Hi everybody,
Welcome to the “Chris Knox had a stroke and everyone wants to know how he is, how the hell are we gonna keep you all updated all at once” blog.
We’ll try to keep this as up to date as we can – in this first post is a statement we sent out to the media this afternoon. You can leave well wishes in the ‘comments’ section below. We love hearing from you.
Cheese,
Chris’s family and friends
15th June 2009
Media statement from Ward-Knox family
Re: Chris Knox
“We have been overwhelmed by the level of support for Chris from around the world since his stroke. We’d like to express our thanks to everyone who has helped or wished us well in the last few days.
“Like many other families who are currently experiencing a similar change to their lives we are learning a great deal about strokes and their long-term effects. We have learned that it is too early to predict the ramifications of a stroke with any degree of accuracy. However, positive anecdotes have been flooding in which fill us all with hope.
“Chris is not in pain and is responsive to family and friends who are very optimistic and focused on Chris’s well being. He enjoyed his vegetable frittata this morning but I suffered the classic Knox withering look when I mentioned beer.
“As the situation becomes clearer to us we will happily inform those who wish to know.
“We have created a site at chrisknox.blogtown.co.nz for this purpose. We aim to keep this site as current as possible.”
Family contact – Roy Martyn
Hey Chris,
I’m sure you’ll probably never get this far down in what is a huge and impressive list of get well props. But if you do, one day, you can add me to the list of people who are thinking about you and wishing you a speedy return to form as the beloved grumpy uncle of NZ rock ‘n’ roll.
All the best
Damian.
Hey Chris,
From comix to commentary; punking to plunking, you and your work are knotted into our lives, be we your mates and/or your fans. Whatever the way, we’re with you.
Dear Chris, Barbara et al.
Lots of love and best wishes from Lyttelton. Couldn’t believe it when I heard, that’s a low blow for sure. On the upside my mother recovered well from a similar position in her late 50s – up and about in a few weeks. It may not be easy but i am sure you will get back there. Lots of creative types down this way send their love also.
Bruce Russell and family
Hey Chris, I really enjoyed meeting you back in ’95 when you stayed at our place in Houston. Best wishes for a speedy recovery! Keep rockin’ that omnichord…
Hey Chris!
I was so blown away when I saw you and Barbara at the Roys reunion a year or so ago at the Rising Sun. I know that youll of course say that you were there to see Mitchell & Ghostclub, but we both know it was the Roys and those wussie songs of ours that you were really there for aye!!(grin) and by the way matey, you never did pay me for laying your carpet..I want a copy of the new Nothing cd when I see you next!! Get better real soon bro, thinking bout you guys heaps.
Little Ross xx
Da de da de dah di the brain that wouldn’t die, C’mon Chris you can make it through this mate.
Don’t be pulling down the shades just yet brother.
You were the grandfather of garage at 25 it will be a bloody shame if you don’t get to experience that for real but no enough of that, c’mon pull through please.
Kia Kaha to the Knox/Ward whanau and keep telling him that he has to imagine his brain is a mass of pipelines and they all have to be flowing, all full of free flowing fluid, keepasking him to imagine that please.
Pete K
Chris! This aint a rock’ roll thing to do, you pus**y c***.
This is no way to go!
Better get up on your feet and try again in like 50 years or so.
Greets from double Dutch Ilja.
Wow Chris, can’t even use bad words to you on this site.
What else can i do to equally communicate with you?
Injustice!
Duty calls, on your feet mate!
Groetjes uit Fryslan.
Take care, Ilja
Woops forgot to put a link in for a couple of people who have already posted.
cheers Pete
Odd. I’m now the age you were when I first knew you over cricket matches and symposiums (Barbara) in the backblocks of Grey Lynn. Hope I can be half as inspirational to the young pups I meet now as you lot were for me. Thanks. Our thoughts are with you in Riverhead.
Jo, Simon, Milly and Zachary
I’ll add my voice to the throng wishing you a speedy recovery.
Sad to hear the news over here in chilly Melbourne. Hearing you at Victoria Park after the Auckland Marathon a couple of years ago made dragging my sorry carcass around town for 3 hours all worthwhile.
Hope you make a speedy recovery so you can put in an appearance at this year’s event.
Kia Kaha.
Larry de Zoete, Roslyn Grundy, Samuel & Lewis (the go-go boys)
Best wishes from sunny California (strangely overcast at the moment). Your music is pure joy to me. Bodies may fail us, but you made music that will always make me smile and that has to mean something. Get better.
Chris, you are an entertainer I hold in the higest respect, from the time you insulted me in song because I couldn’t remember the name of track 9 on ‘Songs of you and me’ (I actually meant track 4 anyway), to the time you called my brother and I fudge-packers at a Bats’ gig in the Dog’s Bollix, to the time I saw you running down Queen St in your trademark jandals about 6 months ago … obviously late for something and in too much of a rush to enquire why I might look familiar.
