My Seventies Music

Tag: Shine On You Crazy Diamond

  • Mi-Sex – “Graffitti Crimes”, “Computer Games” and “But You Don’t Care”

    Album cover of "Graffitti Crimes" by New Zealand band Mi-Sex (1979)

    Mi-Sex was a top New Zealand band that went to Australia in the late Seventies and had a lot of success there, culminating in their first album “Graffitti Crimes”, featuring the title track as well as songs like the Australian No. 1 single “Computer Games” and their recent other single from 1979, “But You Don’t Care”.

    I remember their predecessor band Father Thyme playing at dances in the “Old Woolroom” at Massey University in about 1977 or 1978.

    I distinctly remember they played “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” by Pink Floyd – or maybe it was “Welcome To The Machine” from the same album (not so distinct after all…), and I also remember chatting to the bass player, Don Martin, in the breaks.

    Mi-Sex, however, played quite a different style, quite New Wave, and when I was planning the 1980 Massey University Student Orientation (two weeks in February-March when term started in New Zealand after the summer vacation), I tried to hire them for a festival we were running – for NZ$10,000, a lot more than Father Thyme had commanded.

    Unfortunately they were already booked for that time, so it didn’t happen, and I had to be content with buying their album, which I think I bought in Germany, having gone there a couple of weeks after Orientation ended to write my M.A. thesis.

    As I said, the album, released in July 1979, was called “Graffitti Crimes”, here’s the title track:

    One of my favourites is the 1979 single “But You Don’t Care”:

    And finally the hit “Computer Games”, which wasn’t on all versions of the album:

    Mi-Sex disbanded in 1984, and unfortunately lead singer Steve Gilpin died after a car accident on his way home from a gig in 1991.

    But their music and the memory live on.

    Paul

  • “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” – Pink Floyd

    Pink Floyd album cover Dark Side of the Moon

    “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” from Pink Floyd accompanied me all the way round New Zealand’s South Island in the back seat of the family car at the end of 1975, my last year at school. (I grew up on the North Island, by the way.)

    And a few years later I remember hearing a band called Father Time playing it in the “Old Wool Room” at Massey University, where they used to hold the student dances before it was pulled down. Key members of Father Time later went on to become “Mi-Sex”, a top band in Australia.

    Of course, Pink Floyd was everywhere in the 70s, you couldn’t go to a party without hearing the album “Dark Side of the Moon” if nothing else.

    I had a bit of a problem regarding a video of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” – the song is so long, people have had to break it up and it wasn’t so easy to find the matching clips!

    This one is an earlier live version, from 1974:

    And here are two parts form a concert in LA, also in the Seventies, though the accompanying footage is more recent, i.e. 2008:

    Finally, three more recent renderings, Pink Floyd… in 1990 –

    and David Gilmour… electric in 2007:

    And Dave Gilmour solo doing a purely accoustic version on his own:

    I could have spent all night listening to all the different versions of this song, but I’ll leave you with these ones for now….

    Keep on shining!

    Paul

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