Chris Knox suffers stroke

Do talk back
User avatar
Qube
Posts: 2647
Joined: 04 Dec 2007, 12:16
Location: NYC
Contact:

Chris Knox suffers stroke

Postby Qube » 15 Jun 2009, 14:04

http://chrisknox.blogtown.co.nz/

Very sad news, hope he gets better.

User avatar
Snarfyguy
Dominated by the Obscure
Posts: 53502
Joined: 21 Jul 2003, 19:04
Location: New York

Re: Chris Knox suffers stroke

Postby Snarfyguy » 15 Jun 2009, 20:22

Fuck!

I used to see him every time he came through town. What an ebullient and irrepressible spirit.

Been a while now, but...

Fuck!
GoogaMooga wrote: The further away from home you go, the greater the risk of getting stuck there.

User avatar
king feeb
He's the consultant of swing
Posts: 26243
Joined: 19 Jul 2003, 00:42
Location: Soon Over Babaluma
Contact:

Re: Chris Knox suffers stroke

Postby king feeb » 15 Jun 2009, 22:54

Tragic news. The latest reports say that he will most likely never walk again and that his ability to speak has been affected too.

But strokes are strange: sometimes stroke victims can recover quite fully. Let's hope that's the case with Chris.
You'd pay big bucks to know what you really think.

User avatar
Magilla
Otago Mago
Posts: 15081
Joined: 19 Jul 2003, 04:02
Location: Gazing at the harbour.
Contact:

Re: Chris Knox suffers stroke

Postby Magilla » 15 Jun 2009, 23:08

Given Chris' status in NZ culture, this has been covered in the media here a bit. There are articles about his stroke in the entertainment sections of the New Zealand Herald and stuff, two major news sites here.

He is deeply loved and respected by many, many people here in NZ and regarded as a true innovator and pioneer.
"U2 routinely spent a year in the studio...I have a theory: if you put four monkeys in the studio for a year with Lanois and Eno and Lillywhite, they would make a pretty good record, too."

Billy

Re: Chris Knox suffers stroke

Postby Billy » 16 Jun 2009, 08:17

Ah damn :(

User avatar
The Write Profile
2017 BCB Cup Champ
Posts: 14755
Joined: 15 Sep 2003, 10:55
Location: Today, Tomorrow, Timaru
Contact:

Re: Chris Knox suffers stroke

Postby The Write Profile » 16 Jun 2009, 10:35

Yeah, I was going to post something about this myself, so it was good someone did.
Magilla wrote:Given Chris' status in NZ culture, this has been covered in the media here a bit. There are articles about his stroke in the entertainment sections of the New Zealand Herald and stuff, two major news sites here.

He is deeply loved and respected by many, many people here in NZ and regarded as a true innovator and pioneer.


And more than that, he's become an unlikely institution- as a presenter, (he used to do introductions to "late-night horror film" seasons on television), as a reviewer (I always love his film and music writing, he's a contrary bastard, but he's bloody sharp, and really knows his stuff), and somewhat offbeat cartoonist. And it's lovely how "Not Given Likely" has become embraced as something of a national anthem, and I can't begrudge the swags of cash he made licensing one of his songs to Heiniken. After all, he paved the way for so much in NZ music- not just his own work with Toy Love and the Tall Dwarfs, but his role as producer, guide and talisman throughout the early years of Flying Nun. He earnt it.

I wish him and his family all the very best support in the coming period, and I hope he pulls through and eventually recovers fully.
Last edited by The Write Profile on 16 Jun 2009, 10:41, edited 1 time in total.
It's before my time but I've been told, he never came back from Karangahape Road.

User avatar
never/ever
Posts: 26478
Joined: 27 Jun 2008, 14:21
Location: Journeying through a burning brain

Re: Chris Knox suffers stroke

Postby never/ever » 16 Jun 2009, 10:39

Fingers crossed. I'm sick 'n tired of all the bad news hitting the music world these days, hope this one turns good for a change.
kath wrote:i do not wanna buy the world a fucquin gotdamn coke.

User avatar
Mr Maps
a drunk in a midnight choir
Posts: 14118
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 19:07
Location: The City of Trees in Canada's Ocean Playground

Re: Chris Knox suffers stroke

Postby Mr Maps » 16 Jun 2009, 12:19

Shame. I only know his Croker and Siezure albums but enjoy them quite a bit.
I hope he has a speedy recovery.

nathan wrote:I realize there is a time and a place for unsexy music, but I personally have no time for it.


Django wrote: It's video clips of earnest post-rock I want, and I have little time for anything else.