Ironically as I write this, Toy Love’s “Swimming Pool” has come up on my Last FM playlist … how fitting!
You once told me in an interview at Radio NZ that the “3 Eps” had sold 12 copies at home in NZ. I am happy to say that I have one of them, as well as pretty much everything else you have released, despite the fact that I was still too young to really care in the 80s.
You are an inspiration to so many. I really hope you return to form to put on many more entertaining performances.
I’ll make sure I am there.
Love and respect from Tokyo.
Hi – to Chris and his family,
Get well soon doesn’t say it all I know…but get well soon
Everyone who knows or has met Chris love his energy & intellect & talent – all the best to you and your family!
christine rivers
Our thoughts are with you both, Barbara and Chris. Hope a recovery is quick and we see that broad Knox smile and creativity again soon.
best wishes to you and your kin
here is a link to some amazing research from a neurologist who experienced a stroke, recovered, and the experience has now greatly influenced her work.
worth seeing.
http://www.ted.com/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html
optimism abound
xx
good luck
Hey Chris,
An awesomer fella there could not be. Everyone else has pretty much summed it up (and probably a lot more eloquently!) but you’re an inspiration and I wish you and your family all the best in a speedy recovery.
There’s a whole heap of us here in London thinking of ya!
Bruce Wurr
Dear Chris. Heard the news. A twist of the knife for you and your family. Played Croaker. Side 2 did the business. Thought of the Dwarfs and you wiping sweat from Alec’s brow at the Gluepot. Read the comments here. Your reach is mighty, ironically enough. Prevail.
Chris, just kick off your jandal and play it with your toes.
Big ones
Bruce
Barbara, Leisha & John
Our thoughts and love are with you, all the best for a speedy recovery Chris – will drop by and see you in a few weeks Barbara when we get back to NZ – your old playcentre mates Jackie, Nicola and Ben, and Tim (a punk fan from way back)& Gabi too xxx
We here at Buddyhead are confident you’ll be making gay jokes in no time, Chris. Until then, we’ll buy “A Warm Gun” instead of sending posies. See you on tour, friend.
Chip Norman
Buddyhead.com
Much love to Chris and family…Chris,your music and pictures will continue to be an inspiration (and your razor wit definitely something to aspire to!)…fond memories of driving round Dunedin in my Holden ‘wagon hunting for cardboard to draw large cartoons on to decorate the launch party for “Jesus on a Stick”…er.. No2…we didnt find any but it was a good idea.
yeah- and the time I yelled out “if you drew a picture you could be the rolf harris of Nz” during a quiet moment at Sammys. To which you replied “aah, Mr Renouf, i bet you got in for free”….I did.
thinking of you & your whanau
see you in the funny pages
Tony XX
Chris and Barbara,
Sending lots of love from Chicago! We are thinking of you and wishing for a speedy recovery.
I have many memories of Chris playing at Lounge Ax, but my favorite is the sight of Chris in flip flops in the middle of a Chicago winter!!
xoxox,
Julia and Patrick
Best wishes from two loooong time fans in the state of Maine. If all this love doesn’t get you back on your feet, we don’t know what will!
(Thanks for the blog, where we can all follow updates.)
Dear Chris and family,
Love and thoughts with you. All the best for a speedy recovery.
Alison
I have been a big admirer since Rebel/Squeeze.
We don’t see much of you in Perth, but you did come once in 95(?).
You were taking money on the door and no-one recognised you.
I did – I gave you a photo I took of you in Sydney 1980 (Barbara – where can I email you a copy?), by way of thanks, you jumped off the stage half way through the gig and humped my leg doggy style.
Chris I wish you a full and speedy recovery.
Michael
Being with you on stage was one of my best days in my life.
Please we all look forward to seeing you again offring great songs, melodies and also this irony that has been helping us all along these last 30 something years of career.
hi knoxeses.
chris, i hope that you get well and strong again! i have been a fan for just 6 mos (songs of me and you hasn’t left my player in some time) and the tall dwarfs 3eps i got are a real treat. i hope that you are soon able to play music and write more terriffic tunes! thanks for everything!!
all the best,
frank
This is bad and sucks.
Hoping you recover fully, Chris. Thanks for all the wonderfulness through the years, musical and visual.
Regards from Boston,
KD
Knoxes, Wards, and Ward-Knoxes,
I was in process of sending a Get Well card when the news of this blog thing comes in (Graeme – good on him eh?) – and I’m struck by the immediacy of the opportunity to add my best wishes to those of so many others who have done so already.
