Posts by Matthew Littlewood
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Muse: What The Frig, Police?, in reply to Kumara Republic,
If it's not merely a bureaucratic bungle, then what's the real reason for obstructing KRS-One?
Perhaps certain members of the licencing authority's antipathy towards hip hop (and the supposed "crowds" it draws) made the bureaucratic bungle easier to pounce upon. But it looks like a mess for all parties, unfortunately (especially if the promoters didn't sort out the approval in time). Shame.
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Muse: What The Frig, Police?, in reply to Russell Brown,
So, it appears that the application may have been late – although this is in dispute.
Inspector Davison’s comments indicate that such lateness wouldn’t have been a showstopper for other events. But he clearly does not like “rap”.
Sounds like a bit of a communications stuff up all round. Must Try Harder for everyone involved.
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Muse: What The Frig, Police?, in reply to Sean Murgatroyd,
Didn't we hit the point where hiphop was a valid mainstream option for New Zealand with Stop, Drop and Roll? With Scorpio Girls? How Bizarre?
Hiphop people are people who like music. Surprise!
For most people under the age of 30, rap music (and its derivatives) has been the dominant form of pop music for most of their listening life. I doubt even the snobbiest indie-kid* would be averse to all things rap-related. They would probably say something like "I don't really like hip-hop/rap, but I do like ( insert random, possibly older/less popular rap artist here). I mean, it's too big to ignore out of hand.
Its cultural omnipotence is fascinating, and I don't really think anyone- certainly not KRS-One- has really cracked what it actually means, for both good and ill**.
*Actually maybe indie kid is the wrong one to use. It tends to be metalheads who are the most likely to be impervious to any other kind of music, at least in my experience.
**in the non-rap sense of the word. -
Muse: What The Frig, Police?, in reply to Russell Brown,
It was a varied, but younger and much more hip hop crowd than Public Enemy pulled at the Town Hall last year.
The excellent atmosphere was tested by the venue. The legal capacity of the Studio probably wasn’t breached, but you can only see the stage properly from about 30% of the floor space (which is what makes it such a flawed live venue) – and naturally, everyone wants to be there. It was actually unsafe in the main room by the time the headliner came on. But I felt people dealt with it very well. I got no sense of even incipient violence.
The promoters seemed to have a Moa Beer sponsorship, and sold the product in to the venue. Which was awesome. Having decent beer in plastic bottles was very pleasing. I didn’t see anyone drunk enough to he thrown out.
Okay, just reading Russell Brown's post convinced me that maybe my antipathy was somewhat displaced. I did go see the Dammers-less Specials reunion, after all. Sounds like a cracking night.
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KRS-One hasn't produced a genuinely great record since his solo debut back in 1994 (although the Boogie Down Productions LPs already secured his place in the rap firmament.), and it's also fair to say that in recent times, he's probably swerved closer towards rabid NWO-conspiracy theorist than "righteous truth teller", when he's not talking about rap music. Would I go see him if I was up in Auckland? Possibly, it'd depend on the venue and time.
Still, this seems a bizarre decision, and the justifications for the snubbing seem more than a touch weasel-like and contradictory. There seems to be a serious level of mis-communication going on here.
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Hard News: Really The Blues, in reply to DexterX,
The Blues are not too far off the pace - in a game with an oval ball and dodgy ref calls they did well - they need to spend more time on the front foot - Rather.
It reminds me of the Highlanders' 2009 season, where they won only 4 of their 13 matches, but lost at least another six matches in the dying minutes. This season, the Highlanders are on the other side of that ledger- they've won five from seven, but only one of those victories has been comfortable (against the hapless Rebels), the rest have been dogfights. Luck, composure and self-belief has been the difference.
I think they scrambled through and did enough to deserve the win last night. It was often torrid stuff, but they held onto the ball, and forced the advantage. A player like Hose Gear makes all the difference, mind- he's able to create opportunities that just wouldn't've otherwis existed.
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Hard News: Getting Out, in reply to peter mclennan,
Hey Matthew – Amy recorded that song, and she had also guested with the Specials live on several occasions, as you mention.
Thanks. Peter :). I assumed it was something along those lines. Otherwise, given the song's lyrical content, it would've seemed like a strange choice of a song to play in tribute. That said, it's a bloody good song.
And I've just found a (somewhat sloppy) Amy Winehouse version.
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Hard News: Really The Blues, in reply to David Cormack,
Can I say that as a Hurricanes man through and through, I railed against Mark Hammett and his release of our "best" players...but I see now, MH was really a prophet and foresaw the trouble that these players would cause so he did away with them.
Perhaps, but bear in mind that Andrew Hore and Hose Gear went to the Highlanders and are currently in great form, Hore especially. Apart from the absolute shambles of the ORFU (not necessarily connected to the Highlanders, but symptomatic of a greater sickness within NZ rugby), I haven't been this enthused about the Highlanders since the Jeff Wilson/Josh Kronfeld era. Okay, so they lost to the Stormers- and the Crusaders showed on Saturday that you really have to drag them out of the match by keeping it down their end- but they've played with purpose and passion, two qualities alarmingly absent over the last few years. They've won the close matches which in recent years they would have bottled. And they've played attractive, coherent rugby. Adam Thomson is in superb form, in particular.
In fact, you could argue that the Blues are the only NZ side in the competition that aren't having a good year (the Crusaders are starting to come right). And it's not for lack of talent, either. So what the hell if going on with them?
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Hard News: Getting Out, in reply to Dave Patrick,
I'd forgotten how LOUD some bands can play (quite possibly a stupid thing to realise AFTER a Shihad concert)- my ears are suffering a bit today.
I've seen Shihad nearly a dozen times (if we include all the times I've seen them at the BDO), and every time, they were punishingly loud.I think they almost always saved their best for the BDO, but one of their more intense performances was in '02 in Dunedin, shortly after the name change debacle. It was a proper backs against the wall performance, and Toogood couldn't help but grin when the crowd chanted "Shihad, Shihad" halfway through the set. They launched into a simply brutal version of "You Again" in retaliation. Magnificent.
As for Sacha's query about the term "chicken in a basket" , it's used by Brits to describe acts that play the nostalgia circuit, usually at pubs or similar-sized venues, to small audiences and general disinterest. The Specials performance didn't have any of that- it was properly tight.
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Maybe I was just easily pleased- understandable, given my tix were comps, and I wasn't cueing for a drink during the set. If that's the case, then yeah, that shit needs to be sorted out. As a venue, despite some problems with the sound, I felt the overall "feel" of the place was excellent. For a frist-time out, I certainly thought it worked. Certainly the Specials were excellent, even if this is the Dammers-less lineup, they were tight (no messing around between songs), buoyant and incredibly warm-hearted. And it was a good crowd there, it was the sort of nostalgic feel to it (not for me, so much, as I wasn't around the first time!) that didn't come accross as too self-satisfied or chicken in a basket. Terry Hall is still a pretty striking and intense dude, his voice hasn't aged much at all, while the banter was often amusing.
And while they didn't play "Ghost Town", they played pretty much everything else from their first two albums (as well as the other two songs on the Ghost Town EP), plus the early singles- their versiosn of "Gangsters" and "Message to Rudy"was barnstorming. The stuff of the second album went accross pretty well, too, I thought- "Hey Little Rich Girl" and "Man at C&A" in particular (the former was dedicated to Amy Winehouse. I'm still not sure whether that was the right choice, given the song's lyrical content, although I get she performed it with them live several times. Cracking song, tho.) A fun night.
It was great catching up, Russell and co. Shame I can't do that more often.