Peter Posa: hostage to the beat
In early 1998 RCA released The Best of Peter Posa: the Album. It was the first time that New Zealand's guitar hero of the 1960s had been released o...
Splore
Like Entrain, The Gathering and a hundred smaller parties, Splore was the product of the global dance music boom being brought home to ferment in l...
Aotearoa Reggae Timeline
Bill Fairs' rock'n'roll photo album
Many bands have an in-house archivist, the member (or proud parent) who keeps posters, tickets, clippings, photos and such. Such people are i...
Stoned Guitar: 10 New Zealand acid rock albums
Introduction The 1960s saw the guitar emerge as the pre-eminent instrument of rock music. English and American guitar heroes such as Eric Clapton,...
The Civic
The Sunrise of the New Show World was the fitting title for the very first show at the newly opened Civic Theatre in Auckland in late December 1929...
BFM - the first ten years
Like Radio Hauraki before it, the station we now call 95bFM began at sea. During capping week in 1969, a group of University of Auckland students g...
BFM - the pirates
The story of Radio B's pirate broadcasts in the 1970s has been all but lost until now – in part because the pirate adventures were officially nothi...
Strawpeople - part one
Paul Casserly is most comfortable behind-the-scenes in all his media guises, but it's his foray into music that has nudged him, however unwillingly...
Peter Blake on music TV - part one
The 1980s could be described as a golden age of music on New Zealand television. An unprecedented amount of shows devoted to music found their way ...
Peter Posa
Peter Blake on music TV - part two
In 1981, Peter Blake took over the producer role for Ready to Roll and Radio with Pictures and continued to produce local clips and concert coverag...
Katchafire
Ria Hall
The Pictones
Tala
Christchurch Indie: Us Against the City, part one
Christchurch has long had a reputation as a dull and conservative place, though there has always been a cultural undercurrent that cuts at that pre...
Christchurch Indie: Us Against the City, part two
In the first part of this story I looked at how the mix of underground and DIY guitar bands collided with Christchurch's throbbing dance scene to i...
Urban Disturbance
Toy Love in Australia
Introduction In 1979 Terence Hogan was an Auckland-based writer and graphic artist involved in comics and music. He contributed to the comics peri...
Music from the Long White Cloud
First published in Rip It Up, August 1986. It was Māori Language Week when Ardijah, Aotearoa, Dread Beat & Blood, and Herbs played the last ...
Toy Love make Toy Love
As a group I think most of us shared a healthy scepticism towards life, but there was a palpable excitement at the prospect of Toy Love finally rec...
Taranaki time machine
New Plymouth and Taranaki have a long musical history that goes back well before the Bell Block, the White Hart, the Magogs' clubhouse, and the Ima...
Dusty Spittle
Mark Williams: the Australia years
By 1977, after two massive No.1 New Zealand hits, and a high profile thanks to touring and television, Mark Williams had outgrown the local market....
Tim Murdoch
Song lines
So let the St. Joseph's Māori Girls keep singin' There ain't no silver lining for the Land of the Long White Cloud ... I was recently at a dinner ...
Ten moments in New Zealand bass
Bass is one of the elements in music that is often overlooked when listening to a song. Sure, you can hear it pumped up and beaming out of cars as ...
Kevin Borich: a fan’s notes
New Zealand, 1966. The country, like the rest of the world, is hearing new sounds in the development of popular music. Even radio in the shaky isle...
Kiwi Rock Strips: an introduction
There are many New Zealand musicians who have designed some great band posters or album cover art, but this article isn't about them. New Zealand i...
Harry M. Miller
Prog Rock in NZ: a short history
For the first few years of the 1970s progressive rock was very likely the most popular genre on earth, with bands like Yes, Emerson Lake & Palm...
Say Yes To Apes
Ten moments in New Zealand prog
Introduction With the inevitable pendulum swing of popularity that music categories undergo, progressive rock, that most maligned of music genres,...
Chris Thompson
Eliza Keil
Knightshade
Feastock
To an outsider, the residence of 3 Fea Street looks like any other Dunedin flat. Peek over the fence and you might notice a large, well-cleared bac...
Mapping Auckland's venues: the 1960s
These maps provide a window into Auckland night life across the decades. At the early dance halls, the rules for dancing with a partner were regime...
Mapping Auckland's venues: the 1950s
These maps provide a window into Auckland night life across the decades. At the early dance halls, the rules for dancing with a partner were regime...