27 September 2010

Quid Pro Quo

Igg Pop on Word cover Mark Ellen, editor and/or co-founder of Mojo, Q, Smash Hits and now his own (independent) The Word, writes in the latest issue:

I'll never forget being taken for lunch by the new MD of all the titles I was involved with at EMAP [publishing behemoth], a tiny little man who looked like Mr Burns from The Simpsons.

“Why are there so few five-star reviews in Q magazine?” he enquired.

Because there are so few five-star records.

“So five-star reviews have enormous value?”

They do indeed.

“Why don’t we sell them then? If people want five stars, they can pay for them.”

It was going to be a long lunch. And the starters hadn’t even arrived.

15 September 2010

I’ll have what she’s having

The Blind Institute has made an undervalued contribution to New Zealand music. It spent years training its students to be piano tuners, and great musicians such as Julian Lee, Joe and Claude Papesch, Tai Paul and Stewart Gordon passed through its doors. And the long-lasting Radars combo, whose 30 year career – which included backing Ricky May – included a stint in the 1990s playing at the Gluepot’s corner bar. I wonder if the Institute’s annual ball swung like this.

Found at the Oxford American site, where you can also witness Roy Head, “the Good Ole Boy version of James Brown”.

14 September 2010