End of an era: Graham Brazier, an icon of outrageous, formative and slightly hedonistic times…
Eras are slow to build and quick to end. In fact, often you only ever realise you’re in an era when it stops. They always seem to stop abruptly.
Graham Brazier’s stopped last week. The era aura, for me, vanished some time ago – however Brazier’s songs have stood the test of time so far.
Gutter Black had a renaissance as the theme song of Outrageous Fortune. The song and the TV series proved hits with my daughters, taking the Brazier touch to a new generation.
I remember Hello Sailor. I remember in my mid/late teens feeling pretty cool, hanging out with musicians nearly twice my age! It was the early ‘80s. The DB Onerahi was a focal point for live music. Brazier was a popular drawcard – I enjoyed watching his unique 80’s dance style, rather reminiscent of someone operating a cake mixer from each arm in tandem.
Whangarei seemed to have a lot of live music back then.
We had an alternative record store run by Rick, a colourful character. Rick was still the most prolific bull-s***er I have ever known. He was a muso. He played lots of gigs. He knew lots of other muso’s. He knew Jack who was a builder and a muso, a Whangarei icon.
He took me down to Auckland. We spent an unforgettable day partying with Brazier. I drove them around town.
While cruising down the motorway, Brazier suddenly leant over from the passenger seat and yanked my steering wheel for fun.
This behaviour was definitely juvenile but Brazier carried it off with a heady mixture of dodginess and down to earth charm which, at the time, made it very, very funny.
Looking back, it was an unusual phase but a very formative one.
I sometimes wonder whether growing up with a very visible disability in those angsty teenage years somehow made me gravitate towards older and outrageous people.
Yeah, nah! I think it was just my hedonistic tendencies and my thirst for glamour and drama.
I bumped into Jack the other day at the Aquatic Centre. I was there for a hydrotherapy pool stakeholders’ meeting. Jack had changed from the last time I saw him because of a stroke.
We talked about that era of muso’s, about the Gluepot, about Rick, what a good bugger he was and his penchant for bull-s***ting. He was coming up soon to take Jack out for a pint.
A week later we talked about Brazier reciting Keats in the Pool Hall. Yes, that era ended a while ago but it imprinted itself firmly in my memories: “Turn the key deftly in the oiled wards. And seal the hushed casket of my soul”.
Cheers, Graham.
Downloadable pdf here:
| Available Downloads | Type | Size |
|---|---|---|
| Blissful memories of Hello Sailor days | 212 KB |