Posts by Simon Grigg
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wow, that Phoenix Foundation is cool, kinda like a lysergic Moody Blues (and I mean that in a good way)
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this perhaps indicates the penetration of Selwyn into our psyche a few years back.
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Where the record companies are falling down is in their assumptions about what the market will currently bear, and that it will continue to bear what it has always borne with nary a whimper.
where the record companies fell down was succumbing to lawyers and accountants who fail to understand that it's an industry, unlike baked beans, largely driven by personal passion and perceived bonds to the artists.
CDs in themselves, in real terms of where they sit in the marketplace are globally cheaper now than they've ever been, even when CDs were called LPs.
But the perceived value is much lower, and the record companies, for a multitude of reasons are responsible for that. They've made their bed, and continue to do so.
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Al Jaz 24/ 7 and Australia Network 24/7 are the highlights of an sometimes patchy 50 odd channel Indovision service up here (although the rather graphic local news channels do tend to draw you in)
The quality of the news, the balance, and the analysis on both rather dwarf their US & (to a much lessor degree) UK counterparts. I'm quite particular to the irregular show on Al Jaz, fronted by various ex-CNN anchors, which seems to take some pleasure in dissecting the biases of the US networks. Considering the shit that they get from the beltway and their disciples I guess they have the right.
It was all a really useful grounding in the reality of just how much news there is in Asia,
three and a half billion people gets you that.....
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Frighteningly enough, much of white middle class New Zealand bought CD players in the 80's so they could listen to Brothers in Arms - only the superior technology of the future could do justice to Knopflers masterpiece.
BIA was the launch CD for the hardware / software, as designated by Philips. It was marketed that way by PolyGram which was a part of Philips, and was explicitly tied to the new fangled machines. That it was left in the CD player was no accident, as it was usually given away with those new, $2500, machines back then.
Ironically they later sued PolyGram for screwing them on the royalties of that record. The big record companies, until the early ninties, deducted up to 75% of royalties from artists as a "new technology" levy. It was a clear scam, and is a another reason not to feel too sorry for record companies as it all turns, every day, increasingly pear shaped.
And the $45 discs would've been the limited imports that a few shops stocked when it was brand new technology, rather than local releases.
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I remember in the late '80s, LPs and tapes were about $12 and CDs were about $22.
The listed price of CDs when they first appeared was around the $30 mark, and they've never really moved much since. Any CD bought for $22 was either mid priced or discounted a la warehouse. In list terms (ie the recommended retail based on what the labels are charging the the shops) CDs have increased only about $3 in 20 years.
The US and Canada may be cheaper but the list price (around US$18-$19) is not (or rather wasn't until 2007) that much less than NZ. The difference is in the discounts offered by retailers, and the discounts offered to retailers.
The list prices in the UK, Japan and much of Europe are much higher than NZ.
Oh, and AmazonMP3...I don't think Steve Jobs will be happy tonight and neither should he be, its turned slow, hard to navigate, user unfriendly iTunes into a clunky dinosaur overnight. With Beatport, AmazonMP3 and eMusic, iTunes is utterly irrelevant to me, and also to the overwhelming bulk of MP3 consumers around the world who don't even consider an iPod as their player.
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I liked him when I met him. Just hated his music.
Same. I met him him once, briefly in London, backstage at Top of The Pops when we were doing one of our OMC thingies. He'd wandered over to talk to Pauly and congratulate him on his success, which he seemed to know a fair bit about. Pauly said "Bro, do you know Bryan?"....''ahhh...no". The conversation was over in 15 minutes but I was rather impressed he'd made the effort.
That said though, the real highlight that day for me was getting a light for my ciggie off Paul Weller.
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... and whatever happened to his daughter? She obviously never married Andrew Fagan like she planned
Dunno..forgot about that one. Andrew's pretty happy I think (and a great radio host).
thank gawd she knew better than to go after Jordan ...
Jordan of course ended up with Rita who is quite lovely.
But yet I'm really pleased that there's an Aotearoa-Hasselhoff connection.
Yep, recorded in Parnell..huge in Germany
The other Mandrill import of note was Kim Fowley to produce Street Talk in 79. He spent much of his sojourn in Auckland hunting for female punkettes.
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what about that chap from Mandrill?
Glyn Tucker Jnr...fer sure despite the Hasselhoff. I'm sure there are a few others I missed. Benny Levin & Russell Clarke..invented the touring circuit for NZ bands, which was major for years. Imagine how big Jordan would be if he'd not had that.
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Dave Gent, Michael Harilambi, and Brian Jones (not to mention the departed "Fingers") may be waiting a long time for their induction.
Indeed, and without whom...at various times each one of those (and the late Michael Manton) kept both the band more or less together.
If any band was a "unit' as such..
But if the NZ R&R Hall of Fame is gonna go down the path of it's much derided US counterpart, it may be time walk away now...
NZ's first few inductees should probably have been:
1. Murray Cammick
2. Eldred Stebbing (although Th'Dudes and Hello Sailor might argue)
3. Phil Warren
4. Roger Shepherd
5. Trevor Reekie
6. Mike Chunn
7. John McCready
8. Jerry Wise (posthumously)After that it should look at the people whose careers these folk created.
But those names don't sell albums or seats I guess