19th biggest tosser on BCB

User avatar
hookfinger
Posts: 6328
Joined: 23 Jan 2008, 18:43
Location: the observation post
Contact:

Re: Chris Knox suffers stroke

Postby hookfinger » 16 Jun 2009, 17:56

Damn - everyones right - what a great guy. Used to see him in Chicago everytime he came through. Always very personable and corresponded with him a couple of times over the years. I have some drawings he sent me that I am glad i hung on to. I really hope this turns out OK.
Oh boy is it getting rough, when my old world charm isn't quite enough.

User avatar
John Barleykorn
Posts: 3830
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 22:06
Location: Living in the past

Re: Chris Knox suffers stroke

Postby John Barleykorn » 16 Jun 2009, 23:28

It is really grim news. It sobering, when something happens to one of the real icons of your youth, especially one who was very real and not distant like the English and American heroes who we in NZ loved but seldom saw.

I really hope he recovers the ability to write and make music ...

Toy Moody
"the cosmos is desacralised
Now the world must be rebarbarised"

User avatar
The Write Profile
2017 BCB Cup Champ
Posts: 14755
Joined: 15 Sep 2003, 10:55
Location: Today, Tomorrow, Timaru
Contact:

Re: Chris Knox suffers stroke

Postby The Write Profile » 17 Jun 2009, 09:51

Mr Maps wrote:Shame. I only know his Croker and Siezure albums but enjoy them quite a bit.
I hope he has a speedy recovery.



Hey Maps, I reckon you'd really like his work with Toy Love and the Tall Dwarfs, and these two compilations work the trick.

TOY LOVE- Cuts (2CD)

Everything they ever recorded during the band's brief exsistence (1979-1980), it's a riot- whether it's the insano-billy of "Bride of Frankenstein", the seething new wave of "Squeeze" or the vicious, angular "Photographs of Naked Ladies", what I love most about the record is that even when the songs don't come off, they're played and produced with such purpose and vim. I can only imagine what they were like live. Bonus marks for the excellent packaging, remastered sound, and booklet.

Image

TALL DWARFS- Hello Cruel World

To be honest, what I've heard of Bathgate and Knox's subsequent work doesn't quite match up to this collecton of their early singles and EPs. Maybe it's the fact they're so wilfully lo-fi, but I can't help but love the humour and noise this lot make, it really sounds like they're just throwing whatever they have on tape and hoping some of it works. Surprisingly influential, of course, but the best stuff on the record is still the more conventional stuff- the deadpan "Nothing's Going to Happen", the cut-price biscuit-tin synth-messing of "Paul's Place", and the Velvets-like drone of "Crush". But there's lots to like in here, and lots of fun to be had. Again, this comes with a cool booklet with reprints of the original sleeves, lyric sheets, etc.

Image

Guys like King Feeb, snarfy and Magilla can give you a proper rundown on Chris Knox if you want, but I definitely recommend those two records.
It's before my time but I've been told, he never came back from Karangahape Road.

User avatar
James R
the grocer of despair
Posts: 9914
Joined: 17 Jul 2003, 03:53
Location: seated sultanically among the moons of Saturn
Contact:

Re: Chris Knox suffers stroke

Postby James R » 19 Jun 2009, 13:56

goddamn

i've never been a fan but, as some of you will know, i HAVE been a stroke victim of late

as such i may have some idea of what he may be going through and it will not be pretty if mine is indicative

he has all my best wishes, obviously
pcqgod wrote:I like how Liebling progresses from a rotting, animated corpse living in his parents' basement to a slightly more life-affirming walking corpse by the end of the movie.

Goat Boy wrote:I recall a midget with large tits dancing.

User avatar
Nolamike
Posts: 13988
Joined: 05 Dec 2005, 21:31
Location: Heaven, Hell, or Houston
Contact:

Re: Chris Knox suffers stroke

Postby Nolamike » 20 Jun 2009, 03:29

Goddamn. I'll hope for the best, but it doesn't sound too good (um, not that a stroke ever really could).

I spent one of the best nights of my life with him. I was in Atlanta for the Gavin Convention back in '95. I was music obsessed, but really only knew stuff that was current then, and then the really obvious older stuff - typical 19 year old kinda pretentious hipster that doesn't really know crap (I'm still bewildered by how "meh" meeting Ahmet Ertegun on the same trip was for me, but like I said, I was a clueless kid). At least I was smart enough to keep my mouth shut, though.

At any rate, some guys who worked at the college radio station with me in New Orleans and I went to catch his show, which was awesome, and then somehow he ended up hanging out with us for the night, driving around Atlanta doing amusing stuff. Anytime we saw any woman walking on the sidewalk, no matter her age, appearance, etc., Chris would lean out the car window and shout "Chrissie Hynde! Chrissie Hynde!" You kinda had to be there, but it was hilarious. Totally personable, down to earth, and a likeable guy who also happens to be a great musician. Few and far between....
Sir John Coan wrote:Nolamike is speaking nothing but sense here.


