Random Play: Pauly Fuemana: How . . . sad
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If memory serves, there was a three or four part series broadcast a few years back called something like 'a history of New Zealand music'.
There was a section in one episode that focussed on 'how bizarre', including some interviews. I recall one of the interviewees mentioning that the reason Pauly had to fly back to the UK was because the track slipped a few positions in the charts, and so he was told he might as well go home - it would never climb back up the charts again, because they never did.
But it did, and so he had to head back to the UK for another round of promo.
There was another interviewee who recalled living in London above a building site, where the workers would bawl out 'buy the rights!' in sync at the appropriate point every time the song was on the radio.
I've been looking for the clip online, but I can't remember what the programme was called or who made it. I'm sure someone on here has a better memory than me.
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Sad news alright.
OMC was the support act, and out came a fearsome looking man, dressed in traditional polynesian garb, brandishing a machete and rapping a fairly hardcore song with the refrain "I'm just another coconut"
ahhh the good old days, but that sounds like it might have been Pasifikan Descendents rather than OMC, although ermehn, the other founding member of OMC before 'how bizarre' blew up, does have a propensity for playing with knives.
That PROUD tour is stuff of legend. Phil was the man and he used to say the craziest shit...
"I am pretty sure that most of us - like me, in our mid-to-late thirties - we remember what our parents gave up for us ... The shit that they had to go through was unbelievable. They had the whole dawn raid thing. My Dad got put in prison 'cause they thought he was Samoan overstayer.
I remember walking into a shop and him getting chased and running away. Cops running past us and grabbing him. I was just standing there - I was probably about seven, just watching this go down and thinking 'what tha?' He came back a few hours later, but that distress, it makes you think of that Bowling in Columbine movie - living in fear. Now, whenever I walk into a restaurant, everyone's all - 'fuck I'd better watch out' - ya know? I'm the last person to bloody beat you up. Probably some other dopey egg is gonna do it. Like I wanna jeopardise my life like that - but that's the way it's perceived ...
When me and my crew started out in the music biz we never wanted to save the world. We didn't say - 'let's save everyone, lets lead the way for PIs' - fuck off! We were trying to make money and dissing everyone else along the way - 'they're fuckin' useless, we'll do a better R'n'B track than them, we'll do a better hip hop track than them.' We were as arrogant as anyone else, but that's what happens on nearly all projects that are inspirational to people - they just happen. They're driven and then you think - fuck I'm gonna be like that.
Now I read an article in Real Groove and Andy [Murnane, from Dawnraid] mentions me and I remember it was Andy's job carrying the bags - he was just this white guy, who was Danny's mate and now he's one of the leading hip hop innovators for our country. I didn't even know him. That's what inspiration is - him and Danny have gone on to inspire heaps of people ... Some people in the media did used to pick on us because they thought we were trying to be American, but then they'd fuckin' eat KFC and McDonalds like everyone else. But all they saw was these brownies - who are perceived to be the ones who do all the trouble - choosing a genre that's equal to trouble in the States.
I wouldn't even believe what you hear from the States. I mean, there's probably a million times more black people not into hip hop, ya know? There 's a whole heap of black people in the US who are middle class and they probably like country music or soul music ... So as far as that argument about us in the media - it just seems like something to look at ... At the same time, we're lucky because as PIs, our hip hop does have a PI flavour and gives us a unique point of difference.
And in the end, as Kiwis - whether that be Coconuts, Maoris, Pakehas, or whatever - we have our flavour and that's gonna be what gets us to wherever we're going . And I am happy with how things have turned out over the years, because these days I can look at the charts and see a group like Nesian Mystik on there and I know it 's been worthwhile.
The Fuemana's truly were 'Pioneers of a Pasifikan frontier' and my hope now is that Chrissy doesnt die anytime soon...much love
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Rich, was it "Give it a Whirl"? Can't see it online but there's a dvd out there somewhere.
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I'm betting it was Rocked the Nation: 100 NZ Music moments - a 6 part TV3 series from 2008, fronted by Karyn Hay. How Bizarre was one of the Top 10 moments, I'm certain.
I found a review of the Crowded House concert I recalled earlier, it was on 27 Feb 1994, but unfortunately no mention of the support acts are in it (save that the 2 kids pulled up on stage to sing the Marley cover were 'better than the support acts').
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You're probably right. Again, can't see a clip online though.
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It was Give It A Whirl, a six parter put together by Visionary in 2004.
