Letters

Rip It Up, Issue 64, 1 November 1982, Page 18

Letters

John Dix Foxton Beach

Post to RIU Letters', PO Box 5689, Auckland 1. Best letter each month will now receive an album of your choice. Surely our indigenous, crowd boring, morale wrecking, simpering, sobbing, self-indulgent, spoilt

little brats of noise boys realise that the rest of the community aren't taking that much notice. I refer of course to bands in this incestuous little community. who range ' from the pretentiously unpretentious to the unpretentiously pretentious. Don’t think that means promoters, journalists, disc jockeys are exempt from this criticism, nor for that matter Harry Ratbag, Chris Knox; Pongo Pede etc. The whole industry has degenerated into a mutual back-stabbing, masturbatory club, which by it's very nature, excludes that part of our community which counts the most. The punters. Let's get one thing straight. All you egos-on-legs should have as your first and foremost goal, the entertainment of the public. Not to advertise your own hubris. Itmust be more than obvious that somewhere you are falling flat on your butts. The reason is as clear as Chris Knox's conceit and Propeller's impending demise. There is far too much concern in listening to what members of the family are saying to each for anyone to hear what members of the public are asking for. There isn't a band in NZ that's worth $2 or a promoter worth two bucks. The reason Dance Exponents had such a meteoric climb to national view was not because they were any good at all. Rather because they were the best of a very bad bunch. Will not bands realise that their existence lies in the hands of those they are so keen-to. bite. Pub managers, for example who are stupid enough not to see the writing on the wall and still have bands playing in their vandalised bars (ruining accommodation, stealing drinks, tables, chairs, electric jugs, parts of in-house P. A. and lighting systems, adding insult to half deafened bar staff's injuries) are going slowly but surely bankrupt. The closing down of so many venues is proof enough. You need pubs. They don't need you. This industry is in trouble. Within a year when there are no longer venues or interested public enough to sustain the dying trade all you'll be able to hear will be the whining excuses from the self sympathetic "family", casting their blames. See you in Australia. Peter Waller/Jim Wilson Christchurch Any replies: Or Penang where it's cheaper. . It's times like these that make you realise just how bloody good the Swingers (with Buster) were. Here we g 0... The Observer Mt Albert I would be obliged if you would allow me to use your journal to apologise to those Christchurch residents who have shown an interest in Stranded In Paradise: A History of NZ • Rock'n'Roll, currently being broadcast by Radio 3ZM on Saturday afternoons. Initiated by Radio 2XS, I was contracted to write twelve fifty minute programmes, each episode being self-contained. 3ZM, alas, have decided to broadcast each episode over the course of an afternoon in , five ten .' -minute segments,' thus destroying any continuity the programme may have had. Of the eight radio stations broadcasting the series, 3ZM is the only one who have

adopted this approach. Programme director Eric Selman's defence of this decision is interesting: "It is not 3ZM s policy to run specialist programmes during peak hours." One can only assume that 3ZM consider the special an interference to their all: important "format" rather than a worthwhile contribution to NZ rock'n'roll Apparently, ’’ the "Sound of Christchurch" is not interested in the sound of NZ Music. To those interested Christchurch listeners with the patience and endurance to put aside five hours for the sake of a fifty minute programme, by all means continue. But you deserve to hear the series as it was devised and as author, I disassociate myself from the series as broadcast in the Garden City.