Coming Clean

Rip It Up, Issue 68, 1 March 1983, Page 13

Coming Clean

Hippie jokes were all the rage here for a while last year. The Nile River Festival, untidy hair, fringed jackets, smoking dope, were all hip. It all reached its zenith with the Clean's 'Beatnik' film clip maaaan... The Clean joked that they were going to buy a patch of land up near Nelson after they broke up. An unfortunate newspaper reporter

took them at their word and people began to wonder if the hippie jokes were jokes. It's a little that way today. From outside Hamish Kilgour's door I can hear the Clean's former drummer playing his guitar and singing. He comes to the door in his usual garb op shop shirt untucked and hanging round bum level and jeans.

Hamish and brother David were the nucleus of the Clean through its numerous incarnations 'Vhen people said they ccui. *' '■ ■' kept going and wr said how wonderf they broke up. "You can take a. hing to extreme limits," he says, explaining why the Clean split. "But whether it's wise t 0..." Although the possibilities of the Clean were exhausted, Kilgour says he is still "very interested" in music. He's learning to play the guitar and has done the odd solo performance around the city. "Once you start playing music you just keep drifting on," he says. "But most people don't take music very seriously. If they were more aware of it it would be easier for bands. 'The biggest stumbling block for local music is radio. Radio U will be a big help there." He feels Christchurch people need to be supportive of the city's bands. "But bands in their home town never get much support. We suffered from the same problem in Dunedin we had to go away first. "But there are pretty depressed times it puts a lot of strain on people. They have to pay the rent first. I think people have also gotten a bit jaded about live music. "It's just most important that young people keep coming through in bands." He cites the Stones, This Sporting Life and the city's own Scorched Earth Policy and the World as the bands that impress him currently. "I think one of the most important things is getting our own musical identity getting rid of our colonial mentality. "Other New Zealand art forms, like our films, have been accepted overseas. There's no reason why our records shouldn't." RB