Citizen Band were part-new-school and fitted snugly into the worldwide wave of groups who looked back to the 1960s for inspiration. Ironic in name and nature, they packed the Auckland Town Hall in 1979 despite their single releases not making it to the NZ Top 40 Chart.
In 1978 Mike Chunn published a free newsprint zine, “Keeping it Kiwi”, initially to promote Citizen Band tours, but broadened the editorial to cover other local musicians.
When Warren Sly was a student at Glendowie College he talked the Prefects into letting him do the weekly bible reading at the assembly. He walked on to the stage with a giant bible and like a great orator, read a very lengthy spiel of nonsense from the Apocrypha, a discredited portion of the original 1611 King James Bible.
NZ rock albums were so rare in 1978 that Francis Stark wrote an essay length review of Citizen Band’s debut album in the September 1978 RipItUp. Stark praised the group for “the willingness to deal with recognisable local themes” (translates: NZ stories like Shortland St) and “the absence of geographic tinges in the singing” (translates: they don’t sing in American accents) and their use of “the melodic and rhythmic vocabulary of Ray Davies or The Beatles rather than Lou Reed or The Commodores.”
When CBS reissued the debut album in early 1979 they changed the border colour from green to blue.
In the 2015 New Year Honours, Mike Chunn was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to music and mental health.
Mike Chunn spent 11 years as Director of NZ operations for the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), retiring in late 2003. He founded and is CEO of Play It Strange Trust and has published several books, including the Split Enz biography Stranger Than Fiction.
Geoff Chunn - vocals, guitar
Mike Chunn - bass, vocals
Greg Clark - guitar
Brent Eccles - drums
Warren Sly - keyboards
Roland Killeen - bass