Posts by Grant McDougall
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Good post, Russell.
I'm with Eddie Raynor on this: non ones admitting it, but everyone's doing it.
I think the music biz-types are hypocritical about this: for years I've known musicians, music writers, djs, plain ol' music fans and every single one has taped (as it was then), burnt or down-loaded music.
Regardless of the ethics, it's done because the music's available, because we're music addicts. If a mate's got a bootleg by a favourite band are we going to turn it down ? No way.
Also, I think that actual burning is a red herring. The major problem is actual, simple economics.
Why the hell should I pay $35 for a new cd, when I can hire it from the library for $2 and burn it?Finally, a value judgement: it was hilarious to see some guy from Tadpole moaning and blaming down-loading on poor albums sales.
Funny, I would've thought that the piss-poor, mediocre, insipid, banal music they made was more to blame.
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Sometime later Mark Tierney presented the live video of 'Diamond Shine' on the "annoyingly catchy" RWP music show.
'Diamond Shine' was on RWP in '90, but presented by Dick (now Richard) Driver.
Tierney, along with one Robert Rakete and one Larnie Gifford, actually presented the truly horrific "CV" in early '89.
Incidentally, Peter Jefferies savaged "CV" in the song 'Cold View' on his first solo album The Last Great Challenge In A Dull World.
But I digress. Anyway, The Clean: I never saw them in the early '80s (though I did see the Great Unwashed).
But in '89 it was therefore with considerable excitement when I found out they were reforming.
I've been lucky enough to have seen any number of great local and o/seas bands, but nothing will ever match the sheer electricity in Sammy's just before The Clean took the stage. -
Tony Murdoch!! To this day, I'm still grateful to Tony for getting me into music.
It was Tony's rampant enthusiasm for all things Propeller that led to some of my earliest purchases.
He did indeed go on to own the Soul Mine, which I understand is still flourishing.
Tony was also the percussionist in Marching Orders, whose singer was one Jackie Clarke. They did a 12" single on F.Nun, despite sounding very Un-FN, played '84 Sweetwaters, then split.
After the split, he came back to Gisborne, where he was severely beaten to near death by the Mongrel Mob following a mis-understanding. He then left Gissy for Wellington.
I still hear about him on the grapevine and he's still one of life's great characters by all accounts.
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When I was a school-boy in provincial NZ (Gisborne, to be exact) in the early-mid '80s, Rip It Up was something of a life-line to the musical happenings and excitement of the big smokes.
That, Russell, is RIU's chief legacy of that era: yes, the features and reviews in themselves were exciting. But in that long ago and faraway pre-internet age, the access to information about exciting, cutting edge music that RIU and RWP provided is what I and a lot of other provincial kids my age are most thankful for.
I got my first ever copy (Penknife Glides cover) from Vibes sometime in '81 and never missed a single issue for the next 10 years.
Apart from many of the writers mentioned, George Kay was also one of the best.
George, who was / is a teacher at OBHS, once told me how he'd always organise a school trip away somewhere, where, ever so coincidentally, there'd be an overseas band playing.
Thus it was, he was able to interview Magazine in Auckland or The Fall in Chch...After coming down to Dunedin in the late '80s I was also fortunate enough to do the ocassional article / review for the mag. It was, at the time, an incredibly exciting thing to do. As a schoolboy I'd read the Dunedin Rumours column - and now I was writing it!
I haven't read RIU for a long time - but I' m really glad I read it when I did.
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I could go on about how I was living in the house where 'Beard of Bees' was recorded, but hey ...
I for one would love to hear it. I assume it must've been as weird as some of the antics that Chris Matthews mentions in the liner notes to the Children's Hour live cd released by Failsafe last year?
The Jefferies brothers really were on fire in the '80s - mid-'90s, weren't they? Great TKOP albums, plus some astonishing solo / latter band albums each as well.
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The Cake Kitchen - now there was an incredibly under-rated band: great live, very good ep and first few albums, too.
Is Graeme Jefferies just back from Europe for a visit, or permanently ?
*Wistfully dreams of This Kind Of Punishment reforming*
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Interesting...I had exactly the same problem with three of the four jewel cases when I bought mine back in December.
I realise it's a minor quibble compared to the lovely music, etc, but there's clearly been a packaging snafu somewhere, somehow.
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Russell, regarding the Karajoz blend events in Auckland and Wellington, I expect it comes down to logistics, finance and demographics...but is there any chance of them coming to Christchurch and Dunedin at any stage?
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Oh boy, where do I start...growing up in Gisborne in the early '80s, my first live exposure to Flying Nun, was, alarmingly, Marching Orders.
