Posts by Simon Grigg
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I confess, that's probably the basis of my response. Downer is a smug, unpleasant, political bully-boy.
and an arrogant wanker with very much the white man's burden on his ample shoulders if seen from Indonesia. His strutting superiority and condescension towards the lessor souls here (as seen from his side of Canberra) is often commented on.
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Thought the Knack's gig was rubbish but that was mainly because my then girlfriend threw up in a taxi on the way home, and it cost me $50. As a band, even though they were not really my thing on record, they were quite fine live, but the best of that 79 / 80 bunch was Magazine IMO, although Wreckless Eric was far and away the drunkest, and The Members the most fun.
The Cure..yep it was quiet as hell people wise, but so were quite a few of those early post punk gigs. My memory, vague as it was (I'd been partaking with Harry Ratbag so I wasn't really up for rational comment or thought) was quite ok, and the volume level,like the rest is a wee bit of a blur. I have a strange recollection of being tasked to review it for Rip It Up but failing miserably and Mo having to find another to do it. I seem to remember lots of smoke.
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I like to dream that it has some value nowadays. It's still in very nice nick.
Original Sat Nite went on TradeMe for NZ $550 a while back. Megaton is much rarer and almost never comes up anywhere but one went in the US for USD$600 recently. If you have the first press (200...you can tell by the label...the first run had the Roger Dean label, I insisted on it as some sort of silly punk snipe at hippie-dom...the second run has a black and white Vertigo label) it's worth the most, as the $600 one was the second, bigger, run
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... try telling that to today's kids, Grand-dad.
actually the humble 7"has had quite a revival in the UK, most indie bands releasing their singles in the format these days. Conch had a thing in their newsletter about a 400% increase in sales over the past few years.
I'm sure someone told me this was NZ's first 12" single but have no idea whether that's actually true or not?
It was, and I can put my hand up and say that was my idea. Phonogram who distributed it has to be forced into it very reluctantly. You did well to find a new copy in the 1980s too, only 500 were pressed in early 78. It was gold in AK by 81 and I was going to do a 7" repress of both Reptiles singles as a doublepack but for some reason never got around to it...
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Yeah, Peter I have that thing...lovely box with badges stuck to the front. I'm lucky enough to own dozens of originals from the same period, piccy sleeves etc...one of the benefits of age, Jam, Clash, Damned, Ramones, all the early Pistols (EMI NZ Anarchy) and many more including lots of one offs with very cool garage graphics, gatefold sleeves, coloured or clear vinyl....
Mp3s, CDs, whatever, the 7" single still rules the pop format
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10:15 Saturday Night is such a great tune
On it's original 7" with Killing An Arab on the flip, it's one of the 70s great singles IMO...and I'd argue they never bettered it. Pop perfection.
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It's extraordinary and Iggy is sheer charisma.
As he always is / was. I took him to a Cook Street Xmas Party in 1979, at the Mandalay. As we entered Th'Dudes, unknowingly, struck up "The Passenger". Mr Osterberg made his way to the stage and stared at Peter who stopped singing, mouth open, mid chorus.......
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Tony Wilson
Yep, without whom......
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Shocking Pinks sign to DFA? I didn't know that, that's a hell of a coup. Half a dozen of my favourite albums this decade are on DFA
Probably the most important artist to sign to Flying Nun since their glory days, IMO.
In 2007 I'd rather be aligned with James Murphy than Edgar Bronfman
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Keen to demonstrate that I was a hip young man deserving of the deputy editor's job, I brought Murray around to my flat and stuck on Orange Juice's You Can't Hide Your Love Forever album: the one with the wonky version of Al Green's 'L.O.V.E.', and much beloved of John Campbell.
Little did I know that Murray, as a genuine soul fan, loathed the record, and that cover version in particular. "Could you please take this off?" he asked, eventually. Whoops.
Sorry Russell, 25 years later, but that was my fault. Mo and I had been flatting together since 1980 and generally reached musical consensus (god I learned a lot from that man) but OJ's cover of L.O.V.E, which was a big fave of mine, was a major point of difference. I used to bang it on in the morning and he'd come out of his room and pull it off before it got more than a few bars in. I guess you caught the flack because of that flat fracas.