Hallelujah Picassos - Rewind the Hateman book - Amplifier

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Lisa van der Aarde and the Picassos, from Stamp Magazine article, 1990 The good, the bad and the ugly. By Lisa van der Arde I first became acquainted with the Hallelujah Picassos around 1988 when Harold, Peter McLennan & Bobbylon (and later Johnny Pain) would come up to my radio show ‘Freak the Sheep’ at BFM to promote their upcoming gigs. Often there would be a spontaneous ‘live’ performance in the studio, always enjoyed that. As a fan of garage music in general I loved the HPs garage/reggae/hardcore crossover sound; added to that the eclectic personalities of each member sold me and I would become their manager in 1990ish til 1994... thus began our adventures! Touring (along with the 5th member David Hornblow, soundman extradinaire) was anything but dull, and we went from Auckland to Invercargill and all points in between during those years. The Picassos popularity just kept growing and growing, the gigs getting bigger and bigger, it was exciting. We probably played every venue in Auckland during these years... Yes, there were the times when maybe 20 or so people showed up. One time in New Plymouth we ended up playing at a ‘new’ venue which turned out to be a room with a small stage, one lightbulb hanging above the stage for light! Almost like someone’s garage. At first we were shocked but in ‘the show must go on’ mode, played on. Lots of these times I was doing the door so was ‘meeting the people’. I remember of the 20 or so people at least 4 or 5 were punks who just pushed their way past me to get in - there was no security, so I was not gonna argue! I remember everywhere we went Bobbylon would know someone. We would be out in the middle of nowhere and a guy would walk out of the bush and say ‘Hey Bobbylon, hows it going ?’ He was a popular man haha... another time at the BFM Albert Park concert series the Picassos nearly caused a riot when they hit the stage. It was later in the afternoon and the crowd had been drinking all day and just wanted to get a little crazy, the security guards overreacting - yikes! Or the time the HPs played in Ohakune with Second Child and we all ended up staying in this house with no electricity for the night. It was freezing cold... Or in Queenstown playing at a real tourist venue (not the HPs crowd really) that I’m sure had mainly cover bands who did 2-3 hour sets, because the proprietor came up to me during the evening as the Picassos were on stage and said they had to play at least a 2 hour set! So I think they just played their whole set over again!
Mostly though it was a smooth ride - got some good support slots as well - most memorable for me was Screamin Jay Hawkins, for two evenings, we were in awe... or Faith No More at Ak Town Hall - Harold forgot to tune his guitar that night and I recall asking FNM’s guitar tech if he could help us out. Course he looked at me like I was crazy - then we went and ate some of their food and drink in the other room.... Opened for the Beastie Boys at the Powerstation - they were skateboarding around the venue at soundcheck and one of the Picassos gave them the latest HPs CD... L7’s guitarist had seen Peter playing his flying V guitar the night before at the Beasties (L7 were playing the next night) and wanted to borrow it for their show. Peter declined but we all got in for free that night! The Picassos fans were hardcore and enthusiastic and at many gigs we had guys taking their shirts off and jumping on the stage (we decided that they all wanted to be Harold) throughout the performance. After a few of these we decided we needed a roadie to keep watch over band members and gear - thanks to Horace and Tim Beatson for jumping in here. Each show was different and unique and when they hit the stage you didn’t know what to expect - crowd faves like ‘Picasso Core’, ‘God gave us Boom Boom Washington’ and ‘Rewind’ mixed up with occasional covers like a punk rock version of ‘Revolution’ [Tracy Chapman] the growling ‘Who do ya love’ or epic ‘It’s a man’s world’ all made for a good time! It was a pleasure to be part of the ‘Picasso Posse’. Yes, good times indeed! A bunch of happy musical misfits. By Simon Grigg I first met Harold sometime in 1985. I’d arrived back from London late that year and within a day or two been introduced to a guy called Harold, followed a few days later to the similar-looking lad named Roland. I was still jetlagged and easily confused, I guess. It took me a befuddled day or so to realise these two were not twins. I quickly found myself a gig as a DJ at Peter Urlich and Mark Phillip’s club, The Six Month Club, where Harold was a dancefloor essential. His presence was much larger than the black-clad physical stature. Inner cities have figures who just are, and so it was with Harold. Everyone knew Harold. Long before he’d made a record, or made it to a stage. And we spent days with him at DKD Cafe, where the city’s unmonied but groovy hung out to drink short blacks and eat the incredible cake. A month or four later we moved premises, up to Nelson Street (in the space now occupied by The Montecristo Room) and Harold, befitting his status as an up-and-coming urban legend, was given his own VIP bar [to run], just off the main dancefloor. In there, Harold could hold court. He naturally spent as much time out of the tiny bar as in, and when I dropped a tune, usually a slab of NY hiphop or the digital reggae sounds that we were delving rather deeply into at the time, Harold would leap from behind the bar, customers be damned, and pounce onto the dancefloor. His bar was a money loser, but we’d never have dreamed of shutting it or changing host. Contrary to the critical wisdom that the 1980s were a barren time for music, an opinion usually written by people who couldn’t see beyond bad Dire Straits, Pink Floyd or Loverboy records, the decade was perhaps the most inventive ten years musically since rock’n’roll began. It was the decade that gave us hip-hop, house, post-punk, techno, ragga, acid jazz, boogie, took reggae from roots to digital, hardcore punk, grunge, MTV and so much more. Into this mix came a whole raft of acts who mashed all this together in a way we had never seen before, and, most importantly for us, Hallelujah Picassos, fronted by Roland/Harold
Page 1: CONTENTS: STORIES FROM Lisa van der
Page 5 and 6: and featuring a bunch of happy musi
Page 7 and 8: town to go and buy a copy of Drinki
Page 9 and 10: on that track. One of my all-time f
Page 11 and 12: God gave us the Four Headed Beast.
Page 14 and 15: Uni Cafe, but one of their performa
Page 16: Stinky Jim: Gotta to be honest, it
Page 19 and 20: The above illustration was done by

Hallelujah Picassos - Rewind the Hateman book - Amplifier

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