1992, Crown Hotel, Dunedin.
1992, Crown Hotel, Dunedin.
Finally got around to uploading some obscure mp3s from the dim past – including tracks from Das Phaedrus, Age of Dog, Swarm, Body Bomb, Alpha Plan and a few of my own, spanning the last 20 years (just about!)
I ventured out last night to the Arc, which is under “new” management (again.) It’s a good space but has struggled. I’m out of the loop with music at the moment as I have been engaged in different things in the last few years.
I was alerted to a music show on National Radio last week featuring an interview with old friend and bandmate Andrew Spittle, now lost in the mists of the far north somewhere.
The half hour interview was great, and some long overdue coverage for the man who puts a new meaning to productivity. However the interviewer threw in a weird quote from an old Dead Weight article I wrote about Andrew, where I called him “one of life’s beautiful losers, a man screaming into deep space.”
If you read this Andy – you recovered well, man, after the first strangled choking noise you made. You’re right, the comment was made about your business acumen. The music stands. Or to quote from a certain movie “the dude abides.”
Yes, the rumours are true – the Alpha Plan have finally managed to crack the soundtrack game. New short NZ feature Bogans is a movie about three bogans (overseas readers – this is New Zealand vernacular for petrolheads/boy racers/young men with V8s) who decide to head to the Big Smoke (Wellington) to land work as extras in that most orc-tastic trilogy Lord of the Rings.
The Alpha Plan feature on the soundtrack with our song “Someone Else’s Air” (one of John’s numbers) from the dim dark nineties. Apparently Peter Jackson makes an appearance too . . .
Who know’s what will come next? A reformation? Invitation to play at the premiere of King Kong? Or perhaps just some more obscurity.
A musical time lately in the Deep South.
We got to see the Verlaines play a few songs and spend what seemed like hours waiting around for the tv people to give them the nod at the ‘National Anthem’ down at Otago University on Saturday night. Still a great time had by all etc.