kath wrote:1. why did yer dad forbid you going into vibes? was it the kinda record store like those so hip in the states before the reagan administration... meaning they doubled as head shops with all sorts of droog paraphenalia and underground/counterculture gear? was it subversive just in a punk kinda way? (i was very glad when these elements of record stores started to make a come back, if only for sentimental reasons.)
Vibes was around the corner from Dad's shop. It was owned and ran by a guy called Tony Murdoch, who was what most parents saw as a renegade and weirdo. He dressed in the post-punk fashions of the time and sold all this wild music. He and his friends used to treat the place like a party venue on Friday nights. You'd go in there and there'd be him and his friends hanging out and they'd be openly drinking, while there was also this weird-smelling smoke drifting out from the stock room...
So basically it was the sort of place that our parents thought would just utterly corrupt us.
Tony was a member of the above-mentioned Marching Orders and they split in early '84 after playing the annual Sweetwaters festival near Auckland. Talking Heads, Simple Minds, the Pretenders and Eurthmics were the headliners, incidentally).
A few months later he was DJing at a pub and was almost beaten to death by a member of the Mongrel Mob (a notorious Hells Angels-type gang here in NZ) over some money the guy owed Tony. (Tony was very easy-going with credit).
After recovering, he shifted to Wellington and opened the Soul Mine music shop and quickly established it as a very cutting edge, hip record shop. He very deservedly made a lot more money in the capital than he did in Gisborne, too.
But the changes in retail trends eventually put him out of business about three years ago. Our mutual friend Simon went to the closing down party and said he was in good form, but has kept a low profile since.
2. what does grotty mean? i get the general idea from the houseful of teenagers context... i'm guessin it's like grubby + snotty? (mwhaha, that bit about yer asking the record store guy, what have ya got to piss off my hippy stepbrother?...)
just for the record, lemme add that i totally support the idea of a home brewking kit on an island.
Yeah, grotty pretty much means that; probably more "scummy", "filthy", etc, to be accurate. "Skoddy" (rhymes with "roadie") means cheap 'n' nasty. Home brew is great if it's made well, dire if it isn't.
Thank you for the kind comments, much appreciated.
"U2 routinely spent a year in the studio...I have a theory: if you put four monkeys in the studio for a year with Lanois and Eno and Lillywhite, they would make a pretty good record, too."