Posts by Hugh Wilson
Last ←Newer Page 1 2 3 4 5 Older→ First
-
Thanks for that link to Murray’s account of covering the Bob Marley tour. The Maori welcome photos are pretty special, and while the gold disc ones as also good they are a little ‘different’ as Murray notes. I scrounged deep and purchased a copy of the print shown on that page from his show in Sydney earlier this year – Bob playing soccer in the park next to the (old) White Heron with Dylan Taite. I think its an iconic Auckland photo, which has always resonated with me. Perhaps I’m a touch biased, as I went through that park many many times en route to the Parnell Pools when growing up (I also had a bike stolen from there once, but so it goes!), and occasionally loitered so to say. Would be nice if it was renamed Bob Marley reserve as a head nod to that moment, but I’m not sure that’ll happen anytime soon. Anyhow, nice to know more of the background.
-
Hard News: Friday Music: Down the Hall…, in reply to Russell Brown,
I actually have two on CD: Put on Your Best Dress and the High Note compilation
Ah, good stuff, The High Note CD is going for a cool 50 on the Ebay these days!
Perhaps a lot of Ms Pottinger's productions were singles, and thus the comps as good entry points. The Small Axe guide to Rocksteady notes that over 5000 singles were released in Jamaica between early 66 and mid 68, equating to over 6 a day. She seems to have been a character, and I think she purchased Treasure Isle in the mid 70's. Anyhow the small axe books are a good read, but the Reggae 68-70 one might be in need of a rerun. They originate from here:
https://www.muziktree.net/product-page/the-small-axe-guide-to-rock-steady-chuck-foster-book
-
Hard News: Friday Music: Down the Hall…, in reply to Russell Brown,
What I want to know is when Sonia Pottinger’s estate gets sorted out and the beautiful, beautiful rocksteady she produced is given a proper setting. As far as I know, all of it’s currently unavailable, even on the streaming services. I love Duke Reid’s productions, but I love Mrs Pottinger’s more.
Things are a bit murky, but greater availability would be great. Japan's dub store reissued Roland Alphonso's 'Rocksteady ABC' album earlier this year which was produced by Sonia Pottinger but I'm not familiar with too may more titles. A quick search on ebay turns up some CD comps of High Note & Gay feet releases, but not much else. CD's funnily enough seem to be one of the main mediums for accessing some back catalogues in this area. I was looking at one last week which included 45 bonus tracks (it was a double CD) on top of the original album - thats some tempting business right there. Still I do pause a little on buying CD's unless they're dirt cheap, even though my CD player - going back to the set up theme from last week - takes three discs, and usefully shuffles from one to the next to the next as each is played out. Do you have say a top three of Pottinger productions to chase down?
-
I wouldn’t mind a Hi-tone or Hot record society t-shirt, such cool logos!
Cracked the seal on a reissue of the Paragons ‘On the beach’ (Treasure Isle) album at the weekend, lovely stuff, amongst the cream of rocksteady
-
The guy behind this comp is from NZ – thinking it’ll be a good one for the warmer days to come
Annoyingly it won't embed, but click thru
https://soundcloud.com/spacetalkmusic/crown-ruler-sound-compiled-by-jeremy-spellacey-mini-mix
-
My consumption habits have changed a bit in recent years.
My old bachelor pad had a good setup, although the lounge and kitchen were at opposite ends of my flat, so two systems required. The kitchen one was hooked into my computer, and I used to listen to that a lot (with late 90's sony mini-system type speakers, that were actually pretty good), so much so that I even set up an itunes playlist of with songs with a playcount of zero (it was ~4000) and I got through it on shuffle deleting the stuff I didn’t like as I went (of course everything I added to the library automatically went onto it as well). The lounge set up had the records and a perreaux power amp, which was a beast but hasn’t been used since in a quest for more inputs really.
Fast forward and the kitchen and living area are closely connected in our home now, but I have twins under 1 so its usually only one record a day or thereabouts. My amp is only 60w (but does have a USB/ Bluetooth port and both a CD player and internet radio unit connected, and the mixer and 1200s), but it can be connected to another amp nearby and the 4 speaker sound >> the 2 speaker sound. I plan on getting some outdoor speakers and connecting them to the second amp (which also has a USB port) for the upcoming summer. I like the USB ports as I can put some mixes onto a stick, plug em in, and go for hours. My car stereo has a USB port too, but in honesty I hardly ever drive. Don’t get to the old mp3 library much anymore, but its still there. I’ve never got into streaming services like Spotify, and can’t see that changing anytime soon given the sheer volume of things I already have on one format or another.
Given the limitations on tunes at home – hopefully easing soon – I’ve started listening to music much more on my ~45 minute door to door commute (walking/train). My choice is mixcloud, and its usually rocksteady mixes – there are tons, and I am always discovering new stuff and building familiarity. Like others here I would never use ear buds when riding, and am perplexed at how many people do …
-
Hard News: Friday Music: Remembering Roi, in reply to FletcherB,
Cactus Jack's! For at least some of the time it was open… the door-man was Richard O’Brian (who wrote “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and appeared as Riff-Raff in the movie) some decades earlier.
I think Cactus Jacks was adjacent to the club. A bit of curious googling has thrown up the name Candio's, but thats not really ringing any bells - clearly not as memorable as Alfies!
-
On the KLF, I used to sneak out of the folks place in the early 90's and meet up with some older mates and go to that club located in Chase Plaza (as it was known) - I can't remember the name of it, but you went up a travelator from the odd mid building forecourt, and the DJ booth overlooked the dancefloor. Anyhow, they used to play KLF's "its 3am" at - you guessed it - 3am. Can hardly stomach the thought of being out that late these days ...
-
Thanks for that Russell - I wasn't familiar with the different approach within NZ. Thats a nifty map too.
-
I came across this rather extensive look at the music business recently, and thought it did a good job of putting things (as in less money, more music) a touch more in context, possibly dispelling some misconceptions along the way.
Its long, but the essence is that the financial decline of the music industry began long before the emergence of streaming models, which have themselves pushed down unit costs due to greater competition. There is a good discussion of how the Spotify royalty model works, and some added context around their push for paying customers. It’s also pointed out that commercial radio is still more prevalent than streaming services (for now) and artists receive no compensation from radio play (that goes to writers and publishers).
