Dylan Taite: nice to see ya
"Jett Rink”, aka Dylan Taite, 1960s TV reporter John Dylan Taite is recalled as an authentic Kiwi rock icon: immaculately unkempt, shod in Beatl...
Wellington's Lost Record Stores 1: the Golden Mile
Exploring Wellington's leading record stores in the golden era of retailing. Lamphouse As the name suggests, Lamphouse did not regard sellin...
Wellington's Lost Record Stores 2: burbs and back alleys
Sound of Music: An Upper Hutt store that opened on 26 October 1966 in Geange Street, owned by Bob Batenburg (above, with assistant Stephanie ...
Julia Deans
L.A.B.
Silvio’s: the accidental record store
"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it!” says Silvio Famularo, chuckling as he recalls the words of Groucho Marx. "You k...
Wellington’s early record stores
At the height of the swing era and the Depression in the early 1930s, Wellington's alligators – white jazz musicians – gathered on Friday after...
Playdate
Playdate magazine was New Zealand's popular movie and music monthly in the Swinging Sixties. Although it was owned by the multi-millionaire cinema ...
Tha Feelstyle
Nadia Reid
The Number One Hits – 2010-2019
The Naked and the Famous – Young Blood (2010) 'Young Blood' bursts like a pimple, with a joyful synth hook that swerves into a moody bridge, mooch...
Shona Laing
Southern Comfort: Shona Laing in the Nuclear Age
First published in Rip It Up, October 1987 Shona Laing's '(Glad I'm) Not a Kennedy' is a Top 20 hit in Sweden, which sounds pretty odd, but then s...
Troy Kingi
Ten more moments in New Zealand bass
"Wow, cool!” That's what I said when AudioCulture asked me to do a part two to Steven Shaw's December 2018 original article. Where do I start? Lik...
Roger Giles
Tony Backhouse
Top Hat Napier
It was the place to be, the place to be seen, and also the place to play. Napier had a reputation where it had become the "vibrant city where you...
Waves
Tony Backhouse’s a cappella epiphany
Playing in soul and R&B-based bands in New Zealand and Australia, Tony Backhouse knew something of the history and singing traditions behind th...
1ZB Radio Theatre: the Art Deco years
It was where seven worlds could collide, from big bands to punk. Durham Street West was ground zero for popular music in Auckland for many decades:...
1ZM Radio Workshop: the rock invasion
In the mid-70s there was a brief period when several of Auckland's top rock bands sneaked into the Art Deco temple that was the 1ZB Radio Theatre a...
Aly Cook
North Shore Rock'n'roll: 2004-2010
The explosion of retro-influenced rock'n'roll groups from the North Shore around 2004-2010 was remarkable given the sheer youthfulness of the bands...
Peter Madill, guitar maker
Guitar playing did not figure in Peter Madill's life until he went to a mid-1960s Peter, Paul and Mary concert in Dunedin at the age of 18. There h...
1ZB Radio Theatre: the jazz era fades
Broadcasting's radio band system gave regular work each week to the best popular musicians in each of the main centres, for nearly 30 years. Popula...
Andre Upston
Calder Prescott
Mikey Havoc
Arthur Pearce
Des Britten
Ten hero guitars
The recent return of the "long lost” guitar that graced the cover of the era-defining AK79 album had the AudioCulture boffins abuzz about other unu...
Graeme Allwright
Coconut Rough
Valhalla: hole in the wall, hall of the fallen
154 Vivian Street is today something of a Wellington live music institution, though that has not always been the case. Initially constructed in 192...
