| Author | Message | ||
     Mark Leydon Member Username: Mark_leydon Post Number: 372 Registered: 05-2005 |
RIP to one of NZ's greatest ever songwriters and musicians. I knew he'd been in poor health over the years but this is still quite a shock. The Chills 2015 release Silver Bullets is one of my favourite albums of all time, right up there with Oceans Apart as a late career highlight. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10703 Registered: 05-2005 |
I just saw the awful news. It’s heartbreaking. At least he got some modicum of the respect he was due in recent years, particularly with the great documentary. I saw it in a suburban Auckland cinema in June 2019 and he did a Q&A with the director afterwards and then played a solo set and then signed autographs and posed for photographs. What a night that was. I also saw The Chills live three times in Sydney (the first time was in 1992) and once in Auckland (the last time I saw them, August 2019). They were always superb live. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10704 Registered: 05-2005 |
Interview with Martin Phillipps from two weeks ago. Almost certainly the last he ever did. It’s so very sad. https://www.thepress.co.nz/culture/35033 5891/martin-phillipps-chills-puts-his-ho use-order | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 4926 Registered: 03-2005 |
I also woke up to the awful news, via The Guardian. I am eternally grateful to the denizens of this board who introduced me to the Chills and so many other Kiwi bands. I only saw the band once, in their late iteration, at a smallish venue in downtown Los Angeles. It was a wonderful set. I had tickets to see them the last time they came to LA but my brother was visiting and with his poor health it became obvious I would not be able to attend. I have a DVD of the documentary which I will definitely watch again today. Thank you for the link, Pádraig. | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 785 Registered: 08-2005 |
No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's shocking and heartbreaking news. I first saw the Chills at Glastonbury 1987, and then on quite a few occasions including in my home town of Bath in 1996 during the troubled Sunburnt tour. Latterly I saw them in Cardiff in 2016 and finally in June last year in Portsmouth, when I had a chat with him after an excellent gig. I told him that I had pictures of the Chills at Glastonbury... and he couldn't even remember playing the festival. But he came across as very positive and seemingly in good health at the time. I usually describe the Chills as my second-favourite band ever, after the Go-Betweens... | ||
| Simon Withers Member Username: Sfwithers Post Number: 786 Registered: 08-2005 |
As Pádraig said, the Chills were always superb live. Sadly this is something we will never experience again. | ||
| Andrew Kerr Member Username: Andrew_k Post Number: 1557 Registered: 04-2005 |
Very sad new indeed. I saw The Chills play in Edinburgh in 1990 (with The Wolfhounds and McCarthy) and it was a brilliant gig. Completely by chance, the afternoon of the gig I saw Martin Philipps looking in the window of Vinyl Villains record shop at the top of Leith Walk. And he was wearing that Leather Jacket. I'm so glad that he got the chance to remix "Brave Words", which is my favourite recording by the band. | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 10707 Registered: 05-2005 |
A friend of mine has written a nice appreciation of Martin Phillipps. https://www.paulmcdermott.ie/blog/the-ch ills-martin-phillipps-an-appreciation | ||
| Fred Tadrowski Member Username: Ftadrowski Post Number: 152 Registered: 03-2015 |
I just heard the news today - the same day that our 11 year old golden retriever Poppy passed away. I am glad that I was able to see The Chills twice, but what a songwriter? | ||
| Rob Brookman Member Username: Rob_b Post Number: 2061 Registered: 08-2006 |
Fred, so sorry to hear about your pup. That's just the worst. And yeah, the news about Martin was just a gut-punch. I loved pretty much everything he did and few albums matter more to me than "Submarine Bells." Maybe "Silver Bullets." |