I’m still sending the card of course because you can’t have a spell in hospital without them, along with the grapes, the oranges for the nephews to eat, and that odd smock that passes for pyjamas, which is simply wrong, on so many levels, and why oh why don’t they work like other clothes and open at the front? Who wants to see your bare arse? That’d be …like … no one? Oh, no! I don’t mean that Chris, I’m sure it’s a fine tush. But it’s your tush and I wouldn’t want to interfere with it.
All that aside, from a bright and summery Isle of Wight, I’m feeling the need, to send my love, to you, to yours, all the best and a speedy recovery.
Peter
Your fans in Chapel Hill, NC are wishing you a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing you pass through again. Hopefully soon.
Colin Dodd, Carrboro, NC USA
Blasting ‘Not Given Lightly’ as loud as the stereo will go. Hoping my long distance good vibes will make it to you…. get well soon.
Was so sad to hear the news on the radio. Thank you for making us proud.
Remember you’re different from them, your’re the creme de la creme.
Get well and big love.
This was shocking and upsetting news. Let me add my name to the long list wishing you a full and speedy recovery. Was just scanning the NZFF programme today, Chris, hoping to catch a few movies at the Civic when I’m back in town next month. But it won’t be the full experience without your unquenchable enthusiasm. — Philip Matthews
Hey chris,
just sending you some serious record store love from over here in SF. We’re all thinking good thoughts and wishing you a quick recovery.
Get better and come visit!! We miss you.
Lots of love, Andee, Allan, and the rest of the aQ crue
Kia Kaha Mr Knox!
Always enjoy bumping into you and having a chat on my sojourns back home to Noizyland.
There’s nothing in this world but Light…
Get well in time for the H&K reunion!
Owen the Jacket
Just thought I’d add my name to the long list of well wishers, and say that I can’t imagine a Noo Zillund without Chris’s voice or pen making some typically pithy and erudite personal and/or musical commentary on the social and political goings-on therein, so get yr clever old hands and mouth working again real soon, alright? Bolshy great hippy sentiments to thee and thine. Chris.
So upset to hear the news. I’ve only met you a few times, but you were always welcoming, friendly and easy to have a chat with. Highlight was driving you round CHCH, hell about 10 years ago I think. You came down and played in The Square for an Aids Awareness gig called Charge, put on by MASSIVE. Did an interview for National Radio (I think) about Jandals!! Signed my Toy Love album and got Alec to sign it for me also. Then even took the time a few days later to send me a copy of the insert from the album, that I had foolishly lost!!! Great day……great memories! Kia Kaha Chris
Get back soon Chris. My other hero Edwyn Collins
(ex-Orange Juice) had a big stroke a few years ago and is back on the road now – check him out on MySpace. I met a friend of Hayleys a few years ago who had multiple strokes and was having his funeral prepared when he rallied, and he’s driving his kids around now and looking 100%. It’s just a question of time, time and antioxidants.
Chris, Barbara, John and Leisha,
I have been following events on Stuff since I became aware of the your stroke, but will be on the blog every day to check.
Thoughts and wishes for a speedy recovery to you all from me and mine.
Get better soon!
Tim
You and yours are in my thoughts. Here’s hoping for a speedy return to your always rare form.
My thoughts are with you Chris, and your family. Get well soon. And if you read this John – keep your chin up. Stay strong.
Karen
Chris – recover fast, get back in the jandals and write a song about it
Barbara, Leisha and John – our thoughts are with you all
loves
craig & bella
244. adds up to a 10 which is a 1. 1 with a zero for the universe.
Your part has and will continue to be both valid and valued. Over it or under it. Dr K (Sean)
I saw you play Cuba Street Carnival in the rain a few years back and was struck by your fearlessness and joy. I wish you and yours heaps of strength on the road ahead. I reckon fearlessness and joy will be making their appearances when you least expect them – in some ways, sounds they already have.
Warmth from the California desert.
Barbara, who is looking after you? You having massages, acupuncture, herbs and some time for your lovely self? Its you that he loves, look after you, or can I help? Love Brenda.
Chris, am thinking of you and your family and friends this week from up here in New York. The Village Voice today published an article about a new book called “Heavy Rotation: Twenty Writers on the Albums That Changed Their Lives,” and by a strange bit of timing, it includes my very short writeup of your very beautiful “Not Given Lightly.” It’s all the way at the end of this. http://www.villagevoice.com/content/printVersion/1208483 Best wishes to you and yours, and here’s to a very safe, happy, healthy, quick recovery.
Hi Barbara, Chris, Leisha, & John
Thinking of you guys. The news came as a shock when Claire told me on Monday – totally unexpected for everyone I’m sure. Wishing you a speedy recovery Chris. Arohanui to you all from the Hornbys xxx
Hi Chris,
hope you get well enough to make that long overdue appearance on Dancing with the Stars. Look forward to seeing you around Grey Lynn again soon.