Hard News by Russell Brown

hey man Thanks for the include on your blog. Just so you and anyone reading this knows we gave "semblance" away last year it is on our soundcloud for free download :) thanks for the support!

Excerpt from Billboard cover story on Prince is here. Sample:

The ever-slender Prince - a strikingly ever-youthful advertisement for the maxim "black don't crack" - is garbed in yellow pants and a long, oversized button-front white-and-yellow jersey emblazoned with "MPLS" on the front. His Afro is covered by an incongruous hat in the shape of a lion. His other eye-catching accessory: wedged silver shoes adorned with periodically flashing red lights. A full-fledged rock star, even in rehearsal.

Gotta love him.

I wonder if The Skeptics were still running Snailclamps at the time?

If so, a detour off SH1 to Palmy might have been in order ... opportunity missed.

Musically I too

dimly recall having quite a good time in 1984

and it certainly ended with a bang.

Radiolive chat (mid 2012) with John Halvorsen (Gordons, Bailterspace, Skeptics...)

I wonder if The Skeptics were still running Snailclamps at the time?

Yeah Snail Clamps closed in 1985, I was there at the closing night 'cos AXEMEN played was fab!

1984 was one of the best and busiest years for music in Christchurch. You had to be there I guess.

1984 was one of the best and busiest years for music in Christchurch. You had to be there I guess.

As my steadily falling university grades could attest.

hey man Thanks for the include on your blog. Just so you and anyone reading this knows we gave “semblance” away last year it is on our soundcloud for free download :) thanks for the support!

No problem! I've updated the blog with that link now.

_‘Cake’ is on name-your-price (including zero) on Bandcamp and Girl Songs will be released on (sob) Valentine’s Day. Here’s the cover:_

... and here's the original!
http://artworkbymanicmark.blogspot.co.nz/2010_07_04_archive.html

Hey - did anybody else go to the Waterboy's at the Civic on Monday?
I've been wanting to talk about it's awesomeness all week..

Electric fiddles are so cool!

The odd thing is how poorly-identified everyone is

Although my other half managed to identify a very young herself at 3.52 getting down to Russ and crew (she would've been 14..)

The Venue, whose proprietor, a Mr Russell Crowe,

A-hem…. He was calling himself Russ LeRoc at the time :D

Hey – did anybody else go to the Waterboy’s at the Civic on Monday?
I’ve been wanting to talk about it’s awesomeness all week..

Yep. Full set (such that they are) on Flickr.

Enjoyed it immensely, but I get caught in these nostalgia gigs between appreciating their continuing musical acumen and wanting to hear the whole of This Is The Sea, including Bonus Disc tracks, from start to finish.

But they sure know how to work a crowd.

He was calling himself Russ LeRoc

With due respect to mythological Persian birds,
I thought it was Russ Le Roq…
..well, his Roman Antix almost lead
to him becoming Marlon Brando…

almost lead to him becoming Marlon Brando…

on thinking about it - as he is taking the role of Jor-El in Zack Snyder's rebooted Superman - he has stepped into Marlon's shoes!

Flume

Dammit. I prefer to discover people after they've played here and then have a vague sense of regret, not decide I like them two days before their local appearance and feel bad all that day for not going. A pox on you, Brown!

With due respect to mythological Persian birds,
I thought it was Russ Le Roq…

Indeed.

I liked Russ -- he'd come up to Rip It Up in his canary-yellow zoot suit and drop off his listings -- although I didn't claim to understand what he thought he was doing. He was sincere and hard-working and his bands were truly terrible.

The memory permanently etched into my brain from that era is that of the Windsor Castle's resident act, the notorious Team Policing Unit.

thought it was Russ Le Roq…

I bow to your greater recall :) I was just starting high school at the time...

My older brother interviewed him for a radio-show that was produced by school students... possibly aired on ZM? A different high-schhol produced each week's show. Lynfield College did a show about activities (or lack of) for teenagers, so talking to the promoter of an under--age music venue was a good fit...

and his bands were truly terrible.

I've mentioned to Trevor Reekie that I hold him personally responsible for Les Misérables

As a happy coincidence, I spotted the album cover for the Pretty Things "Get The Picture" LP in the window of the excellent Vinyl Countdown second-hand record store on Devon Street in New Plymouth--a store right across the road from the old NP Opera House, where the infamous 1965 concert took place. I love such coincidences!
The proprietor gifted it to me and it can be added to my AudioCulture piece..

Another spin on the bike along the coastal walkway in Taranaki sunshine and then off to Tropfest screenings

As a happy coincidence, I spotted the album cover for the Pretty Things "Get The Picture" LP in the window of the excellent Vinyl Countdown second-hand record store on Devon Street in New Plymouth

Ah, cool Geoff. I'm seeing you in early March so I can arrange a swift scan.

I hope everyone enjoyed Laneway yesterday - I am spitting tacks this morning to discover that one of my very favourite bands, Kings of Convenience, were on yesterday and NO ONE THOUGHT TO TELL ME. Luckily I'll get over it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=aTLySbGoMX0