Letters

Rip It Up, Issue 69, 1 April 1983, Page 25

Letters

Post to RIU , PO Box. 5689, Auckland 1, Letter from Peter? I feel there is one important item that your intrepid reporter Russell baby missed when he did the topclass Christchurch thingy for your wonderfully North Island • magazine. Perhaps the most important personality of all was missed. Himself, of course. Now Russy went to Burnside High School in Christchurch when he was still young and pimply. It was essentially a very middle class school and Russy fitted in very well. He hated everything bar rugby and the school tie, in short, he, was a : model ; pup_ilSß^B( Upon leaving school, much to his parents' horror, he discovered "Punk' Rock" as early as 1980 and set his sights upon convincing the whole world. Thus he entered the noble profession of,. journalism with the Christchurch Star and became an entertainment reporter's assistant. It wasn't too' long before the Star realised the quality of this young man's reporting skills and he was transferred to Timaru. The young man was kept busy writing a paragraph or two a day about the bustling megalopolis until a great thing happened. Rip It Up's editor came down to Christchurch (God knows why, he's never before shown any interest in the city) and asked Jim Wilson what he thought of Russy. Jim said "fine" and Christchurch became proud of its latest success. Russy moved to Auckland, where he remains to'this day, reporting yorjß/i/JBH ■PfeBAQbi The only bone I've, got that I I think is really worth picking with him is his article titled "Jim'll Fix It". Certainly there are a few people who don’t appreciate the tremendous work Jim has done for •Christchurch. They discovered "Punk Rock" about the same time you did, Russy, most have a great deal of respect for what he has done for the city. Without him church would be the cultural Sahara that Auckland has become and Wellington has always been. ' He was responsible for giving us , the Androidss by giving them a chance to play the Hillsborough in a late week against the manager's wishes and supporting them when no one else did. He gave us the Narcs, Hip Singles and Dance Exponents. Christchurch bands, note Russy. Jim, I'm afraid, has a thankless job to do thanks to people like you. Don't forget there is always the pub manager to answer to because he controls this game in NZ and it's not reporters or bands that have to do the answering in Christchurch. Certainly Russy, Jim changes his mind every six months. I bet he's changed his mind about what he said to the RIU editor about l you. It's a changing world, I'm afraid my boy and it changes nowhere faster than in this game. You've changed your mind twice in the last three years, Russy ol' son, from rugby to the Sex Pistols to the Clean. Give Jim a bit of recognition for what he's done and • maybe if you're lucky he won't throw in the towel and you will still be able to see the best bands in the country when they come to prop up Auckland's dyingrag trade. In Touch Wellington (PS: No relation to that dreadful

magazine, just for laughs) Russell Brown replies:, , This Jim-Wilson-got-me-my-job business is not true ask the man who hired me. I'd already been writing for RIU for some time and had two years of music writing behind me. Jim Wilson may be central to the Christchurch music scene ■ But. he •is ; not yet. such an oracle that editors travel south to seek his advice. I presume the bit about my "discovering" Punk on leaving school in 1980 is meant to be a slur, it's not true either. I was a regular attender at the Strand and Wayne Manor. Admittedly the dropping of a conclusion in the layout stages gave my story a slightly more negative slant than I'd intended, but that was just garnishing. At least I signed my (name, jocko. Android'Speaks Jim, Jim, where ya ; bin? It's really wonderful to, see somebody has the interests of,the managerial class at heart! Too bad about the patrons and the bands but then they're used to fending for themselves. The poor old manager only gets 33 per cent or whatever off the top and, if not lucky enough to have you look after his interests^ he'll have to pay someone else to rub the scribblings off the toilet walls. The story in last month's Rip It Up invited comment and got my hackles up. You're a wimp, Jim. After ripping off the Gladstone | from fLaura and Rose you} have pontificated your way from bad to worse. You're always going for breaks and the only interests you have at heart are your own! 'Jim'll Fix It' all right. If you start running seminars on the rock'n'roll biz we're off to another planet. Eric Android and Baine Huggett Auckland Not Peter Again? Turning a page in the March edition,of RIU to a small article coyly entitled 'Meet the Wastrels', I was permeated by a rather bilious sensation of deja vu. There has been a' series of these little pieces a couple in the Christchurch Star and a substantial one in the Timaru Herald. Invariably, these meet-the-boys snippets are accompanied by a snapshot of an appropriately grimy, urban wasteland, providing a suitably sleazy foil for the solemn cupid features of Hlavac, Brinson’s peroxided puckinshness, the luxuriant forelock and modelish pout of Cooke is inevitable and Jenner crouched awkwardly on the cold concrete like a desolate tuatara. It struck me that in the belaboured optimism that touts them as next • season's success story, there is.a (re-echoing) chord of pathos. For the Wastrels are last year's goods though they are barely 20, they are old, old boys. Christchurch's cupboard must be bare. You can almost smell the stale dregs of 45 South and roll-your-owns. That same sickly atmosphere hung about when Graham Brazier's Legionnaires played the Hillsborough last year. The man himself cavorted sleepily, nodding like a sated python, the mesmeric reptilian eyes hooded the music proficient but somehow lifeless. And Cooke wants nothing better than to turn out like that. Why are our old idols and our new hopes all so jaded and why do we pretend they're not writing article upon article about the latest blooms in the weedy NZ garden shovelling on the compost? Do .we love the tawdry