Loki wrote:Mike is Hookfinger's shill.

User avatar
Snarfyguy
Dominated by the Obscure
Posts: 53502
Joined: 21 Jul 2003, 19:04
Location: New York

Re: Chris Knox suffers stroke

Postby Snarfyguy » 20 Jun 2009, 03:50

A great live performer and always up to hang with his fans. I spent a few fun post-show sessions looning around with him (and on occasion his relatively taciturn Tall Dwarfs partner Alex Bathgate).

At one show, out of the entire room, he picked the guy who ran the record label my band used to be on to sort of give a lap dance to and generally embarass. This guy is not what I'd call uptight, but perhaps just sort of conservative or cautious in a certain social sense (as am I). It was some kind of weird genius that Knox could pick him out of a crowd as the victim writhed all over. (He'd wear one of those Madonna kind of mic headsets so he could get into it with the audience while still singing his song or delivering weird, funny rants.)

A truly vibrant, hilarious personality.

Not to contradict Profile above, but my familiarity with the back catalogue. I've got a couple of the TD EPs and the round-up he suggests - Hello Cruel World (seconded, a must-have) and Weeville (excellent) and a few others I can't recall at the moment. My experience has been that you can't really go too far wrong with his records.
GoogaMooga wrote: The further away from home you go, the greater the risk of getting stuck there.

User avatar
king feeb
He's the consultant of swing
Posts: 26243
Joined: 19 Jul 2003, 00:42
Location: Soon Over Babaluma
Contact:

Re: Chris Knox suffers stroke

Postby king feeb » 20 Jun 2009, 04:09

James R wrote:goddamn

i've never been a fan but, as some of you will know, i HAVE been a stroke victim of late

as such i may have some idea of what he may be going through and it will not be pretty if mine is indicative

he has all my best wishes, obviously

:shock: I did not know this!

How are you recovering, James?
You'd pay big bucks to know what you really think.

User avatar
Snarfyguy
Dominated by the Obscure
Posts: 53502
Joined: 21 Jul 2003, 19:04
Location: New York

Re: Chris Knox suffers stroke

Postby Snarfyguy » 20 Jun 2009, 04:16

I also want to say that's remarkable that the Tall Dwarfs did their recordings not together in the studio, but by correspondence, which in those days meant (snail) mailing cassettes of home four track (I imagine Tascam Porta-1, although their stuff doesn't really have that Porta-1 sound) back and forth so each could augment what the other had done.

It could have been something roughly analogous to the Porta-1, with which I used to work a lot myself. When somebody played me some Ween stuff they'd apparently recorded with that machine when they were collectively down with a bout of mononucleosis, I was struck by how much it sounded like my stuff.

This clip shows Knox not to be simply a clown, as I may have made him sound above, but a writer and performer of rare depth and sensitivity:



I also did not know about James R's stroke and James I hope you are okay and I send you all my very best wishes. Please feel free to sound off about your condition.
GoogaMooga wrote: The further away from home you go, the greater the risk of getting stuck there.

User avatar
John Barleykorn
Posts: 3830
Joined: 16 Jul 2003, 22:06
Location: Living in the past

Re: Chris Knox suffers stroke

Postby John Barleykorn » 21 Jun 2009, 03:13

Apparently he was well enough to sing Happy Birthday to his wife, yesterday. Good news!

Dr Moody
"the cosmos is desacralised
Now the world must be rebarbarised"

User avatar
Magilla
Otago Mago
Posts: 15081
Joined: 19 Jul 2003, 04:02
Location: Gazing at the harbour.
Contact:

Re: Chris Knox suffers stroke

Postby Magilla » 26 Jun 2009, 12:50

I went out for beer and curry this evening with Graeme Humphries 8-) (Able Tasmans), Jane Dodd 8-) (Able Tasmans, Verlaines, early Chills) and Carol Tippett 8-) (took several iconic NZ music photos - Boodle Boodle Boodle cover, etc).

Graeme was down from Auckland visiting friends and he popped into the library where I work. I happened to be on the reference at the time, so arranged to meet up.

Anyway, he said he'd been to see Chris in hospital a few times and that he was doing well. He hasn't lost any of his personality, memory, etc. Also his face is symetrical, rather than sunken in, as sometimes occurs. Apparently it was a very, very severe stroke and really knocked his left side very badly.

He's now out of hospital and getting rehabilitation at a clinic.

Graeme's also had a slot on Radio Live (a prominent radio here in NZ) for some years - NZ posters will be amused by some of the stories about certain NZ TV / media people he told me. :twisted:
"U2 routinely spent a year in the studio...I have a theory: if you put four monkeys in the studio for a year with Lanois and Eno and Lillywhite, they would make a pretty good record, too."


Return to “Yakety Yak”