Posts by Geoff Lealand
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Hard News: Friday Music: The First Time, in reply to Henry Barnard,
Beeville was in a little burg called Orini, off the the Gordonton to Taupuri Road. Honey was the primary production? Bizarre to think of Roy Orbison playing there.
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International. The Pretty Things (with Sandie Shaw) at the State Theatre in New Plymouth; a concert which resulted in their life-time ban from New Zealand. This ban was lifted last year, when they performed at The Powerhouse, I have written a piece on this nice symmetry (and their influence on 1960/70s music in NZ) for Audioculture, which should be up sometime soon.
New Zealand*. Probably some group like Herma Keil & The Keil Isles or Larry's Rebels.
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Travels of my father in North Africa c. 1942
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I will really have to find it now. I loaned it to Les Cleveland, the war historian, years ago but I am sure he returned it. Unfortunately paper things tend to disappear into some mysterious dark hole in our house but I will begin a search for it this weekend. Then I will scan it or transcribe it.
Another interesting document I have is a copy of a very scatological reworking of the 'Battle Hymn of the Marines"; a deeply resentful diatribe against American troops stationed in NZ. Found in a Nelson antique store years ago.
Also a fascinating diary from 1927, about the daily life of a governess or nanny for a farming family in Mokoia, South Taranaki, I donated that one to the Taranaki museum.
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One of the most valuable documents in my family history is the manifesto my father penned, explaining why he and his fellow soldiers were refusing to return to the war in the North Africa, when troops from the Second Echelon were home on leave in NZ. He and his pals were court-martialed and dishonourably discharged. A moment in NZ history which was kept quiet for a long time.
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so Nanna calls her daughter and son-in-law "Mum and Dad". It was obviously standard at the time, and now, creepy as fuck
As New Zealand males used to refer to their wives as "Mother"?
A great post. I sometimes feel that an interest in genealogy for some people is motivated by a desire to find some interesting or important relative in their past, so they can then bask in the reflected glory. When I was a boy growing up in South Taranaki, we had neighbours who used to boast how they were descended from Robert the Bruce . Even then, I thought it must be a very tenuous connection.
Stories about ordinary folk are more interesting.
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Hard News: Bring on the Revival, in reply to Craig Young,
When I encounter it in mag stores, I shift copies to the comics section.
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Hard News: Bring on the Revival, in reply to Russell Brown,
What has happened to the Red Bulletin and your column?
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I was brought up on printer's ink as my father operated the giant Kosser machine which printed the daily _Hawera Star__. I think that lugging around heavy forms of Linotype probably wasn't good for his health. My after-school job was sweeping around the Linotype machines (no concerns about health risks then), graduating to maintaining the news clippings library, and re-writing stories for the paper. All grievously underpaid, as journalists still are!
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Hard News: Bring on the Revival, in reply to Ian Dalziel,
Ian Dalziel; the Father Christmas of old magazine distribution! When I was doing a talk at The UoC earlier this year, Ian turned up and bestowed a folder of old movie mags on me, including the NZ-published Screen Parade.
The Alan Kinnaird book is great. Have already bought two copies; one for my son in London and another for a local cartoonist (who ought to be in the book),
