Oh shit.
Hello Sailor front-man Graham Brazier dies, age 63
UPDATE: I fear the Herald had prepared their obituary for poor Graham ahead of time …
"First, foremost and always I am a songwriter.”
“As Dave McArtney once said of their respective roles: ‘I was the melody, Graham was the balls’."
Again, there’s a tear in the singer’s eye.
“And he’ll never sing that live again because he’s brown bread.”Martin Edmond:
”In later years he was like a ruined king of a ruined kingdom on a ruined throne; but the splendour was real.”BBC:
“He was a star, he could sing like angel. He was a poet so he could write. He had that bad boy quality. He was a constant source of amusement, excitement and astonishment."Audio Culture:
”The perception of Hello Sailor has changed over the years…”His last-ever interview:
"Graham actually said to Alan Jansson 'Oh mate, can we hurry this album up because I don't want this album to be posthumous'. It obviously turned out to be prophetic. The new album, titled Left Turn at Midnight, would likely be released towards the end of the year...”Grant Smithies:
”He was soft-spoken, erudite, articulate and funny, and had no intention of thumping me in the dunnies at some future awards dinner, so long as I did him a favour. Rather than ‘getting in the ring together,’ he was prepared to let me off the hook if I wrote something nice about his mum.”Don McGlashan:
”He breathed music & literature; meant every note he sang, & walked a tough path with grace. Dominion Rd will be emptier now.”
What Raymond Chandler wrote about his hero Philip Marlowe seems to fit Graham like one of his many leather jackets:
Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. [He is] a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He [is], to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honour. He talks as the man of his age [should] talk, that is, with rude wit, a lively sense of the grotesque, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness.
And now they’ve both gone, Dave & Graham both, both of these two fabulous fuckers …
Robyn Gallagher @5000ways: “A good way to remember Graham Brazier - starts with a poem, then the video for ‘In Your Company’ (feat. his mum)”:
8 comments:
A befittingly wet and miserable day as the life of one of NZ's greatest singer songwriters come to an end today.
Not possible to 'like' this post. Rest in peace Graham...
Such a loss. I remember seeing HS at the Gluepot and that old muzo place on the Shore - can't remember the name now. He was such a charismatic and talented man. Another one gone too soon.
Came to your blog first when I heard this news. Death does seem to be calling on this generation at the moment, I'm seeing it.
This is your 'life was saved by rock'n'roll' guy isn't he? Out of McGoohan's Prison escape music.
Aye, him and Dave. Yes they were.
Fucking death.
Yeah, the place at Milford? For a while, they used to play there every New Years Eve. Great times.
Fucking death.
Well, that's what it's like for me too so I get that all the way. But I ain't listening to no opera.
I think it was ,though I remember a place around Takapuna too. Mind you it was 30 years ago...
Paul Little wrote a very nice obituary in the Herald on Sunday, saying that no band has had that same charisma before HS or since. I think Graham spawned a lot of wannabes like Jordan Luck and Andrew Fagan. Not saying they aren't talented in their own way, but they never came close to Graham.
Yes, you're right, it was Takapuna ... the Mon Desir.
Paul was right. HS had that charisma in spades, didn't they.
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