Honky Tonk Heroes – Ritchie Pickett & The Inlaws
Fuelled by a massive sponsorship deal with Jim Beam, Ritchie Pickett & The Inlaws burnt brightly and partied hard for a short period of the 198...
Bandstand: New Zealanders on Australian TV
Video may have killed the radio star for the MTV generation, but during the 1960s in Australia, radio stars became household faces when they appear...
dDub
Barry Saunders
Ten moments in New Zealand funk
AudioCulture writer Alan Perrott reveals his "highly subjective and personal” top 10 moments in New Zealand funk. -- First sighting of Mark Willi...
Barry Saunders: South into Winter
Taihape, 1998: Barry Saunders is on the move. His album Magnetic South is out in a few days and, restless until then, he goes for a long drive. He ...
Invercargill marches on
Mention music and Invercargill and – Keith Richards's slur notwithstanding – a rich tradition comes to mind. Many have been honoured in recent year...
Caroline Easther
Brothers and Sisters, 1992
NEW ORLEANS, April, 1992 – "I'll give you a quote for your magazine.” Cyril Neville puts his arm around me. He has a broad grin on his face, which ...
Moana and the Tribe
One of the most powerful and politically pointed performances at the 2014 Womad festival in New Plymouth came from Moana and the Tribe who – to thu...
Bernie Griffen
Home Brew
Chris Parry
Hoghton Hughes
Tamburlaine
Nathan Haines
Sisters Underground
4 Corners
Tuhi Timoti
Jim Carter
Listening In – Cassandra’s Ears, 1988
In three years of existence Cassandra's Ears have survived line-up changes, dreadful southern recording studios and a nightclub audience expecting ...
Hair on trial
The New Zealand premiere of Hair opened to great fanfare at His Majesty's Theatre in Auckland on Saturday, 26 February 1972. It had been a long tim...
Inside the Hair tribe, 1972
I was a teenager with my head in the clouds and Dylan songs on my brain and guitar when I first heard this chorus on the radio: "Gliddy glub gloo...
Jason Sad
Barry Blackler
Moana Maniapoto
Mahinaarangi Tocker
Noel McKay
Richard Eriwata
Beat Rhythm Fashion
A Clothesline Conversation, 1985
Mahina Tocker – musician, singer, songwriter, lesbian mother – is of Ngāti Raukawa and Tainui descent. Most of her music is directly about her bein...
Andy Morton
Dogs in NZ music: barking up the right tree
You are in a pub, or at a dinner party or a social event anywhere in New Zealand and someone starts a conversation about the nation's five or six d...
Neon Picnic: no free lunch
Introduction With 30 years' hindsight, the failed Neon Picnic festival of January 1988 can be seen as the Fyre festival of its day. It was a flaw...
Neon Picnic: the clean up
The Neon Picnic location at Pukekawa, 66km south of Auckland, was "eerie” when Chrissy Duggan drove in to set up a women's space. Discussions with ...
Malcolm Black
Greg Fleming
Leo de Castro
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...
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,...