Eric Marsden (The Androidss) has passed away. Heard that via Chris Matthews (Headless Chooks) on Facebook. His brother Steve passed away in early March 2009.
I was lucky enough to catch this tribute gig in 2009 to Steve's memory, featuring the remaining members of the Androidss (including Eric) performing, alongside The Spelling Mistakes, The Newmatics and Chris Matthews and his band Robot Monkey Orchestra.
ADDED 1 Nov - saw this via Robert Southon on Facebook - "For friends of Eric and of the Androidss, there is a wake on Nov 9th at the Tabac Bar in Auckland."
ADDED 2 Nov - via Loriah in the comments - A memorial wake for Eric is to be held at the Richmond Working Mens Club in Christchurch on Friday Nov 4th from 4pm.
"This band [had] a great and large repertoire of songs that were most unfortunately lost to history. A contributing factor to their history and lack of recordings was due to a couple of members doing jail time. However, "Auckland Tonight” and “Getting Jumpy" were the only two songs to have been recorded/documented/saved, thanks to Ripper Records." [source]
ADDED: Eric Marsden of the Androidss outside the Media Club, Christchurch before the band's gig 23/10 2008 (more info on the gig here, apparently it was a fundraiser, and there is mention of their planned album). Photo by Robin Mcilraith (and cannot be reused without Robin's permission). Thanks for sending me this, Robin.
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| Photo by Robin Mcilraith |
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| Photo from Robin Mcilraith. Apparently Eric used to give out this photo to his female fans! |
Here's some words that Mark Wilson of the Androidss wrote on Steven Marsden's passing ...[source]
Mark Wilson formed The Androidss with Stephen and remembers him accordingly...
"Raging at the Gresham Tavern with The Basket Cases when Zephyrs and Cortinas were polluting the atmosphere was cool but nothing compared to The Androidss! In 1978 the party hit the road. Stephen and Eric Marsden (identical twins), Mark and Neil Spence, Arthur Manawatu, Frank Stenjes and I threw together some tunes. Armed with pot, alcohol, guitars and attitude we created a repertoire of Iggy, Bowie, Mick Jagger, Lou Reed, Blondie, Magazine covers mixed with my eclectic soul searching originals. Arthur left so Steve and I fronted the band. Playing around Christchurch to small audiences soon led to us play support for NZ touring bands such as the Dudes, Toy Love and The Swingers. Iggy Pop saw us perform his songs at the British Hotel in Lyttelton. Stephen and I sat with him and drank whisky. The press quoted him: "they're tough as bitches but they're beautiful!"
Next we headed for Auckland. "Androidss suck" was the cry from local punks, skinheads and boot boys; fagends flicked in our faces as we forged our way into the Auckland scene. Shaving off to create a new image, we fitted in to the punk scene and the arty new wave culture. This inspired Stephen to write Auckland Tonight. Packing out the Rhumba Bar, photos in magazines and posters catapulted our popularity and after touring back to Christchurch headlining gigs we recorded our one and only record. Stephens' Auckland Tonight and my song Getting Jumpy went to number 18 on NZ charts! Steve's song was put to video for the popular show Droppa Kulcha. We had sort of made it!
Living the rock'n'roll lifestyle took its toll and we disbanded. The party was over. Mark split to London, I got married and the others stayed in Auckland eventually coming back to Christchurch, except Steve who lived the rest of his days devoted to his wife Andrea.
I am grateful to have had these experiences with Steve. His incredible enthusiasm and energy coupled with his humour gave me something to hang off; flanking him on his right with my guitar while he sang and I played my solos. I will never forget those times. Last year Stephen got up and sang with the new millennium Androidss. Liberate The Androidss!
For Stephen, May God Bless him - Mark Wilson
ADDED : Bryan Staff talks about the photo below, with NZ Musician's Trevor Reekie..."It was at David Gapes’ birthday party at the King’s Arms in 1992. I don’t know who took it – but it was on my camera." There's another photo of Eric and Steve there too, with Greg Carroll.
11 comments:
What a wonderful tribute to a really good man. I will always love Eric and my daughter and I feel truly fortunate to include him as more than a friend. My girl once said to me that of all my friends, he loved Eric the most. This from a then, fifteen year old, meant so much to Eric and to me.
Just as an aside and for clarification, Eric said that DaveJ wrote 'Getting Jumpy'. Did you guys co-write it? Eric and I, as friends, had three favorite songs. 'Getting Jumpy' because he loved that I loved it. Second was 'Suspect Device' by Stiff Little Fingers and third, 'Golden Brown' by 'The Stanglers'. We all know how much he loved Iggy and there's no need to explain why but I cannot hear 'The Passenger', 'Golden Brown' or 'Suspect Device' without thinking of my dear friend. Thanks again for sharing. Means more than I can say. And I've probably said too much. (smile and best wishes)
oops.., I skipped a letter. I should've said, 'she' loved him the most. Not very clear headed at the moment.
Reply
Liorah
November 2, 2011
A memorial wake for Eric is to be held at the Richmond Working Mens Club in Chrstchurch on Friday Nov 4th from 4pm, and at Tabac Bar in Auckland on Nov 9th. All friends and family welcome to celebrate a great life, and share stories of the good times.
if more people were like eric, the world would be a better place, now that he is gone,we are poorer for it.im glad i meet this person and counted him a friend,and with regret he has left this stage of life he so carefreely danced on.
Hi Cindy, thanks for sharing your thoughts. And thanks Loriah for the details on the wakes. Appreciate it.
I am really gutted that stephen and eric have passed away, I have not seen the twins since they left the uk for new zealand, they were 2 rare characters, very well liked and very good at sports, i did gymnastics with steven, and played rugby with eric and and stephen at nether stowe comprehensive school in lichfield u k. my regards to all their friends and family, micky morris
I met Eric and Stephen when they were spray painting cars at "The Work Shop" (drug shop) in the early 80's. Tama worked there as well (from "the Tama band"). Eric and Stephen did "The Punk Warmed Up"gig at mainstreet, it was great. I went traveling and didn't see them again 'till 89 and Eric was hanging lights for Rockie Jelly. I found out they died end of last year. A lot of happy memories, God bless them both.
C4dog
https://youtu.be/cpK_rhCjA7o
https://youtu.be/D-N8BXK5gx4
https://youtu.be/e1vW9fjPNdE
Video of the first night of the 1989 reunion at the subway chch,this camera angle was filmed by me
I still have that original Androids poster. It's a bit worse for wear but aren't we all
I just want to say what good men Eric & Steve were. I knew them for well about 6 months when we were living in a Richmond Rd house & they lived around the corner in Vermont St, I seems to remember Brazier was livin in John St then so just in that small chunk of Grey Lynn there was always a party. I went back to Oz but used to run into both Steve & Eric on occasional visits to Auckland tho sadly they became estranged for a while. A lot of outrageous times were had in that all too brief moment where we all believed anything goes and it's odd to be one of the few still kickin around from that cluster. Still not exactly surprising when considering the fun we had which continued in vastly different places for each of us for a lot of years afterward.
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