03/04/2023 00:45
These are the facts:
In 1979, Hunters and Collectors drummer Douglas Falconer, informed Nicholas Seymour that he wasn’t a good enough bass player to audition for the ‘Reels’.
Subsequently, Nicholas Seymour went on to become an international rock star, playing bass guitar in a band called Crowded House.
Recently our Nick has taken to wearing a kilt.
Here’s a shot of him about to go on stage in Christchurch, to play in front of about 10,000 kiwis, thusly clad.
Now you may well ask, on reading these conflicting opinions and facts, in the world of rock, does sartorial splendour have any bearing on success?
Like all things cultural, there’s a spectrum..
At one end there are those musicians who subscribe to the view that one should look as ordinary as possible because otherwise your audience might think you are ‘up yourself..’
Pretending you’re better than you really are, by using your clobber as a way of distracting attention away from the ordinariness of your talent.
Hence, it is preferable to look like you just crawled out of an industrial accident, or an accountant’s office, because only then will your brilliance be plain for all to see and not otherwise disguised by some garish shirt or a gratuitous pair of fairy wings..
And then of course there are those at the other end of the spectrum who are so scrupulous about their attire, that the ‘appearance’ of things is absolutely paramount, a completely discrete narrative that must be attended to under all circumstances.
Never to be seen not looking, well.. INCREDIBLE… EVER.
taking out the wheelie bin, driving your kids to school, buying the fruit and vegetables… regardless of how things are ‘going’ musically, as such.
So, even if your actual gig becomes utterly unstuck and deranged, you will look so fucking cool as you crawl around on the carpet that it simply doesn’t matter. And no one will care that you lost your harmonica..
Thinking Nick Cave
Speaking of Nick Cave..
Nick Seymour once told me that back in 1977, when he was in his first year at art school, Nick Cave was a year his senior at the same place.
Like all good art students, they both were in the habit of attending gallery openings where cheese, cabana, Sao biscuits and cheap chardonnay were served up FREE OF CHARGE..
Nick Seymour arrived clad in a perfectly fitted Australian Army officers uniform.
On seeing Nick thusly clad, our other Nick, who subsequently went on to become the Global Dark Lord of Rock, wandered over, took him aside and advised him that in fact
‘the Roxy look was no longer tenable.’
The young Dark Lord was resplendent that night, in a grey skin-tight 60’s shark-skin suit, trousers hemmed high, de rigeur,
and god bless his socks but the Dark Lord was generous enough to give our Nick the best guidance of the day also FREE OF CHARGE, by telling him to look to..
‘Richard Hell and the Voidoids.’ No less.
The years went by.
BUT.. the question remains..
If the drummer from Hunters and Collectors was in fact correct back in 1979, and our Nick really was grossly over-rating himself as a bass player, to even think he had ghost’s chance in hell of ever joining the ‘Reels,’ you’ve got to wonder..
Has the kilt made any difference?