Random Play by Graham Reid

He was great in "Don't Let it Get You". Which is well worth a viewing if you get the opportunity

There's serious talk about William Clauson doing a tour of New Zealand soon.

But they were singing in te reo long before it was common. And it isn’t even that common now.

This reminds me of something: on my mother's side of the family, in Southland, in the middle of the twentieth century, they had a lot of parties. People would gather around the piano and sing, and some of those songs were definitely in te reo. Now, these people mostly 'lived as Pakeha' - they 'passed', as they say in America, but they were Maori-Irish. So did most singing parties include Maori songs, back then? I tended to universalise my own family's experiences and think everyone sang some (poorly pronounced!) songs in te reo, but perhaps not?

The best scene in Don't Let It Get You is where the very black fly crawls around in Lew Pryme's pure white hair while they are driving along singing. Oh and the young Kiri of course!

William Clauson touring again? He'd be at least in his late 70s because he looks about 30 on the cover of the EP recorded in 1959/60.

I think a recognition of Maori music and culture was much more common in certain parts of New Zealand at that time than we might think, and/or have been led to believe. But then again because I knew a lot of Jewish people I called auntie and uncle I thought everyone in Auckland knew Jewish people . . . until I went into the real world!

More on Clausen.
http://kiwifolk.com/pipermail/nz-folk_kiwifolk.com/2009-June/008533.html

Many years ago (60s-70s) my Mother-in-Law was hit on in a nightclub by Howard Morrison. She had no idea who it was and when her husband returned she complained about the "awful drunk man". She was quite shocked when he took the stage as the evening's entertainment.

a Dark Knight no more...

Without getting too
La De Da about it...

Howie's the air up there...

...and Love is all around...

we are stardust

we are golden

Ennui
Gotteget Bach-Tuthegarden
Morrison Hotel

Bravo Mr. D, that's as heavy with multiple meaning as a thimbleful of neutrons.

Over at TradeMe someone just bid $19 for Sir Howie's xmas CD. While there's no sudden rush to cash in on any rare surviving examples of those brown "I'm Indiginous" lighters bearing the phrase he made mildly famous in the 80s, the thriving commerce in the lawnmowers, bikes, barbies and leafblowers that bear his name is a greater memorial than any graven image.