chance to watch much TV,

Lucky him. Yeah so Jason we now up to about the 10th repeat of all the shit movie's and blockbusters. Im expecting repeating repeats of MASH any day now. And most FTA TV is best watched in a comatose state, 'cause the content is so bad.
There are notable exceptions

I had a little tear at the WN launch too. Very special for mostly the same reasons.

How does it compare with Stranded in Paradise?

- very favourably.

Also the radio programme: Musical Chairs featuring Ian Morris Pt 1&2 (in his own words) which Chris Bourke produced for RNZ in 2002 is available to listen to on the RNZ website here: www.radionz.co.nz/musictalk
filed under ‘M’ for Morris - and including music extracts thanks to Campbell @ RIANZ.

The funeral is today.

@ Andin. Hang on, and back up the horses a bit! I prefer 'notable inclusions' to 'notable exceptions'--This Is Not My Life, Big Bang Theory, Media 7, Broadwalk Empire, Madmen, The Middle, Outrageous Fortune et etc.
I would recommend you read the recent New York Times (September 12 2010) piece by A.O. Scott , 'Are Films Bad, or Is TV Just Better?'

Ask Jason if he could get his channels to show The Daily Show (and Colbert) again, since Comedy Central are a bunch of twatcocks.

How does it compare with Stranded in Paradise?

More precise, more detailed -- and composed almost entirely of things you never knew.

...and written with insight and great intelligence. I had conversations with Chris when he was Writer in Residence at Waikato and went to to a talk he did about the curious history of Blue Smoke. I am waiting for my copy to arrive, with some eagerness.

Speaking of FTA TV, I've been wanting to get this off my chest for some time.

The lock-up of digital FTA TV in NZ is bad. Bad for the consumer and bad for FTA TV (although maybe they can't see that). The Freeview EPG requires expensive licensed set-top boxes and places ridiculous restrictions on TV manufacturers.

Case in point: my family buy my mum a spanky new digital TV for her birthday. Sweet! I set it up for her, but what? Where is the low-quality composite video out from her TV that I can plug into her VCR, so she can record shows when she is out of the house? Gone? Yeah, well Samsung have never been that keen on them, and most other manufacturers seem to be ditching them.

No matter thinks me, I'll pop down to Dick Smith's and get a cheap HD set top box with USB recording (and a flash drive or small hard drive). I knew I could get something like that for A$90 in Aus. Not in NZ. You're up for $200+, and it seems most don't support external USB recording. The TV only cost $550 FFS.

I could bring a cheapy HD set top box from Aus but it seems that the "free" EPG is not properly populated, only the proprietary, encrypted Freeview EPG. This is bogus.

Lobby for a properly transmitted EIT EPG so that cheap generic set top boxes, PVRs and media centres can work in NZ. It is in FTA TVs best interests, even if they don't know it.

How does it compare with Stranded in Paradise?

More precise, more detailed -- and composed almost entirely of things you never knew.

and it's essentially a prequel to Stranded in Paradise - I think I heard Chris say as much on the radio - covering, as it does, a half-century that mostly ends about where SIP starts, if memory serves.

Not having seen it yet, but my take is that it's probably the kind of once-in-a-generation book that SIP was.

Stranded in Paradise basically starts from the period of bodgies, widgies and the Mazengarb report.

... juvenile delinquents and milkbar cowboys.

@ Andin. Hang on,

jeez guess I'm the picky bastard now. Only 2 of that list I like.
Thanks Geoff. I think I remember my NYT password.

Lobby for a properly transmitted EIT EPG so that cheap generic set top boxes, PVRs and media centres can work in NZ. It is in FTA TVs best interests, even if they don't know it.

I second that. Always like a low cost option.

Not having had the chance to scout around for this book yet, I’m now wondering – in the wake of comparisons with Stranded In Paradise – whether or not this is a large(ish) coffee-table (sized) book, like Stranded, or whether it is something I can slip into my bag for commute reading (small average novel size)?
I absolutely love Stranded In Paradise, and have owned several copies over the years, but it never really occurred to me before that it picks things up relatively late in the piece (40s-50s). There must have been an incredible amount of research involved in this latest effort.
Isn’t it about time Graham Reid gave us his own version of events?!
While I’m here, on this thread ... another question ... ‘Popscore’ magazine (from late 70s) – was this a NZ-based publication? ... I’m too young to recall details but I do remember buying it regularly.
I also remember picking up what I’m fairly certain was the first ever issue of Rip It Up, for free iirc, on a Friday night in town with my mates, going to a local coffee bar, excitedly showing off my freshly acquired freebie newsprint mag/paper, when one of the so-called mates promptly grabbed it and ripped it up before I could read it. Odd how that has stayed with me some 30-odd years later ... I’m nearly over it.

There must have been an incredible amount of research involved in this latest effort.

Several years worth. Chris spent hundreds of hours researching, interviewing and collating. What you see is just the very tip of what he has recorded.

Incredible.

-----

And on a much sadder note, it's worth recording the passing of the legendary Tony Peake, one of the key, if not the key, figures in the late 70s, early 1980s Christchurch scene.

I had a few emails when I woke today telling he'd died near Adelaide.

Without Tony large parts of the what exists in Stranded in Paradise post 1980 would read very differently.

I released one of his earlier recordings, with his band The Newtones, on my Class of 81 album and counted him as a good friend.

Hopefully someone in the Christchurch press corps can find a moment to write an appropriate obit for someone was was a major influence on many and hugely respected.

There must have been an incredible amount of research involved in this latest effort. Isn’t it about time Graham Reid gave us his own version of events?!

Done.

Also, an interview with CB about Blue Smoke here.