I was the person being interviewed, and yes, we went backwards and forwards four or five times in 5 weeks, including once arriving back in NZ on a Sunday morn, getting a call at midday from the UK which put us back on a plane to the UK later that day.
The airpoints were good.
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Thanks, Simon.
I suspected you probably had some involvement, and would at least know what I was talking about.
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getting a call at midday from the UK which put us back on a plane to the UK later that day
Did you cancel out the jet lag?
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Reuters overhypes the ghetto:
The Otara Millionaires Club was originally a rap group named for a suburb of Auckland where offshoots of Los Angeles' Crips and Bloods gangs reigned amid fenced-off schools, run-down buildings and curfews. Brandishing machetes, the preferred means of settling gang disputes, the band would throw bottles at fans to hype them up.
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overhypes the ghetto
Yeah, just a tad.
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What was DLT talking about on 3 news ? Something about being disgusted with how Pauly was treated by the music industry and in particular his record company ?
He didnt want to elaborate, which is unlike him :), so was wondering if anybody knew what he was on about...Simon ?
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He didnt want to elaborate, which is unlike him :), so was wondering if anybody knew what he was on about...Simon ?
I'm guessing he didn't want to elaborate because it was just hot air and anger at his early passing. Pauly's management audited Universal several times and there are / were no problems at all. They're quite clear on that.
That said, there is a great deal of quite sad but inevitable bandwagoning jumping which does Paul's memory and legacy no honour.
I've got issues with the way OMC was handled by PolyGram (mostly in Australia) but this is neither the time or the place.
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Fair enough, cheers.
Just wanted to know if there were any lessons from his tragic passing that youngers wishing to follow in his footsteps might learn from.
Got any good advice...anybody ?
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How Bizarre the single and album sold more than four million copies and netted $11 million in royalties. Pauly said in 2007 he received $5 million of that.
He splashed out on rock star trappings like a Hummer, and gave vehicles and cash to friends and family. But Pauly was hit with huge bills from overseas tours and was involved in a feud over his percentage of the royalties.
In 2006, he was declared bankrupt. Liquidators said Pauly and Kirstene's "lavish lifestyle had not contracted when the royalties began to diminish".
But Kirstene said her husband, who was earning $15,000-a-year before his hit, measured wealth in family and friends, not in money.
"He was like, 'That is life'. He always said thank God he had his family and that was far more important to him. He had come from having very little so he lived how he wanted to live. He was going to enjoy every second of it and he did. He had a very good time of it all and he still had his family.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/celebrities/3301104/Pauly-Fuemana-The-real-story
Lots of lessons there to be learnt, but it speaks to the character of the man that he never sold out his family values for more money and that money didnt seem to change him.
i remember having a chat with Phil Fuemana back in the late 90's about artistic integrity versus selling out and he said something to the effect of...
"forget artistic integrity. if it is your calling in life to make music, you need to make money from it to survive and such is the nature of the industry that you do what is needed to stay in the game"
i agreed, but thought there are still some things one shouldn't do and that players distracted by the illusion of the game, don't realise when to give up and get out while the getting's good, or when they haven't got what it truly takes to succeed.
guess it comes down to surrounding yourself with good honest people in whose advice you trust. don't know if there are that many in the music biz though and with family there is often a bias ?
everyone though i reckon, has one great song in them.
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There's another story in the Sunday News today. Don't know how true any of it is, but mentions some of Pauly's dealings with the music industry as well as his last days with family.
Snap.
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Don't know how true any of it is
hammer-meet-nail
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family bias you reckon Simon ?..but still, benefit of the doubt must be given.
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Robbie, I don't really want to go into all this here, but suffice to say that Phil was a pretty wonderful guy who did great things not only for his community but every aspiring kid who has a notion to make music in NZ. As are Tony and Christina.
That said there are half truths, and simple untruths in both stories, liberally mixed with statements that do touch on the truth.
I've long since learned that the printed media in this fair land of ours has only a passing acquaintance with accurate reporting.
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OK i'll drop it, suffice to say i 've heard a fair amount of stories, most not fit for print mind you, but the thing is, i do think there are valuable lessons to be learnt from the truth and that whatever that is, it should come out.
if not here, then somewhere in the non printable blogosphere and in due time, possibly in your memoirs ?
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Herald adds an anecdote from Murray Thom to a rehash of their earlier story.
As How Bizarre reached the top of the United States charts, Pauly Fuemana was celebrating another treasured moment at home - the birth of his eldest son, Angelo.
The singer's two highlights of 1996 came together in an artwork which was provided to the Great New Zealand Songbook last year.
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