Oh, the ignominy...things could only get better...
Anyway, a few years later, '87 or so, I was throwing a sickie from work to bunk off to Auckland or Wellington to see The Chills at The Powerstation or The Verlaines at the Cricketers Arms.In Oct '87 I was in Hamilton to see Straitjacket Fits (Adult Mayflies, featuring ex-Stone Graeme Anderson, supported). I interviewed them for my fanzine (God, there's an antiquated term / concept in the digital age).
I was expecting Shayne Carter to be as per his reputation: belligerent, sarcastic and a general grump. But he was surprisingly decent.
They played a great gig - to about only 30 people, as the Hillcrest had forgotten to put up the promo posters around town.
It was after the gig that Carter wore his Mr Grumpy hat and really gave the Hilly's manager a piece of his mind. I taped the interview, the gig, I wish I'd taped that, too...By the late '80s I was in Dunedin. In early '89 I went to a party at Alastair Galbraith's warehouse in Stafford St. Check out the line-up: the 3ds (their second-ever gig), Dead C and Plagal Grind.
Anyway, there was umpteen gallons of David Mitchell's homebrew free to all. So I ripped into it. There were these funny-looking yellow things floating in the mixture and under the impression they were "Cheese Balls" chips I munched about 14 of them. Boy, was I paralytic.A week or so later I bumped into Mitchell and asked him why all these "Cheese Balls" were in his brew.
"You idiot!" Mitchell replied. "They were raisins I put in the brew, which soaked up the alcohol - they're like mezcal worms!"Later that year I saw Buster (Lesley Paris's short-lived post LBGP band), Cyclops (ex-Alpacas, LBGP, etc), Stephen (D.Kilgour's post-GU band)and the 3ds at the Savoy, of all places. I _think_ it may have been Paul and Lesley's going-away party.
Myself and the late Andrew Heal were talking to David Saunders after the 3ds gig and rambling on to him about "the new song, the one that goes 'I try to sing a sing-song, but all the words are coming out wrong'..."
David said they still didn't have a name for it and Andrew and I said "you should just call it 'Sing-Song' ". David was probably just keen to get rid of us two drunken morons and said "Yeah, 'Sing-Song' that's a good name for it".
Grant Smithies says he never saw the 3ds live. Right now is where I make him turn green, by sawing that I saw them in 13 different venues, let alone how many times I saw them at Sammy's or the Empire. They were just such an ace live band.A few weeks later I took some photos of the final Sneaky Feelings gig, at the Oriental. Years later, one turns up, uncredited, in the Bannister book and I still don't know how he got hold of it.
Then there was the time my bag caught fire at a Bailter Space gig. It was '90, at Sammy's. I took a lot of photos at gigs those days and my camera in a bag. I was standing near the front and I couldn't figure out a) where that intense stench of smoke was coming from, and b) why people were scattering away from me so quickly...I was just happily standing there seeing them, er, scorch their way through Grader Spader or whatever.
A few seconds later, I finally clicked: my bag was going up in flames and my hair was getting pretty badly singed. I threw the bag off and somehow got rid of the flames. Thankfully my camera survived ok.Also, while fitba is the sport most often associated with FN, there are a fair few closet rugbyheads among 'em as well.
In '93 one Saturday night myself and a few mates trundled around a few parties, then ended up at the Empire.
I got talking to Bruce Blucher (ex-Alpaca Brothers, later in Cyclops, Trash, etc) who invited us back to his place in Bond St, which was then also operating as an art gallery. Ever so conveniently, the current exhibition was an 'installation' of TVs, including a life-size screen.
Thus it was that my mates and I, along with a handful of others including , Blucher, Bob Scott, Stephen drummer Steven Hoani and, I think, Stephen Kilroy, watched the All Blacks vs Scotland, live from Murrayfield.
There are two things in particular I remember: 1) Jeff Wilson scored four tries and whenever he did, Hoani would jump into the air and yell out "Otaaaaaaaaaaaaaagoooo 17, Scotland 3" or whatever the score was., and, 2) There were 15 (!!) riggers of delicious Otago Strong beer in front of the screen at kick-off. By half-time there was only four.Later that year I was up at Radio One one Saturday afternoon and saw Bruce Blucher and Peter Jefferies watching the North Harbour vs Auckland clash and discussing the subtleties of play with a great deal with expertise.
Carter once told me that both Peter and Graeme Jefferies were very good school-boy rugby players. He may well have been pulling my leg, but Peter sure knew what he was talking about, either way.There are a million other anecdotes and great memories I have associated with Flying Nun. But I'll stop now.