[kj] KJ & zigzag

Tue Jan 18 18:22:55 EST 2005

Is Dave the same guy as "The Wizard"?

Kris Needs is now a successful club deejay, I gather. At the time I 
knew him (`89-`92), he was -- well, let's face it -- a drunk junkie. 
He'd been working thanklessly at Bleeker Bob's (storied record store) 
on W.4th Street, where he'd be treated to daily abuse courtesy of 
Bleeker Bob Plotnick (storied asshole...now in a wheelchair...karma's a 
bitch). After a run of bad luck, he ended up living on the couch of my 
editor Brad Balfour's, who put him to work editing and writing for the 
NEW REVIEW (he wrote under the oh-so-clever nom de plume of R.S. Hole). 
The magazine sucked and my "job" there sucked, but I looked forward to 
working with Kris everyday, who had me in hysterics from morning until 
late afternoon. A funnier, nicer guy has never existed, i'd say. 
Trouble was, he was sinking into the throes of a heroin problem, and 
living with Brad (himself out of his fucking mind) was no help. In the 
interim, he was working with a vocalist named "Wonder" (though I 
certainly didn't think she was a wonder), and was putting together a 
club/dance/disco act called Secret Knowledge. After hitting rock bottom 
(and getting badly beaten up), he de-camped back to the UK and cleaned 
up. I gather he toured with Primal Scream (as their resident deejay) 
and eventually got Secret Knowledge up and off the ground, and is now 
doing quite well. He actually wrote an autobiography a number of years 
back called "Needs Must". Worth checking out. Sadly, I didn't get a 
mention it it (though Brad did).

Anyway, wherever he is today, my hat's off to him.

Alex in NYC

On Tuesday, January 18, 2005, at 05:50 PM, juliet pleming wrote:

> Bloody hell! I remember Kris Needs. I'd totally forgotten him until I 
> read that. He was like a smaller, weedier version of Youth - lots of 
> dreads. I can't even remember where I remember him from. Probably 
> general clubbing  & seeing him hang out with Youth. I DO remember him 
> - I can actually see him in my minds eye.
>  
> What about Dave, the nutter who used to breathe fire to start the show 
> off  ?  Does anyone remember him? ( I know I have asked that before 
> and noone answered) Was he a precursor of Miss Weasel or whatever that 
> american woman was called who breathed fire out of somewhere else.
>  
> Juliet
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Alexander Smith
> To: A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)
> Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2005 2:55 PM
> Subject: Re: [kj] KJ & zigzag
>
> Well, ZigZag was also the mighty KRIS NEEDS' magazine, and Kris was 
> huge pals with Youth. I had the pleasure of working with Kris in the 
> early 90's (when he was in pretty bad shape, actually) at the 
> long-since-defunkt NEW YORK REVIEW OF RECORDS, and he'd constantly 
> regale me with stories about Youth and Jaz (Jaz apparently put a hex 
> on him at one point).
>
> Alex in NYC
>
>
>
> On Tuesday, January 18, 2005, at 08:57 AM, <antoni at clara.net> wrote:
>
> ... and on the subject of the ZigZag magazine, KJ did get some good 
> coverage, most especially within the original publication 
> (http://home.clara.net/antoni/zzback.JPG), whose last issue (No 130) 
> appeared in October 1982, with Siouxsie Sioux on the cover. It 
> contained a rare interview with Youth's Brilliant & I have a copy. The 
> magazine was relaunched as New ZigZag in October 1983 with issue 
> number 1 (http://home.clara.net/antoni/zznew01.JPG) being a goth's 
> paradise, with Sex Gang Children on the cover - plenty of Alien Sex 
> Fiend, Sisters Of Mercy, Death Cult, X-Mal Deutschland and the Cocteau 
> Twins.  
>  
> Back to the original ZZ magazine, there were major pieces on KJ in 
> issue 100, with an interview and that infamous page sized photo of the 
> KJ lads in the builder's skip with a brick in hand, issue 105 with a 4 
> page centre spread article about the recording of the first album plus 
> Youth & Geordie on the cover. Issue 116 contained an interview with 
> Youth about the WTF album - KJ rarely got any coverage in the "new" ZZ 
> (and if so it was hardly complimentary) and that was probably as much 
> down to the fact that Mick Mercer became the editor. KJ was not one of 
> his bands. I'm not sure why. Did they once tell him to f*ck *ff ?  The 
> truth is out there somewhere.
>  
> Regards,
>  
> Antoni
>  
> * http://home.clara.net/antoni/ *
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