Posts by Bruce Wurr
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South Africa definitely looked sharp, and at this stage I would say the most dangerous of the opposition. I'd also agree that England will be run close by Samoa - not so confident about a loss though.
One correction - sadly, Murray hasn't been relegated to the NPC. He's on the ITV commentary teams for the coverage in the UK.....sigh........
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A bit off subject now (but not from the original post)
RIP Big Matt - a truly great man who will never be forgotten
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Just me ten cents worth, and a bit late but oh well……
Hard work will always be the first and most crucial step to taking you where you want to go, be it commercial success mainstream or otherwise (depending on your definition of success), making the kind of music you want to with no compromise, developing and honing musicianship or whatever. It definitely doesn’t guarantee financial rewards or security, but it will certainly lay a good foundation for some kind of career/legacy, whichever route you take.
As part of that ethic - go overseas for experience, play as much as you can around NZ, work with other musicians, record yourself, record in a studio, build contacts, play in more than one band at a time, learn other instruments etc. Get a full time job as well, try doing what I’ve just said in the last sentence and find out how hard things can be with and without employment. Self fund yourself, seek funding from others, it’s all possible to do. Again, it may not lead to financial reward (probably won’t) but it will help you define the kind of path you want to go down.
As for the question of why should a band exert themselves in NZ in the first place? Well, aside from the invaluable experience gained from all the points listed above unless at the very start you have sound financial backing, contacts or otherwise you’ll just place yourself in another country, in exactly the same situation you would have been back home without any kind of support network at all, more than likely in a more hostile environment.
Graham’s original post actually highlights a problem with the way the industry promotes itself more than anything else. Celebrate success within this country by all means, but lets not lose sight of what the reality is outside of NZ – something the couple of debates going on at the moment have highlighted well. Perhaps the nz music month should target global markets rather than local (if it’s not doing so already)?
People like Simon, who has an amazing amount of experience in the industry, are far more qualified to talk about engineering and mastering than myself but one thing I would say is that perhaps there has been a mismatch of resources to releases – one or two engineers may end up doing most of the recordings within the commercial industry to the detriment of the styles of music they are working on. Most bands have to rely on self funding for recording (nothing wrong with diy mind you!) which tends to propagate the use of friends, cheap resources and self taught engineering. I don’t know enough about current studio prices but one band who recorded overseas said that it was cheaper to record in LA than it was in York st 2.
Sorry if that was all a bit rambling.....
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Excellent post Graham, and also the replies. I must admit I've had the perception in the past that when a band plays in the US, UK or overseas at all that they must be successful and/or broken through in some way. Having left NZ and lived in London for a year now that myth has been well and truly dispersed.
Touring and building a live fanbase is essential for any band - experience, exposure, musicianship, tightness etc and yep, most nz bands don't get close to even doing the whole of NZ, let alone the world. Someone like Blink has done a great job giving bands experience with his A Low Hum tours, and die die die are doing the hard yards as I write touring the US and will be heading over to the UK soon for their 3rd(?) tour. I would advise any band that wants to be serious to at least fund themselves a short tour of another country just to get an idea of what it's like outside of NZ, and the challenges that will be presented to them. The importance of playing live should not be underestimated.
It's great to see this being talked about in a public forum!
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Well said folks. The hysteria is out over at the Herald in the "Your Views" column and as usual the vitriol is flying at the first defeat. Strange how it wasn't around when we were winning in the Chappell Hadlee series.
Fleming and the team have been great, right from the Rixon era, although I agree completely that John Bracewell has undermined the captaincy and balance of the team right through his reign. In fact he should be the first casualty as far as I'm concerned - certainly his coaching style has led to the test team waning over the last few years. Bring on Wrighty I say.
That said, it was a poor performance in the last two games and it looked to me like the team lost it's composure completely. Bond trying to take a wicket every ball with no rhythm, the backup bowlers bowling poorly, a good fielding side fielding badly etc. But let's enjoy some good performances at a rather sombre world cup, celebrate some wonderful years with Stephen Fleming and welcome in a changing of the guard. I'm more worried about our future bowling stocks to be honest!
As a cricket fan you get used to the rollercoaster ride.....
Finally, thank you for all the posts, they've been lovely!
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Wish I was there.....seen them more than a few times, including a very sweaty gluepot where I attracted very bruised shins from being against the stage and they gleamed through Diamond Shine.
In Love With These Times is such a cool song.
In fact, if there are any F Nun people reading this is there any chance of the Nelsh Bailter Space ep being released on cd or such like?
I know Matador released it a long time ago with Tanker as a States only release, but they dropped the band and as such it's disappeared.
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Okay....there's so many stories and most involve some kind of alcoholic misfortune on my part so here's a couple of 'em....
1994(?) at the uni cafe in auckland about to witness the very first incarnation of Dimmer - Peter (hope I'm right!) Jeffries was on drums (sorry I can't remember the bass player's name) and Crystalator was shattering the bfm airwaves with an air of mystery....I'd started my evening very liquidly with some grosvenor st residents and the schmidts from crawlspace on what was a very cold and wet night. Consequently the uni cafe was surrounded by mud....
After watching a glowing Jeffries solo set to open I decided to slip out for a wee puff. At the time I had on a pair of old docs doing their best to imitate ice skates...I stepped outside past the two bouncers, off the concrete and into the mud. All of a sudden the night went into slow motion.....simultaneously both feet went out from under me and I remember thinking "Noooo....How can I go back in if I'm covered in sh*t" as I went down. Somehow (and to this day I have no idea how) I managed to twist and land in a full pressup position, hands on the concrete, tips of boots in the mud to the applause of the bouncers....miraculously no mud on me clothes and despite how out of it I was they let me back in to see a storming Dimmer...
Fast forward to 1999/2000 nye on the 10th or so day of a sth island road trip. Pulling into Dunedin it was looking grim so we stopped at Records Records and asked if anything was going on that night - only the Renderers out at Port Chalmers!
We pulled up outside Chicks and were reacquainted with the subtle art of big bots (swappacrate), being the strangers in town mixing with the locals, and the lovely Renderers.....over far too soon. On return to the Octagon we were just in time to be overrun by munters and someone throwing a rubbish bin through a leather shop's window.....