facsimile of drug-ridden decadence forks' own sour sake or is il part o f/a n elabor at e gain e of emperors ' ■T■ ■ I — Gan it be that 1 the virgin bride (NZ rock) that public and journalists first bedded a decade or two ago is withering behind the veil of lip service and dead horse-flogging that no one • seems to want to remove? At any fate the toil goes on and we furiously, continue to mix metaphors to guild the festering lily. Russell Brown, who is responsible for more than one Wastrels pocket-soaker, likes a good fondle under the bridal petticoats, especially when the latest incarnation of the goddess is an awed ■ member of his own peer group. Mind you, we are all helplessly social animals and our friend-and-foeing is largely dictated by our needs for CREDIBILITY. Expecting any member of the lonely hearts club, let alone poor old RB, to tell tales on its pernicious illusions is like asking a baby to make B breakfast^H^hißM|MM^B|B Grimace (looking pensive).

Chris Knocks

How are you today. We are here to tell you about Chris Knox. We think he is so neat. He must certainly be a swell guy. We like his Eggo Crater album (shaving a boiled egg concept). Knock me out, man. We are so wasted about this record. It’s hip, hip purleeh. And the way he puts down his audience! What a New Musical Approach! We also like the way he copies the Fall. But they are so new as well. Chris is much better than virtually any butter substitute. Where do you keep yours? The Jims Auckland Yes, We Know , If i there are 500,000 people in Auckland, 499,000 of them blew it by not being at the Joni Mitchell concert Neil Young Auckland

Simple Crisis

Tell young David Taylor, [darling, that there is no way China Crisis are a copy of Simple Minds. Tell me which Simple Minds' song you're on about, Dave dear; 'Love Song', The American', 'I Travel'? Look, sweetheart, they are both sensational bands and each of their records display shameless magnificence,- but I. find 1 China Crisis' keyboards and synth effects only I slightly in common with Simple Minds, and apart from that . . . Jim's Navel A Fan Wrong . 'Rip It Up’ writer Duncan Campbell replies to the attack on his professional integrity by Paul Rose of Propeller in March’s ! 'Letters'. ■ Yes, honesty is important. 1 gave my honest opinion. Where 1 was sitting, the applause for the Meemees was indifferent to nonexistent. I cannot be in two places at once and I noted in my review that the band were getting a response down front. On the subject of lies, Mr Rose, to suggest that I was blind or blind drunk is a good, example of the genre. Such puerile insults do you little credit. In retrospect, I feel 1 was kind to the Meemees, especially after seeing the film clip from that gig on RWP. .T could have gone so far as to call them sloppy and self-indulgent. Instead I suggested, constructively I feel, that they should perform more and tighten their sound up. . Do you seriously think that one less-than-ecstatic review will have any effect whatsoever on the record sale's or general popularity of the Screaming Meemees?