Entertainment For Lively Minds
Can You Tell What Podcast It Is Yet?
Posted by David Hepworth on 30 March 2010 - 7:40pm.
Andrew Collins joins us in the podcast to mark Rolf Harris Day (the rest of you can take the day off to have a beer and maybe some Pavlova) and take part in talks about: Erykah Badu's bottom, International Record Store Day, the likelihood of the cassette making a return, whether it's ever acceptable to use the words "journo" and "geek", our listeners down under and how Fraser topped the charts. Plus Andrew plugs his CD, which you can buy here.
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Andrew Collins
is just taunting me isn't he? In a former editor of the NME sort of way. Quick, more pills ...
Why taunting?
I was never the editor of the NME, by the way.
Just a joke of sorts ...
I had posted a thread suggesting that 'Apathy ...' was a pretty lousy book, and had tweeted The Word yesterday with a suggestion for the Podcast asking if you had read the book, what you thought of it, and whether 'gonzo journalism' had ever been a good idea. And then there you are holding the book and smiling right at me - or so it seemed! (I naturally tend to the view that the world revolves around me, and not Nick Kent!).
Having,as an adolescent, followed the adventures of Nick Kent in the pages of the NME I was geninely shocked on reading 'Apathy ...' at how badly written and self-serving it is.
'Gonzo' - just for kids?
P.S Why were you never Editor of the NME?
Kent just not cricket
Sorry, Steven, I hadn't read the Nick Kent thread BECAUSE IT'S NOT ABOUT ME - actually, because I had yet to read the book. Now that Dave has given me his copy, I have started reading it, and fully expect it to be self-serving. That said, I am enjoying the ride thus far, even though Kent was a little before my NME-reading time. (I was more Morley/Penman era.)
I was never Editor of the NME because my rise up the ranks stalled at Features Editor. I applied for the job, along with most of my staff colleagues, in 1992 when Danny Kelly left, and Steve Sutherland from Melody Maker was parachuted in, and I left. (I realise this hissy fit was pretty shallow, looking back - nothing wrong with Steve, of course - but I'm equally glad I left before turning 30, which I think is wise.)
Gonzo: just for entertainment.
Thanks for the response
I ceased reading the NME around 1990/1991 as I too approached thirty on the inside rail, so I missed you being shamefully overlooked for the post. Doesn't seem to have done you any harm in the longer term though, which is more than can perhaps be said for the NME (he remarked sycophantically, having no axe to grind in relation to either squirrels or the Mitford sisters).
I suppose, to paraphrase Sean Hughes on Morrissey, everyone grows out of their Nick Kent phase, except Nick Kent.
Record Store Day
Steve Turner started an entry on it here :
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/a-massive-call-arms
I thought they were a bit sniffy about the whole thing.
Record Store Day isn't some sort of arcane preservation society. It's about raising awareness of the fact that there are still such things as "Record Shops". I love digital music, and streaming music but I also think we're missing a trick if we talk down Record Shops and assume they have no place in 2010. They have a culture, atmosphere and history that goes beyond the idea of 'retail' and the idea of convenience and instant gratification. The best ones are changing the way they operate and doing things that the Internet and Amazon can't do, and selling things that Amazon hasn't got. If you're not sure what that means, go and visit one and find out.
http://www.indierecordshop.org/
http://www.recordshopcity.co.uk/
Well said.
I can only echo this. I'm fortunate to live in a city (Toronto) with dozens of record stores of all types and persuasions.
Recently I picked up a mint original vinyl copy of Something Else by The Kinks in a store that sells used records, new records, cds, magazines, turntables, album frames etc. This store opened last year !
I was able to examine the vinyl, check out the sleeve, negotiate a price and finally take it home to eagerly put it on my turntable. Sounds amazing, much better than the cd version. A completely satisfying retail experience. If I'd downloaded it from iTunes it just wouldn't be the same.
Sonic Boom?
