A message from Peter Holsapple

From Robert=Northcott%NeuroChem%BDRC@css.unc.eduFri Jan 20 17:54:24 1995
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 95 13:33:31 EST
From: Robert=Northcott%NeuroChem%BDRC@css.unc.edu
To: neslon@panix.com
Subject: A message from Peter Holsapple

I am writing at the request of Peter Holsapple, who does not have any other way to reach you. He knew that I had email access, and having your email address, called and asked me to relay a message to you (he is a very long-time and dear friend of mine). So I am passing on what he told me that he would like you to know, in his behalf.

Peter called me last night (1/19/95) because he had just read the inaugural issue of Judith Beeman's "Back of a Car". He specifically referred to the asterisked comment of yours contained in the review on page 22 of Chris Stamey and She Never Blinks at the Knitting Factory. What he wanted you to know was there was never any "bad blood" between he and R.E.M. and that there were no "gory details" to be reported. Peter and R.E.M. have been friends for a long time, worked together for a while, and professionally parted company. They remain friends and any differences they may have had in any context were resolved long ago. So your quest for "gory details" is all for naught. The point that Peter stressed above this, however, was that although he certainly realizes the fact that being somewhat in the "public eye" subjects a person to a certain level of scrutiny, it does not mean that their private life and affairs (professional, personal, or otherwise) are any one else's business (including yours). Peter is a person, and reading a sleazy, no class comment like yours of course affects him. Maybe you thought he would never see it. Peter asked me to pass along, respectfully yet sternly (and in no uncertain terms), that he "had better not ever see any other comments like that again". Please keep in mind that this is a person you are talking about, and if you have any respect for him, either as fan or fellow human, keep this kind of cheap rumor mongering to yourself.

I hope that I have phrased this request from Peter in the most non-offensive yet forceful way that I can. I will also be glad to pass on any response that you may have to him personally.

Bob Northcott

From neslon@panix.comSun Jan 22 09:36:23 1995
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 1995 01:36:47 -0500 (EST)
From: Wilson Smith 
To: Robert=Northcott%NeuroChem%BDRC@css.unc.edu
Subject: Re: A message from Peter Holsapple

I was very surprised to get your note with the message from Peter Holsapple, although your name is sort of familiar to me -- did you submit some stuff to BOAC? Did you indulge in some public discussion of Alex Chilton on one of the newsgroups last spring/summer, and offer some strong opinions of Alex as, in your words, a human being?

At any rate, I actually consider myself a Peter Holsapple fan -- not quite the fan that I once was (he was at one point, for me, McCartney to Stamey's Lennon), but a fan nonetheless; together he and Stamey could do no wrong. I've seen him play LOADS of times -- mostly in the late 70s with the dBs, but a few times in the 80s and 90s as well -- and I consider him to be an incredible songwriter with a fantastic voice.

I actually met Peter back in 78 or so when he worked in a record store near 23rd Street in Manhattan, right after he'd joined the dBs, but before he'd ever played with em, and I hadn't a clue who he was (there was no picture of him on the Big Black Truck 45 that I already owned and cherished). "I'm Peter Holsapple! I'm *IN* the dBs!" he said excitedly after it became clear that I was pretty in touch with the music he was into/making. "No you're not," I thought, "you're a clerk in a record store who seems to know a heckuva lot about Car records and Alex Chilton" -- the dBs I knew were a three-piece, and a band that def didn't include him.

But sure enough, next time around, there he was, quite the integral member of the band... and I've been following his career to some degree ever since, and have turned quite a few people on to both him and Stamey over the years.

I think it's a little sad that Peter takes such umbrage at my lust for gossip... hey, it turned out to be far less than what one might have imagined, and obviously my question didn't come out of NOWEHERE -- there'd been all sorts of chatter on the rem mailing list; as it turned out, according to most accounts it was a dispute over songwriting credits, and I think the footnote in the article said a heckuva lot more about *ME* than it did about either Peter or REM. Big deal.

Please feel free to pass on my comments to Peter; my suggestion is that he (or you) lighten up.

