Monday, February 01, 2010

How Bizarre

I was shocked to pick up a reference yesterday without much detail to Pauly Fuemana's death at age 40 yesterday.  Pauly was the voice behind OMC, Otara Millionaire's Club (awesome name) with their one hit "How Bizarre".  I had heard things didn't go so well for him after the hit - a sort of riches to rags story.  There was a come back attempt a few years ago but it didn't seem to catch on.

I actually own the album (one of 4 million) and it remains NZ's biggest selling ever.  Bizarre.  I loved the mariachi styles trumpet and the cool strumming - sort of latin american jazz meets the Maori guitar strum.

Back in the day, I had some contact with his brother and manager Phil who also died young (41) of a heart attack.  Phil was a big man with a sweet nature and he was always full of advice for our band.  He had a band at the time White Boy Black which was awesome.  He used to come into the music shop I worked in a bit and was always good to chat to.

Sad story really for a very talented family.

3 comments:

Coloradonegrito said...

I knew Phil back in the day too. How bizarre.
Pauly's funeral tomorrow. Bet it rains. Respects to the family.

Rhett said...

How about a summer reading post Brett?

BJ said...

It's brewing...