Not Sonic Boom by any chance was it? Great (big) store...I actually picked up the Trojan box set of British reggae in there for $18.00 just last Saturday..actually Soundscapes on college Street is a mighty fine store and I am off there this afternoon to pick up the Field Music Cd after reading Kate Mossman's review..last time I picked up a Word "rave" review record was after Jude Rogers gave Joanne Newsome a thumbs up..I was so dissapointed and swore I would never buy any "rave" review items again..hope Ms Mossman is right this time...
Hacks and proud of it
For me cinema's uber-hack will always be the late Leo McKern, ably supported by Edward Judd in this classic
Definitely not "journos" ...
Bic Runga...
...was the New Zealand-born singer whose name completely escaped me on Friday. This takes the number of New Zealand acts that I can name, without referring to the internet, to a grand total of five.
My favourite Kiwi album is Way Out Where by The Verlaines which sounds like it was recorded somewhere remote and outdoors, although I suspect the reality is more mundane. The title track and Blanket Under The Sky sound like they are barrelling down a dead-straight road, towards a bank of ominous storm clouds on a distant horizon.
NZ Pop Fact
Bic has a singing sister called Boh.
Another pop fact...
Boh's band was called Stell*r (sic) and their local hit songs were produced and co-written by Tom Bailey out of the Thompson Twins. They had a run of very good pop songs a few years ago.
and here's Stellar for you
right now. Boh Runga and band doing Persuasion, written by Tim Finn and some geezer called Richard Thompson.
'Boh' is my favourite word in Italian...
it roughly translates as 'I don't know... and why are you asking me in the first place?'
How bizarre, how bizarre...
I got a compilation CD of EnZed's finest musical moments for my birthday last week and was so moved by Bic Runga's contribution that I immediately played her song on the radiogram the same night(that makes it seven acts that I can name off the bat, eight if you include Tim Finn as a solo turn).
NZ Amplifier
http://www.amplifier.co.nz
One nation under a long white groove.
Open spaces
Re:
I get a very strong sense of place and atmosphere as well from the few Kiwi bands I know, basically Crowded House and the Mutton Birds plus solo offshoots and Split Enz. I always wonder what the common musical trait they have is, and how much is my own projection. One thing that so many of the Finn tunes seem to have is something I can only call "Campfire Hymnal", a kind of combination of pared down simplicity, community and spirit; I know this is utter cliche and yet the thing I am struggling to describe is so very real.
The Mutton birds seem to show two poles of NZ songs very well in their two main writers if I recall:
I remember seeing them about 10 years ago in a small Venue-part of me still wonders why they weren't huge.
...wonder why they weren't huge
I agree, "Rain Steam Speed" and "Envy of Angels" were excellent albums, some sublime songwriting. Another band to go on a "Why weren't they more popular" thread.
I love this song:
I think it's funny that journos
who spend their time coining names/epiphets for the rest of the world should get shirty over being called journos.
Pavlova is a Kiwi thing
And they are a bit sensitive about the Aussies claiming it!
I'm surprised Fraser didn't put you straight on that one.
was it Andrew Collins
who - on an old podcast - recounted the story of birds walking alongside you on a New Zealand stroll as they have no predators to fear? It's the little interjections like that that make The Word podcast the best of all the ones I download.
This one, too was another winner - congrats to Fraser on his chart-topping status - well deserved!
The RH Easter Egg (how apt) was also a pleasant surprise!
I think it was me
It's my key memory of New Zealand.
By bizarre coincidence I saw
By bizarre coincidence I saw this as a metaphor for Kiwi bands only this morning:
--http://www.myspace.com/themuttonbirds
ah, cheers, David.
- the Word Podcast - it's about so much more than Van Morrison's anal cleft.
There's a strapline to entice new listeners if ever I saw one!
It's about
Lyndon Johnson's as well ...
In answer to Mr Hepworth's question...
...the BBC cuttings library was retired several years ago.
