Ten New Zealand videos or songs from 1970 to 2008 which have been banned from television or radio play, locally or overseas. Who could take offence at Steve Allen’s utopian theme ‘Join Together’? Clue: there were no Black athletes in their scrum.

Come To The Sabbat by Timberjack

This music video would still cause controversy if it was aired on television now, but somehow it was shown unedited in its entirety in 1971. Not only is there nudity – a woman walking naked through the woods – but there is also the suggestion of black magic, with the appearance of dark-robed figures, who dance around her in the process of some mysterious ceremony. The overall impression is of a satanic virgin sacrifice. The video was edited before its second airing – shown in negative, with the black and white swapped over – but there were so many complaints that it was banned from that point onward.

The funny thing was that the band, Timberjack, wasn’t some occult-inspired metal band, but a folk-rock group led by singer John Donoghue and this was a cover version of a song by UK group Black Widow, which sounds more like Jethro Tull than it does Black Sabbath.

Join Together by Steve Allen

It’s hard to imagine such a saccharine song as ‘Join Together’ causing offence. The songwriter, Steve Allen, was a classic television singer of the time, with his slick vocal style and wide-lapelled shirts. He entered this song in a competition to write the theme song for the 1974 Commonwealth Games, to be held in Christchurch. His chorus hook was an absolute earworm.

South Africa was excluded from the Games and a tour by the Springboks Rugby Union team was also cancelled around this time, partly to avoid other African nations boycotting the Games. South Africans still took an interest in the event and their white apartheid government was incensed that the anthem included the line “people black and white will come from all parts of the world,” which led to them putting an outright ban on it being aired in any format.

The song had a long afterlife, even taking central place in a TV ad for the Games 16 years later. Here is Allen singing it to mark the 25-year anniversary of the Commonwealth Games.

Writing On The Wall by Riot 111

Riot 111 outdid expectations when their single ‘Subversive Radicals’ reached the Top 20 in 1982. The band’s raw sound meant there was little chance of the song getting radio play, but they hoped that the more open-minded people running Radio With Pictures might screen their next music video for ‘Writing On The Wall’. The song partially took its inspiration from George Orwell’s novel 1984 and argued that the totalitarian state he described was already here. It portrayed this by including news footage of violent clashes between police and protestors against the 1981 Springbok tour.

The letter from TVNZ to Riot 111's Void. - Redmer Yska collection

It was a step too far for programmer Tom Parkinson at Radio With Pictures, who refused to air the video, citing the scenes of violence as one of the reasons. The band were incensed and staged a protest outside of Avalon Studios, performing on the back of a truck and painting a message into the grass, “Remember Riot 111”.

Riot singer Void later explained why he found the decision to ban the video so galling: “The video clip was shot and edited completely by a Radio With Pictures staff member from Tom Parkinson’s department. It was their decision to include pictures of police violence.”

Maxine by Sharon O’Neill

‘Maxine’ was written about a prostitute that Sharon O’Neill saw regularly during her time living near the King’s Cross area in Australia. She was particularly saddened to see her still out on the street working when O’Neill and her band returned late from gigs in the wee hours of the morning. The original music video turned the drama of Maxine’s story up to 10, showing her slitting her wrists and ending up in a body bag. After complaints from television programmers, a new version of the video was created but the damage had been done.

O’Neill told Rip It Up: “I just don’t think there’s any justified reason for not showing it. Any offensive bits – such as there were – were edited out. The razor blade bit was cut out. In Australia, it was given an “adults only” rating – which means only late at night – so it won’t get on the major programmes. We also had a problem in America. MTV, the cable rock channel, wouldn’t play it. It’s doomed.”

