Posts by Grant McDougall
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Here's a question you may have had: which NZ band had a song go to number one the first week of release with no commercial radio airplay?
Screaming Meemees' 'See Me Go'?
(Which, BTW, you may soon be hearing in a version style ...)
It was on TV last night in a torch song version for the Weetbix Kids Tryathlon ad.
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I've only answered the ones I (think) I know. I've also added two "bonus" questions of my own at the bottom, should anyone wish to answer them: one politics, one culture.
POLITICS
The 1975 election was also remarkable for the fact that a Maori candidate was elected to a general seat for the first time since 1893. In fact, there were two. Name me at least one of them.
Ben Couch - MP for Waiarapa.
What, by legend, was found in the briefcase stupidly left by an SIS operative on a journalist's fence?
A pie and a copy of Penthouse.
One of the 'Double Standard' billboards popular in Wellington during the Muldoon era read 'Rooting Pig Shot in Ngaio'. What were the last two words of the Billboard?
"PM safe".
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CULTURE
Scribe, Che Fu and Nesian Mystik's Feleti Strickson-Pua are all, of course, local rap artists. But what did their fathers have in common in the late 70s?
Were they all deported as "over-stayers" ?
If you had been at an event in the company of 75,000 other New Zealanders over Auckland anniversary weekend in 1979, where would you have been?
Either Nambassa or Sweetwaters?
Which two actors starred in both Goodbye Pork Pie and Utu?
Kelly Johnson and...,er, the other dude.
What was a Blue Lady, as immortalised in the Hello Sailor song, 'Blue Lady'?
A heroin needle.
MULTI-CHOICE
1. What was the top tax rate in New Zealand in 1983?
(a) 50%
(b) 56%
(c) 66%
(d)70%C
2. In the 1981 general election, Mana Motuhake and the Values Party finished fourth and fifth respectively in the popular vote. Which of the following parties came in sixth?
(a) The Wizard Party
(b) The Socialist Unity Party
(c) Economic Euthenics
(d) No Confidence.A
5. Which of the following was not the acronym of a interest group active in the 1970s?
(a) SPCS
(b) SPUC
(c) SPCA
(d) SPCLD
6. Of whom did Muldoon say: 'He can stew in his own juice.'?
(a) Derek Quigley
(b) Abraham Ordia
c) John Minto
(d) David LangeA
Grant's bonus questions:
Q1: The first game of the 1981 Springbok tour was against which team in which city?
Q2: Which of the following punk / post-punk bands did NOT have a top 20 pop hit in NZ in the early '80s?
A)The Fall
B) Public Image Limited
C)Joy Division
D)Dead Kennedys -
Tze Ming, best of luck for everything.
Your measured, intelligent reaction, analysis and deconstruction of the "Asian Angst" bilge was outstanding amd much appreciated.
Look after yourself, take it easy and have a most-excellent Christmas and 2008.
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If Henare fails to contact the McCready's lawyer by Friday, a refusal will have consequences"
It's somewhat ironic that McCready's taking Mallard to court for throwing his weight around, but is now making "stand-over" threats himself.
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humph...Propeller and Flying Nun issued it together. It was really my baby and took months of tracking down tapes, redoing the sleeve etc. I had to remix the Suburban Reps Megaton (and the previously unreleased SR's track whatever it is) from the original 4 track unmixed tape I had.
Doh! Sorry Simon, I hastily glanced at the cd to answer Stephen's art-work, etc, question and quickly jumped to a conclusion as after "P & C 1993" on the actual disc it says "Flying Nun." My bad.
Danielle, Robyn, you're comments on down-sizing your music collection has freaked-out the "inner Rob Fleming" in the male music geeks here. ;)
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the sleeve made every one of those a financial trainwreck
Never seen an LP copy of AK79, what was it... B/W? Standard 12" jacket? A printed inner sleeve? A bound/stapled booklet? Tell me more...
Stephen, Simon's refering to the Newmatic's double 7" Broadcast OR ep's sleeve, as it was a gatefold picture sleeve and thus very expensive for an NZ indie back then.
I've got a vinyl version of AK79. I bought it in about '91 or so, for what was then the bargain price of $35. About the same time, Records Records here in Dunedin sold two copies for $50 each.
About six months later, Flying Nun re-issued it on cd with umpteen extra tracks, sleeve notes, etc.
On the cd, tracks 4 to 15 are the original lp tracks, the rest are the extras.Format-wise, the original cover art is as per the cd, but lp-sized, of course, plus the songs were listed in a white, "type-writer capitals" font on the back.
Mine doesn't have an inner sleeve, but maybe it originally did, I don't know. Definitely no booklet, though. -
Another few comments...
The "Work Choice" legislation went down like a cup of cold sick, just like the ECA did here. People didn't like it, so they spat it out. This has been a major factor in the Aussie public turning against the Liberals.
Also, as an Aussie commentator said on RNZ last week, the Liberals failed to take Rudd seriously until it was too late. They were too complacent, expecting him to take the same predictable lines as Crean, Latham, Beazley, etc and easily swat them away. But he didn't which left them unsure of how to respond to him.
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Will anyone here move against Clark? I doubt it, and they'd probably be right not to, but Clark/Labour face the same problems Howard/the Liberals did. Sure, things are pretty good, but we're just not feeling you any more - maybe it's time for the other lot to have a go?
Being in government is__hard__ work, it's that simple. Even if you're generally doing ok, you start to tire.
As a basic comparision, let's imagine the gov't are a rugby team and they've been asked to play four games (terms) in four days. First day, they win, no worries. Second day, another solid win, but a couple of the team are starting to puff a bit. Third day, still a skillful team, but, well, it's starting to be a bit of a struggle and some of the forwards are a bit late to the break-down, but they scrape in with a last-minute drop-goal.
Now they've gotta face another game tomorrow: on paper, they're still a good team, but injuries and all that hard, physical work is just starting to wear them out.
In comparision, the opposition are nothing flash, but they're good, solid and re-juvenated.
Or maybe it's like doing four exams in two days; by the fourth exam you know you're a bright individual, but you're a bit knackered and just know the result isn't gonna be as good as the first one or two.
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Anyway, the most interesting post-election item is that Rudd is not letting the caucus have any say whatsoever in choosing the front bench. Now, that's definitely Bliar-ite, and only time will tell whether it ultimately has the same outcome.
It's superficially Blair-ite and I can't see Rudd making the same mistakes as Blair or being a Blair clone in general. He would've kept an eye on Blair and learnt from his mistakes.
I actually think "the most interesting post-election item" is the decision by Peter Costello not to seek the Liberal leadership.
He's been shafted by Howard and will never be PM. It's human nature for him to think "Stuff this, it's not worth it anymore." Howard noticably gave Costello a special mention in his defeat speech, yet it would've been made with the purpose of covering his own arse and giving the impression that there's no ill-feeling between them, when there has been for ages.Also, during the campaign, Howard said he was "sorry" that interest rates had gone up, but wasn't "apologising" that they had.
Both incidents show what a venal, duplitious individual Howard is.
As an aside, about 14-15 months ago, I read an interview by (I think), Peter Fitz-Simmons with Gough Whitlam. He asked Whitlam if he thought there'd be another Labor gov't in his time and Whitlam was very vague and non-commital about it. It's amazing fast things change and, well, now Whitlam can die happily, I suppose.
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Talking of such..this is interesting
Very. Alan Perrot once told me that in the early '90s either he or a mate of his (I've forgotten which) picked up the 12" of 'Megaton' in a sale at the palmerston North library for...read it and weep: $2.