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The late Peter Dawkins at the time of the
first LWTTT |
| Mike's
Pith & Wind -
The meaning of death
This is the way it’s going to be from now
on. In fact, this is the way it already is. If
you’re a musician you probably know how
it feels to be nervous of answering the phone
just in case you owe the caller money - and now
that I’ve well and truly arrived at the
pointy end of life I’ve learned that it’s
unwise to answer the phone too chirpily just in
case a shattered voice at the other end says they’ve
got bad news for you.
It’s almost exactly a year since I took
just such a call at George’s restaurant
in Camberwell after just a couple of mouthfuls
of the wagyu beef Bolognese. Of course I’m
referring to the terrible call about Bill’s
sudden death, but recently it seems I’ve
been getting those kind of calls at the rate of
one every couple of weeks. John Moon says that
it’s the passing of a generation and I’m
not sure that he’s far wide of the mark.
The most recent such call concerned the sad death
of fellow Kiwi, Peter Dawkins, who was Spectrum,
Murtceps and Ariel’s producer in the days
when we had actual recording contracts with actual
record companies, in this case EMI and later CBS,
two companies that have subsequently disappeared
off the corporate landscape. Peter, in his capacity
as EMI’s in-house producer, believed in
me and in my bands and did his utmost to help
our careers even after the companies in question
had de facto set us adrift in a leaky
lifeboat.
Peter had quite a bit of clout then as he was
producer for a number of top ten artists, among
them,
read more
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MORE LINKS! |
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PRESS................................. |
| All
the very latest news, gossip and pics |
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and Stop Press |
| HELPFUL
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| MIKE
& BILL'S DEMOS/VIDEOS |
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| Dick's
Toolbox - Coca-Colonisation
One of the more peculiar things in life is hearing
Australians berating Americans, meaning in this
case, the citizens of the United States. Usually
because of their politics (think gun laws, Iraq
and George Bush), diet (think obesity, McDonalds
and Coca-Cola) or their lack of culture (think
television, more television, rap music, and evangelical
Christianity). As well they are apparently ill-educated,
drug addicted, pornography besotted…….
and, the greatest sin of all, don’t get
irony. Unlike Australians who are strong, independent,
free thinking, egalitarian, smart, good looking
and possessed of marvellous senses of humour.
And fully understand irony.
As A. A. Gill observed ‘Can you imagine
a society that produced Dorothy Parker and Lenny
Bruce didn’t understand irony?’ I
was going to culturally counterbalance this with
John Clarke..
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