That One Dude is a column about that one dude you see at every show. No, seriously.

column by Kory Grow

“Most of the people at the shows who are at the front are fans and are keen enough that they know who I am and are fans of the site,” says Joly MacFie, a 57-year-old Brit who, if you live in New York City, has likely pushed passed you, politely, to videotape bands for his site, Punkcast.com. For the past decade, MacFie has become a staple at concerts, notable for his varying lengths of graying brown hair (now short and messy; once long, dreaded and messy). The Village Voice recently named him Best Documentarian Of New York's Indie-Rock Scene. A transplant from Los Angeles via London, where MacFie all but invented selling pins and buttons for punk rock bands—which he proudly calls “really, the birth of peer-to-peer promotion”—he lists New York as his hometown on MySpace for good reason.

With downloadable videos of artists ranging from NYHC hasbeens Leeway to of-the-moment alt-folkies Oakley Hall, he’s shot videos that have ended up on DVDs  and CDs by the Fall, Liars and Aa, and his concert take of the Gossip’s “Standing In The Way Of Control” has attracted over 100,000 views on YouTube. Ironically, Punkcast’s most-downloaded video is the Moldy Peaches’ “Lucky Number Nine,” which somebody else shot but MacFie just agreed to host. But after that, “definitely the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ ‘Down Boy,’ which was up on the site for years before it was released,” says MacFie. “I still feel my vid is better than the official one.”

How did you get started doing badges for punk bands?
There was nobody doing badges at that time. The first show that I sold badges at was the Ramones show at the Roundhouse on July 4, 1976 in England. I worked with a band called the Pink Fairies, who were a hippie, sort of proto-punk band. And so we were somehow affiliated with the MC5 and the White Panther party, and they sent us over buttons. So that got us into badges early on… A friend of mine, who was the guitarist in the Pink Fairies, was playing in the 101’ers and I went to a show and I remember sitting in the dressing room talking to him and [Joe] Strummer. I knew Strummer because I used to live next door to him. We talked about how punk rock could be something. And that was the same show that Joe decided to quit the band and join the Clash. I decided to make punk rock badges. From ’76 to ’82, I calculated that I made 40 million badges for punk rock.



How did you get into taping?
I had a friend who managed a punk band called One Way System, and they came over to play CBGB. I was working at that time on the internet… RealAudio had just been released at that time, in ’97, and he said it would be great to do it live, and I explained to him the whole thing about the internet was you could be on demand… I said we should do a site where there’s no clutter. It’s just the meat, where you could just go there and download the stuff.

What band have you shot the most?
Oneida. They always play good shows.

Do you always clear shooting the show with the band?
Although my motto is shoot first, ask questions later, in fact I do normally ask permission of the band. There are not many that have said no.

What bands have turned you down to be taped?
Some solo performers. Daniel Johnston, Robin Hitchcock, Billy Bragg. The last time I shot the Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Maxwell’s, their minder [manager] stopped me after two songs… A couple years back I was all set to shoot Quintron And Miss Pussycat at [Brooklyn’s] Rock Star Bar, and he turned to me and asked me not to shoot. “Video is bad luck,” he said. I thought of saying, “Video from me is good luck,” but didn’t. As I made my way out of the show, I saw at least two other dinky cams being waved above the crowd. The B61 [bus] came the moment I reached the stop, so my luck was good. A month or so later, Katrina wiped out Quintron’s studio.



What’s the hardest part of getting a good shot?
The hardest part is when it’s a mosh pit. If you’re shooting someone like Matt and Kim or Lightning Bolt, then people are jumping on your fucking head.

How many shows do you attend a week?
I’ve cut down. During 2002, 2003, I was doing about 300 shows a year. But now I’ve cut down to two or three a week.

Has that gotten in the way of your personal life?
Yes. One of the reasons I shoot less is that I’ve got a girlfriend now. But, also, I’ve been trying to catch up a bit with editing. I calculated that if I stopped shooting and just edited, it would take me about five or six years to catch up with everything.

Post to del.icio.us