Books

Rip It Up, Issue 215, 1 July 1995, Page 8

Books

North Meets South:

Popular Music in Aotearoa New Zealand Edited by Philip Hayward, Tony Mitchell and Roy Shuker (Perfect Beat Publications, Macquarie University, Sydney Australia) Available in New Zealand from Unity Books, ÜBS Auckland and major Whitcoulls stores. Distributed in New Zealand by Green Phoenix.

North Meets South is an outstanding publication, marking the first serious attempt at placing New Zealand music and surrounding culture in a solid critical perspective. It is a special issue of Perfect Beat, an academic journal published by Macquarie University. The journal focuses on research into contemporary music and popular culture. I spoke with co-edi-tor Philip Hayward, on the phone from Sydney. "When the journal started, it was initially just looking at Australia," says Philip. “But we very soon realised there were very similar kind[s] of issues going on in New Zealand, Hawaii, Papua New Guinea. So, we expanded the editorial board to include people from those areas so the journal looked at the whole Pacific region, which is often left out of world studies of popular music. In 1992 I wrote a book called from Pop to Punk to Post Modernism, which is on Australian popular music. A number of people said it would be good if there was something like that on New Zealand, because there’s only John Dix’s excellent book Stranded in Paradise, but nothing else to date.” Philip approached publishers in New Zealand about the book, but got a poor response. “They thought it wasn’t a very good idea, no market for it, so we published it ourselves." This begs the question, why did it take a group of Australians to write and publish such a book on our music? Sad.

North Meets South sits comfortably alongside John Dix’s excellent social history of NZ music, Stranded in Paradise. It is enlightening and intelligent, covering a broad academic sweep in six chapters, with thorough notes and discographies for each chapter. Topics range from a brief history of New Zealand music video to the independent music scene, Maori radio and the quota debate. We talked about the latter issue, and discussed the associated cultural cringe. The quotas issue seems to have fallen by the wayside here, under our present free-market economy, as radio and TV push to give the people what they want, based on the ups and downs of the ratings information. “With ratings, it doesn’t show the whole complicity. Perhaps those ratings do drop because radio doesn’t play the kind of material that is local content, so when it does come on the radio, people don’t register with it. There’s a whole circularity to that argument. In so many other areas of culture production you’re allowed to look at the aesthetic dimension. No one would suggest that you apply those free market economics to painting, or theatre or opera, so why is music treated like a flat commodity like cornflakes?” Philip suggests that unlike in Europe, where the upmarket daily newspapers run reviews of rock bands and albums as if it’s high culture, New Zealand and Australia still see popular music as part of profane culture. “I think we’re still cringing away a bit down here.” Reaction to the book so far has been very positive, both in Australia and further afield. “People here were surprised by the diversity. They knew about Flying Nun, but not about the other stuff going on. I think the book has a very useful international publicity role for the culture.”

PETER MCLENNAN

Pack Of Lies

Chad Taylor (Hazard Press)

Pack Of Lies is a book about making up, make(ing) up, breaking up, and it will often break you up. It’s well summarised by its title, as anti-hero Catrina packs in the tall tales with something somewhat darker than gay abandon, but just as much fun. A nasty bump on

the head sends this compulsive story-spinner on a weekend long goodbye to love, which is high on drama, despite being relatively low on actual action. In search of a respite from her physical and mental pain, Catrina barrels head first into the confusion zone. She lures her best friend to a back-blocks motel, under the premise of a surprise birthday party. The occasion certainly does yield a few surprises, but they’re far from the traditional happy birthday variety. Shoplifting, boozing, tourist infiltration, sex and karaoke are the actual events which move Catrina from place to place. However, it is the reality based, fantasy embellished tales she comes up with at the drop of a hat (or the tugging of a nipple ring) which leave the most memorable marks. Sid and Nancy, Marilyn Monroe, Spencer Tracy, Lee Harvey Oswald and the Boston Strangler, to name a few, all appear as characters. If there’s one thing Catrina likes more than a good movie, it’s telling tales which tarnish their stars’ histories. Chad Taylor's short novel is a rapid read, which will remain in the memory a lot longer than it will in the hands. That said, .I've found my copy sneaking back for re-reads of some of the juicier stories. Did you hear the one about the spate of road accident site murde’rs?

BRONWYN TRUDGEON

Clapton: The Authorised Biography

Ray Coleman

This is a revised and updated version of the 1985 bio Survivor. A couple of new chapters at the beginning deal with the death of Clapton’s son, the subsequent ‘Tears In Heaven’ and the Unplugged phenomenon. There’s also a bit more at the end, updating other info since the book’s first publication. However, compared to the thoroughness of the rest of the text, it's a bit sketchy. For instance, whereas the often mediocre albums of the late 70s and early 80s are dealt with in detail — atmosphere at recording sessions etc. — such an important album as 89’s Journeyman receives no mention at all. Otherwise, once you get past the eulogistic introduction, Clapton is an admirably frank and clear-eyed account of a remarkably complex man. Especially fascinating are the comments of those, from Pete Townshend to Harley Street counsellors, who helped Clapton overcome the heroin and alcohol addictions which blighted a decade of his life. Ex-wife Patti (‘Layla’) Boyd is also interviewed but is, understandably, a little less candid than we might have liked. The book is well indexed and contains a comprehensive discography (which stops just short of last year’s From the Cradle).

PETER THOMSON

The Art Of The New Zealand Tattoo

Anne Nicholas (Tandem)

Wearing Ink

Dean Johansson (Bateman) It’s amazing that in a country with such a broad and strong tattoo tradition, it has taken this long for an exclusively New Zealand tattoo book to appear. Definitely long overdue, but at least we get two books to make up for the wait. Both books do a great job, presenting the photos cleanly, colourfully and nicely laid out. There’s a good selection of styles displayed, although The Art Of the New Zealand Tattoo does lean a little toward demons, goblins and skulls. The photographers are both obviously intrigued by their subject, and it is here the strengths of the books lie. I like the way Johansson shoots the person as much as the tattoo, humanising the whole process a little more. It took a while to get these fine publications, but at least we’ve started out right, and with more than a little class.

KIRK GEE