Rolf's Great Life
Just to concur with Andrew about Rolf's propensity to break down when discussing subjects close to his heart..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00mbm3g
"Great Lives" The Matthew Parris radio four show (still on the I-Player)
has produced some gems over the year or so that it's been on...including Rolf's recollections of this otherwise obscure painter Kyffin Williams.
Birds and books
Thanks for another excellent podcast. Couple of points arising:
Alas, the birds in New Zealand have all too many predators to worry about. Or the native birds do at any rate. That's what 70 million years without any land-based mammals will do for yer evolution...
Also, Andrew might be interested to hear that Auckland's public library has all three volumes of his memoirs. Cost me a dollar (a dollar!) a time to request them, but well worth the investment I reckon.
Coincidence?
I have borrowed Andrew Collins' books on Billy Bragg and his 70s childhood from libraries in Auckland. In fact I am reading the latter volume right now. He must be a millionaire!
Is this the right place to own up...
... that I actually prefer Rolf Harris' 'Stairway to Heaven' to the original? It's much jauntier, after all. ; )
Hitting all the buttons
I'm another New Zealander who's been listening to the podcast for ages, usually on my commute on the ferry from Waiheke Island to Auckland. This episode hit all the right buttons for me. You covered podcasting and New Zealand music. I also make podcast - about NZ music but focused on obscurities, called Counting The Beat http://www.countingthebeat.gen.nz
You talked about keeping newspaper clippings in the days before the internet - Before podcasting came along I also used to have boxes of cassettes of specials and interviews recorded off the radio.
Chris - Waiheke Island
Waiheke Word Massive
Well well well, Chris...
I'm an Islander too (though originally from England). What with NZ's - 1 degree of separation, I don't suppose this should be a surprise, but still, good to know there's more than one of us.
Another terrific autumn day down here. But when, oh when, will we get some rain?
Any how, probably enough of all that. Keep up the good work...
Frasier Lewry's Secret Demo? Andrew Collins' musical debut?
Did anyone else listen to the very end of this podcast and hear an odd little bit of music that sounded like some syncopated sloshing around of water in a bucket and the lyrics: "All together/ All together/ Lean on the pedals/ Lean on the [?]/ Silently..." It starts at about :18 before the end of the podcast.
Anybody know what this is? Frasier Lewry's secret demo? Andrew Collins' musical debut? A bootleg of David Hepworth doing the washing?
Its..
a Rolf Harris recording from many years ago (which predates but allegedly bears a considerable resemblance to Adam Ant's "Price Charming").
Nothing 'alleged' about it.
Rolf recently recounted in a radio interview with Danny Baker how the similarity was pointed out to him shortly after the release of 'Prince Charming' and he subsequently took the song's publishers to court and won.
Pleased to hear it
I substituted something altogether more robust with "alleged" before posting - pussy-footing on my part.
Framing the podcast
How do I frame a podcast? I want to keep this one on the wall, since it quotes my email about The Word helping me through a year of chemo in hospital after having a brain tumour removed. (Thanks again, guys!)
Bit late on this but a great 'cast
Re:the internet pay wall etc. £100-200 a year for one newspaper subscription or another is OK for self-employed media people like AC for whom that would be tax deductable. But they would quickly become a luxury that was a bridge too far for those of us paying for it out of our take-home pay. I haven't done the maths, and I'm sure they have, but wouldn't something affordable like £12 a year achieve decent revenue from the lost 95% ?
Owl City
I listen to the podcasts a couple of weeks after they come out, so please excuse my tardiness.
A couple of weeks ago my 9 year old daughter asked me to download a song called Fireflies by a band (actually, more like a bloke in his bedroom called Owl City. Imagine my surprise to find that she knows of a performer that the Word Podcast regulars have never heard of! Imagine my even greater surprise to find that it's actually quite good!
Check it out here:
It's alright
When I posted this in February I did not know the track was number #1 at the time!
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/fireflies-owl-city-rather-good-imh...