I continue to reserve my right to try to get the low-down on things, and I'm sorry if I hurt his feelings in the process of doing so; but my take on this is that he's being EXTRAORDINARILY sensitive, and/or that you aren't doing him any favors by speaking for him.

Take care, both of you,

W

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wilson Smith                      "I thought the idea is everyone here
New York City                     is rabid, a nobody, and, simultaneously,
neslon@panix.com                  an authority in their own right."
70741.422@CompuServe.Com                             -- Jon Fine

From Robert=Northcott%NeuroChem%BDRC@css.unc.eduSun Jan 22 09:37:06 1995
Date: Sat, 21 Jan 95 18:41:14 EST
From: Robert=Northcott%NeuroChem%BDRC@css.unc.edu
To: neslon@panix.com
Subject: Apologies

I really appreciate your thoughtful reply. I wasn't sure what to expect, but would not have been at all surprised by a "go fuck yourself". The candor and civility with which you responded was appreciated and refreshing.

In retrospect, I feel like I probably should not have gotten involved in this to such a degree (my wife warned me not to actually. She's smarter than me though). I don't even know the full story of the Peter and REM split, but I do know that Peter is a person of high integrity and would do what he thought was the right thing regardless of the loss or gain involved. I feel like he doesn't want anyone to be badmouthed in this long ago affair.

I have known Peter since the third grade, and it is true that he can certainly be way sensitive and intense (believe me, I was at the receiving end of it plenty of times in the past). But he is a dear friend, and I think I reacted too hastily as someone in the position to "help" him.

Your memory of my Chilton comments are duly noted. Ouch. I idolized him, finally met him ten years later when I ran sound for him at a local club, and he was a real jerk. I went out and sold all my Big Star LPs the next day in a huff (as if that would get back at him somehow). I guess we all over react sometimes.

Like I said, I don't think I would "pass along" messages like this again. I will pass along your message to Peter, and will attempt to bow out gracefully as intermediary.

You sound like your interests run along some of the same lines as mine music wise. And do you ever run into Gene or Will? They just finished three weeks in Charlotte with Don Dixon working on the new Murry Attaway record (Peter and Will that is not Gene). What do you do up there? You've obviously lived there for a while.

Well anyway, thanks again for you note.

bob

From neslon@panix.com Sun Jan 22 06:28:53 1995
Date: Sun, 22 Jan 1995 06:28:52 -0500 (EST)
From: Wilson Smith 
To: Robert=Northcott%NeuroChem%BDRC@css.unc.edu
Subject: Re: Apologies
In-Reply-To: <199501220001.AA23157@panix.com>
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Status: RO
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Hey, thank YOU for your note -- weird (and wonderful) to have something with all the ingredients for MAJOR flames calm down so quickly...

We actually saw Will Rigby drum very recently, and were driving ourselves NUTS today trying to remember who for! When we saw him, I said, "I think maybe that's Will Rigby," and then toward the end of the set he got introduced. We finally remembered it was a Peter Stampfel/Michael Hurley gig at the Merc Lounge here in NY (god, those guys are old, but they were just *SO* fine...).

I've MAYBE run across Gene Holder from time to time, maybe at YLT gigs before James McNew became a permanent band member? Not recently, tho, I don't think...

Who's Murray Attaway? Someone I should know?

Yeah, I've lived mostly in NYC since I was 12. Grew up in Memphis before that. 39 now.

Thanks again for your note; I'm very happy that we've sorted things out somewhat; I honestly don't want Peter Holsapple running around thinking he's got at least one total asshole for a fan -- it was a combo of shameless gossip-mongering and total fandom that made me include that lil plea for info in there. Once again, I'm sorry if it upset Peter, but really, that sort of stuff DOES go with the territory, and I was pretty flabbergasted when I got your e-mail. But your comments about PH's high integrity have been noted well, and are certainly consistent with everything I've observed over the years...

Take it easy,

W

Wilson Smith                      "I thought the idea is everyone here
New York City                     is rabid, a nobody, and, simultaneously,
neslon@panix.com                  an authority in their own right."
70741.422@CompuServe.Com                             -- Jon Fine