Six Months In A Leaky Boat by Split Enz

Timing is everything in the music biz and Split Enz found this out the hard way. Their song ‘Six Months In A Leaky Boat’ seemed poised to finally follow up on their previous success in the UK with ‘I Got You’, which reached No.12. However it was pulled from radio playlists across Britain, including the BBC, and only managed to get to No.83. The reason? The British warship Sheffield had just been sunk by Argentina in the Falklands War, causing the death of 20 sailors. It was felt that the lyrics might cause offence among listeners. The song still became a Top 10 hit in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada.

French Letter by Herbs

Herbs wrote the song ‘French Letter’ to hit out against the French government’s program of nuclear testing in the Pacific. The title was tongue in cheek, an archaic term for a condom. The lyrics didn’t mince words, telling the “unwelcome guests” to “get out of the Pacific”. The response from the French government was to ban the song from all of its territories, including those in the Pacific.

In contrast, the song was embraced in Aotearoa, reaching the Top 20 both on its original release in 1982 and when an updated version was released in 1995.

AFFCO by Skeptics

For a country that relies so heavily on meat exports to fund our economy, New Zealanders can be surprisingly squeamish when it comes to watching how the process is actually carried out. The Skeptics weren’t trying to make a political statement with the song ‘AFFCO’ or the video, they just seemed to find a dark humour in taking the perspective of a worker at the Auckland Farmers Freezing Company, and singer David D’Ath screamed out the key lyric “we pack meat” with a dark intensity.

Film director Stuart Page took things one step further by filming the entire process of a sheep being taken from an idyllic grass field and into the freezing works, where it was killed and sliced into parts for sale. He also filmed D’Ath wrapped in gladwrap and red food colouring mixed with glycerine to look like blood.

When the video was taken to TVNZ, they were told it couldn’t be aired, but on the final episode of Radio With Pictures, it was slipped into the line-up of videos by Karyn Hay and her team. Page sold copies of the video by mail so that fans could see it. In later years, an edited version was shown on TVNZ though it could not compare to the raw power of the original, especially the new hi-res version available on NZ On Screen.

Fish Across Face by Head Like A Hole

Head Like A Hole gained headlines for playing shows naked, though these stories were concocted by Wildside Records owner Murray Cammick, who would feed stories to The Truth newspaper, knowing they would find a racy angle. Given this, it was hardly surprising that the band appeared half-naked for their music video, ‘Fish Across Face’. However this wasn’t the reason given for taking it off air. Instead, there was a suggestion that the scene in which the band members appeared to unhygienically spit orange juice into each other’s mouths was a bad look given the recent meningitis outbreak. It was shortlisted for best video at the 1992 New Zealand Music Awards.

A few years later, they ran into more trouble with their video for ‘Wet Rubber’, shot by Julien Boshier. It opened with a voiceover that sounded like it was taken directly from a European porn film and then showed the band dressed up in leather and studs – most notably drummer Hidee Beast, who was in full bondage gear. The video was aired a few times, but it was soon pulled from rotation. Boshier did work with the group again, later directing a full length documentary about them, Swagger of Thieves (2017).

Headlights by Hot Grits

Funk group The Hot Grits were led by frontman Barnie Duncan, now better known as a comedian. Their video for ‘Headlights’ was certainly intended to be a humorous piece, with children taking the roles of adults going out for a night on the town. Instead of alcohol, the kids guzzled milk and that is what caused the problem. TVNZ thought the video could be taken as an endorsement of binge drinking culture, and the idea that this would be associated with young kids was particularly problematic. It was pulled from screens, though the clip went on to win two awards at the Handle The Jandal music video awards (for videos made without NZ On Air funding).

Who The Hell Do You Think You Are? by Garageland

The reason for this video not being shown on television is probably the easiest to explain, since it was filmed at a strip club and included a topless performer. One gets the sense that Garageland were seeking controversy from the start, though director Myles Van Urk disputed this in the Herald: “It was never a question of ‘eek, let’s put some tits in here and make the video really edgy and controversial.’” A compromise was finally reached and an edited version was allowed to be shown after 9.30pm.

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Read more: Banned from Radio: the Broadcasting Memos