The Shrinking Man of Pep

Rip It Up, Issue 68, 1 March 1983, Page 14

The Shrinking Man of Pep

This is no way to conduct an interview. The only place to talk to Bill Direen is at the scungy entrance of the old Sydenham Fire Station. The word bouncer would probably be an overstatement, but he is trying to act as a doorman at the party he has held to raise money to turn the building into a theatre. The pubs have shut and people are pushing their way in. Direen is awkwardly firm, not particularly effective. A note of anger is rising in his voice. He will further embarrass himself later on in the night when he asks the partygoers for donations. The sad thing is, the theatre project will fall through before it can get underway because of problems with the landlord. But that's Christchurch. Or perhaps that's Bill Direen. Direen has been an active but distinctly (perhaps deliberately) underground figure in the Christchurch music scene for years. His ventures (that seems a more appropriate title than "band" or "group") have ranged from the Velvets' minimalism of the Vacuum to free-form musical ensembles. He has also been the initiator of a number of theatre groups, the most recent being the Soluble Fish troupe, which released a very limited edition EP in January. The chief value of Soluble Fish was that it brought something out of the ordinary into the world of rock 'n' roll pubs. The first few performances came over in a distinctly hammish way, some of the acting and singing was dire. But things came together with the EP, which stands as a good example of a genre which is fairly

rare in this country. Direen is probably best known for his work with the Urbs, who won last year's Christchurch Battle of the Bands with a truly superb performance, played in Auckland a few times, recorded at Progressive Studios and dissolved. Direen is notorious for the short life span of most of his bands. It's almost as if each time a band dissolves, it happens without its potential being fully developed. "When you're playing with two or three people, after a while you exhaust what there is to play," he explains. The tracks recorded with the Urbs, along with seven recorded on his own with Chris Knox's TF \C, will be released soon on Flying Nun. Direen has chosen to release the album under the name Max Quits, a pseudonym he used on the 20 Solid Krypton Hits compilation last year. It will be called Janet, a title stemming from a wild night with the Fall at Knox's place, when everything got called 'Janet'. With the Urbs he recorded new versions of songs he had written over the years with outfits like the Builders and Six Impossible Things. From a brief listen to a tape, the only disappointment is an inexplicable version of 'Bedrock Bay'. My guess is that further listening will prove it to be a good album but one which will give that irritating feeling of unutilised potential. It'll be deja vu. Direen will be going to university this year to complete a PhD in English. If he can fit in with that some music and theatre, Christchurch will be a richer place for it. RB